Chapter 32 - I have

Previously on Wicked in Love

Kara

He looked at me for a long moment. Then, "Tell me I'm not drunk right now. That I'm not just imagining you're here. I'm not dreaming."

His words twisted something inside my chest because I had a strong suspicion that he really meant them.

"You're not. I'm here, Cam. I'm not a dream." Deciding to shake off the dark mood, I added, "Now tell me what you've been doing up here." I shot him a grin. "Aside from me, that is."

He laughed again. I loved the sound of it. I always did. And it finally shook away all the darkness.

*

"Shit. Kara."

"What?" The sudden alarm in his tone made me sit up on his stomach, straddling him.

"Condom."

I worried my bottom lip. "I know. I'm supposed to get my period very, very soon. It should be okay." It should be, I hoped.

I'm sure that's what your mama said too when she got pregnant with you.

Shhh, bish! I knew exactly when my period was due.

Then why is your heart in your stomach right now?

That is just...my digestion at work.

What if you're pregnant? You're not ready to have a kid. Do you think Cameron is? What are you going to do?

I wasn't on the pill, and we always used protection. This had never happened before, but this time the need for each other was too intense we both just lost it. It shocked me. I thought my resolve of always being responsible when it comes to sex was foolproof.

It proved how human I was. It was humbling. But, I vowed, this couldn't happen again. It was risky and irresponsible.

No matter what, if I was pregnant, I will keep this baby, this gift from God.

He studied my face. "Kara."

I looked down on my hands. "What if...?"

"It scares the hell out of me, but..." He waited until I looked up and met his steady gaze. "If you're pregnant, then you're both mine. I will protect both of you with everything I got."

My shoulders sagged with relief, making me realize how stiff my body had become, how worried I was. And I was able to tuck away my concerns for now.

"Cam, I never slept with anyone else. Just you."

He growled low in his throat, hands reaching to the back of my neck and pulling me down for a kiss. I kissed him back. Then placed my palms on his chest and pulled away to look at him.

"What about you?"

"No," he said simply.

"Not even once?"

"After I met you, not even once." His thumb brushed my bottom lip. "When I left, I missed you all the time. When it got really bad, I thought about sleeping with other women might make me forget you. But I couldn't. Didn't want anyone else. Don't want anyone but you, Kara."

My heart melted. "Cameron." Now I was the one who leaned down and gave him a kiss. Then I looked up at the tree house. "Can I see it?"

"I don't know if the storm damaged the structure. Let me check it first."

"Aw. Why are you so sweet, Cam? Why are you so sweet?"

He propped himself up on his elbows, scowling at me. "I'm not sweet. I'm...practical."

"Sure, sure. I can wait. Why don't you—oh! Dammit." I scrambled up, but he held my hips down.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I need my phone. I haven't even checked it. I need to text Dylan."

"I already texted him. Everything's fine."

He already texted Dylan? I looked at him for a moment, let my heart sigh, and kissed him again. "So, are you going to tell me what you were doing up here instead of staying in bed with me?"

"I was cleaning the maze. I knew you'd want to see it. Wanted to make sure it was safe for you."

"Safe?"

"There might be broken branches from the storm. Don't want anything falling on you."

"Like I said, sweet. And protective."

He looked at me helplessly, an affectionate look in his eyes. "I have to trim the trees anyway. There's still a lot to do and I'm going to start that soon. I'm too impatient to wait until I can show everything to you."

Touched, delighted, I placed the palms of my hands on his face, stroking the scruff on his jaw. "I wanna see now, Cam. Can we go?"

"Yeah. Come on. We'll take my truck."

I could feel his quiet excitement in the truck as he drove us to the mansion or, as I sometimes like to call it, the castle. It wasn't a castle, but it reminded me of one with its pointy turrets and round watchtowers. It had been a while since I'd been inside. On the way there, we passed by my car.

Had it really only been last night since we got back together? Yesterday felt like a long time ago.

