19. Callum #3
“Soon, but I… I don’t want this to end,” she whispers.
I manage a small smile and hold her wrist, feeling her pulse surge beneath my palm. “We’ll do this again. We’ll do it over and over. Let go.”
Pressure starts building in my thighs, traveling up through my hips, and her walls clench, the squeeze threatening to break me.
Peyton releases a sharp exhale. “I… I’m going to come again.”
“Let me have it. I want it so badly,” I tell her, a desperate edge to my tone.
She comes on my name, and that’s all it takes for me to spill inside the condom, scalding hot pleasure swirling through me.
We stay connected, and she bends forward to rest her chest on mine, her temple buried in my neck. I’m still pulsing inside her, and I think I’ll die if she releases me.
“Peyton.” I roll my forehead along hers. She tilts her chin up, and we lock gazes. I place an open mouthed kiss on the side of her jaw. The apple of her cheek. The wisps of hair curling over her ear. Every part of her that’s within reach of my mouth gets tended to with my lips or tongue.
I cradle her back and turn us gently to our sides, still connected.
“Do you want me to…?”
“Not yet, no. Stay like this with me.”
“Okay, honey,” I murmur into her hair. “That was…”
I think about the words I want to say. They’re sweeping across my mind in broad strokes, begging to be said. Words like I only want to do this with you, and no one else, for as long as you want to do this with me. Words that I’ll have to—that I want to say soon.
She nuzzles against me, and the top of her hair tickles my nose. Her skin feels so soft pressed against mine, and I want nothing more than to stay exactly like this.
“Hey, Callum?” Her voice is so quiet I almost miss it.
“Yeah?”
“Before we do this again, there are, um, some things I want to say to you.”
I tenderly stroke her hair. “Same.”
She releases a happy sigh. “Okay, then.”
Peyton rests her head against the pillow. “So, should we run into each other again tomorrow morning? Because you’re staying over?”
I gently tug on a piece of her hair. “Hm, seems a little soon.”
“Oh, does it?” A spark of mischief flashes in her eye.
“Three business days is standard, I hear, and—”
She shuts me up with her mouth, swirling her tongue around mine, and the taste of her is addicting. We kiss until she pulls away to catch her breath.
“So?”
“Sleepover.” I nod solemnly.
“What should we do tomorrow, then? What’s your normal routine?” she asks.
“I usually go to Carter’s gym every day. I head there a little later on weekends, so there’ll be other people—men—at the gym,” I say cautiously. “But there’s a group fitness room with some weights. We can work out in there together, if you want to go with me.”
She gives my bicep a squeeze. “That sounds perfect.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I’ll cheer you on while you lift or something. Influence you to go harder. I can be very persuasive.”
“You don’t have to tell me. I’ve seen what you can do with a smoothie firsthand.”
She smirks. “The sex tonight was almost as life-changing as the Nutty Nana.”
I groan. “Please don’t bring up the Nutty Nana while I’m inside you.”
“Why? Are you afraid you’ll develop a Pavlovian reaction? Get your organically grown nuts turned on by Kevin’s organically grown nuts the next time you drink one?”
“That’s it, I’m pulling out.” I give her a peck on the cheek. “It’s been great.”
Peyton scoots up, releasing me. “I need to get cleaned up anyway.”
I caress her cheek. “Let me.”
She shakes her hair out of her face. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Rest. I’ll be back in a minute.”
I walk into her bathroom and grab a washcloth. After running it under warm water, I ball it up in my hand to retain the heat, grab a bottle of lotion, and bring everything to Peyton.
She’s laying on her back, the comforter pulled up to her shoulders.
I gesture toward the duvet. “Can I pull it down?”
Peyton nods, almost shyly, but there’s something in her eyes that gives me pause.
“Do you want me to talk it out?” I ask.
“No,” she says quietly. Turning to the side, she grabs another pillow and adds it beneath her head, propping herself up. “I just want to watch.”
“Watch what?”
“Watch you take care of me like this. It’s never happened before.”
Fuck. My heart aches for her past, for what she’s been through. The fact that she just wants to see someone tend to her, like the mere concept is something spectacular and not a given, rips my soul straight out of my chest.
I swallow down the lump in my throat and give her a tight smile. “Okay, Pey. Watch me take care of you the way you deserve.”
I slowly pull down the comforter, exposing her body, and goosebumps prick at her skin. Gently pushing on the inside of her knee, I unclench the washcloth in my hand, and she lets her legs fall open.
I hear her sigh when I run the warm washcloth along her inner thighs. This is a different realm of intimacy. It’s comfort, tenderness, and so much fucking vulnerability. When I glance up, she’s watching intently. I turn the washcloth over and pass it over her center.
“You’re so sweet, huh?”
“Yeah,” she breathes. “Sweet just for you.”
Tossing the washcloth in her laundry basket, I kiss the top of her trimmed hair and stand again.
After pumping some lotion into my hand, I massage it over her lower stomach, where I pressed her down earlier.
When I’m done soothing that spot, I rub lotion across her rib cage, on her sides, on her breasts.
I lift her hand and give her palm a kiss.
“How’re we feeling, honey?” I ask, dotting the tip of her nose with a dollop of lotion.
She laughs and tugs me down to the bed next to her. “I feel properly cared for.”
I cup her jaw. “This isn’t going to be remarkable for us, Peyton. Me, taking care of you like this. It’s going to be normal. So normal, that one day, you’ll be too bored to watch. Got it?”
“Got it.” She presses her lips against mine. “But, Callum?”
“Hm?”
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be too bored to watch.”
Words sit at the tip of my tongue, impatient to break free. I almost say them, but then Peyton yawns. She looks so peaceful and drowsy that I can’t bring myself to start another conversation—especially one this big.
She snuggles up against me, head notched below my chin. Her full lips graze my throat. I study the way the strands of her hair lift when I exhale and think about how there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her just like this. To keep her, period.
I drift off to sleep with Peyton in my arms.