Chapter 13
CALLUM – LOSING CONTROL
This woman.
She tosses a glance over her shoulder at me as she pushes along the ice.
I don’t know what it is about her that has me enraptured.
But damn it. We had a meeting tonight, like we do every Monday, but I could not focus.
Not when she was so close and just out of my periphery.
I watched her for most of her dinner, laughing and smiling.
The woman tonight is so different from the woman I saw at the club.
This one is relaxed and happy. But there is something there, hiding behind her eyes.
My hand slides back into my pocket to grab her panties and my cock twitches as I watch after her, knowing there is nothing between those pants and her pussy. She does a half-spin with ease and skates backwards, looking at me.
Yeah, she can skate.
We make several laps as I skate just behind her, watching her hips move from side to side. She does another twirl, but her feet get twisted. Her arms fly out to the side, and her eyes get wide in shock.
Laughing, I push forward with ease until I grab her hands and spin her around. She wobbles at the speed of the turn, but I don’t let her fall. Once she rebalances herself, she looks at me, eyes dancing.
“So you can skate.”
“I never said I couldn’t.” She smirks.
A scream from a child right behind us pulls my attention, and a young girl is speeding past us, out of control.
She’s about to fall, so I reach out for her and grab her arm to help balance her just as her dad skates up beside us.
“Sorry. I didn’t want her to fall,” I say, handing her wrist to her dad.
He laughs. “I appreciate it. She sometimes forgets she’s just learning how to skate. No fear in this one.” He waves at us and falls back with the rest of his family.
“Such a hero,” Everlee teases, shifting her weight into me.
She pushes quickly in front of me and does two quick spins, raising her arms in the air above her head, showing the smallest bit of skin around her hips.
A flashback to her in my shower hits me like a ton of bricks, and I don’t want to skate anymore.
I want to take her home and press my cock inside of her until I’m swallowing her orgasms.
With my mind made up, I press forward, grab her hand and pull her towards the door. “We’re done here.” I wait a beat, letting her tell me no, but her eyes pulse wide with want.
I started something in the car and continued it in the dressing room.
Frustrated with my lack of self-control, I let out a growl of annoyance.
Not a complete loss, I remind myself, since I was able to barely escape the dressing room.
If not, I would have fucked her, and the men did not approve of that.
I was simply allowed to take her out and talk to her about us and gauge her interest in a group fuck.
Ten minutes later, we’re sliding into the backseat of the car. I ignore the smirk on Brady’s face as he shuts the door and walks around to the driver’s side.
He starts the car and looks in the rearview, eyes flickering between the two of us. “Was the ice skating enjoyable?”
“Very.” Everlee smiles.
His eyes shift in the rearview to look at me. “Where to, sir?”
“Home.”
“I have to work tomorrow,” Everlee whines. She’s picking at the zipper of her jacket like she wants to say something else, but isn’t sure if she should. She looks at her watch and her eyes pop open wide.
It’s almost eleven, a relatively early hour for us, considering our typical nights stretch until three in the morning. But maybe for her, it's late.
“Me too.” I toss her a casual wink.
She tilts her head to the side, staring at me.
“I can have Brady take you home now, later, or first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow morning? Awfully presumptuous of you, isn’t it?”
“You say presumptuous, I say hopeful.” I squeeze her leg playfully and when her jaw falls slack, I look down and notice my hand is further up her leg than intended. She’s not shocked, rather turned on. The veins in her neck are thumping hard and fast, causing my cock to twitch.
Her eyes dart back and forth between Brady and me, revealing the inner battle she's waging on whether to choose familiarity and go home or take a chance and come home with me to see what the night holds.
She blinks slowly, and in that second, I know what her decision is, which causes a jolt of excitement to pulse through me.
“Your house is fine and he can take me home tomorrow morning.”
Brady nods without speaking and turns out of the pickup lane.
She looks out of the window for a second, and I can’t help but wonder what she’s thinking. Does she know what she could walk into? We share, and not all women are okay with that. Will she be?
My worried gaze falls onto the paper tossed on the floor with her signature.
She didn’t even read what was on it, and had I been in more control of my feelings, then I would have stopped her.
Made her read what she was signing. But no.
I was not in control, and that bothers me most of all.
I didn’t care if she read it. Hell, I barely cared if she signed it.
I needed the box checked because I needed to taste her—to feel her. To make her moan.
This is not me. I do not lose control. Loss of control is for the weak, and I am not weak.
I’m Callum fucking McCall.
