Page 30 of A Matter of Time
Before I even knew what I was doing, my arms were around him and my lips were on his, kissing him like my life depended on it.
~Cam~
No words existed that could do justice to what went through my head when Tonia kissed me. The last minute had been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and twists and turns. Whiplash would have been less traumatic.
When I first turned around and saw her standing there in the lobby of my building, with this other woman I’d just met on my arm, guilt had been my immediate gut reaction.
Which wasinsane.
I had nothing to feel guilty about. I hadn’t been doing anything with that woman, and even if I had been, it didn’t affect Tonia in any way. She had no problem going out to lunch with Jason, flirting with him and asking him out, so there was no earthly reason for me to feel bad about standing there with another woman, even if I had intended to take her up to my apartment, which I hadn’t.
And yet, reason and logic didn’t seem to matter; I felt guilty anyway and it frustrated the hell out of me.
It quickly became clear, however, that Tonia didn’t care about the woman next to me. She didn’t even spare her a glance as she marched over to me, her eyes full of fire and fury.
It took me a moment to piece together what happened: Marley must have finally caved after all this time and told Tonia the truth. I didn’t know if Marley approached Tonia or Tonia approached Marley, and at that moment, I didn’t particularly care. Tonia’s anger erased every other concern from my mind. After all those years, she finally knew the truth and shestillthought the fault was entirely mine? In her eyes, I couldn’t see even a hint of that apology she still owed me.
It felt like déjà vu as we shouted at each other, again, just like we had in the school hallway that morning, and then she tried to slap me, again, like she had at Dex’s wedding. Why did we keep going in circles? Shouting hadn’t done us any good in the past and neither had physical aggression. Since we had nothing left to hide, we might as well deal with it, once and for all, and so I grabbed onto her, determined not to let her run away again.
Maybe I pulled her a little too close. Maybe she saw something in my eyes that I didn’t even know was there.
Whatever the reason, she changed gears again, taking me completely by surprise as her lips connected with mine.
Her kiss didn’t feel anything like the drunk, accidental kind of kiss we shared in Corpus Christi. It felt entirely intentional, determined, and filled with a passion and heat I hadn’t experienced in a hell of a long time.
Tonia might run hot and cold, but when she was hot, she washot.I hadn’t met the woman yet who I could call her equal. She turned me on like no one else ever had.
The elevator doors slid open behind us as someone exited into the lobby, and almost before I knew what was happening, we’d stumbled into it, our lips still locked together.
“Your key,” Tonia murmured against my skin, and for a moment, I had no idea what she meant. My brain seemed to be short circuiting and nothing made much sense, but eventually, I realized we were in an elevator going nowhere.
And she had just suggested we go to my apartment.
Desire and anticipation shot through me as I dug in my pocket for the keycard. I had to remove my lips from Tonia’s long enough to swipe it over the sensor and hit the button for my floor, but as soon as I’d accomplished that, we were drawn back together, and I pressed her up against the mirrored wall, just as I’d imagined doing the day before in my office. My hands in her hair, I tugged it downwards just enough to make her look up at me, claiming her mouth again in a kiss both needy and possessive. In my office, I hadn’t been sure how she’d react, but there in the sleek, confined space of the elevator, she grabbed hold of my hips and pulled them tighter towards her. My suit pants didn’t hide much, and I knew she could feel just how hard I was, how hard she’d managed to make me in a matter of seconds.
Could this actually be happening? It sure as hell felt like it. A tiny voice in my head said to slow down, to talk things out first, but the rest of my body drowned it out, every inch of my physical being simply saying:Yes. I want this.
When we reached my floor, Tonia pushed me out of the elevator into the hall. “Which way?”
I honestly had to think about it for a minute, but eventually, I looped my arm around her waist and led her down the hallway to the left, our shoes sinking into the carpet as we walked past the abstract art on the walls, my eyes seeing nothing but the doorway ahead, desperate to get her inside.
“Do you want a drink or…” I started to ask once I’d closed the door behind us, but I didn’t get a chance to finish before Tonia’s body pressed against mine again. The smell of her and the taste of her was so familiar, and yet completely new at the same time. There in my apartment that belonged firmly to my new life, the past and present blended together in the best possible way.
“What does it feel like I want, Cam?” she teased me, pressing her hips up against me again, making me groan.
“Are you sure? I don’t want us to regret…”
Once again, she cut me off, this time with her hand reaching between us to press against my straining erection. “Are you telling me I don’t know what I want?”
Inhaling sharply, I shook my head. I knew better than that. “No, ma’am.”
She grinned with that mischievous smile of hers that always brought me to my knees. “Good. Then where’s the bedroom?”
Fuck,this really was happening.
With my heart pounding, sending all the blood it could to my eager cock, I took her down the hall to my room. As we walked in, she took a curious look around, nodding in approval. “Not bad, Cam.”
Her approval meant a ridiculous amount to me. I shouldn’t care what she thought of it, but of course I did. “The room looks a whole lot better with you in it, Sugar,” I told her honestly.
