Suddenly it didn’t matter that we were in a changing room, in a store, in public.

Cam slid his hand along my jaw, to the back of my nape, drawing me towards him for a kiss that literally made all my nerves snap. I trembled against him as though it was our first kiss, exhilarating in the deep, wet heat of his mouth, tasting him and the mint he’d been chewing earlier. I clawed at him and we stumbled over my pile of clothing, my back hitting the mirrored wall. Cam pulled back, his lids low, his mouth swollen. ‘Turn around,’ he demanded in a rough voice in my ear, so I could hear him over the music. The heated coarseness of his tone caused my body to react as though he’d slipped two fingers inside me. My chest rising and falling with excited breaths, I spun around. He yanked the zip on the dress down and began peeling it off my body. I watched him in the mirror as he threw it on to the pile with my own clothing. ‘Buy it,’ he advised and I shivered at the feel of his breath on my skin as his warm hands coasted around to squeeze my naked breasts. Biting my lip to curb the moan I was desperate to release, I arched into his touch, my hands on his as he pinched my nipples. I could feel his chest against my back, his breathing uncontrolled as he pushed my underwear down. They fell to my thighs and I hurriedly shoved them farther down, kicking them out from around my ankles as the sound of Cam unzipping met my ears.

While his clothes rustled, his black trousers falling to his ankles, Cam slowly glided two strong fingers into my channel and I leaned against the mirror for support, my eyes on him. He watched his fingers moving in and out of me, fascinated and excited, and it only made me wetter.

‘Cam,’ I moaned softly, and as if he heard me his head came up, his eyes meeting mine in the mirror. They flashed at the expression on my face.

He pinned me against the mirror, one hand flat above mine while the other cradled my hip.

He glided into me with a stifled grunt and I swallowed my gasp. As he began to move, I pushed back against his slow thrusts, and our eyes stayed connected in the mirror as he fucked me.

As the tension began to build inside me, Cam grasped my hips, his cock so deep inside me it was almost painful. Abruptly he lowered himself to his knees, pulling me down with him. Poised over his lap, my hand still pressed to the mirror, his hands caressing my breasts, I began to move against his strokes. I felt his cheek against my back as we chased climax, my orgasm spurred on by the low, needy, guttural noises he was making in the back of his throat.

Sensing that I was about to come, Cam drew up behind me, his hand moving from my breast to cover my mouth. The tight heat cocooning my skin and muscles combusted and I exploded around him, my cry of release muffled against his palm.

Cam followed me to release seconds later, my eyes watching him in the mirror as he stiffened, the muscles in his neck straining. His mouth opened in a silent groan as his hips jerked against my ass and he came, the warm heat of his release flooding me.

‘Fuck,’ he whispered, resting his head against mine.

‘Um, everything all right in there?’ the shop assistant called loudly. Her sudden interruption filtered through the curtain, so close that we tensed against one another.

Oh, my holy hell! I’d forgotten where we were. ‘Yes,’ I answered, my voice breaking with postcoital exhaustion and embarrassment that I’d got so lost in this man I’d forgotten we were screwing each other on the floor of a changing room.

‘Do you need me to fetch another size, or is the dress okay?’

Go away! My wide eyes met Cameron’s in the mirror and he gave me no indication of what I should do. He was still inside me, for Christ’s sake. I almost laughed at that and glanced back at the curtain. ‘Everything’s great. In fact … it’s a perfect fit.’

At the innuendo, Cameron collapsed against my back, his laughter muffled in my hair, his shoulders shaking with amusement. It also caused him to jostle inside me, setting off little aftershocks of lust.

‘Okay …’ Her voice trailed off as she wandered away from the curtain.

‘Do you think they heard us?’

He gave a low bark of laughter. ‘I don’t give a shit.’

And he meant it.

With tender gentleness, he eased out of me and helped me to my feet. Hands cupping my cheeks, he drew me against him for a languorous, sensual kiss that made my chest ache with emotion.

I love you.

I cleared the thought from my eyes as Cam pulled back to gaze at me.

‘Luckily we finally chose a dress because there’s no way I can try anything else on before I have a shower.’

Something darkly sexual heated in his eyes and I knew he was thinking it was hot that I had to walk home with his sweat on me and his seed inside me.

‘Joss is right,’ I murmured. ‘You’re all cavemen.’

Cam didn’t take offence at that. Instead he took his time helping me dress, his knuckles brushing all my sensitive bits until I had to slap his hand away so I could get dressed without wanting to maul him again.

