Stand and Defend (Lakes Hockey Series Book 4)

The morning is quiet, but Cam finally convinces me to take a nap after making some of his famous macaroni and cheese for lunch. He crawled into bed behind me, and I was out within minutes.

My phone wakes me from a deep slumber. Cam stirs next to me. The lofty bed in the center of the room swallows us up in the warm covers. I’m not ready to wake up.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

“Is that your phone or mine?” he asks groggily.

I lift my head and pick up my illuminated phone, bringing it under the covers with me. My mom’s photo lights up the screen, and I slump back into the mattress.

I groan and silence the ringer. “It’s my mom.” I’ll call her later, right now, I need more sleep. Sliding the phone under my pillow, I snuggle up and return to my nap. It rings again.

Cam grumbles.

I pull it from my pillow and answer it without looking at the screen.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Turn on the news. Now.”

My eyes fly open. Is this it? I clamber in the sheets, trying to throw the heavy duvet off me. My hand slaps the nightstand, and when my fingers land on the corner of the remote, I snatch it up and feel for the power button. It flickers on to a headshot of Bryan. I remember when he took that photo. He looks approachable in the picture, but he was an asshole to the photographer.

“Oh my God.” My heart pounds.

Camden rolls over and rubs his eyes. “What’s going on?”

“Are you seeing it?” my mom asks. “Jordan, you dodged a bullet. Thank God you got away from him!” Her words echo in my head as I focus on the headline.

“Call you back, Mom.” I drop the phone and turn up the volume on the television. The reporter says H&H Holdings is under fire for their subsidy Bluetower.

“Holy shit,” I mumble, with my fingers pressed to my lips. My eyes are glued to the television.

“We expected this, remember?”

Of course, but that doesn’t make it any less monumental. I stare as the breaking news scrolls across the screen.

“Sucks to suck,” he tuts.

“Do you think he knows it was me?”

He laughs. “I’m sure he does, but you were great at covering your tracks. Worst-case scenario, you get Eight to jump in there and delete any evidence.”

“Seven,” I correct. “I also made a semi-anonymous donation of sixteen million to the police department. I think they’ll side with me on this one.” I breathe a sigh of relief and lean against the headboard as I survey the fruits of my labor. I won, you fucking monster.

“You bribed law enforcement?”

“Donation.”

He throws his head back and laughs. “Goddamn, I love you.”

I lean into him, and my lips curl into a lopsided grin.

“How do you feel about it?” he asks.

“Vindicated.”

We channel surf every major news network as we watch Bryan Davenport’s life implode minute by minute. The news anchor reports that more than one fake subsidiary has been confirmed. I fucking knew it. This will shake out to be a Ponzi by dinner time. He built his own house of cards, all I did was breathe on it.

“Sources tell us that the board of directors have asked Bryan Davenport to step down from his role at H&H Holdings, no word as to what his response has been. A full investigation is being launched into the business conglomerate empire. A spokesperson for the company says there was no collusion with the founder, Bryan Davenport Sr., and that he’s already set up a foundation to repay any investors that were swindled by his son.”

I shake my head. Bryan Davenport Sr. is a snake, but in this case, I appreciate that Bryan Jr. is being publicly humiliated and renounced by his own father—the man he worshipped. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those fake subsidies were his dad’s and now he’s throwing his son under the bus to cover his ass.

They flip to bodycam footage of the arrest. Everything in the trunk is blurred, but Bryan is a broken record saying, “It’s not mine!” which only makes him look more guilty. Another police officer is shown at the traffic stop, and I smile when I see the same one who pulled me over after Bryan said I stole my own car. No doubt he remembers that car and my gift to the department.

Through the large picture windows, a few intermittent snowflakes fall from the dense, low-hanging clouds stretched across the sky. It’s blustery and cold. Even the trees appear to shiver as the wind passes through the bare branches.

“He must be so scared. I wonder if he’s thinking about me?” I stare out the window with a grin. “He won’t sleep tonight. Every person he fucked over is coming after him now. And he’s alone, his own father won’t help him. He’ll look over his shoulder with every step . . . Poetic, isn’t it?”

“Come here, Sunshine,” he says, tugging me into his side. I sigh and sketch circles with my fingertip on Cam’s chest. We snuggle in our warm bed while Bryan probably sits on a metal chair in a cold room, wondering how he let his life spiral out of control. Camden kisses my forehead and whispers, “Anyone ever told you how dark you can be sometimes?”

