Chapter 36
Callie
I think my heart fell out of my ass when Sean said he loves me. I know it was a passing comment and I”m not even sure Sean realised that he’d said it, but the weight of those words falling off his tongue so casually made my heart shudder with pleasure. I really want to tell him that I love him too, that I feel everything he’s feeling and I want him to know how much he means to me. But the words still feel stuck to the roof of my mouth, slowing melting away as each day goes by and I know I’ll be absolutely certain when I”m ready, which isn’t yet.
Dinner with Sean”s parents is going well…I think. I’m still nervous as shit but they’ve both tried their best to put me at ease, keeping the conversation relaxed and making jokes to lighten the heavy weight of nerves that is hurting my shoulders.
My leg continues bobbing for a while before Sean’s heavy palm lands on it, rubbing his thumb across my goose pimpled skin and whispering, “Just relax, it’s ok.”
God I wish I could tell him how much I love him.
After we’ve eaten, Judith leans back in her chair, cherry red wine leaving a residue on her lips when she tips the liquid to her mouth. “Well, I can’t say Sean getting a girlfriend this early into his time at Redwood wasn’t a plot twist.” She titters, tipping her glass up again. “One I certainly didn’t see coming.”
Sean’s warm breath tickles my ear when he leans down, fingers digging into my bare thigh. “You’re the best plot twist I ever had.”
My heart takes off again and I”m sure at this point it’s left my body entirely and made it’s home in his. I try not to smile, really I do but my face cracks without my permission and I reward Sean with a beam so bright it most likely blinds him.
“Yeah, it was a plot twist for me too, considering I had a different boyfriend at the start of this year.” I murmur, sinking my claws into Sean’s hand where it rests on my thigh under the cover of the table.
Sean scoffs loudly. “Yeah, he’s probably one of the biggest pricks I”ve ever met…and I”ve met a lot of pricks in my life.”
“Sean, I don’t care for your choice of language.” Judith says, throwing him a disciplinary look before she leans towards me across the table, using her wine glass to shield her mouth from the men. “I bet he was a prick though…he was wasn’t he?”
I burst into laughter and feel my muscles relinquish their tensing for the first time all evening. Judith joins me, tittering and downing the last mouthful of ruby wine before shifting into a more comfortable position in her seat.
The restaurant is quickly becoming quieter as the dinner rush dissipates and the only people left are us and a few other tables of people having late night drinks to wind down. The quiet murmur of voices is like white noise, forcing my mind to stop it”s whirring and overthinking.
“So,” Judith starts again and Sean’s dad rolls his eyes, a ‘does she ever shut up?’ Look in his twinkling eye when he flickers a smile at me. “Tell me all about your family Callie, I know your dad is Sean’s coach.” I nod and take a quick sip of my wine. “Yeah, he is. We’ve never been particularly close but I do try my best to make him proud.” Sean gives my thigh a reassuring squeeze and his cold lips find my bare shoulder. “I’m much closer to my mum, I”m an only child so the two of us spent massive amounts of time alone together when I was growing up, you know, with my dad travelling a lot for work.”
“What does your mum do then? Does she live close by?” Judith asks totally innocently, but Sean and I tense up in unison.
I don’t want to feel like I can never talk to people about my mum, it’s just like an aching pain residing in my chest when I think about her looming fate.
I swallow the tears and clear my throat. “My mum isn’t working right now, she—”
“Stop.” Sean says, his arm coming around my shoulder, hauling me closer to him. “She doesn’t want to talk about that Mum.” His eyes are worried, his palm on my shoulder lightly like he thinks I might shatter into a million pieces if he holds me too tightly.
“It’s ok,” I tilt my face up to his, purposefully softening my eyes and holding his for a beat. “I don’t mind.” I nod as he releases me, his protective sizzle still lingering on my skin after his palm has left. Sean’s mum grabs his dad’s arm and points at her son. “He’s such a gentleman, are you sure he’s yours Ken?”
Ken rolls his eyes again — I think him and I could be kindred spirits — and rubs a hand down his face, looking like a mirror image of his son. “Jesus Christ, I can’t win can I? When he used to fuck around with loads of women you used to say he was definitely mine!”
Judith stifles a laugh along with Sean and I. “Yeah well, now I”m not so sure.” She snickers and I force my laugh down my throat.
After another hour and a half, plus a whole other bottle of wine between us all — minus Sean who is designated driver and refuses to touch a drop when he has me in his car — we finish off our last few sips. I tilt my glass to my lips, letting the last few droplets run down my throat, except one that escapes down my chin and lands in-between my breasts, trailing down towards the crevice of my cleavage.
“Shit,” I murmur, reaching for a napkin, but before I can catch the droplet and wipe it away Sean’s tight grip comes around my wrist.
