Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Callie’s heart hammered as she lay on the mattress and waited for Seth to return. She kind of thought he wouldn’t, that he was hoping she’d fall asleep. But she wasn’t as tipsy or as tired as he thought she was.
But then his footsteps were in the hallway, coming closer, and her heart kicked up again. He walked into the bedroom, dropped the rifle case on the floor beside the bed, and tugged his shirt off.
“Luna, down,” he said to the dog, who’d hopped up on the bed to take the unoccupied side.
She immediately obeyed. Seth flipped the covers back and got in beside Callie.
“How do you sleep?” he asked. “Side, stomach, or back?”
“Side.”
“Get on your side, facing away from me.”
She did as he said. Next thing she knew, his arm was around her body as he tugged her into the circle of his.
And whoa, he wasn’t lying about being attracted to her. His dick was hard where it nestled into her behind. She was momentarily paralyzed by that realization, but he put a hand on her hip and pressed her harder into him, leaving no room for doubts to materialize.
“You can change your mind at any time between now and when it happens.” His voice was hot in her ear, sending shivers of need down her spine. “But I’m not hiding what you do to me, Callie. Dicks don’t lie about what they want even if the men they’re attached to do. If all I wanted was to make you feel better and go away, mine wouldn’t be aching the way it is. Trust me, I’ve owned this particular dick for a long time, and I know what it wants.”
She laughed softly. “Funny.”
She could feel his smile against her ear. It sent another shiver down her spine and she yawned so hard her jaw cracked.
“Glad I could make you laugh. Now sleep, Callie. We’ve got time to talk tomorrow. You’re safe.”
“I know.”
It was the last thing she remembered before sleep claimed her.
Callie jerked awake, panic stirring in her belly. She was alone, in a strange place?—
But no, she was at home. It took her a moment to realize she was in the spare bedroom since nothing was quite the way it was supposed to be.
She’d expected soft light and roses, but she got hard light slanting between the blinds because there were no curtains in this room.
“Charlie,” she squeaked, scrambling from the bed. She was late feeding him, and he needed his meds.
She found her shoes where she’d slipped them off, shoved her feet inside, and dashed from the room…
…To find Seth in the kitchen, flipping pancakes. Luna sat at his feet, looking hopeful.
He glanced up. “Hey, babe. You want coffee?”
“Charlie,” she began.
“He’s fine. I followed the instructions pinned on the wall in the feed room. And Nikki is fine, too. She’s at some big horse farm in Lexington, quite possibly planning how to get you to buy her another horse.”
Callie blinked as her panic started to ebb and her brain caught up with everything he’d said. “How did you know? Where to look and what to give him, I mean.”
“Nikki was very thorough when she coerced me into helping her dig out his stall. Made me help feed, showed me where the instructions were, talked the whole time she scooped everything together, impressed upon me the seriousness of his feeding and medication schedule, and told me he was her baby. She may have intimated that if I was ever tasked with taking care of him and got it wrong, she’d murder me in my sleep.”
Callie didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Wow, I had no idea.”
“Yeah, didn’t think so. She probably thought she could run me off by making me work hard and inundating me with instructions about horse care. And you know what else?”
She shook her head.
“I don’t think she was ever enamored of me. I think you were wrong about that. She’s diabolical and protective of you, and she talked my head off that first night to see if I would break. Then she hit me the next morning with hard work and a lecture on my intentions.” He snorted. “I like that kid. She’s badass. How many pancakes you want?”
Callie’s head was still spinning from all he’d said but her heart was beginning to slow down again. Was Nikki that calculating? Maybe so. The fact she was focused on protecting Callie, when Callie thought she was the one doing all the protecting, was probably a sign that Callie needed to stop worrying so much about her sister. Nikki was healing, same as she was. A good thing.
Her gaze slid around the kitchen. If you didn’t look too hard, you wouldn’t know somebody had trashed her place last night. The pots and pans were fine, there were a couple of glasses left, but the plates had all been shattered. Seth had found paper plates in the pantry, though. And pancake mix.
