Chapter 37
chapter
thirty-seven
SHAY
“How many spoons today, Maniac?”
I glanced up at the deep, rocky voice.
Calder leaned against his sleek black car, hands in a black wool peacoat. He wasn’t in a suit this time but was no less intimidating in a black sweater, black jeans, and black boots. In fact, something about this was more intimidating. Expensive. Casual.
“Seven out of ten,” I answered.
He smiled and walked over to me. I stayed frozen, gut fluttering with every step. This was Calder. This was Void. This was only our third date, if you counted the graveyard. Yet no strings attached was feeling less and less real.
Calder’s hand came to my lower back, leading me toward the car.
“Am I dressed appropriately for the excursion?” I asked as he opened the door for me, and I slid inside.
He’d said to dress comfortably. A black mini with a cropped black sweater was comfortable.
So what if I hadn’t worn any underwear?
Shit. I hope he wasn’t taking me hiking or something. He had said he wasn’t into the S part of BDSM.
Calder leaned into the car, one arm on the hood, brown-black hair falling across devilish and sparkling blue eyes. I felt his gaze like a touch, sliding from my feet, up my thighs, across my breasts and exposed shoulder, before landing on my face.
“You’re perfect,” he said, voice low. Rough. An edge I felt beneath my skin. He smiled, that one right dimple popping, and shut the door.
I watched him walk across the front of the car, transfixed. He was a black hole, dragging me into his event horizon, until I disappeared and was remade into a throbbing mess.
Nerves bubbled up in my stomach.
What if I’m all talk? What if I can’t do the things on my list?
They were fantasies, after all. I had no idea how they’d be in reality. And I’d already failed at the graveyard.
Calder glanced at me when he got in the car, pausing. “Everything okay?”
I nodded.
He stared at me a moment longer, like he didn’t quite believe me. Then his hand settled on my bare thigh without a word, and he drove.
I tried not to think about my nerves, instead focusing on how his thumb rubbed a circle on my bare flesh that sent goose bumps. I noted he had more flour on his hands.
“Why do you always have flour on your hands?” I asked.
He shot me a look. “I bake when I’m nervous.”
My brain stuttered, not computing. “You’re nervous?”
He arched a brow in my direction, like my question was ridiculous. His grip was both possessive and relaxed. A delicious addictive tingle spread from his thumb all across my body.
“Shay?”
I blinked, turning to Calder, not realizing the car had stopped and he’d parked. His gaze dropped to my cheeks, and he clenched his jaw.
I wondered if the warmth in my body could be seen.
His grip on my thigh tightened ever so slightly, and I leaned in, wanting him.
In that reckless, irresponsible way I was growing to understand belonged only to him. When I stopped thinking about anything but him, and all I could think about was his hands on me.
Where I craved more.
The intensity in his gaze softened with a small, almost imperceptible quirk of his lips. He squeezed my thigh, this time more teasing than savage, then slid out of the car.
And all the anxiety he kept at bay like an ice wall with White Walkers came spiraling back.
He’s had his mouth on every part of my body.
He’s been inside me.
But…what if I can’t handle what comes next?
Calder opened the door, and I quickly swung my legs out, trying to banish those fears. He bent down before I could leave, eyes on mine.
“Hey.” He lifted my chin with his thumb and forefinger. “The only expectation for you tonight is to put me into debt. A lot of it.”
I frowned, unsure what that meant, when my gaze drifted over his soft, wavy hair to the building behind him.
A bookstore.