Challenge (Harris Brothers Book 1)

HEAVY BREATHS, SLICKENED BODIES, AND pumping hearts are the three most outwardly obvious things in the room right now. The less obvious is the ache between my legs.

The pain.

It’s a raw throb that’s positively tortuous. How do teenage girls get through this with guys who don’t know what they are doing?

After the sharp, initial part was over, the build of my orgasm helped mask the pain. Now that it’s all over and I’ve come back to the land of the living, I feel it everywhere.

Regardless, the soreness doesn’t discredit the part when it got good. Really good. Deep, penetrative, mind-blowingly good. The entire experience was nothing like I had imagined.

From the look in Camden’s eyes to his tender touches and words of affirmation, it was all surprising. Very unlike what I had expected from a Penis Number One.

At one point, I swear he looked at me as if he could see my soul. It was unnerving. But I suppose it’s normal to feel some natural connection when your bodies are literally joined in the most carnal way possible. He was inside of me after all.

Plus, I know virgin sex is huge on a bloke’s bucket list, so that had to be all his expression was about at the end. And that is precisely why I wanted my first time to be with someone experienced. Because, regardless of all those strange feelings, it was still incredible. The whole area between my thighs is raw and needy as if I want more but can’t possibly take it. I can now say that “hurt so good” is an expression I fully endorse.

Camden remains collapsed on top my body with his face buried in the pillow beside my head. His muscled back rises and falls with each lung intake.

“Are you okay?” he mumbles into the pillow, finally showing signs of life.

“Yeah,” I reply, noting him softening inside me.

He rolls over and stands up, naked and completely unashamed of his softening erection. I feel awkward and unsure what to do until he bends over and scoops me up in his arms.

I wrap my hands around his neck and ask, “What are we doing?” But he doesn’t answer.

He carries me down the hallway and into the loo, where he sets me down on the counter and turns the water on. He grabs two towels out of the cabinet, places them on the warming bar, and opens the glass shower door. He avoids eye contact with me as his head motions for me to get in.

So I do.

Once encased in the small glass space with him, I feel a bit awkward. He hands me the shampoo and finally looks at me with a meek, sort of small half smile.

Okay, so we’re showering together as if this is a normal thing we do. He holds my shoulders and positions me so I’m beneath the stream. Then he tips my head back, using his hands to help soak all of my hair.

And now he’s washing my hair.

When I close my eyes to rinse out the shampoo, I feel his lips on my collarbone but can’t open them to see him yet. He moves up my neck, dragging his chin along my neckline with every kiss.

We switch places and I attempt to help him wash his hair. With our height difference, it’s not as easy for me, though.

He loads up a sponge and rubs soap all over my body. I flinch when he gently swipes it between my legs.

“Sensitive?” he asks quietly. “Or does it hurt?”

I swallow and drop my chin, embarrassed by how badly I want more when I’m so clearly hurting down there. “Both. Sensitive on the outside.” He nods and pulls his lips between his teeth.

After we finish rinsing, he cuts the water and we step out to towel off. He casually wraps one around his waist, leaving his chest damp with water.

Camden Harris in a towel is still a sight to behold.

He begins brushing his teeth and offers me a toothbrush with paste on it, too.

“This isn’t Tanner’s, is it?” I ask, joining him at the counter.

He shakes his head and passes it over. We brush our teeth next to each other like two normal folks. I mean, never mind he just took my virginity and gave me an earth-shattering orgasm to boot.

The aching pain he’s left behind just makes me want more. So much more. I’m glad I agreed to adjust our arrangement. These next few days are sure to be the best Tequila Sunrise moments yet.

After we rinse off our toothbrushes, he finally speaks again. “I want to try something.”

He moves toward me, my butt hitting the countertop as I turn to watch him. “What?”

“Just trust me.” His gaze drops down to my body as he turns me so my back is pressed against his front and we can see our towel covered bodies reflecting in the mirror.

He slowly unravels mine and then his own. Staring at our naked reflections in the mirror, my first instinct is to cover myself; however, the heated look of his eyes on me is so intense, I automatically arch into him.

His hands reach around and cup both of my breasts. “Do you know how hot you are, Specs?” he whispers in my ear while kneading my breasts in his hands.

