The dryer hummed softly in the background, rain still tapping against the windows. The air between us felt like itmight tip into something more, but then Maisie shifted on the couch, pulling her knees tighter against her chest.
“Callum…” Her voice wavered. “There’s something you need to know, and I don’t know how to tell you.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
She looked like she might break as her mouth opened and closed. She fidgeted with the hem of my shirt, and she wouldn’t quite meet my eyes.
I leaned a little closer. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
Her gaze lifted then, and strangely, she lookedscared, like she was about to hand me something big and wasn’t sure she trusted how I would react to it. Maybe it was selfish, but I couldn’t sit here for one more second waiting for her to change her mind.
I’d been holding back with her for weeks, telling myself not to cross the line. Even at the hotel, I didn’t let myself go too far because someone could’ve knocked on the door at any moment. I wasn’t used to being this exposed, but it was just us now and the way she was looking at me said she might believe that I’d changed but she wasn’t sure.
I needed her to know that she could trust me. That she could let me in. I hated that she wasn’t sure about me, but I got it. Back at Cal Poly, I’d been such a shithead, but I was desperate to prove to her that I was all in on her and Brody. I wasn’t going to insert myself into their lives and just suddenly disappear.
Slowly lifting my hands, I took her face between my palms and surged toward her. People said actions spoke louder than words, and I’d tried words. They hadn’t worked, so maybe it was time to stop holding back and try actions instead.
With no hesitation whatsoever, I kissed her, hoping to show her that I was in this thing with her. I wanted her just as much as I had back then—if not more. She froze for half a beat, but then,she kissed me back. My hand slid up to the side of her neck, her hair damp against my palm.
None of this was careful or polished. It was rough around the edges, but it was real, and now that I’d started, I knew I wasn’t letting her go. Not until she believed with every ounce of her being that even the dickhead I used to be now belonged to her.
CHAPTER 26
MAISIE
The moment Callum’s lips claimed mine, everything else just vanished from my brain. The truth had been right on the tip of my tongue and I knew I should’ve pushed him away instead of pulling him closer. I knew I should’ve broken the kiss and gotten on with things.
I didn’t, though.
For the last eight years, that was all I’d done. I’d gotten on with things, making the responsible choices and never allowing myself to drop the ball. Right now, I didn’t want to do that.
Callum’s kisses reminded me of what it had been like to just be a girl who wanted a boy more than anything. With every stroke of his tongue against my own, I felt more like a woman than I probably ever had, and maybe it was selfish—hell, it definitely was selfish—but I didn’t wrench my mouth away from his.
Instead, I wrapped my arms around his neck. What had happened that night, the reason I’d walked away with a tiny little part of him taking root deep inside me, was just as much my fault as it was his.
I didn’t resent him for that. I also had never complained about the sacrifices I’d made. I’d made them willingly and that had been that, but just for tonight, I was going to be selfish.
Callum groaned into my mouth, cementing my decision when the sound made me feel things I hadn’t felt for years. Fully surrendering to the intimacy of just getting to be with him tonight, which had been a surprisingly romantic date for a Halloween festival, I stroked my fingers into that thick dark hair, like I’d been itching to do again for almost a decade, and held him to me.
I kissed him back just as eagerly as he was kissing me, moaning when I felt his knee dip into the cushion as he positioned himself to lay me back. He pressed me down until my back was sinking into the couch, pressing his chest against mine but holding most of his weight on his elbows.
Everything he was doing made me tingle with desire, from the way he was nipping at my lips between kisses to the way he held me so I could feel the strong muscles in his arms flex under the fabric of his shirt. He ran the flat of his hand along my side, sliding a thigh between both of mine.
I gasped into his mouth when he let it settle between my legs, the solid muscle hard and warm where I needed it most. If I’d been in my right mind, I probably would’ve held back, but I wasn’t and I didn’t care to go looking for logic or inhibitions right now.
Callum had made me feel this way that first time we’d been together too, like absolutely nothing else mattered. The man had a way of robbing me of every thought and leaving me with only fiery desire coursing through my veins.
Especially when he kissed me like he was now, like he was so completely consumed by me that a bomb could go off next to us and he wouldn’t even notice. He just had this way of making mefeel like nothing existed outside of us and honestly I was here for it.
“I want you,” I whispered into his mouth, tightening my grip on his hair and opening my eyes to look at him.
Surprise registered in his eyes. He groaned and buried his face in the crook my neck. “I want you too, Mais, but we can wait. There’s no rush.”
“There is a rush,” I murmured, rolling my hips against his and gasping at the spark of pleasure that raced through me when I felt him rock hard under his jeans. “You want this. I want it. Why wait?”
Another throaty groan rolled out of him, but when he lifted his head, it wasn’t to argue or try to talk me out of it. Instead, he pressed another hot kiss on my lips and then sat back, but only for long enough to climb off the couch, bend over, and pick me up as if I weighed nothing.
Surprised laughter bubbled out of me. I grabbed hold of the back of his shirt to steady myself. “What are you doing?”
