Strike (Gentry Generations #1) Read online

  “Fuck, baby,” I swore, gritting my teeth and managing to force myself to pull back a few inches so I wouldn’t end up doing her this way.

  My fingers were still inside her though and she was bucking hard against the pressure. She was going to come. Soon. I didn’t want her to come like this. I wanted to see her face when I got her off for the first time.

  Cami whimpered when I withdrew my hand.

  “Turn around, Camille. Look at me.”

  She turned. She looked. Her hands had made steamy prints on the glass and I had the fleeting thought that I didn’t ever want to wash them off.

  Her face was flushed, her chest rising and falling rapidly. She suddenly glanced down at her bare body and tried to cross her arms over herself but I wouldn’t allow that.

  “Don’t,” I said, gently taking her wrists and spreading them apart.

  Her muscles relaxed and she looked up at me with softly pleading eyes. I kissed her, hard and sloppy, grabbing a chunk of her long hair and tugging just enough to tease her into another moan. Vaguely I wondered where I’d put the box of condoms I’d bought yesterday. I realized I should really care a little bit more about where those condoms were. But instead of searching for them I dropped to my knees, and started sucking on a luscious pair of twenty-one-year-old tits that were eager for my attention.

  My hands seized Cami’s hips as my mouth greedily explored first one nipple and then the other. She loved it so much her knees buckled and she slid down to the floor. Our mouths found each other and our hands were everywhere, her fingers stroking my cock, my thumb briefly teasing her clit. With one hand I shoved a heavy coffee table out of the way and set her down on her back on the plush area rug. This was it. This was fucking happening here and now.

  “Wait,” she gasped, pushing me away slightly and reaching for her pile of clothes. “Wait.”

  I thought for an impatient second that she was going to try to cover up but that wasn’t it at all. She had some condoms of her own stuffed in her purse. Be still my heart this girl was incredible.

  I got one unwrapped and rolled onto my dick at the speed of light. Her legs were already open and I scooped my hands underneath her and lifted her for the first thrust. She was as tight as I thought she’d be, as good as I thought she’d be.

  She came quickly the first time and while she was in the middle of writhing and moaning with her eyes closed and her back arched I reached down to where we were joined and stroked her with my fingers to get her off even harder. Then she screamed my name so loud I thought the noise was probably echoing all the way to the golf course. Damn, fucking Cami was like fucking a live wire.

  But in the best way.

  She practically vibrated no matter where I touched her and she barely finished coming before she started shaking from the onslaught of another climax. I’d never been inside anyone as hot as her, so easy to operate. It was tough to keep my head together but I didn’t want to give in yet because I didn’t want this to end.

  “Dalton,” she panted with her knees pushed all the way up so I could take her as deep as possible. And I did. I took her to the edge of insanity yet again and she dug her nails into my arms while she rode the wave and then I couldn’t hold back any longer. I rode it with her. I heard my own curses and groans and thought about how I could happily fuck only this body for all time. Then I exploded in a fury of punishing thrusts until everything I had to give was spent.

  Still gasping and sweating, I rolled to my back at her side so I wouldn’t crush her with my weight.

  Cami was quiet. I propped myself up on one elbow and saw her staring at the ceiling with an expression that looked related to shock.

  “Hey.” I touched her hand. “You okay?”

  She turned her head and arched an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? God damn.” She pushed her sweaty hair out of her face and took a deep breath. “I don’t even know to categorize what just happened.”

  “I’ll try to explain it to you, Cami. We fucked. Successfully.”

  Cami made a face. “You sound pretty proud of yourself.”

  “Shouldn’t I be?”

  She sighed and moved closer, nuzzling my chest. “Yes. You’re amazing.”

  I wrapped my arms around her. “No. We’re amazing together.”

  “Dalton?” she whispered.

  I yawned. “Yeah?”

  Cami started kissing my throat. “I’m ready again any time you are.”

  A smile spread across my face. She was something else. She really was. The whole package. Smart, beautiful, and sexy as sin.