Except she didn’t use pancake mix and she didn’t remember him buying any at the Pig.
“Here,” he said, pouring coffee for her.
She murmured her thanks and remembered that he’d asked her about the pancakes. “Uh, two pancakes. Those are big.”
“And lumpy, but hey, they’ll be okay.”
“Where did you find pancake mix?”
“I didn’t.” He put pancakes on a plate, swiping butter between each one, and handed them to her. “The only thing in this world I know how to make from scratch are pancakes. You had the ingredients, so I thought why not?”
Callie poured syrup and then stood at the counter with her plate and cut into the pancakes. “Wow, they’re good.”
“You sound surprised.”
She glanced up at him, wondering if he’d look upset that she had, but his eyes gleamed with humor. Relief sagged its way through her. A knot in her belly reminded her how close they’d been last night. That he’d wrapped his body around hers, his erection against her behind, and held her while sending shivers down her spine as he whispered in her ear that he wanted her.
“Not surprised,” she blurted when she realized she’d been staring for too long.
He snorted. “Surprised and distracted, I’d say.”
“Sorry.” She took another bite. “I feel like I went to bed in a nightmare and woke up in a dream. Not that you were a nightmare, just the part where people broke in my house and you slept all night with a gun at your side in case they came back.” She waved the fork around. “These are delicious, and I guess I’m surprised because it’s not fair you get to be gorgeous and fit and eat pancakes too.”
“You missed the pushups I did before I started cooking. I burn a lot of calories so I can eat them. It’s not magic, just hard work.”
She had a gym bag. She sometimes went to the employee gym and cycled. Not often enough, apparently. Not since Leo had cornered her in there when they were alone and told her she’d better stay in her lane. He wasn’t threatening in a physical way, but it’d rattled her. He’d never been overly friendly in the lab, but that level of anger was something she hadn’t seen coming. It made her wonder if anybody else felt that way and just hadn’t said it.
“Luna looks like she’s starving.”
“She’s been fed, too. And she had a pancake. Don’t let that poor-puppy look fool you.”
Callie reached down to pet her head. “Silly girl. It breaks my heart her owner died and her life changed overnight.”
“Yeah, but she’s here now, and you’ll give her all the love she needs.”
“I guess I will. Though I’m still kinda pissed at you for taking me to the kennel.”
“You needed a dog, living all the way out here in the sticks.”
“I know. I thought about it a few times since we moved, especially as Mikhail got angrier, but I didn’t take action.”
He turned off the stove as he put the last pancake on his plate and buttered it. “I’m guessing you haven’t gotten a text from his phone this morning.”
She pulled her phone from the pocket of her jeans. “Nope, nothing.”
For good measure, she opened the Find My iPhone app and checked on Nikki. Yep, at a horse farm. Bliss Stables. Oh boy. As if Nikki could feel her checking in, a photo pinged onto Callie’s phone.
My next ride…
It was a big German warmblood, chestnut, with a white blaze and two white socks. He was tacked up and ready to go. Nikki stood beside him, grinning big. His withers were over her head.
Callie sent back a laughing emoji and turned the phone to Seth. “You weren’t wrong. She’s thinking how to get me to buy her a new horse.”
He snorted as he led the way to the table and dragged out a chair for her before pulling out his own. “I know you worry about her, but I think she’s got a strong mind in there. She’s not moping, she’s doing.”
Callie typed back.
Beautiful. And big. What would Jack say about you cheating on him?
“Maybe you’re right,” she said to Seth. “I’ve been so focused on what she was like at the Christmas party that I hadn’t seen the signs. Every little hitch in her mood, every bad day, I hover and try to fix things.”
“You should talk in Polish to her again. Maybe she’s been waiting for you to make that move, thinking you’re the one who was grieving hardest.”
I love Jack! And Charlie! I’m not cheating on either of them. Gotta go. I get to ride this big boy after Lisa does!
