I peeled back the shower curtain slowly, chest constricting at the sight of a certain curvy girl covered by soapy streams trailing down her backside. Her hands were in hair and she was facing the showerhead. I watched her, pushing the water out of her face and the way the suds slid over that body of hers.

When Cami turned to face me, her eyes were still squeezed shut and her hands were smoothing down her body and pushing all the foamy residue aside. I stepped forward and gently pressed my fingers to her hips. Her eyes snapped open and her mouth fell into an O shape. She laughed and then asked, "Didn't you say you were waiting for me to finish?"

I smirked and lifted one shoulder lazily. "Mmm. Maybe I couldn't wait."

She nodded and smiled. "So impatient," she teased, trailing a single finger down the center of my chest and then lower until I was holding my breath in anticipation.

My eyelids drooped a bit when she ran her palm over the underside of my dick. I sucked in a deep breath when her fist encircled me, twisting and pumping me slowly. "Or maybe I was afraid you'd use all the hot water," I somehow managed to groan out.

Cami sighed and pulled me closer, easing me under the warm spray of water. I soaked my hair and then leaned into her, glancing down at her hand and how she was working my dick so expertly. "Are you having fun?" I breathed.

"I am," she grinned proudly. "And I'm about to have some more."

Cami released me from her perfect grip, opting to hold my hips instead. When she lowered herself to her knees and peered up at me, my heart dropped. In no way was I ever expecting this.

"You never let me return the favor when we were in that hotel room. You asked me if you could taste me and I told you yes, but I never got my turn." Cami held the base of my erection and angled it down to her lips. She peered up at me with lusty eyes and kissed the tip, her tongue flicking out to taste me. Fuck. How could anyone do something so naughty and looks so angelic at the same time?

I angled the shower head up so the water would stop pouring into her eyes. I reached for her jaw and held it in my hands, wanting her full attention. "You know you don't have to do this, right?"

Cami simply smiled and shook her head. "What makes you think I don't want to?"

Before I could come up with a response, she slid my cock into her mouth and hummed happily. My hands moved to her shoulders and I gasped loudly. Her tongue felt too perfect, her mouth as soft and wet as her pussy had been around my fingers not even 30 minutes ago. She felt too good.

My fingers dropped to my sides as I was afraid to hold her head. With each stroke of her mouth, I was careening further down the road to bliss. Her brow furrowed as I disappeared behind her lips over and over. Her concentration could only be swayed by my groans of pleasure. "Fuck...fuck yes...you are too good at this," I cried when she held my hips and pulled me deeper.

The urge to thrust was right there and my need to hold her head was overwhelming. I couldn't lose control like that, even though it was killing me. This was why I never let her take me in her mouth before. With anyone else I wouldn't be able to hold back. But when I looked into her eyes, I could honestly see how much she wanted to please me.

I couldn't ruin that by being totally out of control. I gritted my teeth and raised my arms over my head, grabbing at my hair and pulling hard. My head fell back as the pressure built. "Cami, baby fuck...your mouth... oh..."

When I reached that point of no return, I looked down and she gazed up with her eyes wide and I was so gone. I gripped the base and pulled myself from that sweet mouth. I spilled over her breasts with my hands pulling her to stand. Holding the back of her neck tightly, I pulled her mouth to mine.

I panted against her lips and smiled. "You're right, baby. I really should have let you do that to me in Seattle."

She grinned and leaned up so our mouths would connect in a searing kiss. I wound my arms around her and held her tightly against me. We pulled away breathless and when she bit down on her lower lip, I pushed my hands through her hair and tipped her head slightly. "I want you. Please don't ever doubt how badly," I gasped into her ear. "You are so undeniably sexy right now."

I leaned back and plucked that lip from her teeth. "This mouth just does things to me." I tipped my head back and pulled us under the spray. She giggled as the water rained down on us. "Fuck!" I shouted, shaking my hair out and trying to remember the last time I felt this good.

...

After finally tearing myself away from Cami and her reassuring me ten times that she didn't want me to go down on her, I went to my room and got dressed. When I wandered back to hers, I found her cleaning up her bed and piling clothes into a basket. I jumped and flopped onto the center of her bed, alerting her to my presence.

"Got big plans for the rest of the afternoon?" I asked as I rolled onto my back and tucked my hands behind my head.

"Oh yeah," she scoffed. "You're looking at it."

"Laundry?" I scowled. "Sounds boring."

"It's called adulting, you big baby. I gotta have clean clothes for work," Cami explained, sitting on the edge of the bed and emptying a container of quarters into her purse.