  “Give me a few minutes,” I said. “In the meantime let’s get the hell off this floor and find a more comfortable recreational spot. And don’t you dare try to put your clothes back on.”

  She giggled.

  The next four hours were a glorious blur of acrobatic sex and tender embraces. Cami liked being held in the sweaty aftermath of whatever erotic game we’d just finished playing and I liked holding her. I couldn’t get over how easy it was to fit her into my arms. I wanted to keep her there but she warned me she couldn’t spend the night.

  “You’re an adult,” I argued, playing my fingers along the curve of her lower back as we relaxed amid my tangled bed sheets.

  She planted a kiss on my chest. “Not to Saylor and Cord I’m not. You want them to like you, don’t you?”

  I did actually. I really did. “Yes.”

  “Then I’m afraid you’ll have to take me home at a reasonable hour. There’s no way I’d be able to explain a sleepover to them. Anyway, don’t you have to work at the club tonight?”

  “For a while,” I admitted. “You could come.”

  Cami sat upright and abruptly straddled me. She wrestled my hands away when I made a grab for her tits and she smiled down playfully. “I already came. Quite a few times.”

  “I noticed.”

  She exhaled happily and glanced around. “You keep any food in here?”

  “Not much.” I reached for the bedside phone. “Tell me what you want and I’ll have the kitchen bring it up.”

  She wanted steak. And potatoes. And apple pie. I ordered enough food to feed six people. Cami watched me from her straddled position and this time when I wanted to touch her body she let me. By the time I hung up the phone I was ready for another round.

  “Let’s get in the shower,” I suggested.

  She liked that idea.

  Half an hour later Cami was wrapped in a fluffy white resort robe and devouring her steak while she told me a little more about her parents. I hadn’t realized her father was the owner of Scratch, a famous local tattoo parlor. That explained all the ink the guy was sporting.

  Cami took a sip of wine from a crystal glass and eyed me.

  I swallowed a bite of mashed potatoes. “What?”

  “Huh?”

  “I’ve already learned that when you stare at me like that it’s because there are questions swirling around your reporter brain. So ask them.”

  She set her glass down. “I keep going on and on about my family.”

  “I’m not complaining.”

  “I know, but I didn’t want you think I wasn’t more curious about yours.”

  I shrugged. “I told you about them at lunch yesterday. Mom’s happy digging in the dirt in the middle of nowhere. Dad’s busy working himself to death and being bitter at the world. And Hale is somewhere near the Rocky Mountains doing something he isn’t willing to talk about.”

  “What about grandparents? Aunts and uncles? Cousins?”

  “Grandparents are all dead. Dad was an only child. Mom has an older sister who teaches philosophy to unpleasant college students in Oregon. She never had any kids.”

  “So you have no cousins,” Cami said and looked as sad as if she’d just heard that I’d never learned how to ride a bike.

  “No cousins,” I said, unable to understand why the idea saddened her. I’d never thought about it much. Large families were for other people.

  “So your sis
ter Cadence seems like quite a spitfire,” I commented, recalling the girl who came barreling into the Gentry’s living room today.

  Cami rolled her eyes. “She’s a pain in the ass. Most of the time. But I love her. She’s a little out of sorts these days. Growing pains I guess. Her whole life she’s been best friends with our cousin Jacob and now he has graduated from high school while she still has another year to go. Those late teen years can be kind of hellish.”

  “As opposed to the ripe old age of twenty one when you have everything figured out.”

  Cami forked a bite of steak and waved it in the air. “I think I’m pretty well adjusted.”

  “As someone who has very recent experience adjusting you, I agree.”

  She kicked me under the table.

