137

137
DREW
The next morning came sooner than I would have liked. Camille and I had sat in the chair out on the deck together until well after midnight. I
had fallen into bed after making sure that she was in bed and didn’t need anything.
However, I woke with the gulls. As soon as they started screeching on the beach outside the window, I knew there was no chance I could fall back to sleep again.
Now that the sun was up, it was safe to leave my room. I could hear Camille snoring softly in her room as I walked to the kitchen. My stomach was rumbling, and I was in desperate need of a coffee.
Within a few minutes, the scent of coffee was wafting through the villa, and I had a pan heating on the stove. Bacon sat on the counter beside me and there was a carton of eggs in the fridge waiting to be cracked.
As I cooked the bacon, I had music playing on my phone. I hummed along as I put the last few slices of bacon in the pan before grabbing the carton of eggs.
“Morning,” Camille said as she appeared in the hallway.
Her hair was a mess, and her silk pajamas were wrinkled. There were bags beneath her eyes, and she yawned so wide I was sure that she was going to split her face in half.
I had never seen anyone more beautiful than she looked in that moment. “What is that smell?” she asked, her nose wrinkling.
A few seconds later, she was gagging and turning around. I heard the bathroom door slam behind her before the sound of retching made its way to me.
I put the hot pan on a different burner and turned the stove off before heading to her room.
“Camille?” I asked as I knocked on the bathroom door. She responded with what sounded like losing the contents of her stomach.
I opened the bathroom door and saw her kneeling, her head hovering over the toilet. Her hair hung in a wild mess around her face, and she looked like she was turning green.
“Go away,” she said, groaning as she waved a hand in my direction. “I’m not going anywhere,” I said as I sat on the edge of the tub.
She tried to swat my hands away as I gathered her hair and held it back from her face. Her hands dropped as she leaned further over the toilet and started throwing up again.
“This is hell,” she said, looking over her shoulder at me. “Go away.” “Nope. Our pet sperm is making you sick. That means that I’m going to sit
here and hold your hair and tell you that you still look sexy even when you’re throwing up.”
She cackled, shaking her head before slumping against the side of the tub. I let go of her hair as she tilted her head back to look at me.
“Our pet sperm?”
I shrugged, grinning when I saw a slow smile spreading across her face. “Yeah. Look, I like kids, but you have to admit that before they can walk and talk, they’re basically pet sperm.”
She laughed, some of the color coming back to her face. It was short-lived, and soon she was leaning over the edge of the toilet again. I grabbed her hair and held it back from her face while I rubbed her back with my other hand.
After a few more minutes, she sat back and sighed.
“This seems like it’s going to be the worst part of pregnancy,” she said, groaning as she ran a hand down her face.
I chuckled and combed my fingers through her hair. “So, no more bacon?” “Do we have toaster waffles?” she asked as she got to her feet and flushed. “Yes. How many do you want?”
She shrugged. “Two for now, please. Although, three might be better.”
I laughed as she reached for her toothbrush. “Three toaster waffles will be waiting for you when you’re done getting cleaned up.”
After toaster waffles and a hot shower, Camille came out of her room, dressed and looking like she was feeling a lot better. She moved around the kitchen, cleaning up the dishes from breakfast that I hadn’t gotten to.
“Camille,” I said as I walked into the kitchen, toweling my hair dry, “stop cleaning up. I’ll do it. You’re supposed to be resting.”
“Nope,” she said, giving me a small smile. “I want to help clean up. You made me two breakfasts.”
I rolled my eyes and used my hip to bump her out of the way before tossing my towel over her head. Camille laughed as I started loading the dishes into the dishwasher. When I looked at her, she was rolling up the towel.
“Don’t you dare,” I said, but it was already too late. She had whipped the end of the towel at my ass, snapping it hard against the skin. “Hell, Camille.”
She chuckled and shrugged. “If you don’t let me help, I’ll do it again.” “You can help me by going to sit down so I can clean up before we go to
see the wild horses?”
“Did you book a tour?” she asked, hauling herself up to perch on the edge of the kitchen counter as I finished loading the dishwasher.
“Nope,” I said as I cleaned the pots and pans. “I have something much better in mind.”
“We’re not going to get arrested, are we?”
I chuckled and shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. You should go get your shoes on though. We’re leaving as soon as I’m done.”
Once I was done doing the dishes, Camille and I left the villa. She followed me down the villa steps and across one of the dunes to the start of a path. As we walked, she was quiet, smiling to herself with each crash of the waves against the shore.
We followed the winding path through the dunes as the sun climbed higher in the sky. Tall grass that lined the beach was dancing with the soft breeze.
