Chapter 23 #2
Ishouldn’t be surprised.
Calla, I’ve come to realise, is able to win over just about anyone. But it’s almost scary how easily she slips into the Millen family fold.
It’s like she’s always been a part of it.
Of us.
Of course, she already knows Giselle, but she and Delilah find a common interest in fashion and overpriced sugary coffee – if you can even call it that – and their love of animals.
Calla cracks jokes with Grey and Hudson; her quick wit reeling out jibes as fast as they come in, a permanent grin etched across her soft lips.
I chow down on the last of my chicken chow mein, my heart so full it feels fit to bursting.
This – all of us being together – it feels so right I can’t even fully begin to explain.
As the evening starts to turn into night, Grey and a yawning Delilah bid goodbye first, the girls promising to meet up for dinner in the next coming weeks.
Gee and Hudson stay another hour or so before they leave, their wandering hands all over each other’s waists and necks telling me exactly what they’ll be getting up to when they get back to Hudson’s apartment.
I close the door behind them, turning around to find Calla watching me from over the back of the sofa, her beer bottle poised at her lips. Heat rises, crawling up the back of my neck, making my heart race and my cock kick in my tracksuit bottoms.
I can’t help it when she looks at me like that.
Nor I can help zero-ing in on her lips, imagining them on me instead of on that damn bottle.
“Have you been in the hot tub yet?”
I shake my head, swallowing thickly. Now that I’m officially a resident in this apartment building, I’m allowed to use the facilities – including a gym and hot tub – free of charge.
“Wanna dip with me?”
I’d be an idiot to say no.
Iscan my key card to be allowed entry, pushing the door open to reveal an open plan space permeated with the faint, but familiar, scent of chlorine.
A large hot tub, easily big enough to accommodate five or six people comfortably, sits centre stage, it’s water an inviting blue colour created by the teal and green floor tiles.
I waste no time in stripping off my clothes, leaving them in a pile upon the dry tiles before stepping into the warm water. Chlorine and the scent of cleaning bleach tickles my nose as I bend my knees and sink lower, allowing the water to flow up to my upper chest.
The clink of the champagne bottle, creating contact with the lip of the ceramic hot tub, is loud in the otherwise silent space as Calla sets it down; not a single soul other than the two of us around.
I watch, arms spread wide, resting out of the water, as Calla shimmy’s out of her dress, revealing a white strapless bikini top and a tiny pair of bottoms, tied at her hips into pretty little bows that I want to undo with my teeth.
“How long have you been planning this?” I ask, feeling my cock thicken in my swimming trunks at the sight of Calla stepping into the tub, noticing her dainty feet painted a pastel pink.
“Not long.”
She sinks to sit opposite me, her slim fingers reaching for the bottle of bubbly.
“The bikini…”
Calla pops her shoulders, never taking her eyes from mine when she swallows back a mouthful of alcohol. “Shot in the dark.”
I hum, low in my throat, reaching forward to steal the bottle from her, grinning when our fingertips tangling together.
“Wanna play a game?”
Calla’s brows raise in surprise, but she nods leaning back against the lip. The slight movement pushes out her tits, causing my cock to pulse.
“Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
I lick my lips. “How’s McAvoy been treating you?”
“Like shit. Truth or dare?”
My jaw feathers. “Calla…”
“Truth or dare?” She reaches for the bottle, hissing when I pull it out of her hands.
“We’re not done talking about McAvoy, sunshine.”
“Really?” Calla tips her head to one side appraisingly. “I’m not quite sure that’s how truth or dare works. I thought it was only one answer per question.”
I grin. “Not when I play. Tell me what he’s been doing.”
Huffing, Calla sits back, crossing her arms under her tits. I watch three droplets of water carve a path down her chest, disappearing beneath her thin bikini top. If you can even call it that.
“It’s nothing all that bad,” she says, pressing her lips together until they form a line. “Just a few comments here and there. Digging at my work, making me stay back later. The usual.”
“What comments?”
Calla shakes her head, her eyes fixed on the bubbles and foam frothing around us.
Anger creeps to the surface of my skin, creating a fire in my stomach and warmth in my veins.
What the fuck has the prick been saying to Calla this week?
God, I wanna storm down there and knock his head from his shoulders for even mentioning her name in his smug mouth.
“Do you think he’s punishing you for us… being together?”
“I don’t know. I really thought…”
“You really thought what?”
Calla raises her eyes to meet mine. “That he’d leave me alone once he saw the two of us together. But apparently not.”
Inside my chest, my heart does a strange swoop.
