Chapter Thirteen

Lake

There was an uneasy quiet about the apartment when I got home.  The lights were on but I couldn’t detect movement anywhere in the house.  When I called out Callum’s name and heard nothing, I went to the kitchen to pour myself a glass of water.  My throat had been dry, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth since leaving Theo.  But no matter how much I drank, I couldn’t get rid of the nasty taste he left.  His words had cut right through me.  I couldn’t tell if I hated him or myself right now.  All I knew was that I needed to calm myself down before seeing Callum.  I didn’t want to be greeted with his sweet kiss and gorgeous smile only to return with a weak laugh and a shitty mood.  I’d waited forever to enjoy him again.  I wasn’t going to let Theo Spencer ruin it.  I just wasn’t.

“Lake.”

I jumped and spun around when I heard Callum.  “You’re home.”  I tried to make my voice sound light, breezy.  I hadn’t come close to fixing my mood yet but from the looks of it, Callum wasn’t in the best one either.  I could tell he was freshly showered, shirtless, his hair still dripping, flecks of water on his crisp blue jeans.  He looked so damned good but the dark expression on his face was hard to ignore.  What happened? We had left each other on cloud nine this morning and now this.  I wet my lips nervously as he came near me.  “Are you okay?” I asked, giving him a little smile that wavered at the corners.

“I’m fine,” he lied.  “What about you?” He stood so close my back pushed into the counter.  I didn’t realize I was leaning gradually away till he tilted his head at me, a silent repetition of his question.

“I’m fine.”  I pulled my stare from his chest to his face.  I avoided eye contact when lying and he knew that.  His stare bore into mine but then he nodded, accepting my answer.  For now.  I knew he didn’t believe it but I hoped he’d let it go.  I didn’t want to talk about Theo Spencer tonight, especially not with him.  I couldn’t predict his reactions when it came to Theo and they tended to scare me.

“Good.”

I gave him a tight smile, trying to pass myself off as normal.  But it fell from my lips as he came toward me, closing the gap between us with a predatory roll in his broad shoulders.  “Callum,” I frowned when I felt him lean forward on me, pressing my body between the counter and his steel chest.  I was pinned.  “Callum, what are you doing?” I breathed.  But his gaze was silent, heavy and I felt my panic rising when he put more and more of his weight on my chest.  “Callum!” My voice rose when I tried moving but couldn’t.

I exhaled when he finally fell back with the glass bottle he’d been reaching for behind me.  Oh.  His brow furrowed.  He looked at me as he stepped back to pour himself water.

“You’re nervous about something.”

“No.”

“It wasn’t a question.”

Callum leaned on the island across from me, studying my face.  He stood far from me but now my chest felt crushed by the pressure of his stare.  A thousand different suspicions lived behind it and while I knew I was guilty of several things, I wasn’t sure which one he was thinking about.

“You spent all afternoon shopping and came back without any bags.  Now you’re acting off so just tell me what happened today.”  His tone wasn’t angry but it was firm, hard in a way that scared me just as much.  But I realized that he was right – I was acting beyond strange.  He was worried about me as usual and his unreadable mood had me misinterpreting his every word and motion.  I kept silent as I reasoned that I probably should tell him about Theo.  I’d already refused to tell him about why I disappeared six years ago – I really needed to pick and choose my battles.

“I…” My mouth went dry again.  Callum’s eyes were smoldering, intense, his attention so rapt on me that in a span of five seconds, I went back and forth on my decision to come clean before just blurting it out.  “I saw Theo today.”

His blue eyes flashed with electric shock.  I almost heard the sizzle.  There was a beat of awful silence as Callum stared at me.  He raised his eyebrows.

“You what?”

“Callum, he followed me from here and I only agreed to meet with him because – ” I broke off.  Because I was just relieved it wasn’t my stepbrother.  I shut myself up when I realized that a full explanation would dip into the story I vowed to never tell Callum.  I fumbled with my words.  “It was… I only agreed to meet him because – ” I stopped trying to explain when he turned and walked away.  His back facing me promptly ripped my heart in two.  “Wait,” I followed with emotion wringing in my voice.  “Callum.  Callum, please.”

When I caught his arm, it felt like I’d grabbed stone.  I stared down at it in shock.  I froze, my eyes following the thick vein throbbing under his inked skin, from the Roman numerals on his wrist up to the passage written in cursive on his forearm.  I lost track of the vein just under the black and white clock on his bicep.  My eyes were still on his body, traveling over every tattoo when I felt Callum turn harshly to me.  He was still tense, fuming, but he watched in silence as I studied him.  I had to do it – to be finally brave enough to get a good look at his new skin and all the marks on his body that he’d accumulated since I left.  I had imagined him so much while I was away.  I’d gotten so much right and so much wrong but either way, Callum was impossibly beautiful.  So grown up and different yet exactly the same.  Emotion glazed over my eyes.  Our hot breaths swirled through the air.  I felt them thawing him and trying to soothe me as I lamented the many different worlds of pain I’d caused him throughout our lives, together and apart.  His skin was always thick though, and it had thickened so much more in the time I was gone.

But thank God it didn’t get hard enough to give up on me.

With a sudden fistful of my shirt, Callum jerked me into his chest.  I was silent as I watched his hands tug at the cotton.  “Take it off,” he muttered.  I lifted my arms and he peeled it off.  I didn’t know what he was doing but I went with it.  I breathed hard as he cupped my jaw, holding my eyes to his as his other hand undid my jeans.  “Were you alone with him?”

“Yes.”

Callum yanked down my zipper.  “He could’ve hurt you.”

I disagreed but didn’t argue.  I was in public with Theo and would’ve never put myself in danger by meeting him privately, but that was beside the point now.  “He didn’t hurt me,” I simply said as Callum’s eyes fell to my mouth.

“Did he do the fucking thing?”

“Yes.”  The hello kiss.  Callum had always rolled his eyes and found it so stupid but tonight, I could tell he flat-out loathed that Theo’s mouth had been anywhere on my skin let alone close to my lips.  A dark cloud drifted over his gaze.  I could see the lightning flickering behind it as he parted my jaw and stared into my mouth.

“Then I’m going to need to reclaim this.”  Callum drew his thumb rough over my bottom lip.  I closed my eyes and heard my own desire in the breath I let out.  In his grip, I nodded.  Desperately.  I wanted him to do it.  I needed so badly to please him.  “Is that a yes?”

“Always.”  I panted and opened my eyes to find his gleaming.  “It’s never been anything else for you.”

Satisfaction curled his lip.  “You’re going to do every last thing I want you to do tonight.”

“Tell me and I will.”

“Open your mouth for me.”

When I did, he thrust his tongue inside, his kiss burning hot.  It was deep, demanding as it stroked me, sucked and licked me with such force that all other thoughts in my head flickered out like dead light bulbs.  All I could think about was that tongue.  It had always been so skilled but now it was commanding.  Full of an authority it never had before.  I moaned.  If it had the power to bring me to these heights with just a kiss then I could only imagine how it could make me feel between my legs.  I remembered the relief Callum used to bring me before I’d ever had penetrative sex.  The thought of how skilled that tongue had grown since I’d been gone blinded me with arousal.  I whimpered at its touch, losing complete awareness of my surroundings.