CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Callahan
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the elusive Callahan Sharpe in the flesh.”
Every part of me stills at the voice, rejects the sound of it. Keone’s eyebrows raise before I slowly turn around and face the woman standing behind me.
“Gia.”
“You remembered my name. Too bad you didn’t remember my hotel room number.” Her painted red lips curve up in a seductive smile as her eyes drink me in.
“Some things are better left forgotten.” I manage a not so friendly smile.
“Everybody knows, Cal. Thanks to your bathroom proposition, you selling us out to get some prized pussy is the talk of the fucking town.”
Gia would love knowing her actions caused a major showdown between the Sharpe brothers. Something we’ve yet to recover from. She’d revel in it.
“Now, you’re just being mean.” She pouts dramatically, knowing that every single person’s eyes in this bar are on the stunning woman before me.
A woman I have zero interest in.
“So you’ve sought me out, what exactly is it that you need from me, Gia?”
Her low chuckle vibrates through me. “Now that’s a loaded question if ever I’ve heard one.”
I offer a smile that I’m certain doesn’t reach my eyes. “If you’re here for what I think you’re here for, I’m not interested.”
“We have unfinished . . . matters, though.”
“Actually, we don’t.” I stare at this woman who I would have given anything before to fuck. Anything. And I look at her now and find her attractive physically but nothing more.
“Callahan. We both know that’s not true,” she purrs and runs a fingertip over the edge of my shoulder.
I shrug away from her touch and stand from my seat. “Doesn’t this game ever get old?”
“What game is that?” And that’s when I see the truth. Sutton isn’t playing a game at all. Never has. She genuinely expects more for herself. As she ought to. Whereas Gia . . .
“The rich playgirl routine where you show up, cause a scene, and then expect to get fucked?”
Her smile returns despite the insult. “I wouldn’t throw stones in glass houses, Callahan.” She leans in and whispers, “Once upon a time those words used to define you too.”
Tou-fucking-ché.
I stare at her, jaw clenched as I absorb her words. There is truth in them I don’t want to face but can’t deny.
When Solomon mentioned her, I knew she’d seek me out. Knew she’d show up to see me and try to rectify that blow I gave to her ego. A woman like her has never been told no.
I should know. I never had either . . . before Sutton.
I look at Gia and see everything I used to want.
What’s in it for me? If Gia uttered those words, I’d consider her a manipulative bitch.
But Sutton deserves to ask that question.
She also has no reason to be jealous of Gia, and I need her to know that. I need to find her. Because when I think of Sutton, I see everything I think I need.
Jesus.
When did that happen?
When did that fucking happen?
“What do you want, Gia?” I ask, done with this conversation before it even starts.
“You.” No hesitation. No shame.
I purse my lips and give a slight nod. “Sorry. I’m taken.”
And with that, I glance at Keone, whose eyes are bigger than saucers, no doubt thinking I’m a fool for passing up the woman in front of me.
I’m heading toward the villa. My restlessness that led me to the bar now knows only one place it wants to be.
I need to find Sutton. We need to talk, and I need to know if all that she said last night wasn’t just the alcohol talking but was the truth.
In particular the last part.
And then I need to figure out how the fuck I feel about it.
“Callahan. What—” Brady looks over his shoulder and then back at me with confusion owning every single damn part of him. “I mean—how?” He shakes his head.
“What?” I ask impatiently.
“I just saw you eating dinner with Sutton. How did you . . .”
“Where?” I demand, already knowing the answer.
“The Cove.”
I jog toward the restaurant, not sure why I feel so panicked over the fact that Ledger or Ford or both are here.
But I do.
And I am.
Ledger.
Jealousy I’ve never felt before streaks through me when I look across the restaurant and see them sitting at a window seat, laughing over a glass of wine.
The sight of them together fucking consumes me. My fists clench and anger riots. All thoughts of walking up and taking a seat at the table with them dissipate.
My brother knows me better than anyone. One fucking look at me and he’ll know that Sutton and I have a thing.
He’ll know, and in an instant, Sutton’s integrity, her knowledge, her place here will be questioned.
Because if she thinks I’m good, then he’ll automatically think ill of her decision-making and moral compass.
Fuck.
Fuck!
I move toward the back of the restaurant, not wanting to risk someone calling me out and him seeing me. Not until I can get my anger under control. Not until . . .
I pull my phone out and fire off a text.
Me: Go to the bathroom. Now.
I watch from afar. See her glance down to her cell when the screen lights up and then promptly turn the phone face down.
She laughs at something my brother says.
My fists clench at the sight of it. Another sip of wine.
A slow scoot out of her chair as she makes an excuse to leave the table.
Ledger standing when she does as we were taught to do.
Restaurant noises echo down the hallway. The clink of glasses. Silverware on plates. Laughter from a toast. I strain to hear the click of her heels coming down the long hallway.
But they are there. And when she passes the door of a utility closet I’ve stepped into, I reach out, grabbing her bicep with one hand and placing a hand over her mouth to quiet her yelp with the other before locking the door at her back.
“Callahan. What—”
Then my mouth is on hers. Desperation owns me with a violence like I’ve never felt before.
Fuck the rules.
Fuck the waiting.
Fuck the talking.
She’s mine. Only mine. I’ve walked the line and done the dance and now I’m going to fucking have her.
She needs to know.
She’s mine.
She freezes for the briefest of seconds, stunned that I’m here, that I’m doing this.
“Callahan. What are you—your brother—”
“Fuck my brother. This is about us. About what you said last night. About us. About wanting there to be an us.”
“But Gia. She’s here. Looking for you. I thought—”
“Gia is nothing to me. You’re the only woman I want to be with, Collins. Just you. And I need to be inside you right fucking now.”
“Yes, God, yes,” she cries as I pull her close to kiss her.
The frenzy begins. Our mouths. They brand and taste and nip as if we can’t get enough of each other.
Our hands. I’m unzipping my fly. She’s pulling up her skirt. I’m pulling out my cock. She’s yanking down her panties.
Faster.
Hurry.
Please.
Shhh.
We’re a flurry of movements as I lift her ass onto the edge of the small desk in the corner and step between her spread legs. Our mouths don’t stop kissing, our bodies don’t stop wanting.
She wears my hand like a necklace around her throat as I hold her still against the wall at her back and push into her in one forceful stroke.
She cries out and I hope the noise of the restaurant on the other side of that door drowns it out because there is nothing that’s going to fucking stop me now.
Nothing.
“Goddamn it, Collins,” I groan as I’m overcome by the tight, wet heat of her pussy.
It’s the heaven I’ve obsessed over and the hell I’ll drag myself through just to feel again.
Her pulse thunders against my fingers at her throat. I lean forward and kiss her again as I start to move.
She moans words against my mouth. God. Yes. Callahan. So good. Please. Deeper.
Each word spurs me on as our foreheads rest against one another and our bodies become one.
I fuck her.
There are no niceties. No commands. No sweet words. Just the need and the greed and an urgency like I’ve never felt before.
Her fingernails dig into the wrist of my hand at her throat and her pussy squeezes tighter around my cock with each push.
“Collins,” I groan as my balls pull tight and my dick grows harder.
“Come for me,” she demands in her rasp of a voice.
And those three words fucking undo me. I lose all thought, all sense of where I am. All I can see is her. All I can feel is the crazed man she’s made me. All I know is that I can’t wait to fucking do it all over again.
“Mine,” I murmur against her lips as I breathe her exhale as my next inhale. “Fucking mine.”