Being away from Cameron felt like a storm had passed inside my room and everything was broken and in disorder. Being back with him felt like it had been miraculously restored and I could finally lay my head to sleep with my heart at peace.

Cameron commented that he had tried to tow my car out this morning, but the ground was still too wet and soft, so he'll try again tomorrow.

"You're stuck here with me," he teased.

"Better keep me entertained, Bigfoot," I teased back.

"I will."

I bit my lip. Between my legs was deliciously sore from all the physical activities we'd been doing just a few hours ago. I could still feel the imprint of his hands on my hips and thighs.

I was going to say something about it, but the words fell out of my mouth as we passed by the courtyard, the gardens, and stopped in front of the mansion. For a moment I wondered if we were teleported somewhere else.

It was too dark last night to see anything in the rain, and I was too worried about Cameron to pay attention to details. The courtyard and the gardens that resembled a landfill before looked nothing like what was in front of me. Now it resembled a real country estate and reminded me of the romantic period movies I watched with Dylan.

I could imagine it all in the bloom of spring and summer—the trees green and lush, the flowers perfuming the air with their scent. And in the fall leaves would change into different colours, almost like they were made of fire with shades of red and orange, and the air would be crisp and cool. In the winter everything would be blanketed with white, like a big cake topped with sugar snow.

In the middle of the round driveway was a fountain with a statue of a maiden, her face covered in a veil, carrying a jar on her shoulder where I assumed the water would pour out if the fountain was working.

The maiden reminded me of Rebekah, fetching water for the thirsty traveller. Little did she know that the traveler was the trusted servant from the house of the man she was destined to marry, come a long way to search for her. It didn't take her long to decide that she would leave everything behind her and willingly travel with him to meet the man God had chosen for her. And in one fateful evening, as Isaac walked in the fields, he saw her for the first time. He was the man who didn't know about her yet, the man who would love her and fated to be her husband and lover. Their eyes met, and the rest is history.

I glanced at him, picking up my jaw that fell on the floor. "Did you do this all by yourself?"

"No," he said. "Caleb somehow found out about this place, Rick too. They'd been here. They helped me do some of the reno and..."

"And?"

"Rick and Caleb wouldn't shut up about it, so I bit the bullet and hired professionals to replace the roof, clean the gardens and courtyard, check the chimneys. Seems like every room in this house has a damn fireplace. The maze is unbelievably overgrown. I got them to trim a lot of it, but I wanted to do the rest."

"Really." I was shocked. He'd been so secretive about this place from everyone before.

"Helped that I had some of my contacts, got considerable discount on materials and labour. My bank account is still bawling and rolling around in its grave."

"Uh-huh."

"What?"

My eyebrows shot up. "I am shook. Cam, you actually let other people into your secret place?" I teased, smiling widely.

I was shocked, but also extremely pleased that he had. It was like a step forward to opening himself up to the world a little bit at a time. The mansion had been closed off before, like he was. But not anymore. It was coming to life under his hands. "Next thing you know, you'll be inviting everyone here for a rave party."

He parked his truck then looked at me. "Why don't you come here and show me what you mean by that?" He patted his lap.

I chewed on my bottom lip, eyeing his mouth, then his lap, then the mansion. I shook my head at him, even though I really, really wanted to jump him, but instead I jumped out of the truck before he could change my mind. "Later, lover."

As we walked toward the mansion, I noticed the exterior walls were still covered in moss, the cobblestones on the pathway had cracks and showed their age, but it only added to the romantic charm of the place. But the porch was no longer crumbling and the steps no longer rotten. He had fixed them wonderfully.

The temporary front door was gone and replaced with massive double doors made of solid dark wood that gave out an Old-World feel. Two colossal lion heads served as knockers. The curb appeal was topnotch.

"Wow, Cam," I breathed. "I haven't even seen the inside but I'm already very impressed. I guess that means you won't hit your head on the door frame anymore. Are these the original doors?"

"No. I got them from the last reno we did—big manor in the country converted into apartments. Owner wanted to modernize with clear glass doors and didn't want them. Thought they'd look nice here. Do you like them?"