  Then her face kind of dimmed a little as she contemplated her food. “The end of high school was a hard time for Cassidy. She was really popular and outgoing and everything turned sour overnight.” She grimaced at the memory. “There was a boy. A real asshole. Good looking and charming on the outside but rotten underneath. Cassie was dating a friend of his and he was jealous. He was flirting with Cassie at a party at his house and they started making out. They ended up going upstairs, and well, stuff happened. Cassie said she wasn’t even drunk and she didn’t know why she did it because she really liked her boyfriend and she wasn’t the type to cheat. It turned out it was a setup, a bet between the two boys. And there was a video of their hookup that one of them circulated all over school. And people are cruel. Especially to girls. Cassie quit the cheerleading squad, abandoned all her clubs, starting having stomach aches all the time. My parents were sick with worry and I believe my father would have broken the legs of both boys if he could. She left school for a while and finished most of her senior year online.”

  Cami looked at me and I was startled to see that she was blinking back tears as she talked about her sister. “Cassidy’s always been the good twin. Such a gentle heart. She got hurt, so very hurt. I was so worried about her that I was even going to turn down my scholarship so I could stick around and be there for her but she wouldn’t let me.”

  Suddenly she smiled and looked down at a silver ring she’d been toying with on her right hand. There was a dark blue stone in the center. “Cassie gave me this the night before I left for college. My Aunt Roslyn is really in tune with things like stones and psychic crystals and told her that the lapis stone channels truth and enlightenment. So my sister gave me this ring and told me to go out into the world and be a force for the truth.” She took off the ring, kissed it and then replaced it on her finger. “I love her very much.”

  I took her hand. “Come here.”

  Cami allowed me to pull her into my lap and kiss her softly. Hearing her talk so movingly about her sister pulled at my heartstrings. She’d spoken so honestly and I wanted this to be a tender moment.

  And it was.

  But then her robe opened and my hand slipped inside to stroke her skin and I wanted her again. She knew. Our kisses turned passionate and she reached into my boxers in search of my dick. I carried her into the bedroom because I knew I had to take her home soon and I wanted to savor this last time.

  “You sure you won’t stay the night?” I asked a little while later as I sat on the bed and watched her hunt her clothes down in the next room.

  “I really wish I could,” she said as she struggled with her bra.

  I got up, stood behind her and refastened the bra I’d had so much fun doing away with earlier.

  Cami twisted around and smiled up at me. I slipped my arms around her waist and we faced the window. The drapes to the sliding glass door were still open but the sun was no longer high in the sky. Darkness would settle in soon and Aqua Room would pulse to life. I hoped Griffin didn’t have any more asshole friends he was planning on entertaining.

  Cami’s hair was still slightly damp from the shower and I breathed in the fresh soapy smell. “What are you doing tomorrow?” I asked her.

  She tightened my hands around her waist. “My plan so far is to hope you’ll want to make plans.”

  “How about we catch an early movie and go out to eat somewhere where the servers don’t wear Wild Spring Resort polos.”

  “I’d like that.” She ran her fingers lightly over my arm. “And then?”

  I kissed her neck. “And then we can come back here. If you want.”

  “I want.”

  I took a look at the clock. “Damn. I’ll need to be at the club in an hour.”

  “Then I guess you better take me home.”

  “I guess I better.”

  When I pulled up to the curb in front of Cami’s house Cadence was sitting outside in the twilight, brushing out the dog. She waved at us.

  Cami touched my knee. “It feels inadequate to tell you that I had an amazing time with you today.”

  “Tell me anyway.”

  “I had an amazing time with you, Dalton.”

  The truth was I didn’t even know how to classify the last seven hours. Camille Gentry had busted right into my life without warning. She probably couldn’t guess how much she had surprised me.

  “What time can I pick you up tomorrow?” I asked.

  Her smile lit up her face. “As early as you can get here.”

  “In that case I’ll be here at two a.m.”

  She mulled it over. “I think my dad might bring a baseball bat to the door if you ring the doorbell at two a.m.”

  “Speaking of your dad, I see him at the window. He looks a little stern.”

  “He’s only pretending. My dad’s a teddy bear.”

  “Is he going to hate me if I kiss you right now?”

  “Less than he would if you brought me home at dawn.”

