I groaned, forehead dropping to her shoulder. “They’ve got the worst fucking timing.”
“You think they’re okay?” she panted.
“Perhaps for now,” I muttered. “But if this isn’t an emergency, they’re gonna wish they weren’t.”
She whimpered again as I finally—reluctantly—peeled myself off her, my hand withdrawing with disappointed curses from the both of us.
I kissed her one last time, slow and filthy and filled with all the promises I fully intended to keep.
Then I reached for my phone. “Let’s see what fresh hell they’ve dragged us into now.”
We were still halfon the rug when the world tried to claw its way back in.
The back doors were open, letting in the sound of the sea and that lazy, late-afternoon breeze. My back was pressed to the plush, furry rug, Callum’s thighs warm against mine as he sat back on his heels, my heartbeat finally slowing from the way he’d just decided to make good on the phraselegally bindingwith his mouth.
And disrupting our peace was Marco and Ivy, currently calling us. My hand closed around my phone just as Callum grabbed his.
If either of them were calling in an emergency, then they thought it was worthy of interrupting our… whatever this was. Honeymoon. Sexcapades. Emotional recovery program with benefits.
Callum and I shared one last look—braced, reluctant, still a little stupid with sun and sex—and then I hit accept.
“What did I say about ignoring my emergencies?” Ivy snapped, not even bothering with hello. “Don’t answer that, I don’t have time. Are you in a place where you can talk?”
I glanced around the suite. Open doors. Empty room. Callum straddling me, already speaking to Marco in a hushed tone and watching me carefully.
“Bonjour to you too, Brit. I’m in our living room with an emotionally compromised Callum and limited clothing,” I said. “So yes. Very secure. And you better have a good reason for interrupting a magical weenie moment.”
“Good enough,” she said, clipped—contained, not angry. Then she exhaled, but I could hear the amusement in that sound. That was how she sounded when she was trying not to panic. “There have been rumors.”
I sat up a little, my stomach dipping. “Rumors about what?”
Callum scrubbed a hand over his face. “No, mate, start again,” he said into his phone, exasperation soft. “From the top. What did you do?”
In the background of his call, I heard Marco’s dramatic wail. Callum winced and pulled the phone away from his ear to switch to speakerphone. “It was an accident, Fraser, I swear on my Nonna’s grave?—”
“Okay, listen. Don’t freak out,” Ivy said, snapping my attention back to her. I put her on speaker as well.
“Perfect way to guarantee I will,” I muttered.
“Right,” she huffed. “Rumors about you, babe. And about Scottie. About where you are, why you two disappeared. I’ve been working on it, trust me. I didn’t want to bother you while you were on holiday, but?—”
“But I’m the fucking problem,” Marco’s voice cut in from Callum’s speaker, way too loud. “Apparently.”
“Oh, so we can all hear each other,” Ivy said. “Perfect. Saves me the trouble of repeating myself when I strangle him.”
Callum dragged his hand down his face. “What did you do, Marco?”
We both shifted at the same time, like muscle memory. Callum tipped sideways onto his hip and stretched out on the rug, and I mirrored him, propping myself up on my elbows so we were facing each other. He set his phone in the narrow strip of space between us, I dropped mine beside it, the two screens almost touching. Our forearms brushed, knees bumping, the four-way call suddenly feeling weirdly domestic, like we’d just laid our problems in the middle of the rug with our phones and decided to deal with them together.
“Okay,” Marco said, and I could hear him gearing up, the way he always did before a corner he wasn’t sure about. “Okay, so, in my defense, I didn’t think twice when Dom asked me where you guys went for your sexcation?—”
There was a beat where my brain just… stopped.
“Ourwhat?” Callum and I said simultaneously.
“Your sexcation,” Marco repeated, as ifwewere the idiots. “You know. Vacation, but with more?—”
“If you finish that sentence, I will end you,” Ivy said.