I slid up behind her on my knees and buried my face in her neck. "Fuck the laundry," I hummed as my hands wandered over her bare legs.

"Stop tempting me," she sighed, pushing my hands aside.

"So...there's no changing your mind?" I taunted as I gathered her hair into my hands and kissed the nape of her neck.

She squeezed my upper thighs tightly with her nails digging into my flesh. "Chance..." she sighed.

"I just want you with me," I begged pathetically.

"Sorry," she sighed, slipping away from me to get her detergent from the top shelf.

When she was up on her tiptoes and still couldn't reach it, I stepped up behind her with one hand on her hip and retrieved it for her. "Thanks," she smiled, batting her eyelashes at me.

I surprised her by meeting her at the front door with my own basket of dirty laundry. "Oh God," Cami groaned. "Let me guess. You want me to wash your clothes too?"

"No, smart-ass," I laughed while kissing the tip of her nose. "I'll do my own."

"I thought you said it was boring," she teased.

"Nah. Sitting at home without you is boring. So let's go." I stacked her basket on top of mine and followed her out the door.

Cami convinced me to drive to the laundromat a few blocks over instead of using the facilities in our building. The drive was quick and I couldn't help teasing her as she sang along to the music on the radio. It was worth it when she pouted and then tickled me for laughing at her. Anything was worth it if it meant she'd keep touching me.

I was obsessed with the feeling of her hands on me.

After we had gotten our clothes started in the front loaders, I hoisted myself up onto the folding table. "Fuck, it's stifling in here," I grumbled, reaching behind my head to yank my shirt off.

I mopped my face with my shirt, trying to clear the sweat from my eyes. Cami moved around me, pulling her hair off of her neck. I eased her between my thighs, tugging the hair tie from her wrist and gathering her locks into a ponytail while she stood in front of me. She raised a hand, checking to see how bad of a job I had done. "Is it okay?" I chuckled.

Cami turned in my arms and kissed me softly. "It's perfect," she sighed. "Thank you."

When she turned to move away from me, a little boy came running down the aisle of dryers, running smack into her legs, causing her to grip him by the shoulders so he wouldn't fall over.

"Better slow down there, kid," I cautioned.

He glanced up at me with huge saucers for eyes, scanning over my exposed chest. "Whoa...you let someone draw all over you," he gasped, never dragging his eyes away from my tattoos.

"Sorry," a young guy huffed as he hurried over to us, grabbing up the little blonde boy. He was a carbon copy of the child, down to the color of their eyes.

"Look at him, Daddy! He looks like a coloring book!" the boy announced loudly, causing Cami and I to chuckle.

"It's rude to stare, Lucas," the man admonished lightly, tousling his son's hair as he spoke. Then he addressed us. "I'm sorry about that. He's usually better behaved than this, but you can only keep him entertained for so long."

"He's fine," Cami smiled. "We only had a minor collision."

"I told you not to run," he reminded the boy. "You're lucky this lady was so nice."

They smiled at us and scurried off, collecting the last of their laundry and toting it out to their car. Cami watched them with curious eyes. "You got a crush on him or something?" I teased her.

She swatted my chest, causing me to grab her wrists and pull her close. "No, I don't. I just think it's great to see a dad taking care of his kid. He's a handful."

"Yeah. It's usually the moms that have to wrangle the kids."

Cami nodded and walked over to the washers to see how much time was left. "What about your folks?" she asked as she turned to face me. "You said you went to live with your aunt in high school, but you never told me where they were."

My shoulders slumped and I sighed deeply. "I don't think you're ready to hear this, Cami."

She moved between my legs again, resting her flattened palms on my thighs. "I asked, didn't I?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "But it's not a good story to tell," I replied honestly. I hadn't really told anyone the whole truth about my parents. My aunt knew enough and the counselors at school could never get me to talk about it.

"Please?" I melted when she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pulled me close. Cami was the only person I ever let get this close to me. Sometimes it felt amazing and sometimes it just scared the shit out of me.

"Here?" I asked, glancing around the near empty laundromat.

Cami pulled herself up to sit next to me and nodded. "There's no one else here and we do have time to kill."

I glanced toward the front counter where a teenager sat with headphones on, tuned out to the world. "Fine," I finally conceded. I ran my hands down my face and took a deep breath. "I really don't know where my dad is. He took off when I was ten. My mom and dad fought a lot. I mean, I think he really loved her, but she was a mess."

