Chapter 4 #3
I could understand it. Even I had glanced over her at first. I hadn’t seen what was right in front of me until a chance phone call had revealed it to me and now, despite her attempts to otherwise hide, I could see her in her entirety.
And I fucking liked what I saw. I was enthralled, caught in her spider’s web.
How could others not see what I was seeing now? How could others not want what I wanted now? Clearly, I was not the only moron within my gender. But then, I already knew that. We men were notoriously stupid.
She continued to step backward, until she could go no further due to the countertop behind her. She lifted her hands, bracing herself against the edge. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was trying to hold herself back. From what? From me?
“You already know why.” Her voice was gentle, but there was something else there too. Shame? Was that fucking shame pinkening her cheeks?
I had to keep my anger in check. Twice now I’d let it slip and twice she’d thought I was angry at her.
I knew so little about Calliope that her statement took me off guard. What did I know about her already that would keep her from dating someone? Fortunately, or unfortunately, it didn’t take me long to figure it out.
“You said you knew my intention, my desire to fuck you.” Crass, yes, but honest. I’d never been one to hide who and what I was—and right now, I was a man who wanted this beautiful woman in front of me.
Her blush deepened at my words. “You want what all men want.”
What all men want? She was pairing me with those fucking bastards who wanted only sex.
That sparked my anger again, though I didn’t understand why.
Yes, I wanted to fuck her. That was an established fact.
I wanted to bury myself so deeply inside her that we couldn’t tell where one of us started and the other ended.
I wanted to ravish her, lick every inch of her body, make her call out my name, and then do it all over again.
But…then what? What happened after we were both sated? Normally, I’d go on my merry way. I was the first out the door, and the woman I was just with knew that. There was no hesitation, no cuddles, no talking, and no falling sleep.
It seemed so heartless, so callous. I wasn’t a player.
I didn’t lie, cheat, or scheme my way into women’s beds.
They knew it was nothing more than sex. And yet, even the thought of doing that with Calliope seemed wrong.
She was too… I wasn’t sure yet, but whatever it was, it was too precious to do anything casual with.
The very concept disgusted me, made me feel ashamed for even thinking such a crude thought. In that sense, I was just like all the other men.
And that fucking sucked.
I took a step back this time. “I’m sorry.” My voice was low, sincere. “You deserve the world, Calliope. You deserve a man who can give that to you, and I’m sorry I’m not him.”
As crestfallen as I felt, I wondered how I’d gotten to a point in my life where I couldn’t offer such an incredible woman something more genuine than a quick lay.
Her grip on the countertop loosened, and she seemed to gain control of herself. Better her than me. I felt like someone had just stabbed me in the chest and was actively twisting the knife.
“That’s the first time you’ve said my name.”
I blinked, taken aback by her words. It wasn’t what I thought she’d say. “Is it?”
She nodded, and I saw it then. The desire tampered down behind her eyes.
She liked it when I said her name. “There’s not a doubt in my mind, Quinten, that you are an honorable man.
But time is a fickle bitch.” My eyebrows flew up, a bit surprised by her cursing.
She stepped closer again. “And just because there’s not a now doesn’t mean there’s not a later. ”
“You say that like my intentions will change.” I stayed where I was, but that didn’t stop me from praying she’d come closer.
“Everything changes. It’s the one constant in the universe,” she quipped.
She came right up to me. I fucking hated the distance between our chests.
I wanted to grab hold of her arms and close in the gap, press her to me and claim those sensual lips as my own.
A spark in her eyes made me wonder if she knew exactly what I was thinking.
“I have faith that just because there’s not today for us that there won’t be a someday. ”
Did she know something I didn’t? And why the fuck did that make me feel like a jackass, that I wasn’t what she needed, what she deserved, today?
“You make me want to be better,” I confessed. “You make me want things I’ve never even contemplated wanting before.” Slowly, I reached up and tucked her hair behind her left ear. It was a small touch, and all that I would allow myself. “What spell have you put on me?”
The question was impulsive, and I hoped she didn’t find it offensive.
Calliope laughed, turning her head into my touch. “The same one you’ve put on me, Quinten.”