My cheeks were blazing as I handed the dresses I didn’t want back to the suspicious sales assistant. I couldn’t look at Cam because every time I did he shot me a wicked grin that made me want to giggle with equal parts exhilaration and mortification. As soon as we stumbled out of the store with my new dress, I fell against Cam’s side, laughing hard as he wrapped his arm around me.

‘I can’t believe we did that,’ I breathed.

‘Aye, can’t say I’ve done that before.’

‘You better not tell Nate and Peetie.’ My warning didn’t hold much of an impact since I was still grinning like a fool.

‘Why not? That’s a bloody good sex story.’

My cheeks warmed again and Cam laughed, snuggling me against his chest as I giggled. I was so caught up in happy la-la land with him that what happened in the next few moments was even more of a crashing, cold bump back to earth.

Cam stopped abruptly and I grabbed him to keep my balance, my head pulling back to study his face. The colour had leached from it and his eyes were wide with utter shock. ‘Cam?’ I whispered, feeling something hard begin to form in my stomach. I followed his gaze to the girl who was standing in front of us, her pretty eyes just as wide as Cam’s.

‘Cameron?’ she breathed, taking a step towards us, apparently not even aware that I was there.

‘Blair,’ he answered hoarsely.

I felt my head spin at the sound of her name, my eyes immediately examining her, processing everything about her. To my surprise she wasn’t at all what I’d been expecting. I’d pictured her in my mind as this tall, exotic stunner with an air of mystique. Instead she was shorter than Joss, her body slim and petite. She wore a T-shirt with a band on it over a long-sleeved white top, ratty jeans that fit her well and boots quite like Cam’s. She had short black hair that framed her cute pixie face. Her wide brown eyes were her best feature, framed by long black lashes. Shock mixed with longing haunted those pretty eyes, and I felt my hand fist around the material of Cam’s light jacket.

‘It’s great to see you.’ She gave him a sweet smile.

Cam nodded, clearing his throat and shaking the deer caught in the headlights expression from his eyes. ‘Uh, you too. How long have you been back in Edinburgh?’

‘A few months. I thought about looking you up, but I wasn’t sure …’ Her voice trailed off as she finally registered that I was burrowed into Cam’s side. She took me in, a crestfallen expression on her face, disappointment in her eyes. Disappointment in Cam? For choosing someone like me?

I bristled at the thought and Cam’s arm tightened around me. ‘No, you should have,’ Cam surprised me by saying.

Blair’s whole face lit up. ‘Really?’

‘Yeah.’ Cam dropped his arm from around me to pull his phone out of his pocket. ‘Here, give me your number and we’ll arrange to catch up.’

What?

I watched them as they exchanged numbers, Cam’s head bent over hers, and my brain just started screaming at me. What the hell was going on? He was arranging to get in contact with the ex-love of his life! What effed-up reality was this?

To make matters worse, he hadn’t even introduced me.

I stood there, attempting to appear calm and unconcerned.

He laughed softly at something she said and she gazed up at him like he was some kind of miracle. He was a miracle. He was my miracle and if he didn’t introduce me I was going –

‘Blair, this is my girlfriend, Jo,’ Cam said as he tucked his phone away. He gave me a reassuring smile that I didn’t return.

‘Nice to meet you.’ I managed to give her a small smile while inside I was flinging every swear word I could think of at her.

She didn’t smile back. ‘You too.’

When our gazes met, we had a silent conversation with each other. I resent you, she said. I think I hate you, I replied. He was mine first, she answered. He’s mine now, I growled.

Thick tension fell between the three of us until Cam broke the silence with a few polite questions.

After arranging to speak to one another soon, we left Blair to walk home via Princes Street. To my growing panic, Cam didn’t reach for me again. We walked home side by side, not touching and not talking. He seemed to have disappeared somewhere inside himself and I feared that place almost more than I feared anything else.

24

Cole knew there was something wrong as soon as I returned to the flat. I kept insisting it was nothing, which pissed him off. I knew this because he told me to my face it pissed him off. I retaliated with a lecture on swearing, which he informed me pissed him off even more, so by the time I was dressed for the party, I was mad at Cam for being an inconsiderate dimwit, terrified that I was facing the end of my relationship, and upset that my wee brother had left to stay with Jamie for the night without saying goodbye to me.

In other words I was really in the party spirit.

My depressed thoughts weren’t eased when I hurried down to Cam’s flat to pick him up and he barely registered my dress. The dress he’d found so hot pre-Blair encounter that he’d ravished me in a public dressing room.