Be safe! Have fun!
You too. Bowchicka…
Oh lord. Callie put the phone face down and concentrated on breakfast. “You might be right. I never considered it. I thought I was the adult, the strong one, that it was up to me to be those things for her.”
“Look, I don’t know anything about teenagers, like I said. And I’ve only known her a couple of days. But that girl strikes me as somebody with a strong idea about what she wants. She’s not the sort of person to give up because things are hard. I could be wrong, I’ll admit it. Don’t think so though.”
“When she was seven and riding her first pony over fences—small fences, barely even a hop for the pony—she didn’t want anyone to lead them around the course. She wanted to do it herself, and she did. She sat up there, her legs too short to reach past the saddle flaps, and steered that little son of a gun at speed around the arena. And then, on the last jump, he veered sideways and went around. She was clinging to his neck, about to fall off when he reached the gate and stopped. He thought he was done, my parents were white as ghosts, and Nikki dropped to the ground and demanded that I put her up again. I did, and she was off, heading for that last fence. She steered right over it and screamed bloody murder. Not out of fear. Then she rode out the gate and back to the barn. When it was all over, she’d gotten first place.” She grinned. “I haven’t thought of that in years. But you’re right, she’s a tough kid and she never gives up.”
Seth reached for her hand, turned it over, and skimmed his fingers over her palm. Her skin tingled and her breath shortened. “Seems to me as if both of you are tougher than nails.”
“Hardly,” Callie said. Wheezed, really. “I’m not tough at all. I want to quit all the time.”
“But you don’t. Being tough has nothing to do with attitude and everything to do with actions. You want to quit, but you don’t. You wanted to go to a motel last night, but you stayed. You didn’t want to meet with whoever’s using Mikhail’s phone, but you set the meeting and you walked into the bookstore, prepared to do your part. And you know what else? The easy thing to do, the simplest thing, would have been to replace that cable like you were told. But you didn’t.”
Her heart throbbed in her chest. “I don’t think replacing the cable would have ended the danger.”
“No, I don’t either. But it would have been the easy thing to do. It’s something a pliable person would have done. It’s what Mikhail was counting on when he told you to do it. That you would. He didn’t expect pushback.”
Emotion knotted her throat. “I don’t recognize this brave person you’re trying to convince me is inside here, but thank you.”
“I don’t need to convince you because it’s true. You’re just wearing blinders to your own strengths for some reason.”
She looked down at their hands, at the way he turned hers over and twined their fingers together. His skin was darker than hers, golden. He was right that she had the pasty white skin of a computer nerd while he looked like someone who spent time outside.
When she looked up again, he was watching her, his expression a mix of emotions she couldn’t untangle. “What’s wrong, Seth?”
He seemed to hesitate.
“I like you, Callie. There are things I can’t tell you, same as you can’t tell me, and things I haven’t told you but probably should.”
“Okay, so tell me.”
“You’re sweet, you know that?”
“I think a woman likes to be told she’s sexy, not sweet.” Her heart hammered harder as he stared at her. He was going to tell her they couldn’t take this any farther. Why else get so serious all of a sudden? Disappointment was a hot swirl in her chest.
“You’re definitely sexy, but I think sweet matters more. And I think, before we go any further, I need to tell you the truth about Mia. I know what you assumed because of what I said, but she didn’t die.”
“Oh thank heavens. I thought…”
He pushed her hair behind her ear, his touch gentle. “I know you did. I didn’t correct you because the truth is so much worse.” She didn’t see how it could be, but he dragged in a breath, blew it out as if preparing for something big. Traumatic. “I gave her up. Signed away my parental rights before she was ever born. I’ve never seen her.”
“Oh, Seth?—”
“I didn’t fight for her, Callie. I thought you should know I haven’t always done a good job of being there for the people who needed me before we go any further. I’ll protect you and Nikki. I’m good at it. But emotionally? I’m not so good at that shit. I give up instead of fight. I disengage. I fail when it’s most important.”