Chapter 19 #2
I shrug and start clearing my dinner from the table. “About a year.”
“A year!” She pulls back. “Who was he?”
“Some guy who worked for you.” I gesture to her plate. “You gonna finish eating that?”
“Um…” She assesses her meal. “No, I can’t eat after that.”
“Sorry. You asked.”
She stands and helps me with the dishes. She seems to be deep in thought for the first five minutes. I stay quiet so she can work out what I told her. I’m sure the information is overwhelming.
Once we’re done, she turns to me. “Why didn’t you just tell me you didn’t cheat on me? It would’ve changed everything.”
“Lily, we’ve been through this, and the answer is the same. Leon was…in control.”
She wraps her arms around my neck and gives me a long hug. Who knew such a small gesture could wipe away my climbing nerves?
I bend down, my lips finding hers. She moans and sinks into me. This is all I need. Me holding her and making all our wrongs right between us.
She breaks away, her smoldering gaze telling me everything she’s thinking.
“Callum, take me to bed and let’s forget the past. It doesn’t matter.”
“Now you’re speaking my language.” I take her by the hand and lead her upstairs.
The heat still clings to the walls when we step into the bedroom, even though it’s past eight. Pacific Palisades summers don’t cool down easily.
I shut the door behind us. Livianna unpins her hair, letting it fall in waves past her shoulders. She’s wearing that silk camisole I like, the one that’s the color of champagne.
“Jesus, I’m sticky.” She sighs as she pulls the fabric away from her skin. “I need a shower.”
“Come here first.” My voice comes out low and husky.
She turns, expectant, and I cross the space between us. The room is dim, with only the evening light spilling across the floor. I slide my hands up her arms. The softness of her skin makes me melt.
“What?” She’s already smiling.
I don’t answer. I trace my thumbs along her collarbones and down, over the silk covering her breasts. She breathes in, sharp and ready. When my thumbs find her nipples through the thin material, already hard against my touch, I pull.
Not hard. Just enough to see how much she likes it.
“Callum.” Her head falls back, throat exposed, and she groans. The vibration shoots straight to my cock.
“Vixen, you’re killing me.”
“Again,” she whispers.
I pinch harder this time, rolling them between my fingers until she’s gasping, gripping my forearms. The sensation of the silk is pure friction and heat, an unstoppable force that propels me forward. Her face crumples with pleasure, her mouth falling open.
“Callum, that feels so good.”
I strip the camisole over her head in one motion. Her body is bare, the California tan revealing the shape of her breasts. I bend and take one nipple into my mouth, sucking hard, then catch it between my teeth and tug.
“God, yes.” She moans again, arching into me.
I guide her toward the bed. The backs of her knees hit the mattress, and she tumbles back, pulling me with her. She impatiently scrambles to undo my board shorts, her fingers fumbling in the way I love because it means she’s desperate.
“Your mouth.” She moves my head back to her breast. “Do that again.”
I do. I pinch one while I suck the other, alternating until she’s squirming beneath me, her thighs bracketing my hips. She’s panting and gasping. It undoes me.
When I bite, she cries out and grinds up against me.
“You like that, vixen?”
“Yes,” she breathes.
I sit back just enough to shove my pants down, then her skirt. She’s wet when I touch her, slick and ready, and she lifts her hips to meet my fingers. But I pull back, wanting to feel her around me more than anything else.
“Look at me, Lily.”
Her dark and glazed eyes open. I push into her in one smooth thrust, and we both groan. She’s tight and hot, and I’m not gonna last if she keeps clenching around me like she is.
I start moving, slow and deep, and lean down to capture her mouth. Her legs wrap around my waist, pulling me further into her. Her heels dig into my lower back.
“Harder.” She nips at my lips. “And touch me there.”
I adjust my angle and keep my thumb on her clit, circling in time with my thrusts. She climbs fast. I know this by the way her nails score my shoulders, and the way she goes still and tense just before the fall.
“Callum…” She comes with my name breaking across her lips, her body gripping me so tight I see stars.
I follow her over, burying my face in her neck where the sweat has gathered, smelling salt, sex, and her.
I chuckle. “I think that’s our record.”
“Record?”
“Yeah. That must have been the fastest we’ve both come.”
She giggles. “That just means we’ll be ready for more after I take a shower.”
“I love how you think.”
We lie tangled in the sheets for a few minutes. The ceiling fan turns lazy circles above us. She traces patterns on my chest, her touch feather-light.
“Shower?” she murmurs, but she doesn’t move.
“Eventually.” I pull her closer.
Outside, the Pacific crashes against the cliffs, constant and soothing. But in here it’s just us, breathing hard, sweat cooling on our skin, and summer heat pressing against the glass like it wants in.
I kiss her on the forehead. “What are you thinking about?”
“Honestly?” She peeks up at me.
“Yeah.”
“It’s strange to know I’ve been with somebody other than you.”
“Not what I was hoping you were thinking about.”
“No, it’s not like that.” She sits up, pulling the sheets with her. “You’ve been with other women, and that’s fine. But the difference is, you remember them. I don’t. In my mind, it’s only been you. It’s weird.”
“Don’t assume, Lily.” I scoot up to the headboard and rest against it. “You think I remember those times that weren’t with you? Because I don’t.”
“Really?”
“Really.” All those fucked up times on Floating V rain over me.
Rage erupts in me. I flip the covers off me and march off to the shower. Now it’s me who needs to bathe. I turn the water to hot and wait until it can burn the filth off me.
“Callum?” She runs her palm over my back and tries to catch my gaze. “Why are you so upset?”