“So, where does that leave us?”
Calla twists her lips to the side, peering at me. “Wherever we want it to leave us, I suppose.”
I can’t help but grin. “I like the sound of that.”
“Me too. Truth or dare, Blake?”
I pick dare, much to Calla’s surprise, revealing the strangest place I’ve ever had sex. Calla tips her head back and laughs loudly when I tell her I’d have to say somebody’s office while at an important event gala.
“You’re lying.” She grins, flicking water at me with her fingertips.
“I’m not,” I promise, my own smile mirroring hers. “You’ve corrupted me, sunshine.”
“In a good way, though?”
“In the best way. Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?”
“Anywhere?”
I nod. “Anywhere.”
“I’d be here.”
I furrow my brows. “But you could be anywhere…”
“I know.” Calla smiles softly, taking a small sip of champagne. “But I’d like to be here. With you. My turn: truth or dare, Blake?”
“Truth,” I utter, my lips practically numb.
“What’s your biggest regret?”
“Easy.” I swallow. “Not asking for your number the first time I met you. Or the morning after. Or the third time.”
Calla smirks. “You mean when we fucked on your new kitchen counters?”
I tip the neck of the bottle towards her before taking a mouthful, wiping the froth from my lips with the back of my hand. “Those very ones.”
“So, why didn’t you?”
“I was scared you’d turn me down,” I answer honestly, peering at Calla to catalogue her reaction.
“Only the stupidest girl in the world would turn you down, Blake. Do you think I’m stupid?”
I shake my head wordlessly.
“There you go, then. Your turn.”
“Truth or dare, Calla?”
Her eyes crinkles at the edges as she grins. “Is it boring if I pick another truth?”
“With you? Nothing is ever boring, sunshine. What’s the dream?”
“The dream…” Calla spreads her arms out wide, side to side, mirroring my posture, tipping her head back so she can stare up at the tiled ceiling. “To be happy.”
“Mhm.”
“To wake up every day in love, feeling safe, wanted, secure. To be able to brew a cup of tea and drink it outside, the sun on my face, looking out at my acre or two of land somewhere, messy children and animals running about the place and be able to say I did it. I achieved my dream. I created a type of freedom you can’t possibly buy. ”
I feel my eyes widen and my throat thicken. “You want children?”
“Yeah.” Calla sits up suddenly, causing the water to slosh about our chests. “Is that so surprising?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I didn’t mean to sound so surprised, I just… I thought you’d want to be out there travelling the world.”
“I used to think so too, but my dreams changed as I got older. It’s just one of those things, isn’t it? Would you like to travel?”
“Nah.” I swallow back three large mouthfuls of champagne, feeling it fizz as it slides down my throat with ease, before hitting my stomach. “I want what you want. A big house. Children. A wife. Someplace to put down roots, so I can stop running, chasing things that aren’t meant to be.”
Calla smiles at that, taking back the bottle. “Ask me.”
“Truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
The rest of the champagne dwindles as Calla and I trade truths and dares back and forth, our skin pruning up and our cheeks beginning to ache with laughter.
With hardly but a mouthful left I gesture for Calla to take the last swig, but she waves me off. “You have it.”
Tipping the bottle to my lips I collect the last of the dregs, but I don’t swallow, instead grabbing Calla’s hand and urging her to sit on my lap.
Giggling sweetly, she does so without hesitation, wrapping her legs around the base of my spine and sinking into my body.
My cock presses between us, bare from the last dare I did in which Calla dared me to strip.
I buck my hips up, shuddering with pleasure, when I feel Calla’s bikini covered pussy graze over my length.
Gently gripping her jaw in my large palm, I squeeze my thumb and forefinger into Calla’s cheeks, creating puffy fish-like lips.
She gets the memo, diligently parting her lips, tongue flat, allowing me to seal my lips to hers and spit the champagne into her mouth.
Her swallow is loud, echoing from the tiles.
Almost as loud as the moan I pull from her when I fuse our mouths together, sliding my tongue against hers and then licking a path down the length of her neck
“Is this okay?” I mumble into her skin, laving at the sweet spot beneath her ear before I sink my teeth into the flesh.
“Fucking more than okay,” she whines, grinding down on me until I swear my vision goes spotty. “Don’t you dare stop.”
Ecstasy running though my veins, I tug down the cups of Calla’s bikini top, capturing a hard nipple in my mouth.
Calla’s hands land in my hair, carding through the wet strands, keeping me close to her as her back arches with pleasure, the ends of her sweet ponytail dragging across the surface of the water.