Cami reached for my hand and pulled it into her lap. She stroked up and down my arm with her delicate fingers as I continued to speak. "My mom was jealous of anyone that came near my dad and that led to them fighting...a lot. She liked to scream and throw things when she got mad. And my dad would just take it. I guess he just couldn't deal with her anymore and so he split. He left me with her and never even said goodbye."

"I'm sorry," Cami's soft voice cut through the dark cloud surrounding my mood.

I shrugged. "Life just got worse after that. She dated a lot and each boyfriend was worse than the last. I never knew who would be there when I got home from school. I just started staying out later, going to my friends' houses and not coming home. The fighting was worse than it had ever been when my dad was home. I just don't think my mom ever got over him, you know?"

Cami nodded and leaned her head on my shoulder. "So I just stayed away and she got more depressed. But her last boyfriend was the absolute worst. She'd always smoked weed and popped a few pills here and there, but Trey got her hooked on the hard stuff. She was a mess when she was on it and a nightmare when she couldn't get her hands on the next fix. I wanted her to quit, tell Trey to fuck off and leave us alone. He hit her all the time. And he smacked me around when I tried to get between them."

"That's awful," Cami gasped.

"I just got so tired of the back and forth of her addiction. One minute she was passed out, couldn't give a fuck less if I went to school or not, and then she would be crying to me about what a terrible mom she was and promising me she would quit. It was fucking exhausting. I hated how she always chose Trey over me, warning me to behave around him so she could stay on his good side. Fuck him. What a piece of shit human being. My mom was never perfect by any means, but she was helluva lot better before she got addicted to heroin. Trey fed her that shit like candy and withheld it when he was mad at her. It was awful. Everyday was a waiting game to see who would lose their shit."

I sat there for a moment and let my head hang. It was so hard to talk about this but somehow my chest was feeling lighter just sharing it with Cami. I hadn't even realized she had left when she reappeared with two bottles of water from the vending machine. She handed me one and turned to switch the laundry into the dryers, gently shaking her head when I offered to help. After a few minutes she rejoined me on the table, curling her arm around mine as she leaned into me. It reminded me so much of the day we talked in my car on the way to Seattle. Cami just looked at me with so much love and understanding that it almost hurt.

It was almost too good to believe.

"Did she ever get off the drugs?"

I shook my head and took another sip of water. "We got into a huge fight about Trey coming over. She wanted me to stay and have dinner with them and I told her she was nuts. I didn't wanna be around him or her when they were using. She swore they were done with the drugs and she was gonna tell him that. I didn't believe it. I had heard that promise so many times and she never kept it. I told her I hated her and I never wanted to come home again. She cried and begged me to forgive her for being such a shitty mom. But I didn't listen," I paused, feeling that familiar lump in my throat.

"So what happened?"

I couldn't even look at Cami, hating that she would see me differently once she knew the truth. "I took off to my friends' house. They were three brothers and I was spending a lot of time with them around this time. If I showed up at any time of day, they just welcomed me and their parents were just as cool. But that night when I slept over, it kept nagging at me how desperate my mom had been for me to stay. I hardly slept, thinking that maybe she was serious and I should've listened. So I got up early and walked home, feeling like this could be a new start for us. Maybe I could have a real mom for once."

I wiped the sweat from my brow, hesitant to tell the rest. But I had already come this far. "So when I got to the front door, I saw it was open a little and my mom was lying on the floor. I didn't even notice all the blood on the floor until I saw the knife in her stomach. I froze. And then everything happened so fast. I screamed for help and the neighbors called 911 when they found us."

"Oh, baby," Cami whispered, leaning up to kiss away the tears I hadn't even felt falling down my cheeks. "God, I'm so sorry."

I stiffened at her words, hating the pity attached to them. "She was already dead when I got there. The apartment was trashed. I told cops it had to be Trey, he was supposed to come for dinner. As best as they could figure it and from what the neighbors had heard, she was trying to dump him and he lost it. He stabbed her with a kitchen knife and tossed the apartment for any drugs or money he could find." I scrubbed my hands over my face and tried to swallow that huge lump in my throat. "The coroner said she bled out slowly...it probably...probably took hours for her to die. And I could have stopped it if I hadn't been so fucking selfish."

My head fell into my hands as I tried to brush my tears away. I fucking hated crying. Always seemed like such a stupid emotion and a complete waste of time. And I really hated having Cami see me so weak and vulnerable. When she tried to pull me into her arms, I eased away from her, hopping down from the table so I could stand in front of the huge dryers. I watched the clothes spin in circles, endlessly tumbling to the sound of squeaky bearings.