Unable to find my voice, I swallow hard and my breaths come out shaky.

“Your body is like a sweet, juicy morsel that begs me to fuck it.” I moan softly when he rolls each nipple between his fingers.

He stops his assault on my nipples and trails his fingers slowly downward over my abdomen, finally stopping at the area between my legs.

“I’m going to touch you here. Right on your sweet little pussy.” His hands spread my thighs apart. “But don’t worry. This won’t hurt.”

“Okay,” I all but moan, the combination of his naughty words and the growth of him pressing into my back nearly sending me over the edge all on their own.

Then he’s touching me again, just on the clit this time. His skilled motions take an embarrassingly small amount of time to get me off. I was still so keyed up and raring to go, it isn’t more than thirty seconds before I am coming apart all over.

When I’m done crying out for the man upstairs, Cam smiles, kisses the side of my neck, and murmurs, “I think I found your button.” Then he strides out of the bathroom without a look back.

After a moment of confusion, I grip my towel around me and make my way back to his room to find him putting fresh sheets on his bed.

He watches me carefully as I move to the other side of the bed to help. He’s found a pair of shorts now, thank God. Maybe now I can think straight for once.

As I pull down the corner of the fitted sheet, I can’t help but ponder over what the next couple of days will be. This feels more intimate than I thought it would. More personal. Not like sleeping with a player. Unless this is all a part of his well-practised game?

“Are you going to tell me what has you chewing your lip like it’s a piece of bubblegum?” he asks, tossing the pillows back on the bed and launching the last one at me.

I catch it and concurrently release my lip. “Probably not.”

He huffs once. “Am I going to have to force it out of you?”

He seems less introspective after our bathroom antics. “I don’t have to spill all my thoughts to you just because you say so.”

“After I fuck you for the first time you do.” His face looks cocky but his eyes look tense. “Don’t tell me it wasn’t good. I’m not stupid.”

“It was better than good,” I offer and definitely mean it.

“Then why the sour face?”

I know I won’t be able to get away from his question. Honestly, he deserves an answer. I don’t want him to think that I didn’t like it. “It just felt…different than what I imagined.”

“Different how?” he asks.

“Nothing. This is daft.” I quirk a brow at him. “That was the best sex of my life, Camden Harris. Is that what you need to hear?”

“That was the only sex of your life, Indie Porter.”

The sound of a buzzer interrupts the tension brewing between us. Camden looks at the time. “Fuck.”

“What?”

“I completely forgot.”

“Forgot what?”

“My sister was coming over.”

“Vi? Oh God. Should I hide?” My eyes are wide with worry. I don’t want his sister to know what’s going on, no matter how psychic his family is. His brother last night was one thing. We were in a public setting. But his sister seeing me here is a whole different thing. I’m still his doctor for the next three weeks. I’m going to be operating on him. This is bad. This is very, very bad.

“No. You’re not going to hide,” he says as he rustles in his dresser for some clothes.

“Cam, I wouldn’t feel right operating on you if your sister knows we’ve—”

“Had the best sex of your life?” he finishes.

“Yes!”

“She’s not going to care. What she would care about is me hiding a girl in my closet. My sister would castrate me. And she’ll know. There’s no use hiding it.”

“This is awful,” I groan. His family is everywhere. How do people live like this? “What should I do?”

“Put some clothes on to start.”

He tosses me a pair of compression tights and a T-shirt, reminding me of our tryst in the hospital bathroom. Gosh, that feels like ages ago now.

“Hey,” Vi’s voice calls from the entry.

I yank the shirt down over my head and bounce on one foot as I shove my legs through the leggings. “She has her own key?”

He shrugs as if it’s totally normal for his family to waltz in and out of his flat.

“Where are you—Oh!” Vi comes face-to-face with Camden as he tries to exit his room to stop her before she walks in. He puts his hand on the doorframe, blocking her view of me, but she drops her head and catches me adjusting the band on the leggings. “Well, hello to the both of you. I didn’t realise you had company, Cam.”

“Hello, Vi.” I give a self-conscious wave, wishing like hell my hair wasn’t still wet from our shower. I wince when I see Cam’s is still wet as well.

“Hiya, Dr. Porter.” She grins lasciviously. “Nice to see you again.”