"Absolutely love them! Look at these intricate details on the wood. Amazing. And check out these big knockers." I wrapped my hand around the round ring in the lion's mouth and banged it twice against the door. It sounded big and important. "Woah."

"Wait till you see the changes inside." He looked at me over his shoulder, gorgeous blue eyes gleaming with excitement. "Ready?"

I nodded. When he opened the double doors, my breath caught.

The grand foyer with its marble black and white tile floor always reminded me of a big chess board. Cameron had restored it to its classic gloss and grandeur. The twin staircase rose above me like two magnificent serpents, and the glass dome above welcomed the strong sunlight in and brightened everything.

I raced up the stairs, almost tripping in my excitement. I heard Cameron's warning to be careful, but I kept going, drawn to the towering glass window on the landing and what lay beyond it. The maze spread before me, green and lush, vast, mysterious, and wild.

"Wow. It's...enchanting. That's maybe the closest word I can describe all of this. Enchanting. And also, I'm going back to a simple but a resounding wow."

I whipped around, grabbed his hand impatiently as he was just stepping on the landing. "Give me a tour, Cam. Right now. I wanna see the changes you made. Can we start on the ground floor? Let's go!"

He lowered his head to look at me, smiling, clearly happy and in his element. "Let's go, Kara."

He gave me a tour. He hadn't done a lot of work on the first floor yet other than making the kitchen and the powder room functional. At my insistence, we went to the annex first where there was a ballroom connected to the mansion by a covered walkway. An elegant chandelier hung in the middle of its ceiling like shiny diamond teardrops. The wallpaper was peeling and faded, most of the floor rotten. A spiral staircase was tucked to the side and led to a balcony above.

Cameron didn't want to spend too much time there, worried that part of the structure would start falling apart, but I wanted to explore a little more and opened the French doors, stepped out into the garden.

The water in the pool was black and dirty, but I barely noticed it at the sight of the thickest, most riotous rosebushes I'd ever seen in my life. The sweet scent of them was hanging in the air like an invisible veil.

"No need for Rapunzel's hair. These rosebushes are like a ladder. I could climb a castle with these," I said, looking up.

The thick mass of it crawled up and clung onto the walls, the balcony, and up to the roof of the ballroom, where a chimney leaned to the side dangerously, as though slapped by the strong palm of the wind and never got back up. I could see why Cameron didn't want me to come to this part of the mansion.

"I'm going to close off this area for now," he said. "I might bulldoze it, get it out of the way. Too much work to bother with it."

"But it's so beautiful. Why don't you leave it for now then decide later what you want to do with it when everything's done? It won't hurt."

"You want to keep it?"

"I do."

He nodded. "Then we'll keep it. You can decorate the place when I'm done," he said. Then scowled. "But I don't want you coming to the annex again until it's renovated. It's not safe. That chimney might topple any moment. I mean it, Kara, or it goes."

"Fine, fine. I got it." I couldn't help but smile because I knew the grumpy was just pretend, and he would keep the ballroom for me because I asked. "You'll let me decorate it?"

"Yeah. Just don't choose a crazy paint colour like neon green or puke cream."

I laughed. "It would be hard to sell this place if I did."

He didn't comment.

On the second floor, more jaw dropping on my end as he showed me the bedrooms. I didn't even recognize them. Everything was new. The floors gleamed, the windows sparkled, the unpainted walls a blank canvas. The lighting wasn't installed yet, but it didn't matter at this time of day. The room was bright because the windows were big and generous.

But when we stepped into the library, my heart skipped a beat. I had forgotten how grand it looked. The designer soul in my body wept with joy at the soaring ceiling, the wainscoting, the intricate trim and crown molding, the wall sconces. The dusty old books in the tall shelves. The big fireplace. There was even a rolling ladder.

It seemed that this room wasn't as damaged as the others. Cameron had kept most of it other than the flooring and windows. It boasted the original design of the mansion and I felt sad that it couldn't be restored in the other bedrooms.

