The Bacelor: Make A Sex Deal

“Always.” I took a deep breath, unsure if that kind of honesty was the right thing to give him.

His hand lifted, and he gently grazed it across my chin. “Oaklyn …” he said softly in a tone Camden never used. “Fuck me, you’re perfect.”

A word I’d just used in my head to describe him.

And when he’d said it, I could feel his emotion.

It was sitting in my chest, squeezing me so tightly.

He found my hand tucked across my hip and linked our fingers. “Come with me.”

There was a door not far from the restroom. I hadn’t noticed it when I came in, but he took me through it. We walked behind the bar, past the dumpster, where a few of the employees were smoking, and we entered a side alley that was wedged between this building and the one beside it. The alley was completely shut off from the street, mostly dark, just specks of light that filtered in from the streetlamps. We were about halfway down from where we’d entered when Camden stopped, positioning my back against the brick of the building, standing closely in front of me.

What are we doing here?

And what does he want from me?

“I didn’t want to have this conversation inside the bar or outside the restroom. My sister might be drunk at the moment, but if she sees us together or if one of the girlfriends do, Hannah will start questioning, and I don’t want that. At least not yet.”

“I get it.”

But do I?

I had no idea what he meant by the yet part.

“Oaklyn,” he began, and I could feel him searching my eyes even though I couldn’t see that level of detail in the alley, “I need you to be honest with me about something.”

“I’ve never lied to you.”

“That’s not what I mean or what I’m inferring.” He took a breath, his exhale hitting my face even though he was so much taller. “What I need to know is, are you interested in Macon?”

Macon?

That’s what this is about?

His best friend?

Who Camden has been all for setting me up with?

“I find him interesting, and he’s a nice guy,” I said, “but, no, I’m not interested in him in that way-or any way for that matter.”

He released my fingers, and they went to my neck, tilting my face up to him. “You’re saying you don’t want to go out with him?”

I thought I’d answered that question, but he obviously needed more reassurance. “No, Camden, I don’t want to go out with him. The reason I’ve been talking to him is to appease your sister, who’s relentlessly tried to keep us connected all night.”

And to make you jealous.

Something I would never admit.

“I needed to be sure before I did this.” His hand moved up my face, stopping at my cheek, his fingers spreading, his thumb stretching to my lips, where he traced the top one, rounding the corner before moving to the bottom one.

“Do what?” I whispered.

There was plenty of wine flowing through me by this point. Not to mention, I was almost completely in the dark, unable to attempt to read his eyes or know the next move he was going to make. I could mostly only rely on touch, and his was sending off so many signals.

Signals that something was about to happen.

And that something was going to change everything.

As he got closer, his cologne was more prominent, as was the liquor on his breath. His hand gripped me harder, his thumb leaving my mouth, his other fingers diving into my hair, holding my strands in his palm.

“This.”

One word.

And the timing of it only allowed me to take a short breath before his lips were on mine.

Camden had kissed me the night we agreed to the proposition.

That’d felt more like a test. A way to determine if we had any chemistry or if I could even come close to satisfying him.

This was different.

This was a need.

A want.

With the way his lips surrounded me, how his tongue circled mine, he wasn’t just taking. He was breathing me in. Inhaling me. Claiming me, like this was far more than a lesson.

And my body immediately responded.

My back arched off the brick as my arms shot up, hugging his neck, pulling our bodies together, and I felt the hardness of his erection and the muscles in his chest and the strength in his hands as he held me.

Within a few seconds, his fingers slid up to the top of my head, and then his arms extended out straight, his palms pressing against the wall above me.

I was in a cage.

Full of Camden.

And there was nowhere else I’d rather be.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

But I was overflowing with questions, and the moment he pulled away, I wanted to ask them.

I let the silence simmer. I let him graze my cheek with his rough whiskers, his nose sliding across to my ear and down my jaw.

“Why?” I asked softly. “Why did you need this?”

He continued to tickle my face, the tip of his nose dragging over my chin and up to the other ear, where his mouth hovered. “Because I can’t stop thinking about your lips.” He kissed my lobe, sucking it. Releasing it to add, “Because I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“But you just had me, Camden. Your finger was inside me tonight.”

“Not that.” He inhaled and exhaled again. “More, Oaklyn. I want fucking more.”

My eyes closed even though I didn’t need any additional darkness.

Seeing me with Macon had triggered this reaction. My attempt at making him jealous had paid off.

Emotions had finally entered the picture.

That thought couldn’t have made me happier.

But that didn’t mean I was going to let him off so easily. If he wanted me and he wanted more, he was going to have to work for it.

“You warned me,” I said. “You were the one who set the boundaries. Who said feelings had no part in this proposition.”

He reached for my hands, locking our fingers, and held them against the wall, far above my head. “I know what I made you promise.”