“I was just—”

“Dr. Porter was just making a house call.” Camden turns away from the door and strides over to stand beside me. “My knee needed tending to.”

Vi looks at the both of us skeptically as he throws a casual arm around me. “I’m sure that’s not the only thing.” She cuts Cam a glare. Her tone isn’t chastising, it’s laughing. It’s laughing a lot. She’s taking the piss as if this is something she sees from her brother on a regular basis.

This is far too embarrassing. I don’t want her to look at me as if I’m one of those girls, even though I am. I know this isn’t going anywhere…and I’m okay with that. But I’m not okay with nice people like Vi getting the wrong impression of me, as if I’m a slut who bangs her patients on a regular basis. I need to leave before I do something stupid like mentally justify my Penis List…out loud.

“I’ll be going now so you two can have your…erm…family time.” I shimmy out from under Camden’s arm and wince at the fact that I’m going to have to put my heels on with these tights.

“Do you like pancakes?” Vi asks as I grab my shoes up off the floor and move past her. “They are Swedish so they’re better than regular pancakes. They’re like a French Crepe and a pancake had a Swedish baby.”

I pause in the doorway, staring back at Vi with Camden standing behind her. He looks as if he’s trying to hide a smirk and failing miserably. I think I die a little. “I’d really rather not.”

“Hush. You must be hungry.”

Camden surprises the both of us by barking out a laugh. “Oh yes, she worked up an appetite all right.”

My eyes turn to saucers just as Vi twirls on her heel and punches Camden right in the abs, catching him completely off guard. He topples over, squatting on the floor and gasping for air. “Fuck, Vi. What happened to your fists of ineffectual fury?”

She crosses her arms and smiles proudly. “This baby gives me super powers. One of which includes smelling an arsehole when I see one.” She looks back to me. “Come on, Dr. Porter. It’s lunch time and you’re getting pancakes.”

After insisting she call me Indie, we make our way down the hall and into the kitchen. It’s the first time I realised that I’ve only seen Cam’s bedroom, the hallway, and the bathroom since I arrived here last night. It’s a standard bachelor pad. Not much for décor, but the furniture all looks really comfortable.

Camden says he has a call to make, so I sit at the kitchen island and watch Vi busy herself by making coffee and food.

“Is there anything I can do?” I ask, feeling like a prat just sitting here.

“Nope. I made these yesterday, so I’m just popping them in the oven to reheat.” She moves confidently around the kitchen as if she’s cooked here before. When she’s done, she sidles up beside me. “Our mum was from Sweden, so this recipe is truly authentic. They are impossible not to like. I make them all the time for the boys.”

I smile softly. “That’s a lovely way to remember her.”

A fleeting look of surprise mars her face, but she’s quick to conceal it. “So…you know about our mum?”

I open my mouth to defend my remark, realising how what I just said was so incredibly personal and horribly inappropriate. “No…erm…not much. Just that you were all young when she passed. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Don’t be sorry.” She looks off into the distance. “We probably don’t really talk about her enough. I’ve been thinking about her a lot more now that I’m starting my own family.”

“How far along are you?” I eye her abdomen as if it would have grown since I last saw her.

“Just hit fourteen weeks yesterday.” She touches the nonexistent bulge. “I never even knew what the weeks meant before. I’d hear someone say how many weeks they were and ask, ‘How many months is that?’” She laughs and I laugh with her. “I’m excited to see how my brothers do as uncles. It should be a riot.”

“You and your family all seem so close.” I vaguely wonder what that would feel like.

My grandmother was so distant even when I was home. My parents were even worse. The Harris family all seem to be on top of each other constantly. Ruling as a committee on the surgery; hanging out in Cam’s patient room so long they got into a fight; Vi having a key to Cam’s flat. It’s crazy.

Her brows lift. “We are…Sometimes annoyingly so.” Her blue eyes are bright on me now. “So are you off for the rest of the weekend then?”

“Yeah, as second year residents, we work really long stretches. Then we get four or five days off. I go back to work on Thursday.”

“Oh good, you’ll be back in plenty of time for Cam’s surgery. We’re all ready to get this over with and see him back on the pitch. Although, who knows? It could be a different stadium by then. He’s so talented. I’m really excited to see what the next few days bring for him.”

“Different stadium?”

