Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
LANZ
I don’t remember the last time I knocked on Cal’s door before entering.
But here I am. It’s a new world.
Standing in the second-floor hallway, I rock back and forth on my heels for a moment, stalling. It’s—I check my watch—almost ten a.m., and even though it’s pretty obvious neither of them is going to go to class today, I just want to…see her.
Both of them, really.
Plus, breakfast is getting cold.
At least, that’s my excuse.
Because with Gwenna here, in Camlann House, I can feel her presence.
Or, more accurately, her absence. The pain is worst when she’s close by, but not with me, I’ve noticed: walking by the door, or even in the first-floor room that’s underneath Cal’s, sends a kind of electric surge in my chest. Otherwise, it’s a kind of dull ache.
Not as bad as it was that first day, but… not good.
But I can deal with that later.
I blow out a breath, not quite loud enough to be a sigh, and I’m just about to raise my fist and knock when—
“Someone there?”
Callahan automatically shuffles to the side of the bed.
Gwenna smirks, like she almost enjoys his being flustered. Which: hard relate. “You’re fine,” she says to him, her voice a little thick with sleep. “Thanks for being…warm.”
Cal blushes.
“Well, this is…” I cast around for something to say, hands in my pockets, and then all the words come catapulting out at once.
“You ever have that dream where you open a door and behind it is everyone you’ve ever kissed and they stare at you as soon as you open it and you realize they were, like, comparing notes? Because this is a lot like…”
I trail off.
“What?” Gwenna says, at the same time as Cal says “No.”
“Oh.” My face gets hot. “Well, um, me neither.”
Stupid thing to say. God, what if they actually start comparing notes? I don’t think I’ll survive. Almost panicked, I look back at Gwenna, but she’s got a…calculating expression on her face.
“I said, I don’t have anything to compare it to.”
“What?” At first I genuinely don’t understand, like she misspoke or left out a word. And then I realize.
That was Gwenna’s first kiss.
I was Gwenna’s first kiss.
“Oh, Jesus,” I mutter.
“Oh, Jesus is right,” Gwenna says.
A long, awkward moment passes.
“Can I…make it up to you?”
As soon as the question flies out of my mouth, I regret it. Can I make it up to you? I repeat in my mind, incredulous. God, I want to smack myself in the forehead. How, exactly? What does that even mean?
But Gwenna pauses.
She darts her eyes from me to Cal to me again. “Hm.”
I don’t like the sound of that hm. “Hm what?” I ask, leaning forward a little.
“Just…doing math.” She looks back at Cal.
“Math?” he says.
“You’ve kissed him…” She traces a finger through the air from Cal to me. “And he’s kissed me...” She points at her own chest.
“But you haven’t kissed him,” I finish for her. She glares at me.
“It’s just…interesting. I guess.”
Ah, okay. I’m picking up what she’s putting down.
“Kiss her,” I tell Cal.
Cal almost falls off the bed in shock. “What?”
Gwenna, for her part, goes ghost-white and starts to stammer. “I—you—I didn’t…”
It occurs to me I maybe miscalculated.
“Is that not what you wanted?” I say.
“No,” Gwenna says hurriedly. “I mean.” She looks at Cal, who is looking back at her with the kind of burning hunger that makes my mouth go dry. “I guess I didn’t not want it, but...but that isn’t what I meant.”
“Ah. Okay.” I chew my lip. “Well. Do you…want to anyway? Because Cal wants to kiss you.”
“Hey,” Cal protests, but gently, like he realizes that everyone in the room now knows he’s very, very smitten with the girl who’s found her way into Camlann House.
Twice.
Now Gwenna blushes. And she’s pretty when she blushes.
“Sure,” she says. “Why not?” She gives a nervous little laugh, tucks her hair behind her ear. “I mean, what the hell—my mom’s dead, I’m apparently supposed to corrupt all of you equally, and…” She draws in a breath. “Sorry. I don’t know why I took it there.”
“It’s okay,” Cal says. He’s eased closer to her on the bed, I notice. Just an inch or two.
And suddenly I’m burning with impatience.
Breakfast, class, the quest for the Holy Grail, anything that exists outside of this bedroom can wait. Indefinitely.
“Kiss her,” I tell him again. Command him. “Kiss her, Cal.”
Callahan looks at me. Then at Gwenna.
She bites her lip. “Kiss me.”
Cal doesn’t need telling twice—or thrice. He takes her face in his hands and kisses her, a soft deep kiss I recognize, can practically taste.
When he pulls away, he looks to me.
Like he wants approval.
Fuck me.
