Reese

 

Cam’s words kept running on a loop inside my head the entire drive to my apartment.

You’re mine now. You’re mine now.

I wanted to stay pissed at him for our encounter in the training room. Maybe I shouldn’t have let him off the hook so easily. But I’d known his behavior had been so out of character, something had to have been wrong. And after he’d explained it to me, it’d been very easy to let my happiness over his confession snuff out my own anger.

He was following behind me in his Jeep. Knowing he was about to see into my private life, that we were about to take the next step in our relationship, had my nerves completely frayed. I was so distracted, in fact, I forgot that I’d texted both Syd and Gemma earlier in the night to let them know Cam might be coming over. Things would definitely change after he met my friends. It felt like once those introductions happened, it would be even harder to extract him from my life if I ever wanted to.

I just hoped they weren’t in the middle of drunken yoga.

I jumped when there was a knock on my door. How long had I been sitting in my parking lot, staring into space?

“You coming?” Cam asked through the window. His smile faded as he noticed my apprehension. Of course, he assumed it was for a whole other reason. “Look, I can go home,” he said. “If you aren’t ready for this, it’s no big deal. You don’t have to feel bad.”

He barely dodged the car door when I swung it open a little too forcefully. “No, it’s not that. It’s just my roommates are probably home.”

“The ones that were at the party with you, right?”

I blew out a heavy breath. “Yeah, that’s them.”

His face fell, as if he were hurt. “You don’t want me to meet them?”

I waved that off. “No, that’s not what I’m worried about. It’s just… Well, I guess you’ll see for yourself. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I grabbed my stuff from the backseat and led him up the stairs to our second-floor unit.

“If you’re trying to scare me away, it’s not working,” he said in amusement. “If anything, I’m even more intrigued.”

“You won’t be for long,” I muttered under my breath.

The first thing I heard when I entered the apartment made me want to walk right back out of it.

“What the hell is that?” Cam asked loudly over the deafening noise.

I threw my keys on the console table. “That’s the Boyz II Men II album.”

He looked at me, dumbfounded. “Is that supposed to tell me something?”

I shrugged off my coat, preparing for the worst. “If you knew Gemma it would.”

Anytime we heard that Boyz II Men album, we knew something was wrong with Gemma. It was her go-to musical selection when she wanted to do nothing but wallow in her grief as she re-arranged our apartment. Usually, it was when she didn’t get a role she’d recently auditioned for. One time it was because her parents’ fifteen-year-old cat had died. Another was when they stopped making colby jack cheese-flavored Cheez-Its. There was really no telling what this could be.

I walked over to the Bluetooth speaker and turned the volume way down.

“Hey!” Gemma shouted as she popped her head out from behind the couch. “You’re messing with my therapy, Reese.”

That’s when I took in the disorganized mess that was our living room. The couches and armchair were askew, the coffee table was in the hallway, the TV was on the floor, and the floor lamp was dead center in the middle of the room.

“Well, the whole complex doesn’t need to be involved with your therapy,” I told her. “What happened?”

She blew her strawberry blond hair out of her face. “I didn’t get the lesbian stoner time-traveler part. It doesn’t make any sense, either, because I nailed that audition.”

“I’m sorry, hon. But remember what we say? If they’re too stupid to recognize your talent…”

“Screw ‘em,” she finished. She walked around the couch toward us. “It’s just that I rehearsed so— Oh, helloo.” She gave Cam a knowing smile. “You must be Cameron.”

He stuck out his hand. “Cam’s fine. It’s nice to meet you…?”

“Gemma,” she supplied. “Reese’s roommate, friend, love guru, spiritual advisor. My job here fluctuates week to week.”

Cam chuckled and it didn’t surprise me. Gemma had a way of charming everyone who met her. “I might have to talk to you about that whole love guru thing.”

Her eyes lit up. “It would be my pleasure.”

“I think that’s enough getting to know you,” I cut in. “Syd home?”

She hooked her thumb toward the hallway. “In her room.”

“I assume all of this,” I pointed around the room, “will be arranged and cleaned up by morning?”

She winked. “You know it.”

“Well, if you can just keep the crooning ballads down to a reasonable volume level, we’d sure appreciate it.”

I led Cam toward my bedroom.

“And if you can keep the sexcapades down to a reasonable volu—”

“Goodnight, Gemma!”

