Man Find (Bergen Brothers Book 3) Read online

  But it wasn’t just the sex and mind-blowing orgasms that had her smiling like a Disney princess at a Character Breakfast.

  Drifting off to sleep in Camden’s arms was sweeter than any lullaby. It had been years since she’d allowed herself to fall into such a peaceful slumber. As a single parent, she’d grown used to sleeping lightly. Ready to react to any crisis. Always on-call to respond to her son’s needs.

  It was like she’d been walking a tightrope without a safety net for years. She was Bodhi’s sole protector. His sole provider. And she didn’t take that lightly.

  But last night she wasn’t alone. The man who’d crashed through her door to save her from a pair of squirrels was there, and her body—and maybe her heart—sensed, in his arms, she’d be safe.

  “Camden!” Bodhi cried as the door to Glenna’s house opened.

  Her son ran across the stone pavers.

  “You have a big, big smile just like Mommy does. Did you find a treasure?”

  Camden cocked his head to the side and caught her eye from across the yard.

  Bodhi pressed on. “Sometimes, I find treasure under my bed like a toy or a sticker or a cookie. That’s when I smile big like that.”

  Camden ruffled Bodhi’s hair then met her gaze. “Yes, you could say I found a treasure.”

  Holy pickles and relish! Her heart skipped a beat.

  “Guess what Mommy slept with last night?” Bodhi said, hopping from stone to stone.

  Camden’s eyes went wide, and her heart stopped skipping and sprang into her throat.

  No! There was no way Bodhi could have known about her naughty rendezvous with Camden. They barely made a sound, and her son would have mentioned something over breakfast.

  Mom, were you doing jumping jacks last night?

  Or, Mom, were you humming a lot because you were eating chocolate cake in bed?

  Camden’s tanned skin turned ghost white. “A Teddy bear?”

  Bodhi stopped hopping and shook his head. “No, I’m the one who sleeps with a Teddy bear,” Bodhi answered, then patted the top of Mr. Cuddle’s head from where it jutted out of his backpack.

  Camden stood there, his mouth opening and closing like a flounder.

  “A flower!” Bodhi supplied, going back to his hops. “She had a flower on her pillow when I went in to cuddle. I told her the Flower Fairy must have brought it.”

  Relief washed over Camden’s features, and she held back a grin.

  “Maybe it was a Flower Gladiator or a Flower Warrior,” Camden suggested.

  Bodhi wasn’t having it. “Nope, it was a fairy. A Flower Fairy.”

  Now it was Camden’s turn to bite back a grin.

  Bodhi turned and waved to her. “Can I run ahead, Mom?”

  She loved the raw honesty of children. When they were done with a conversation, they moved on. Sometimes, literally.

  “Go ahead, B,” she called, coming down the porch steps.

  Bodhi headed to Baxter Park as Camden Bergen, looking like the exact opposite of a Flower Fairy, all broad chest and tanned forearms, strode toward her.

  He glanced over his shoulder at Bodhi, skipping down the sidewalk then took the tail of her braid between his thumb and index finger, twisting the hair. “Good morning.”

  Heat swelled between her thighs. That voice. His voice. That low rumble sent her pulse racing as if he spoke so little to save that gravelly, sex-coated sound all for her.

  “Good morning,” she echoed, unable to say more when Camden’s thumb grazed her collarbone.

  “I hope the flower wasn’t too much.”

  She smiled up at him. “It wasn’t. And the note…”

  He blushed. And heaven help her, to see this mountain of a man’s cheeks grow pink made her weak in the knees.

  They were doing this. The summer fling was on.

  A tiny part of her had worried that he’d see her this morning, and the brooding Bergen bobblehead—now, at least minus the Hagrid beard—would have taken the place of the man who’d taken her over the edge last night.

  She pushed up onto her tiptoes, pressed her hands to his solid chest, and…

  And nothing.

  She still had a good six inches to go.

