Chapter 15 #3
“Hell, of course I do. The best part of every day is seeing you, getting to sit in this chair and hold you.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me before?” I asked.
“Do you remember when we met?”
Of course I did. I remembered the sound of the dog’s nails, the pain in my foot, and looking into Callum’s brown eyes, hoping that he wasn’t going to hurt me. “You didn’t tell me because you still think of me like that?”
“No. I mean, you’re still the sweet girl who didn’t mind sharing dinner out of one pot and was glad that she got to sleep on my smelly couch. But you’re also different. You had been surrounded by people who treated you like absolute shit.”
I hadn’t told him about running into them again. Did it even matter? “I was expendable to them and they were to me, too. I don’t want to live like that ever again, like people are so easy to give up and give away.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to give up on you. But I liked you too much to jump in and try to start something when you were coming off that experience. And then, I was, uh…”
“Yes? What?”
“I was afraid of ruining things. What was I going to do if I tried to kiss you and you said no, and then you moved out? It would have been like getting kicked in the—in the stomach,” he finished.
“I would have missed you so much, I don’t know how I could have focused on anything else.
I would have been so damn lonely, and you think that I’m taking care of you, but you don’t seem to have any idea of how much you do for me.
Everything runs because of you. I play football, and that’s basically it.
You’re the center of my life and I’m spinning around you. ”
“Is that true?”
“I don’t lie, especially not to you,” he answered.
“I’m not going to lie to you, either. There is one thing that I haven’t admitted.”
There was a pause, and I gathered my courage. Callum looked like he was expecting something terrible, so I gathered it fast and told him: “I love you, too.”
I watched him smile again. “Hell, I’m glad to hear it. I thought you were going to say that you wanted to leave. Don’t, ok? Don’t leave. Because Maverick and I will have to follow and you know how he gets in the car.”
“But he is doing better,” I said. “I think he would be safe around babies.”
“Do you mean Anara and Demitrious’s kid?”
“Or ours, if we wanted to have some. I think you’d be a really good parent,” I told him.
“I think the same thing about you,” he answered. “We need to do something important, first.”
“Yes. We should have sex.”
“Hell!” He jumped up, lifting me into the air. Then he jogged to his bedroom. “I meant getting engaged and then married, but we’ll start here.” He was smiling as he put me down on his bed.
“This is just as comfortable as mine,” I said. I undid the top of my jeans and started to pull on them.
“I must have liked your bed better because you were in it. Let me help you.”
He whipped off my pants and removed his own clothes so fast that I definitely heard something tear, but I could probably fix it. “We’re going to get a bigger bed in our new place,” he said. “We’ll have plenty of room.”
“I like cuddling,” I answered, which was a good thing. We were now cuddling hard, and largely naked. He removed my shirt (I could repair that, too) and wrapped me up in his arms, and then he kissed me.
“Does my beard bother you?”
I shook my head. “Please do it again,” I said, because this man could kiss. I didn’t remember the last time anyone was so interested in my mouth, just taking his time and moving his lips and tongue like he wasn’t in any hurry to get to anything more.
I put my leg over his hip to hold onto him and enjoyed it. I didn’t dread what was coming or think about other things so that at least my mind could escape.
“I love kissing you,” I said when he pulled back a little. My voice sounded higher and breathy, as if I was panting. “How do you do it so well?”
“I do what I hope you’ll like.” He kissed my cheekbones, each side.
“You would sit on my lap and nuzzle up to my neck and I had to do everything in my power to hold myself back. You didn’t understand what you were doing to me.
I had to think about furniture to stay under control.
” He kissed my neck now, nuzzling like I had done to him and then gently using his teeth. “See what I mean?”
I did. I tilted up my chin so he could keep going and he spent just as long there, and at the same time, he moved one big hand to gently cup my breast. I was definitely panting, like when Maverick dragged me too fast on our runs and I had to sprint to keep up.
Callum slid aside my bra strap and with a lot of dexterity from his calloused fingers, he unfastened it in the back.
Then he looked at my bare breasts. “Hell,” he muttered, and bent his head.
His mouth felt even better there, so warm, and his tongue was so agile. “This is why you’re good at football,” I said. It sounded like a moan.
“This?” He licked my nipple. “This particular skill?”
“No, I mean how you’re paying attention to detail,” I tried to explain. It only sounded like a louder moan. I had been trying to point out that he was noticing my reactions, and that when I shivered and gasped, he did that thing more.
It was easy to tell when he liked something, because he said so. “Rainey, do that again—oh, hell, that’s good,” he breathed. He told me other things, too. “Your mouth is like magic. I love you so much. I’m so glad you’re letting me touch you.”
“You can touch me anytime,” I said, lifting my head from his erection. It was daunting in its size but I liked it a whole lot.
He made sure I was ready for him, first by flipping me onto my stomach so he could kiss my back and each cheek of my butt, then to turn me over so that he could test out his magical mouth between my legs. He was just as good at tonguing my clit—oh. Oh.
“Callum. Callum!”
The orgasm rocked through me so hard that I lost my grip on consciousness for a second. “What…was that…did I come?” I asked him. “I think it might have been an earthquake.”
“I have condoms. Just in case,” he said. He was fumbling to put one on and I was so out of it, I couldn’t do a thing to assist him. “Rainey, I’m going to lose it.”
“I’m trying to help,” I told him. But I ended up just wrapping around him, kissing him and rubbing my body against his. “I need you right now. Can you please?”
He was swearing more, kissing me back, and then hissing out all the air in his lungs as he slid inside me. “Mmm, that’s good. That’s so good.”
It was so, so good.
Then he moved and the bed moved too, slamming against the wall. “Hell. Ok?” he panted.
“Yes. Yes!” I said that a few more times—more like I yelled it repeatedly. Every time he pumped his hips, I felt syrupy pleasure spread until my body was melting. “More,” I also said and, “Faster!”
It was so, so good. I didn’t think that I would come again, but I heard myself crying out and Callum was yelling, and then I held him against me, clutching him with my arms and legs as he kissed me. Ripples kept running through my body, making me jolt and clench.
“I think it was an earthquake. I feel aftershocks,” I murmured.
“That was spectacular.” We kissed more and then he rolled a little, taking his weight off me. “I think I felt an earthquake, too. Lucky that we have such a good foundation.”
“We built the basics first. We’re best friends.”
“The only thing we have to worry about is the cornet guy next door, because he was pounding on the wall. We’re going to have to move sooner rather than later.”
“I’ll get on that tomorrow. I’ll find something that works for us.”
“I know you will,” he said. “You’ll find somewhere that we’ll be happy. But I would be happy with you if we were back in my grandparents’ house, eating out of the same pot.”
“I would be happy with you if we were still in the motel, listening to the tourists party in the parking lot and double bagging your shoes.”
“And with me trying to fit sideways into the bathroom. Yeah, I’d be happy there, too. You’re my happiness,” Callum said. “That’s the truth.”
I didn’t have any doubt at all. I only had a lot of love.