Her skin was so soft. I shouldn’t, but I found myself rubbing the pad of my thumb over her cheekbone.
“Not today,” I repeated, more to myself than to her.
With herculean effort, I lowered my hand and took a step back from her.
My eyes landed on the shelves that were still unbuilt on the floor at our feet.
I needed to get back up on the ladder and attach that last bracket too.
Somehow I’d gone from being grateful this wasn’t a date to fucking hating that this wasn’t a date.
The one-eighty was heady and confusing. “I should get back to work.” I gave her a crooked smile, wanting to lighten the somber mood that had fallen between us.
“Don’t want your donation to go to waste. ”
She nodded. The movement was jerky, like a hinge that wasn’t well oiled. “I’m going to make some tea. Do you want a cup of coffee?”
“Please,” I accepted.
Calliope turned away from me, walking over to the cart she’d shown me earlier.
I looked down at my watch again. Half an hour.
It had only been a half an hour since she’d accepted that phone call.
Thirty minutes. It felt so much longer, like years had passed.
Was this how a caterpillar felt inside its cocoon, awaiting metamorphosis?
How changed would I be now that Calliope Hutchins had come into my life? And why, for the love of God, did it not bother me as much as I thought it would? Or as much as it should? How, in thirty minutes, had I gone from being the club’s bachelor to wanting to change, to be better, for her?
Was this how the others had felt? Was this what it meant to fall? If so, I now understood why none of them fought it. I certainly wasn’t.
I barely lasted a minute. I couldn’t stop staring at her. Not even when I climbed the ladder to secure the last bracket and retrieve my drill. I spent so much of the last half hour memorizing her face. Now that she was turned away from me, I looked, and I looked.
When I should have been concentrating on screws and wood panels, my eyes travel down her petite form.
I was definitely an ass man. Calliope had a small frame, narrow hips and mostly flat chest, but her ass?
Saliva pooled in my mouth and I had to clench my teeth together, because all I wanted in that moment was to bite her ass.
To leave my teeth marks permanently embedded in her flesh.
She glanced over her shoulder at me. I lifted my eyes, but did not hide the fact that I’d been blatantly staring at her ass. Shaking her head, she turned back around to finish working on our drinks.
I decided I better get back to work. Knowing that I only had two and a half hours of my time left felt so different now. I wanted time to drag out, to go slower.
I caught sight of my cat and her dragon staring at me from their place on the counter. I swore they were judging me and finding me wanting. I gave both of them the finger.
It was harder to concentrate than I cared to admit.
I wanted her to talk to me. I didn’t care about what.
In the end it didn’t matter, because I wanted to know everything.
If she was as single as a dollar bill because she knew the intentions of the men interested in her, then what did that mean for her?
Did she not date? What about friends? Family?
“Tell me about yourself.”
She turned, a steaming mug in each hand. “You mean, other than I have a great ass that you want to bite?”
I chuckled, unabashed. “Keeping secrets from you is going to be impossible, isn’t it?”
“Usually.” She knelt down next to me. “But as you said before, I’m not a god. I don’t know everything and I’m as human as you are. I make mistakes. I read things wrong.” She pointed to my mouth. “Plus, you have a bit of drool there.”
I couldn’t have stopped the snort that escaped me if I tried. I wiped at my mouth, and sure enough, my fingers came back wet.
Her smile was nothing short of wicked. “Actually, we have family in common.”
After taking a sip of coffee, I put the mug down and reached for the drill again. “Oh yeah?” I didn’t have family in town, so I wasn’t sure what she meant. At least not blood family.
“My niece, Dosia, is Pumpkin’s mystery lady.”
The drill skipped over the screw. I rounded on her. “What?”
She nodded, her eyes alight with humor. “Let me backtrack some. I’m an oopsie baby.
My older sister, Stella, had two kids before I was even born.
My niece and nephew are two and four years older than me, respectively.
After my sister died, Dosia and I were raised like sisters, even though we’re niece and aunt. ”
“And what does this have to do with Pumpkin?” The entire town knew how Pumpkin had gotten his road name.