“I like her,” he said, laughing. “Did you not want to say hi to your other roommate?”

“Syd’s probably working in her room, so I don’t want to bother her.”

I clicked on the light to my bedroom and threw my bags down beside my nightstand. The room wasn’t spotless, but I was glad that I’d at least thrown all my dirty laundry into my hamper before I left for the game. Plus, I had some of the softest sheets on the planet, so that was bound to make up for my lack of tidiness.

Wait. Sheets? Would we be taking those sheets for a spin or…?

“Uh, Reese?”

I spun around at Cam’s weird tone. He sounded almost embarrassed. He was rubbing the back of his neck, his face having turned a bright red color. That was a new one. I thought I’d grow a penis before I ever saw Cam Donovan blush.

“What?”

He tipped his head to something across the room.

I turned and—

Shit a sideways brick.

“What the…”

It was a shrine. Everything on top of my dresser had been removed, replaced by tons of pictures, newspaper clippings, candles, and freaking rose petals. Oh, yeah, and they were all pictures of Cam. Giant pictures with hearts drawn around his face, and the words Mrs. Reese Donovan written all over the place.

It was a Cam Shrine.

The ultimate in creepy stalker Cam Shrines, to be exact.

I was afraid to even look at him, though I did, anyway. He looked like he wanted to smile but didn’t know if he should. My cheeks heated to a million degrees, but for more than one reason. Yes, I wanted to go bury my head in the sand somewhere, but I was also spitting mad beyond words.

Those bitches.

“Oh, my God. I’m going to kill them.”

I pounded out of the room and down the hall. Gemma turned in my direction, saw my murderous expression, and dove behind the couch.

“It was Syd’s idea!” she screamed.

“That couch isn’t going to save you.” Before I could lunge for her, Cam came up and wrapped his arms around me, holding me back. “Let me at her, Cam! I’m avenging both of us.”

“Someone want to explain to me what the hell is going on?”

He didn’t sound as perturbed about this as I was.

“Syd, get your ass out here and explain!” I yelled.

Her bedroom door opened a few seconds later, and she had the nerve to look both smug and satisfied as she leaned against the wall. “To what do I owe the honor of your scowl this evening?”

I snarled. “You know damn well what.”

She feigned ignorance. “No, can’t say that I do.”

“The shrine,” I bit out. “Explain to Cam that the shrine was all your doing.”

“You mean the one in your room? Gemma and I kept telling you it was a little much, honey.” She looked at Cam sympathetically. “We tried telling her she’d taken the obsession a bit too far.”

I tried wriggling out of Cam’s arms to go after her, but it was no use when he tightened his grip. He was like a steel vault.

“Whoa there, babe. Take it easy.”

That’s when Gemma lost it and burst into laughter. Syd was next, throwing her head back and wheezing for air. Even Cam, the traitor, joined in on it.

“Tell him right now.”

If they knew what was good for them, they’d make it quick.

Syd covered her mouth to hold in the rest of her laughter. “If Reese insists on ruining our fun, fine. We put all that stuff up there because we play pranks on each other all the time. Reese had a few good ones coming her way, especially since she’s usually the ring leader.”

“I can’t say that surprises me,” was his deadpan response.

My head whipped around. “That’s all you have to say?”

Damn, his blue eyes were so pretty when he smiled like that.

“I knew shrines weren’t your style. I figured there was a joke or some explanation behind it.”

Why was I suddenly the only sane one in the room?

I turned my glare back on my evil roommates. “You’ve both been marked. This is your one and only warn— Hey! Cam!”

My world turned upside down as he threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. My ass faced the room when he addressed both of them.

“If you ladies will excuse us. I think someone needs a timeout.”

They both broke into guffaws as I squirmed in his arms. “I don’t need a timeout. They need to pay!”

“All in good time,” he said, kicking my bedroom door shut with his foot. “I’ve been waiting forever to get you alone like this and right now, I don’t want to share you with your prankster roommates.”

That finally brought me back down to Earth. “And now that you’ve got me alone, what exactly are you going to do with me?”

He deposited me on the bed and stood over me. “How about we start with losing some clothing first?”

The next thing I knew, I was staring at the face of his washboard abs, drooling on my oh-so-soft sheets.

Wow.

All hail the King…