night after night (camren)

23.

Lauren laughed, "Turns out that's all just a lie of the movies" She looked Camila up and down, her hair clinging messily to her neck, and her cheeks. Her mascara has started to run and a drop of water slipped down her face, "I know what we need"

......

Candlelight bathed the warm room in its soft glow. A D'Angelo album played faintly from an iPod in the bedroom, but here inside the spacious bathroom with its cream-colored tiles and marble tub, the world was warm again, and the water was the perfect temperature. 

Hot. 

Camila leaned back against Lauren, her slim body aligning perfectly with the girl's, the waterline bobbing near her breasts. Lauren was sure she could stare at them for quite a while and not ever want to look away. They were gorgeous, full and round, with rosy nipples that she couldn't resist touching. She cupped one in each hand, kneading them. 

"Hmm. Where did we leave off? Something about deep dark secrets and skeletons in the closet"

She leaned her head back against Lauren, her hair fanning out in the water like a mermaid's, "Yes. I believe you were going to tell me about yours" she said. 

"Ah, so many skeletons" Lauren said, running her index finger across the soft skin of Camila's belly. Camila sighed happily, snuggling in closer against Lauren.

"I was once a dirty businesswoman and ran a Ponzi scheme like Bernie Madoff" Lauren said with a straight face. 

Camila turned to look at her, "Really?"

She'd said it so matter-of-factly that it had taken Camila a moment to realise she was teasing, "No. But the truth is, I ran a high-class call girl ring as a  side business to my law practice " she said, in a deliberately confessional tone.

"Shut up" Camila laughed as she slinked deeper into the water.

"You got me. I never did that. A friend of mine did, but he got out of that racket recently. Reformed"

"Good. I'm glad to hear that"

"He's the one who runs the poker games I was telling you about. He's also my go-to guy if I ever need to track down intel on someone I/m not so sure about" 

"Like an investigator?"

"Sort of. He just knows stuff. He can find out anything about anybody, like that" Lauren said, snapping her fingers. She shifted away from talk of her friend, "But those aren't my skeletons"

"What are yours, then?"

She reached for a bar of soap from the side of the tub, soaped up her hands, and began washing Camila's legs, enjoying the feeling of her sexy body sliding across her palms, "Actually, I don't think I have too many skeletons. You know about my family already. I've been a lawyer for four or five years; I work hard for my clients, I like entertainment, and I hate lies" she said and Camila tensed instantly . Lauren briefly wondered why she'd react that way. But then, she reasoned, nobody liked lies. Camila probably hated them as much as she did. She kept on going, moving from the girl's calves to her thighs. Then stopped because this was important, what she had to say, "They're a deal breaker for me. There's no need for lies. You agree?"

"Of course" Camila said quickly.

"I don't like being caught up in something that's a game, or a cheat. Been there, done that. I won't go there again" she said firmly, using her negotiation voice as memories flashed by of her ex. She was the reason Lauren felt this way, and she needed Camila to know she didn't want and wouldn't tolerate a repeat, "I was involved with a woman named Keana for a few years. I thought I knew her well, but her whole life was a lie"

"How so?"

"She was addicted to painkillers, and denied it for the longest time. She started taking them for headaches, and she kept on popping more. And she became so wrapped up in it that her life was dictated by it. She missed work, she wrote fake prescriptions, and she started doctor shopping, then selling her stuff to pay for more pills: jewellery, her iPhone, Coach purses. . . anything that had value she sold off to buy more" she said, stopping to gently to rinse of the soap from Camila's legs, "I tried to help her. Get her into rehab"

"How did she react to that?"

Lauren shrugged heavily, the defeat of those days with Keana rising back to the surface. it had been a while since she'd ended things with her for good, and there certainly weren't any residual feelings or lingering love. Still, the memories had a way of wearing her down, because that last year with her had been rough. Her furtive phone calls, the late-night texts to slimy dealers and doctors who started providing for her, and the slide into all those lies. Lauren could still recall the unabated shock she'd felt when she woke up in the middle of the night to find Keana rooting around in her wallet and pocketing some bills to buy more drugs.

It wasn't even about the money she took. She couldn't care less about the money. It was the lies, and the secrets, and how they both had wore away at her. That last year with her had been the worst twelve months for her firm. The only year her revenues were down from the one before. Precipitously. She couldn't concentrate on deals, couldn't focus on clients. The way she'd toyed with her had nearly cost Lauren the business she'd worked so hard to build. Zayn had landed a big client for them - the comedy film director - and in the span of those last few months with Keana, Lauren had gone and lost that client for them.

If she were a ballplayer, she wouldn't just have been benched. She'd have been called back down to the farm leagues for the way she'd messed up that negotiation.

"She was game for it on the surface. Did the whole contrite act. Said she had a problem and needed help. But she relapsed every time, and kept going back for more" she said, and while it had hurt like hell at the time, it didn't hurt anymore. She was the past, and Lauren had learned from it. She wasn't going to repeat those mistakes again.

Camila laid a gentle hand on Lauren's arm, resting it against the strong, curved strokes of her tattoo, "I'm sorry, Lauren. That sucks" 

"Yeah, it did" she said, "It's hard when someone you care about won't change and won't even try. I kept trying to help her and she kept promising to get help" she said, drawing a circle in the air with her index finger, "But it never happened. And so on you go"

"On you go indeed. And here you are" Camila said, twisting around to lay a sweet kiss on Lauren's chest. Then her shoulder. Then up to her jawline. 

"Here I am"

"I'm glad you're here with me" Camila whispered, and it was so unlike her to let go of her hard edge, but Lauren liked it when she did in moments like this. "I'm loving this weekend" 

Here Lauren was, falling faster than she expected to.