SWEETENER (Camila x Ariana)

Chapter 11

~Ariana's POV~

I woke up a few minutes before my alarm went off, refreshed. It had been so long since I slept through the night.  To my surprise Camila did stay the night even though I fell asleep almost immediately after we finished.

I ran my fingers across her toned abs– up, down, back up, all the way down...  I still wasn't entirely sure where this was going or what we were. Was it a relationship or just another night? I  didn't have the courage to ask, because I was afraid of her answer. Camila was here with me and I wanted it to stay that way. 

I pulled my hand away and tried to sit up from the bed when I felt a strong arm wrap around my waist and pull me back down.

"I don't think so." A raspy voice croaked. "You didn't let me leave yesterday. And that thing you were doing with your hand," She rolled over onto her stomach. "Just made me even more wet than I was before."  I laughed quietly. Camila had only one eye opened but firmly kept her arm around me, running her hand up and down my inner thigh.

"I need to go to work." I told her, trying to push her hand away. 

"Call out." 

"I'll get fired." 

"So, you're a rich girl. It's not like you need this job."

What an asshole.  Her hand stopped teasing me and her grip loosened, so I tried to get up, thinking that she already fell back to sleep. Apparently she was still awake.

"I'm not sleeping, hermosa." 

"Hermosa?"

"Si." She closed her eyes again. This time I waited until I was sure that she was asleep. I waited until her arm was a dead weight over me, and her breathing became even.  Silently, I stood up, took a quick shower and got dressed. Every time she moved I would freeze and wait a couple of minutes, watching the small muscles on her back contract with each breath she took, until I was sure that she hadn't woken up.

  *** 

Almost everyone at work noticed my good mood. "Feeling better?" Gavin asked me as I brought him a cup of coffee. I was even nice to Stephanie. Well, I'm always nice, but today I was nicer than usual. And on top of the good mood we got a lot of work done.  But then my mother called. 

"Hello?" I asked, confused. She wasn't supposed to call me, I was supposed to call her when I was ready to talk to her. 

"Ariana, dear how have you been?" 

"Good I guess, how come?"

  "Well, I haven't heard from you in a while. Mac told me that he saw you back at the hotel. Why are you back there?" 

I never actually told her I moved out. I guess father didn't say anything either.

"You spoke to him?"

"Yes. Now, I know that he walked out on the wedding, but it was only because he still loves you. You know how Mac doesn't have much family. I couldn't leave him alone while he was going through such a rough time." 

"Oh." That's all I could say. Mothers and daughters were supposed to be on the same team. She was supposed to see him as a cheating piece of shit just like I did. When she didn't like someone I shared her hatred simply because she was my mother.  "You never answered me, why are you back at the hotel?"

"Don't you remember, they are going to renovate my building. My landlord said that I could move back in once he finished the work he was going to do." 

"So you went to a hotel? Darling, you're always welcomed here. I know we haven't exactly been on the same page but–"

"I'm fine." I said, quickly cutting her off. "The hotel is really nice. They gave me a suite that's bigger than what I'm used to."