  I kissed her. If Cord Gentry thought he needed to glare from the window then he could be my guest. When I looked back at the window he was gone.

  “Good night, Dalton.”

  “Good night, Camille.”

  I watched her as she strolled up the path of her family’s home. Cadence was holding onto the old dog by the collar as he wagged his tail like crazy. Cami hunched down and gave him a loving pat on the head. Lucky dog. Her sister said something to her and she turned my way. She smiled when she saw that I hadn’t pulled away just yet.

  I started the ignition and waved. Cami blew me a kiss. I grinned like a goofy motherfucker all the way back to Wild Spring.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Camille

  On Monday morning, fresh off the most incredible weekend in memory, I practically skipped into work.

  “Good morning!” I greeted Holly as she slouched in the Blue Rain lobby with dark glasses on her face and a cup of coffee in her hand.

  “Someone’s cheerful,” she grumbled and yawned.

  I tossed my purse under the reception desk. “It’s a beautiful day. Who wouldn’t be cheerful?”

  Certainly not a girl who’d spent the last two days getting drilled by Dalton Tremaine.

  I giggled. Holly took off her sunglasses and looked at me.

  “Are you going to brag?” she asked.

  “About what?”

  “About the reason you’re beaming like a bride on her honeymoon.”

  I switched the computer on. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Holly heaved herself out of the chair and approached. “There’s a rumor going around about you.”

  “What rumor?”

  “That you’ve been getting busy with the hottest club manager in the state.”

  I didn’t say anything. Holly took my absence of response as confirmation.

  “So, Dalton Tremaine.” She let out a low whistle. “You’ve got taste, girl, I’ll give you that. Nobody would complain about giving that hard body a workout. Is he a Dom? I bet he is.”

  “A what?”

  She rolled her eyes. “A Dominant. Role playing, bondage, all that Fifty Shades of Grey kinky fun? He seems like the type who needs a little something out of the ordinary.”


  “Is that another rumor you heard?”

  She shook her head. “No. It’s just my intuition. Maybe I was off the mark.” A slow grin spread across her face. “But you are fucking him, right?”

  “Shh, keep your voice down.” I’d never been any good at lying and I didn’t see the point in denying the truth but Eleanor’s door was open down the hall and I didn’t really want to discuss my recent orgasmic windfall in earshot of my boss.

  “We went out a few times,” I said evasively.

  That wasn’t really a suitable summary for how Dalton and I had spent the past few days but Holly was obviously a blabbermouth and I wasn’t about to pour my heart out to her. So far the only person I’d told the truth to was Cassie.

  How every time Dalton touched me all the senses I had were instantly awake and quivering.

  How completely comfortable I’d felt in his arms, a stark contrast to prior sex partners who left me feeling restless and impatient to reclaim my personal space.

  How I had wanted more than anything to sleep in his bed overnight and wake up with him in the morning.

  I’d always doubted that instant connections between two people existed. I doubted it even though my mother was one of the world’s greatest romantics who was living her own perfect story and forever inventing new ones. I wasn’t about to go kneel before Dalton Tremaine and plead to wear his ring and bear his children, but after this weekend I no longer doubted that lightning could strike the heart.

  Holly was scrutinizing me. “Is it okay if I offer you a word of advice?”

  I figured she’d offer it whether I wanted to hear it or not so I said, “Sure.”

  She wagged a finger like she was speaking to a five year old. “You be careful, Cami. Dalton and the rest of his ilk, that’s a fast crowd. And I’m not trying to insult you but you seem like a lamb in the woods.” Holly set her sunglasses back on her face and tossed her coffee cup toward the trash. She missed. “I’ll be in Room Two waiting for my appointment to show up. Talk to you later, kid.”

  “The expression is ‘babe in the woods’,” I muttered after she’d strutted down the hall. I logged into the computer and tried to shake off Holly’s words because she really didn’t know what she was talking about. I wasn’t some hapless woman child sucked into a bad arrangement with a notorious player on the hunt for some tail. I knew what I was doing. And Dalton…