  “I’m going to need a little help.”

  Those steel-blue eyes darkened as he leaned in and twisted the braid around his fingers. The tug of her hair paired with the brush of his lips sent a shiver down her spine. How had they fallen into a rhythm so quickly?

  Then it hit her.

  They didn’t have a choice. This wasn’t forever. There wasn’t even the possibility of forever. Maybe all those beginning of a relationship jitters people spoke about didn’t apply to them because, A, there was no possibility of a relationship and, B, time was ticking away.

  She hummed her contentment, and he smiled against her lips.

  “I’ve been counting the minutes until I could hear you make that sound again,” he said, just as his stomach decided to join the party with a growl.

  She lowered herself back down, unzipped her pack, and handed him a breakfast burrito. “Here, I know there’s nothing of substance in the cupboard at Glenna’s. Bodhi and I got up early and got this for you.”

  “That was really thoughtful,” he answered with a pained expression.

  “If you don’t want it—”

  “No, I do. These are my favorite. It’s just like you to be so kind,” he said, unwrapping the burrito and taking a bite.

  She gave him a devilish smile. “Well, you’ve only known me for two days. I may not be as sweet as I look.”

  He swallowed and matched her grin. “Oh, I know how sweet you are.”

  Clench.

  She’d be the Queen of Kegels after this summer.

  “What color panties are you wearing?” he asked.

  She watched him through her eyelashes. “Pink.”

  Now it was her turn to blush.

  He took another bite through a wolfish grin. “Lacy like the ones you had on last night?”

  She nodded.

  “How long is camp?”

  “Nine until three.”

  “I have to wait six hours to see them?” he asked with a naughty gleam in his eyes.

  She grinned up at him. So, this is what it’s like to start something new. The little presents. The excitement of anticipation. This feeling with Camden was like….

  Her stomach twisted.

  Like the first days of messaging with Mountain Mac.

  She blinked as her phone pinged.

  Could it be him?

  She pulled her phone from her pocket.

  Camden frowned. “Everything okay?”

  She stared at the screen. “It’s just Carrie. She’s texting to say Bodhi made it to Baxter Park.”

  Camden nodded. “She’s a college student. One of the senior camp counselors, right?”

  Cadence raised an eyebrow. “Yes, how’d you know that?”

  He gestured to the sidewalk, and they set off for the park.

  “After you fell asleep, I went through the camp things Bren dropped off.”

  “Really?”

  She didn’t mean for it to come out as astonished as it sounded.

  He bumped his shoulder against hers playfully. “What? Did you think I’d show up completely unprepared?”

  She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted like that. It’s just…”

  “It’s just that you were expecting the Bergen brooding bobblehead? Did I get that right?”

  She chuckled. “Maybe I was—but I’m happily surprised to have you instead.”

  The park came into view, and she was about to cross the street when Camden stopped, and a pained looked marred his features.

  “Cadence, I meant what I said. I want to give you this summer. I know you have a lot on your plate with Bodhi and your job and the houses. I don’t want to be a burden to you. And last night…” His expression softened, pain morphing into wistfulness. “Last night was the closest
thing to perfection I’ve ever experienced.”

  She touched his arm. “It’s okay, Camden. I know what this is, and I want it, too. You don’t have to jump through any hoops for me. I just like you, and I think you like me.” She gave him a teasing grin. “And helping Brennen and Abby choose between white and ecru tablecloths will be a lot more fun if we enjoy each other’s company.”

  He frowned. “What’s ecru?”

  “It’s like white but not white.”

  He rubbed his chin. “How about we agree that you get to take the lead on that.”

  She chuckled as they continued on toward the park. “Don’t worry. After all the paint samples I’ve shuffled through over the years, I’m fully qualified to field any white versus ecru questions if and when they come up.”