He shakes his head and a sultry look clouds his chocolate eyes. “Don’t. Anything that ends up between those is mine.”
I watch him, speechless and utterly choked as he dips his face into my neckline and swipes the droplet of red wine away with his tongue. I try to hide my red cheeks when I look up at his parents again, fully expecting their faces to be white with shock and disgust, but instead I”m greeted with a tired eye roll from Judith and a wink in Sean’s direction from Ken. What the fuck is going on?
Instead of saying something, using my big girl words like the 21 year old woman I am, I opt for playing dumb instead, standing up from my chair like Sean didn’t just practically suck my nipple in front of his parents, and getting my coat. Sean holds it out for me, an innocent grin spanning his dimpled face and I know in his cave man brain that he sees nothing wrong with what he just did. I on the other hand am currently suffering from mind numbing embarrassment as we walk outside to our cars and wave goodbye to Sean’s parents.
The drive home is quiet, I”m quiet because I”m mad at him and I know he senses it because he tries to hold my hand and make conversation with me, but I am determined to stay in a sulk at least until we get home and I can let rip on him. When I do let my eyes fall onto Sean his face is tense with suppressed laughter, not with worry or anxiety like it ought to be, he’s finding this shit funny. He’s not going to be laughing though, not when we get home.
The second we step through the door my hand connects with the back of his head with a slap.
“Ow!” He spins around and looks at me, wide eyed and confused. “What the hell was that for?”
I jut my hip and look at him with fire burning behind my eyes, sarcasm filtering through as usual. “Sean Taylor, do you have a death wish?” Sean rubs the back of his neck nervously and glances over to the living room where Kyle and Lewis are sat, their headsets covering their ears as they fight their cartoon men on the screen. I know they’re listening to our argument though, I can tell by the way their shoulders straighten and they readjust their headphones, tilting them slightly to let the sounds of mine and Sean’s voices through.
Sean holds his hands up. “I feel like whatever I say right now is going to be wrong, so why don’t you just tell me what I did and I can fix it baby.” Urgh, this man is insufferable at times.
“Don’t you dare baby me, Taylor!” I’m raising my voice a little now, drawing even more attention from the earwigs on the couch. “You stuck your tongue between my tits in front of your parents!”
Kyle is the first to spin around, so fast his head almost falls off his shoulders. “I’m sorry, you did what?”
I nod at him, my eyebrows high on my forehead as I gesture for Sean to explain himself. His guilty eyes find Kyle, then me, then Lewis, desperately looking for help, but he’s not going to find any, not from them. “You’re mad about that?” He says and I gape at his stupidity, of course I”m fucking mad about that. “I thought it would make you want my cock when we got home.”
I didn’t think he could drive me any more insane that he usually does, but this takes the biscuit.
Kyle and Lewis quickly retreat to their game when I hit them between the eyes with a ‘mind your own damn business’ scowl and turn back to Sean, moving closer to him and lowering my voice an entire octave. “Usually it would,” I hiss, watching his confused eyes follow mine as they climb up his annoyingly beautiful face. “If your mum and dad weren’t watching it happen.”
He grins widely, the usual cockiness back. “They didn’t mind.” “Yes, but I did Sean,” I groan and rake my fingers through my curls with frustration. “You just love to embarrass me don’t you?”
His face softens but he grips my waist tightly, shrugging. “Kind of,” his grin splits his face, “you’re so cute when you turn pink.”
I bang my palms firmly against his chest and fold my arms, huffing and turning my face back to the living room, pretending to be interested in the mind numbing game the guys are playing. But Sean’s arms quickly circle me, hauling me back into him and pressing a tight kiss to my lips before I can protest. Not that I want to, I always want to kiss him, even when I”m mad.
“You’re my favourite person in the entire world.” He murmurs against my lips and my annoyance with him melts into the carpet at my feet. I try to keep hold of it as it fights against me, tugging at my heart strings when his deep dimples make themselves known again. It’s so hard to be mad at that face. I try to huff and cross my arms again, shrugging out of his grip and taking a step back, frown still pulling my mouth down at the corners.
Sean sighs. “You still in a mood?” I nod, face like thunder. “Fine, you asked for it.”
I watch as a devilish grin takes over his usually bright one and I see his muscles tense beneath his shirt as he begins to prowl towards me like an animal.
“Sean, no—” I start but it’s too late, he has me flung over his shoulder like a sack of feathers quicker than I can blink.
He breathes a heavy laugh. “I guess I’ll have to fuck the sass out of you then.”
My thighs clench automatically and I relax over his shoulder, happy to let him fuck every fiery flame out of me until I crumple into a pile of ashes.