She lifts her brows. “Arsenal is a great step up. If he got an offer from them? It would be a long time coming for him. I’ll miss watching him at Tower Park, but at least he’d still be based in London. It’s just hard because we all grew up in Tower Park”

She continues on about the magic of Tower Park Stadium and watching her brothers play together. While I appreciate her vigour for the sport their family has built their lives around, the voice in the back of my head wants to speak up. Healing, refocusing, and rehabbing should be Cam’s focus, not his contract.

I bite my tongue, though. Partly because I genuinely like Vi, but mostly because, right now, I’m not his doctor. I’m certainly not his girlfriend. I’m just someone he’s having sex with, no strings attached.

Disappointment creeps into my soul over the powerless feeling mixing my professional career and my social life affords me.

“…What are yours and Camden’s plans for the weekend?” Vi’s question snaps me out of my internal musings.

“I um…er—”

“I can think of aerobic exercises we could try,” Camden says, his voice surprising us both from the kitchen doorway behind us.

“Cam,” Vi starts, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Can you maybe, just once, not be the gravy-sucking sex pig you’d like us all to think you are?”

His lips squish off to the side as he contemplates her question. “No can do, Vi. I like seeing that lightning bolt vein pop on your forehead every time I say something that sets you off.”

She rolls her eyes and stands up to check the food. Camden flops down on the stool beside me, spreading his legs wide so our thighs brush together. He waggles his brows at me, and I hate myself a little bit for smirking.

“You know what would be brilliant?” Vi asks, snapping our attention away from each other. “Camden, you should give Indie a tour of Tower Park. The guys are all away this weekend so it’ll be dormant. Tower Park completely empty is even better than packed to the roof with roaring fans…It’s…It’s magic.” She shakes as if she’s just given herself the chills.

“It is magic,” Camden agrees, his brow rising with a naughty gleam to it.

I frown at his weird expression. “Sounds nice?” I have no idea what to say in response. A tour of Tower Park sounds rather date-like and that is definitely not a part of our arrangement. I’m feeling twitchy with all this familial meddling.

“It’s better than nice. You’ll see,” Vi says, placing a mug of coffee in front of me.

Camden’s eyes lose all good humour as he stares at the cup in my hands as if Vi’s just given away his favourite toy. I silently offer it to him. He scowls and shakes me away as if he wouldn’t touch this cup with a ten-foot pole. It’s all very peculiar, which is nothing new for Cam.

After we finish eating, I head down the hall to Camden’s room to switch back into my dress from last night. With Vi projecting all this girlfriend type warmth at me, I had to get away. Add in Cam’s weirdness over coffee and I’m bursting for some space.

When I come out, he’s propped up on the counter by himself as if he was waiting for me.

“Your sister leave?” I ask, looking around the room.

“Yep. Her and Hayden are going baby gear shopping or something.”

I nod and stare down at my feet. “I think I need to go home and get some clothes and, I don’t know…just relax a bit.”

Camden frowns. “We don’t have a lot of time to waste here, Specs.”

“I know but…erm…”

“What?” he prods.

“Well, I’m sore for one.” I feel a flush of embarrassment move over me. There’s an ache between my legs that is not all together pleasant. I’m afraid that if I stay we’ll only make it worse.

The corner of his mouth tilts. “Where exactly are you sore?”

“Shut up, you know where.” I adjust my glasses. “And I’m not sure we should do this Tower Park thing your sister suggested.”

He shoves himself off the counter and folds his arms over his chest. “Why not?”

“Because it sounds like a date and that’s not what we’re supposed to be doing here.” My lips form a thin line as I try to gain some semblance of control back over this plan of mine.

“I’m aware of what we’re doing.”

“Oh…well—”

“I have plans for you, Specs.” He moves toward me and pushes me up against the frame of the doorway. Back in my heels, I reach just below his chin now. One of his hands cups my waist and the other snakes around and palms my arse, bringing me into him. “You see, football and sex are interchangeable for me, and fucking you at Tower Park is going to be fun…for both of us.” He waggles his eyebrows, barely lightening the mood of his hot hold on me.

My groin actually pulses with need and it hurts. The wickedness of his mouth, the promise of his firm grip, and the challenging twinkle in his eyes excites every part of me.

I smile. “Well, when you put it like that.”