  He chuckled then pulled a small notepad from his pocket. “Okay, now that we’ve got that all squared away, let’s get to camp business. We should call the staff together when we get to Baxter Park, do a quick team meeting, then assign all the high school counselors to groups.”

  Cadence chewed her lip. “Yeah…about that…”

  They crossed the street, and the park came into view—already set up for the day’s events—with counselors buzzing around the lakefront prepping canoes and another group setting up cones on the perimeter of the large multipurpose sports field.

  Camden stared out at the orderly activity. “Did you do this?”

  She nodded. “This is my third summer as the certified teacher. The first year was a little chaotic. The old site leader…”

  Camden glanced at his notes. “Curt, right? I saw his name all over the materials.”

  “Yes, and let’s just say Curt was more interested in bragging about being a Bergen Adventure site leader than doing any actual work. So, I stepped in and…”

  “And organized the hell out of it. It never looked this good even when I was a kid,” he said, a thread of awe in his voice.

  She’d met with the high school and college-aged counselors weeks ago. Everyone knew their assigned group and duties. Being a single mother and a full-time teacher meant she’d had to learn to be efficient and regimented in every facet of her life.

  Long story short—she did not have the time or the energy to mess around with camp chaos. And nothing irked her more than Curt’s lack of preparedness that left her gathering up all the loose ends and running the show on a wing and a prayer.

  She scanned the park, pleased with the fruits of her labor.

  “Curt checked out, and I checked in. I made a few changes that improved transition efficiency and bolstered the curriculum. You and I aren’t assigned to any group. We’re floaters and can fill in where needed. We’ll act in an advisory role—except with water sports due to the student to teacher ratio requirements.”

  “Jesus, Cadence! What you’ve done sounds amazing. Does anyone at Bergen Adventure or the Bergen Mountain Education Department know about this?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  She didn’t want to rock the boat or throw Curt under a bus, but changes needed to be made, and just like an effective teacher, she made them.

  Camden took in the scene. “So, what do we need to do?”

  She looked at her watch. “We should check-in at the rec center. That’s where you and I will share a little office. We could make sure all the activity waivers have been signed, but I had the college kids do that last week.”

  “And Bodhi?” he asked, gesturing toward her son working alongside Camp Counselor Carrie.

  “Oh, he’s fine. He adores Carrie. She’s been a counselor with the Bergen Adventure Summer Camp for as long as I’ve been here. She’s studying to be a teacher, and she’s great at giving him little jobs to help out.”

  Camden’s steel-blue gaze darkened. “If I hear you right, you’re telling me we basically have nothing to do for the next thirty minutes because of your insanely amazing managerial skills.”

  “More like classroom management on a larger scale. But, yeah, we’re free for…” She checked her watch. “Twenty-eight minutes.”

  He pressed his hand to the small of her back and guided her toward the rec center. “Is the Bergen Adventure Summer Camp office still that supply closet they clear out in the back corner of the building?”

  She grinned. “Yep, and it still smells like old sneakers and the sweat of those who’d lost the Dodgeball Battle of 1982.”

  He chuckled. “You.”

  “What do you mean, you?”

  “It’s just like you to say something like that.”

  She frowned. He was doing it again. That weird thing like they’d known each other for ages.

  He shook his head. “I just mean…you’re really funny.”

  They followed the path to the rec center, settled between the park and the waterfront, as the hint of a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “We better go check out the office. I have a few things I’d like to go over with you before camp starts.”

  “Sure,” she said and waved to Carrie, then gestured to the building. The counselor pointed to Bodhi and gave her a thumbs-up.

  She and Camden entered the building, bustling with the sounds of fitness instructors cueing directions and the clank and bang of free weights hitting the ground. They picked up the key to their office from a teen running the check-in desk who’d barely looked up from her phone.

  “It’s this way,” Cadence said, leading Camden down a long hall that snaked back to the tucked away forgotten supply closet otherwise known as the Baxter Park Bergen Adventure Summer Camp office.

