22. Callum
CALLUM
That certainty I felt earlier tonight sharpens.
Like a sketch colored in at last, the lines drawn more clearly now. And I can see everything my friends and family have been trying to tell me for weeks.
But the advice he gave me the other week. The advice that drove me to set up tonight.
Maybe you’re looking at the risk the wrong way.
That’s what led me to this moment. Because I thought the risk was letting her live out her fantasies with someone else. Letting her experience them in a way that wasn’t safe.
So, I did it.
I set it up.
I made it happen, thinking the risk was all about her safety.
But the real risk would be letting her get away. Watching her slip through my fingers.
So I take another step toward this new certainty, moving my lips across her neck, dusting a tender kiss there, then reaching her ear. “Can I stay the night with you?”
It’s a simple question.
But it’s also so much more.
Slowly she turns her gaze to me, her blue eyes soft and full of warmth. “Off the clock?”
I close my eyes momentarily, letting the enormity of this choice wash over me. Letting it sink into every cell in my body. When I open them, I nod. “Yes, off the clock.”
She raises her hands, slides them up my chest, and cups my cheeks. “I want you to stay every night.”
And I melt into her, dropping my lips to hers and kissing her like there’s no one else around for miles.
Soon, though, a throat clears.
I break the kiss.
Stone stares at us with wide eyes. “Get a room. There is a whole giant hotel here. Get a freaking room, you two.”
Jackson laughs as well. “For once, I agree with him.”
Ivy knits her brow, looking from Stone to me, and back to Stone. “But . . .”
Maybe she doesn’t want to say more in front of Jackson, but I can’t imagine he doesn’t know what Stone has been up to.
Stone stretches his arms above his head, his whole body sliding into repose as he yawns. “I’m all good, kids. Concerts wear me the hell out. I’m ready to hit the hay. Looks like you two have unfinished business.”
And we do.
But that unfinished business is not in the bedroom.
When we reach Ivy’s suite, I nod crisply at the guy in the suit working the overnight shift.
The guard nods back.
That’s all. No words.
None are needed. I’m off-duty. I’m not entering her suite as her bodyguard.
Yet, in some ways, I always will be.
That’s what I want her to know. That’s what I need to tell her.
I lock the door, then pick her up in my arms, carrying her to the bedroom as she laughs, swinging playful fists at my chest.
“Why are you carrying me?”
“Because I can,” I smirk.
“Fine. Be that way,” she says with a pretend pout.
When we reach her bedroom, I bring her to the mattress gently lowering her to the covers. I slide off her shoes. “Do you care that we’re here in the bedroom? Where the three of us were before?”
She laughs, shaking her head. “No. All I care about is that I’m with you.”
“Good.” I kick off my shoes and crawl onto the bed, moving on top of her, pushing up on my arms. I meet her eyes and take a deep, fueling breath.
Getting here was hard. Deciding was rough. But saying the words, speaking from the heart?
It’s easy, so easy. “Ivy, the other time we were together, I said I didn’t think I could do my job of protecting you if I was with you the way I wanted to be.”
“I remember.”
“And that was true. At first. But then I realized something over these last few weeks when I went home alone every night.”
“What did you realize?” she asks, her eyes full of trust, full of love.
“I didn’t want to be alone. I didn’t want to be without you.”
“I don’t want you to leave me at the end of the night either.”
With one hand, I stroke her jaw, her cheek, savoring the softness of her skin. “I won’t demean keeping you safe by calling it a job. Keeping you safe is my calling. It’s my mission. But not as your bodyguard.”
She trembles under me, swallowing roughly, waiting.
“It’s my mission as the man who is madly in love with you,” I say, my pulse hammering, but in a joyful way, in a way that feels like the release of a burden I’ve wrongly carried.
“Oh, Callum, I’m so in love with you,” she says as her hands slide around my neck and play with my hair.
And my heart pounds mercilessly, thundering against my chest. I’m so grateful I’ve said those words at last. I want to smother her in kisses and make love to her all night long.
But I’m not done. There’s more to say. “I thought I couldn’t do both.