Gwenna, meanwhile, averts her eyes, a small smile still on her lips. She draws her knees up to her chest. “Well…what did you think?” she says, laughing lightly.
Cal’s face is blank, now. Like he’s afraid to react. “What did you think?”
“I think…” Gwenna shoots a look at me. “I think I know how I’d rank my leaderboard.” She shrugs.
I lift my shoulders and sigh. “I mean, I’ve never kissed myself. But I know Cal’s good.” I chew the inside of my cheek. “And you just scratched the surface.”
Something flares in Gwenna’s eyes.
I swallow roughly. “Touch her,” I say. “Rub her clit.”
The word seems to send Cal into a full-body flush: eyes wide, face red, blinking furiously. And that, that whole flustered but horny look, gets my dick at firm attention.
Fuck, I am so toast.
I grip the outsides of my arms, willing myself not to move yet, just watch.
“Is…” Cal swallows and looks at Gwenna. “Is that what you want?”
I look at her too, and she’s…equally flushed. Two spots of pink on her cheeks, quickened breaths through parted lips.
But she nods.
Cal nods back, and places his right hand on her stomach, just above her waistband.
I shiver in spite of myself: I know what those hands can do, and dear God I’m a fan.
Slowly, he inches one broad finger and then another under the elastic, his gaze everywhere and nowhere as he moves, like he isn’t sure where to look.
And then he looks at me.
Right as Gwenna lets out this…sigh.
Oh, fuck. Me.
Cal hears it too, and his eyes go somehow wider. I hold myself still and watch the shape of his hand move back and forth under the soft fabric. Then watch as his brows draw.
Confused.
Oh. He’s never…
“Here. It’s…” I unfreeze, practically leaping to the side of the bed, lean over, and take him by the forearm. I guide him, gently pushing his hand further down, past the front of her hips and under, to where—
Cal lets out a sudden hiss of pleasure.
“…lower than you think,” I finish.
Gwenna gasps.
I should let go, I think. Cal is glassy-eyed, practically hypnotized, his muscles moving under my grip as he strokes her. My fingers tighten involuntarily.
I want that too.
I give in, release his wrist, and let my own fingers sink to where his have found the wet heat of her clit.
Fuck.
Gwenna rolls her hips against our entwined hands, and the pant or moan or gasp or whatever the fuck she lets out sends so much blood to my cock I genuinely think I might pass out.
“See?” I manage, leaning into Cal. “She likes it.”
I stare into his eyes, and he whimpers.
My cock throbs.
Good fucking boy, Cal.
“Kiss him.”
My gaze snaps to Gwenna. Did she just…
“Callahan.” Her voice is breathy, shaky, but sure. “Kiss him.”
Cal doesn’t need to be told twice. His nostrils flare, jaw tight, as he reaches up with his left hand and takes me, slamming my mouth against his with enough raw force to bruise.
I don’t care. I meet him, plying his mouth open, plunging my tongue deep into him even as our tangled hands keep teasing and teasing and teasing her.
I’m lost, no sense of time or place or even my own name until a sudden, sharp sound jolts me back.
Gwenna. Eyes blown wide, fingers tense in the blankets, heels digging up.
“I’m…”
It’s more of a gasp than a word, a sentence she doesn’t need to finish, because a split second later we watch her come, feel her come, beautifully and perfectly and hard.
For a moment, none of us moves.
“Did you just…” I swallow, pulling back my hand. So does Cal.
Gwenna’s eyes are huge, and her face goes furiously crimson as she pulls her legs into her chest. “I…I…” she stammers, eyes fluttering shut. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I would never—”
“No, no, no, don’t apologize.” Christ in Heaven, never apologize for doing that, I think. “I just wanted to make sure.”
At that, Gwenna relaxes a little.
“So you liked it?” I can’t help but add.
Her face goes somehow redder than before.
“I mean…” Her voice drops to a mumble. “It’s…I…is it a problem if I did?”
I blow out a breath and shake my head vigorously. “No. No, of course not. I just wasn’t, uh…accounting for that in my timing, I suppose.”
Beside me, Cal shifts, a little uncomfortably. I’m
Gwenna’s eyes drift to the two of us and realization dawns.
“Ah.” She bites her lip, which is still deliciously pink. “I didn’t…right. So what would you…usually do, then?”
Jesus Christ. Would she want to watch? The image has me almost drooling: Cal sliding my cock into that perfect mouth of his, working me faster and faster and eager as always, Gwenna’s long fingers finding her…
But then I see Cal. The absolutely stricken look on his face. White as a sheet and stiff as a board. Staring at her.
And I know what he wants.
I know because he’s told me.