  Racks of partially deflated basketballs lined the wall outside their door as a fluorescent light hummed a rickety tune above them.

  “Here we are, under the oldest light bulb on the planet and next to the home for decrepit basketballs,” she said, staring down the long corridor when Camden unlocked the door and pulled her inside.

  Like a super-sized ninja, he had their packs off before the latch even clicked and pressed her back against the door.

  He tilted her head up. “I know exactly how I want to spend twenty-eight minutes,” he said, then leaned in for a scorching kiss.

  She melted into his touch. Kumbaya! She could get used to summer camp starting like this.

  “We only have twenty-four minutes,” she breathed as he dropped kisses along her jawline.

  Crap! This was not the time to worry about…time!

  Camden pulled back a fraction and checked his watch. The Patek Philippe watch.

  She touched the metal band, hardly believing she hadn’t noticed he’d been wearing it. “You kept it?”

  He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “You helped me find a reason to keep it.”

  She smiled up at this enigma of a man.

  He stroked her cheek. “You’ve helped me find a lot of things.”

  Her smile faded. All these weird cryptic comments were starting to pile up. But her train of thought came to a screeching halt when he leaned and pressed his lips to the shell of her ear.

  “Right now, I’m going to find those pink panties, slide them down your legs, and make you come against the door.”

  That snapped her back, and her eyes went wide. “You can do all that in twenty-four minutes?”

  He glanced at his watch. “Twenty-three minutes now. We better stop talking and get down to business.”

  She ran her tongue across her top lip. “Official camp business.”

  “What else?” he answered with a wolfish grin that made her want to be the naughtiest Little Red Riding Hood in a very dirty version of the fairy tale.

  He dropped to his knees. “I love these skirts, Cadence.”

  “It’s a sports skirt,” she replied—like a total idiot.

  He reached between her thighs then stilled. “Why are there pants connected to this skirt?”

  She held back a grin. “I told you. It’s a sports skirt. Do you think I’d get into a canoe in a regular skirt?”

  “You h
ad on a regular skirt last night.”

  “I didn’t ride in a canoe last night,” she answered, gazing into his eyes.

  A panty-melting grin graced his perfect features.

  “No, you rode me.”

  Holy pickles and relish!

  She gasped as he pulled down the garment. She wiggled her feet free from the hidden Lycra mini shorts.

  “Hello,” he said to her panties.

  She twisted a lock of his hair between her fingers. “I wouldn’t have taken you for a panty-man.”

  He cocked his head to the side. “We have to have our thing, right? Mine is any pair of panties you’re wearing.”

  She bit her lip. This was fun. Being with this man was fun. Crazy and outrageous and core-clenchingly fun.

  She schooled her features. “What if I had on granny panties?”

  “I’d still tear them off with my teeth,” he said, the gravelly tone deliciously raking its way through her body.

  “Holy pickles and double the relish!”

  He smiled up at her. “What was that?”

  “Did I say that out loud? The whole pickles and—”

  “Relish? Yeah, you did.”

  But he wasn’t laughing at her. In fact, just the opposite.

  His gaze darkened as he hooked his index fingers in the band of her G-string and slowly removed them.

  “Do you have protection? I mean, I’m on the pill and all but—”

  He shook his head. “We don’t need it.”

  “We don’t? But aren’t we…” she trailed off as he hooked her leg over his shoulder.

  Heat rushed between her thighs as a tingle of wanton anticipation traveled down her spine.

  “Oh…we’re doing this.”

  He pressed a kiss below her navel. “I said I was going to make you come.”

  “Holy p—”

  She stopped herself. Darn her second-grade vocabulary!

  “But what about you, Camden? Don’t you want to…”

  He stopped her mid-sentence with a kiss to her inner thigh.

  “Do you know what it’s like listening to you get turned on?”

  She shook her head.

  He licked a slow hot trail to her most sensitive place, his breath hot against her throbbing bud.