I smile bigger. “Who’s the one who got off on corrupting me?”

“You were unhinged long before I got to you, I just taught you to embrace it.” He climbs on top of me and peels my top off. “Clever Jordana, plotting away and ruining the lives of those who’ve wronged her . . . so fucking sexy.”

He’s always empowering me. One of the many differences between Cam and Bryan. One celebrates my brilliance, the other tried to extinguish it, steal it before I knew my own strength. We undress each other to the soundtrack of his reputation being ground to dust on national news.

He turns me to face the television and kneels behind me, my back to his front. With one hand, he holds my jaw straight to watch the TV while his other hand dives between my legs. I gasp and clutch his arms as he rolls my clit between his fingers.

He tucks his chin, skims his lips up the column of my neck, and whispers, “You did that.”

I smirk. “I did . . . I made a difference in someone’s life, Camden.”

He chuckles and slips a finger inside me. “That’s right, Sunshine.”

He pumps faster and faster until I’m shaking and panting, still he holds my face steady.

“Does it make you wet to watch him suffer?”

I moan. Cam makes me wet, but this doesn’t hurt either.

“Mm.”

“Spread these pretty thighs wider.”

His crown notches against my entrance, and he pushes me forward slightly as he thrusts inside. “Fuck.” I bite my lip, and he pulls me to my knees as he palms my throat.

“Goddamn, you are gorgeous like this,” he says, removing his hand from my clit and pointing to the mirror in the corner, where only a sliver of us can be seen on the edge.

“I wish he could see you now, bent over in the position he always made you get into . . . while you get off to his downfall.”

I chuckle. “Wish he could see you behind me when I do.”

Dropping onto all fours, I look back at him and smirk. He shakes his head at me.

“Ruthless.” He draws out and plunges deep, my nails sink into the blankets as he takes me on all fours with long strokes. It’s heaven. I love his touch, the way he grips and manipulates my body. Reality is fuzzy, everything feels so good. Slick arousal coats my thighs, and my stomach clenches, as the orgasm builds.

“You’re dripping,” he says, his hand wrapping around my hair. He wrenches my head back, forcing me to look straight ahead. “Look at him, Jordan. I want you to look at his pathetic fucking face as you come around my cock.”

I love this man so much. I grind into him, and waves of wild heat roll through me as my body is racked with tremors. His hand raises before he strikes my ass with a firm, sharp sting.

“Who owns you?” he grunts.

“You,” I cry.

He pulls me up, my ass tight against his pelvis. “No, baby. No one owns you. You’re too fucking vicious to have a keeper. But I’ll worship and love you for as long as I live to make you stay.”

My mouth nearly drops open. Turning my face to the side, I smile. “Which is why I give myself to you freely.”

He loses all control. Pounding me from behind without mercy, his piercings thrumming as he punishes me with all of him, shaking me to my core.

“Say it again,” he growls. “Tell me you’re mine.”

“I’m yours,” I whimper. “And you’re mine.”

He grips my sides, and I fall to my hands again, dropping my shoulders and letting him fuck me into submission. A coil winds inside me, tighter and tighter.

His hand comes down on my ass again. “That’s right, Sunshine. I’m yours.”

His rough hand slides up my spine and wraps around the back of my neck. He holds me in place while doling out punishing pleasure and total possession. My mouth drops open as my climax overtakes me. Every part of me feels charged with electricity. This is true love.

He groans and snaps his hips. Hot ropes spurt inside me until I’m filled to the brim. Our chests heave, sweat dripping down our bodies. He curls himself over me while softly kissing up my spine—it’s ecstasy. This man and I were meant to be. He rolls us to the side. Our chests pound in sync, like two halves of the same thunderstorm.

“I will always love you,” he whispers.

Ever so softly, he tilts my chin to the side and captures my lips. It’s an emotional culmination of everything we’ve been through, everything that brought us to this moment. With his arms around me and his mouth on mine, I never want to come up for air.

Pushing my hair to the side, he kisses the back of my neck. “Me and you, Jordan.”

“Me and you.”

There are moments in life you desperately want to hold on to, wish you could freeze time and space, bottle it up and take it with you. Open and breathe it in whenever you need to remember what it felt like to be alive. You wonder why it can’t be like this forever. It could disappear in seconds or hours, so you don’t dare move for fear of losing grip on euphoria. That’s what it’s like with Camden every time his arms are around me. I want to feel this content, this safe, this alive forever.