This vacation was better than any other I had been on.
Though I had traveled the world, nothing compared to scrambling over sand with the mother of my child. She was beautiful, her hair curling as the salt air hit it. Her cheeks were pink, and her smile spread wide as I stopped
walking and looked down at a blanket that had been set up with several pillows and a small picnic.
“Well, what do you know?” I said, gesturing at the little setup. “It looks like someone might have been expecting us.”
Even though I told her that I never imagined myself settling down, that didn’t mean that I wasn’t considering it. If there was anyone that I wanted to date, it was her. She challenged me, making me work harder to be a better person.
Camille rolled her eyes as she sat down on the blanket and leaned back against the pillows. “Do I even want to know how you managed to arrange all this?”
“I paid people some money and told them that I wanted a picnic put together for a special woman who would love to see the wild horses run.”
As I sat down beside her, the first horse appeared on the beach in front of us. The rest of the herd wasn’t far behind it.
Camille gasped as the horses stood together. Some of them were in the water while others were standing beneath the sun and looking at each other. She took out her phone and snapped a picture before putting her phone away. “I can’t believe you were able to do this,” Camille said, her voice soft as
she looked over at me. “You surprise me sometimes.”
“I’m much more devastatingly handsome than you first thought too. I also give you endless orgasms.”
Camille clamped a hand over her mouth before her laughter scared off the horses. She grinned, her eyes shining as the herd took off running. She stood up as they started to disappear beyond the dunes, watching them until they were gone.
When she sat back down, my heart was racing. There was something that I
wanted to talk to her about, but I didn’t know how she would take it. For so long, we had been dancing around each other and acting like we were just sex.
I should have known from the moment I met her that there was no such thing as just sex with Camille.
“You look like you’re about to throw up,” Camille said as she opened the container of grapes and popped one into her mouth. “I don’t know if I can handle both of us throwing up on the same day.”
I rolled my eyes and wiped my sweaty hands on my pants. “Have you ever thought about dating?”
Camille said nothing, watching me as she grabbed another grape and ate it. She sighed and pulled her knees to the chest, staring out at the ocean. In that moment, she looked like a young woman who was terrified of the future instead of the formidable force I had come to know.
“Because I have,” I said, forging ahead. If I didn’t say this to her now, I wasn’t sure that I ever would.
Right now, while we were away from all our responsibilities, it was easier to acknowledge the way I was starting to feel about her. There was no human relations department to worry about. I didn’t have to worry about what Clarke and Tyson would say about my interest in the woman they considered their sister.
“I don’t know if that’s the best idea,” Camille said, biting her bottom lip. “Drew, we work together. You’re my boss. You’re also known as someone who will sleep with anyone who looks at you for more than a few seconds. And then there’s all my baggage on top of that.”
“We’re adults, Camille. We can go see the HR department, fill out some paperwork, and then the rest is history.”
“I still don’t think it’s the best idea.”
I sighed and looked out at the water. “You’re pregnant with my child and you’re living with me. Hell, Camille, the only thing we aren’t doing is actually dating.”
“I don’t know that we should,” Camille said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “I’ve worked hard for my career, Drew. Do you know what will happen if it comes out that I’m dating the boss?”
I could see her point. People would claim that she had slept her way to the job. Any advancement she got would be put down to sleeping with the boss. Her accomplishments would have nothing to do with how hard she worked and everything to do with who she was sleeping with.
“I want to see where this thing between us goes. I know that I’m not the only one who feels things changing between us,” I said, wrapping my arm around her shoulders.
Camille leaned into my side and closed her eyes. “You’re not, Drew. Things are changing between us, and it would be a lie to say that I’m not curious or that I haven’t considered it.”
“Then what’s holding you back?”
She shrugged. “A lot of things. A lot of baggage.”
“I don’t care about your baggage. I know that this would create trouble for you at work, but we could keep it as private as possible. HR is the only department that needs to know.”
Camille chuckled and took my hand, lacing her fingers with mine. “You know that it isn’t as simple as that. Someone in the office will start whispering and then everyone will know.”
“I know,” I said, kissing her temple. “I just wish that it was. All of this would be much easier if it were that simple.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Camille said, looking up at me. “It’s just that I need some time to think about it. Is that okay?”
I kissed her softly, sparks flying at the first real kiss we’d shared. All the others had been prior to or during sex. This kiss was different. This kiss was just because I wanted to. This kiss was because I was having a good time with a woman who made me want to settle down and see where things went.
This kiss was because Camille and I were just two people who were trying to find a way to keep our heads above water while going after what we wanted.
“You take as long as you want to think about things,” I said, holding her a little closer. “I’m not going anywhere.”