"There's something nostalgic and moody and warm about this room," I said. "I'm not a big reader, but it makes me want to curl up in that window seat with a hot cup of coffee and a romance book. In my Victorian gown," I added, opening the windows. I propped my elbows on the window ledge, took a deep breath. The air smelled fresh and clean. "This would definitely be a selling point in the house. I mean who wouldn't love it?"

I closed the windows, turned around. Cameron was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest, watching me. He looked so beautiful, like a young master of the house.

Technically he was.

"It's my favourite room," I continued. "It's too bad about the trim work and crown molding, the light fixtures and everything in the other bedrooms. I guess they were too damaged you had to throw them out. It would've been nice if the rest of the bedrooms have them too."

A small mysterious smile flitted on his mouth. "Why don't we move on to the next room?"

I blinked once, twice, thrice as he opened the door to the next room and I tried to figure out what I was looking at. My eyes widened and a shriek of excitement came out of my throat when I realized what they were.

"I was gonna toss them out," he said, gesturing to the gorgeous century-old sconces, intricate crown molding, stuff that he'd ripped out from the bedrooms that he knew I liked. He'd kept them. "Then I remembered when I gave you a tour in here for the first time that you said you loved them."

We'd still have been broken up when he was renovating this house, and still he kept me in his mind in the things he did. He remembered.

"They're in rough shape," he continued. "I still need to sand some of them, paint—"

"Are you kidding me? That's my expertise. I want to fix them. The doors, too. They're all in rough shape and I'll take care of them." I was so excited I was rubbing my hands together as I hunkered down on the floor, checked out the pretty things.

"Kara."

I looked up.

Cameron was standing at the door, waiting for me. "Won't you come with me?"

Something in his eyes made my throat fill up with emotion. Silently, I rose, walked beside him until he stopped in front of the towering window. I looked down at the maze, then farther where his cabin was. The sun was setting, a myriad of magnificent colours in the sky.

"It's beautiful," I whispered. "Everything."

I thought Cameron was looking below at the grand display, but when I turned my head to look at him, the words I wanted to say disappeared from my lips. His eyes reflected love, but he wasn't looking at the maze. He was looking at me.

"I don't want to sell this house," he said. "I want to live here with you."

"What?"

"Build a family here with me."

"What?"

"Won't you," he asked softly, "Kara?"

My face felt hot. My ears started to ring.

"Live here with me, Kara. Build a family here. With me. For the rest of our lives."

My heart pounded.

"You don't have to give me your answer now. I know you might need more time—"

I slammed against him as my arms wrapped around his shoulders, buried my face against his chest.

"Yes!" Tears pricked my eyes, and I welcomed them. They were tears of joy, of the realization that he was the one, always had been the one that God had chosen for me. And I would travel far to get to him. Because I loved him. With all my heart, with all my being.

He held my shoulders, pulling me away so he could look at my face. There in his eyes I found my home. "Tell me again, Kara."

"Yes, Cameron. I would love to."

*

That night as we got ready for bed, we took a bath together, brushed our teeth together, laughing, being playful around each other, basking in each other's presence. He made us dinner—my favourite, egg sandwiches. It was the first meal he made for me the first time I came to visit his cabin. We drank hot chocolate in front of the fireplace and cuddled up in the big chair, talking about a lot of things. I fell asleep curled against him, with a smile on my face.

My eyes snapped open. Darkness greeted me. The fire had burnt down to embers. It was chilly. Cameron must have carried me to bed. Beside me, he let out a quiet sound of distress. He wasn't moving. He was having a nightmare.

"Cam, wake up."

A/N: Hi loves, how are you? What have you been up to? Have I told you I'm so happy Kara and Cameron are back together? Eeeeeee! I love them so much! What's your favourite part in this chapter? I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I was able to describe the mansion enough so you can imagine it. I know it has a lot of details, and some of these details will actually make more sense later in the story. The rocket ship is about to launch! Okay, okay, I don't want to spoil too much. Take care of your heart, my loves. I will see you in the next one! Love, Isabelle