Almost as if sensing my concern, she bends down and picks up the NDA, and reads it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch her eyes read line for line, waiting for any look of disappointment or concern.
I keep waiting, but don’t see it. Instead, I see…
realization? Confirmation? Almost as if she suspected something, and this document is what she needed to read.
She slides over to sit next to me and runs her hand up my leg.
Relief pours through me as I tilt my head, looking at her. “I’m glad you finally read it.”
“Yeah, probably not the best decision I made.”
It feels as if a sharp blow has landed squarely on my chest.
Sensing it, she quickly adds, “Signing without reading first.”
Feeling only a little better, I rest my hand on her leg and look out of the window.
She didn’t ask questions about the group clause, which is usually the first question women ask when they read the NDA.
Why didn’t she? Did she not read it? See it?
Is she trying to ignore it, hoping if she doesn’t talk about it, then it won’t exist?
The landscape is changing from buildings to trees the closer we get to home.
The usual calm feeling I get when I get closer to home is not there.
Instead, it’s replaced by worry. What if I screwed up?
I pressed the men, really Jax, into presenting her with the paperwork.
I was greedy and wanted her, even though we had all agreed to give it some time before we had another woman.
She leans her head against my shoulder and wraps her hands around my arm.
We pull in a few minutes later, and when Brady moves to open her door; I stop him, wanting to do it myself.
She slips her hand in mine and I guide her up the back stairs.
“Are you okay?” she asks quietly.
I study her face intently, trying to decipher the emotions behind her eyes. “I’m uncertain.”
“Uncertain?”
I sigh. “I can’t seem to control myself around you, and it’s putting me in a weird spot.”
“A weird spot?”
Before I say too much, I open the door and a voice yells out from the kitchen.
Knox.
“How did it go? Did she say—” He slides into the room with his bountiful energy, but stops talking when he sees her.
“Oh. Hello there.” A smile stretches across his face as his tone changes to mock innocence. “How was your evening?” he asks, grabbing her hand and planting a kiss on her knuckles.
She’s nearly radiating with a soft glow under his affection. “Good. Yours?”
“I’ve been waiting here on pins and needles to see what you’d say.”
“Say?”
Face contorted, he looks at me just as Jax and Emmett walk into the room. “I haven’t talked to her yet.”
She looks between all of us, and the uneasy feeling that has been twisting in my stomach is back again. Why do I care so much if she walks away from us? I barely know her, so it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if she said no and left.
That’s a lie.
I don’t know, but there is something about her. Something… I just can’t put my finger on.
She looks like she’s getting lost in her thoughts. “Everlee?”
“What? Huh?”
“Do you want something to drink?”
“Old Fashioned?”
Knox squeals. “Can we keep her?”
Jax glances at him disapprovingly. “She’s not a pet.”
With a swift movement, Knox grabs her hand and twirls her around, their faces inches apart as he dips her backwards. “I know, but one can hope.”
Her lips part and her eyes darken as she stares at him, entranced by his wild smile and golden locks. Her cheeks flush, just as he stands her back up, head in a daze.
Her furtive glances in my direction suggest a mix of curiosity and apprehension. She’s still uncertain about our family dynamic, and that’s okay. She hasn’t left yet, so there’s still a chance.
For now.
Jax leads Emmett and the rest of us into the kitchen, and she follows, taking the same seat at the bar she sat in only days ago.
Emmett sets five glasses onto the bar and begins prepping our drinks.
“Is everyone getting the same thing?” she asks, breaking the awkward tension in the room.
“It’s our house drink,” Knox beams.
Emmett gives her the first one, and we all watch her slowly tilt it back. I’m closest to her and watching her lips hit the edge of the glass… It’s stupid the way my body reacts, so I look away and find Jax glaring at me.
“This is magical,” she hums.
Emmett beams. “It’s the cherries. Luxardo all the way.”
She scoops it out with her finger and sucks it into her mouth. Her eyes nearly roll into the back of her head. Even Jax is nibbling on his bottom lip. When he sees me watching him, he rolls his eyes.
“It was a really good cherry.” She stifles a laugh.
“Get her another!” Knox cheers, and Emmett jokingly slides the whole jar towards her.
She laughs and her eyes twinkle before she catches us all off guard. “So lay it on me.”
I look at Jax, preparing to speak, but Everlee cuts me off. “From Jax. Doesn’t he usually handle this sort of thing for you?”
Everyone’s eyes are on me with a mixture of shock and awe. I’m not used to being cut off. My words come out clipped. “Yes. Jax handles the terms of the arrangement.”