Lachlan’s free hand dug nails into Cam’s shoulder, clutching unthinkingly tight as his rhythm stuttered and his whole body rocked in orgasm. Cam endeavoured to keep Lachlan’s cock deep while it spurted into his throat, dimly tasting the hot saltiness partially filling his mouth while the rising heat from his own dick overflowed and began to gush in streams against the couch.
He moaned devastatingly around Lachlan’s cock, feeling contentedly wrecked as his body finished coming. Cam all but fell off, grabbing onto Lachlan’s knee before he face-planted the floor with a croaky laugh.
‘Good god, Cam,’ Lachlan said, though it was more of a blissed-out squeak. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Gi’ me a min’te.’ Cam snickered at the roughness in his own voice, stretching the tension out of his jaw. He propped his head on Lachlan’s leg, rubbing his cheek over the fine hairs on his thigh. Lachlan’s hands settled back into his hair, massaging his scalp tenderly.
‘We shouldn’t stay like this,’ Lachlan sighed.
‘If we’re here then I’m not bursting into a living inferno,’ Cam pointed out with a grin. It dropped from his face in an instant when nausea welled in his throat. His first instinct was to make light of the situation, but he wasn’t ready to joke about it just yet. Lachlan seemed just as uncomfortable with the poor choice of words. His face pulled tight with worry, fingers plucking at Cam’s hair.
Despite this, Cam wondered if there was a grain of truth in the idea. If he just hid himself away, stayed in Lachlan’s arms and shut out the rest of the world, perhaps he could avoid anything that might ignite the fire beyond his control.
It sounded suspiciously like another form of running away. And if he wanted to accept Lachlan’s help—reallylet him be a part of this—then it was time to stop running.
A sound that had been worming around the periphery of his hearing suddenly pulled into focus. The sound of a woman’s voice shouting outside.
Lachlan frowned at the window. ‘The Closed sign is very obvious,’ he grumbled. Nevertheless, he dutifully shifted and began pulling on clothes.
‘Are you very politely going to tell them to fuck off?’ Cam asked, leaning up to kiss his hip.
‘It might not be so polite if she keeps screeching like that.’
Cam had to agree. It was hard to make out what she was saying, but the voice certainly had a squawking quality that reminded him of—
‘Wait.’ Cam leapt up and rushed to the window. His eyes widened when he glimpsed the electric blue jacket and shock of bleached hair below. He groaned. ‘I don’t believe it. That’s Meredith. What the hell’s she doing here?’
Lachlan finished tugging on his socks. ‘Your aunt? Should I let her in?’
Cam grimaced. ‘I should find out what she wants. Normally she just texts me.’
They moved down to the café where Meredith’s insistent squawks of ‘Hellooooo!’, ‘Open up!’, and ‘I know you’re in there, Cameron Walker!’ became discernible beyond the front doors. Her nose was near pressed up against the glass, peering into the dark interior with both hands cupped around her face.
Cam hung back while Lachlan went to the door. He’d glimpsed his own face in a reflection and was reminded how shocking the new Scorch mark looked. Meredith was going tofreak.And he wasn’t sure how well he’d deal with that right now.
Meredith noticed Lachlan approaching the door and began waving frantically—still shouting as though he couldn’t see her plainly in front of his face. ‘Hey! Hi there! Hey! Can you open the door? Hey!’
Lachlan unlocked it calmly and welcomed her with his usual sunshine-tinged tone. ‘Good morning! How can I help you?’
Meredith dropped her purple holdall in the open doorframe, like she thought that would stop him closing the door on her. ‘Hi. You got any rooms free?’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘Rooms, hon. I want to stay the night.’
‘I’m afraid I don’t rent out rooms,’ Lachlan replied, obviously baffled.
Meredith’s eyebrows scrunched. ‘No, you do. Isn’t Cam here? He said this place was a bed and breakfast.’
‘No,’ Cam said woodenly from the back. ‘I said it’s where I’m staying.’
Meredith froze, her eyes bright with delight. She opened her arms wide, jangling with colourful bangles, and pushed straight past Lachlan—who, to his credit, maintained an air of polite perplexity as she barged onto his premises. ‘Cam,baby!Do you know how hard it was to find this place? Doesn’t have a website or anyth—’
She stopped dead, just short of lunging distance for her customary hug. Colour drained from her face as she saw Cam properly. Her voice dropped to a taut whisper, filled with all the grief-stricken fear that Cam had expected. ‘Cam. H-honey. What happened?’
His Scorched hand rose reflexively to touch his cheek. ‘I… it…’ Cam caught Lachlan’s eye and cleared his throat. ‘I had a run-in with the werewolf and things got out of hand. I’m okay, though. Everything’s fine.’
‘You arenotfine.’ Meredith closed the distance and cupped Cam’s face with both hands, squishing his cheeks in a way that made him feel ten years old again. ‘Oh, my poor baby, it’s too soon for this…’