But now I know I will always do both. I have to do both.
I love you so damn much, and it is a privilege to love you like this, and a privilege to keep you safe. Will you let me do both?”
The smile on her face makes my heart sing. “I’ve been in love with you for a long, long time,” she says. “You’re the only one I want. And I love it when you look out for me, and when you love me, and,” she says, a wicked glint in her eyes, “when you let me live out my fantasies.”
I grin back at her. “Then we’ll keep working through your list, my love. But right now, I want you and me only.”
“Same. I want the same.” She nibbles on her lips. “There’s something special I want right now though.”
“Name it.”
“I’m clean, and I’m on protection.”
“Same here.”
“Then I want you bare.”
Soon, we’re dressed in nothing, clothes pooled in a pile on the carpet, my beautiful woman beneath me.
I kiss her tenderly and passionately, letting her know she is my lover and she is my love.
But when she starts moaning and writhing, I know the sweet moments are coming to an end.
And I’m ready to give her what she likes. To put her on her hands and knees.
But she surprises me when she slides her hand between us, reaching for me, gripping my erection. She draws me to her sweet, hot center.
I arch a brow. This doesn’t seem like her. Wanting it like this.
“Callum,” she says, her eyes wide and vulnerable. “I want to look at you. I want you to look at me.”
“That’s what you want?”
She smiles, a little coy. “I think you like looking at me. You always have your eyes on me.”
“You know I can’t get enough of you, beautiful.” I nudge her legs wider, notch the head of my cock against her, and sink inside.
We groan in tandem. We move together.
She’s like water, like fire. And we are tangled up in each other—arms, hands, legs.
Braced on my elbows, I thrust in her, long, slow, luxurious strokes. I’m meeting her gaze. Savoring her beauty, her openness, the way she gives herself to me.
“You feel like mine,” I murmur.
“Because I am.” Her arms slide around my neck as I swivel my hips, reveling in the feel of her like this.
But I can also tell she needs a little more. A little extra. That’s who she is, and I want her to have everything she craves.
“Put those legs up on my shoulders,” I tell her and she obeys instantly, hooking her ankles around my neck.
Like that, I pick up the pace, pumping faster, deeper, eliciting more moans and groans from her.
And I know as good as this is right now, as fantastic as it feels, she needs us a certain way.
It’s time to take her.
And have her.
And mark her.
I slow down, move her ankles off my shoulders, and pull out. I grab her hips, and flip her over onto her hands and knees.
“Down on your elbows, beautiful. Ass in the air. I’m going to fuck you hard and make it hurt.”
She bends her back, lowers herself, and shoots me a naughty and grateful look. “You know what I want.”
“I do. And I promised I’d give it to you. I promised I’d give you everything,” I say, as I rub the crown of my cock against her slippery heat. “And I will.”
Her ass sways, an invitation. A gorgeous invitation to sink into her, to bury myself in her, and take us both to our next release.
I RSVP, filling her to the hilt.
Then, taking everything she has to give, I fuck my woman to the edge of pleasure, making it hurt as I smack her ass, as I tug her hair, as I band a hand around her throat.
Not too tight, but not too loose either.
Just right.
Just right to set her free.
To let her feel everything.
And as my Ivy moans and groans, shouts and cries, I am as certain as I could ever be that breaking my golden rule is the best choice I’ve ever made.
Since it gives me permission too.
To be free. Free to love this woman with everything I have.
After she comes hard, shouting my name, I follow her there, my climax spilling all over her back, just how she likes it. She sinks under me, collapsing, panting, but laughing too.
I flop next to her, spent. “What’s so funny?”
She props her head in her hand, smiling. “I’m laughing because I can. Because I love laughing with you. And I love talking to you. And I love making love to you.”
I draw her in for a gentle kiss. “Then you can have it all.” I run my hand along her side, over the curves of her body. “But let’s clean you up.”
This time when I run a bath, she doesn’t have to ask me to join her. I do it on my own, sinking into the water with her, bringing her into my arms and kissing her hair, her neck, her shoulders.
And savoring every moment to be free at last to love her the way I want.
With everything I have.