"Whatever happened to Trey?" Cami asked as she added more money to our dryers.

I kept staring straight ahead as I saw her from the corner of my eye. "He stole my mom's car and they found it a few blocks from our place. He was still inside. He had overdosed and died. His hands were still covered in her blood," I whimpered. "Bastard got what he deserved."

She stepped up behind me, encircling her hands around my waist. I could feel her wet cheek pressed to the center of my back. "Tell me a good memory of your mom. A good day you had with her."

I leaned on the dryer with both hands and sighed. I thought for a few moments and then spoke. "One day she had gotten her first paycheck from her new job bartending. She said she wanted to take me to get some clothes. I had just gone through a growth spurt and all my jeans were too short. So she took us to the thrift shop and we just had the best time trying on feather boas and fedora hats. People looked at us like we were crazy. But we just laughed until we fell in a heap on one of the used couches."

"That's a great memory," Cami sighed, squeezing me even tighter.

I turned in her arms, swiping the tears from her cheeks. "After we finally picked out some new clothes, we went and got sandwiches from the grocery store. We drove to the lake and sat on the trunk of the car and just ate our food, watching the boats speed by. And we tore the crusts off our bread and fed it to the ducks."

I peered down at her and leaned away, suddenly feeling overwhelmed at the way she was staring at me. "That's what you should remember when you think about your mom, Chance. That happy time with her should stay here in your heart," she smiled through the tears, pressing her palm to my chest.

I nodded, barely able to keep more tears at bay. "The coroner said she was totally clean when she died. She wasn't lying to me. She really was trying to be better. And I didn't fucking listen."

My head fell forward onto Cami's shoulder and I totally succumbed to the emotions pouring out of me. I cried into her neck, letting her comfort me with kisses to my temple. I gathered her in my arms and sunk to the floor with her body wrapped around mine. I finally let it all out. The self-loathing over the way my mom died all alone, the way my father didn't give a fuck about me enough to contact me after she died, the way no one had ever given a single fuck about how heart breaking my childhood was.

No one until Cami. She stroked my back and soothed me with her soft words. "It's okay, baby. I got you," she breathed softly into my ear as my body wracked with sobs. I couldn't even care that we were sitting in the laundromat. I couldn't even wait to get home and cry in private because I was so overwhelmed with the tenderness Cami was showing me.

I didn't deserve her.

....

When we got home, I wandered aimlessly to my room, putting my clean clothes away like a man on a mission. My head hurt from crying and my mind was exhausted from dredging up all those old memories. I straightened up my room and collapsed onto my bed, no longer having the strength or will to stand.

"Hey," I heard Cami's soft voice from the doorway. "Are you okay?"

I rubbed my eyes and stared up at the ceiling. "I'm just worn out."

I felt the bed dip beside and I turned my head to find my pretty baby peering down at me with concern. "Hungry?"

I shook my head and reached for her, pulling her close and holding her to my chest. "I just wanna be close to you right now."

She curled in tightly to me, leaving no space between us. After a few minutes of silence, I heard her sweet voice ask, "Your dad never came back after your mom died?"

"No," I sighed. "Child services tried to find him, but they couldn't. Luckily my aunt stepped up and offered to be my guardian. Otherwise I would've ended up in foster care."

"That was a good thing for you. Do you ever wonder where he is?" she asked, tipping her head back to look into my eyes.

I cupped her cheek and studied her eyes. "It doesn't matter now. I've gotten along this long without him, who needs the headache, right?"

She shrugged. "I guess," she sighed wistfully. "I just know I'd give anything to have my dad back."

"Where is he?"

"He died the year before I met you and Shayne. He'd been sick for a long time and he was just...done suffering." I watched her blink back tears and force a smile. "He was ready to go, so we respected his wishes and agreed to no more dialysis. I thought we'd have months with him...but he didn't even last a week. He went peacefully though, but I still miss him every single day."

"Baby," I breathed, pulling her body on top of mine when the tears began to fall. "I'm right here," I whispered over and over, running my hands through her hair until she relaxed in my arms and we both succumbed to much needed sleep.

.....

A/N: this was a rough chapter for me to write, but very necessary for Cami and Chance's love story. They are opening their hearts to each other!

Lots of love to anyone who has had lost a parent. The story of Cami's father was a personal one for me. Always make time to tell your family you love them because you'll never know when it will be the last time ❤❤

There are so many of posting about and sharing stories about this book and I appreciate you all, especially _Dark_Romantic and laurenwolfe12. Amazing how far this book has come considering it was all their fault!