I would neveralmost fell from her lips, but she’d sworn not to lie to Alicia.“There are a lot of valid reasons I never slept with him, starting with the fact that he has never seen me as a woman.”
“Huh.”Alicia cut her chicken with the side of her fork and mixed it with rice.“He doesn’t like it when I follow around his coworkers and make suggestions.”
Grace snickered.“I bet not.”
They both heard heavy footsteps ascend the stairs before a knock sounded against the partially ajar door.He stepped in.
“Speak of the devil.”Alicia grinned, then gestured toward the floor.“Any updates from the nosy Nellies paging through my romance novels for secret cameras?”
“Actually, I have good news.”
Hope swelled in her chest.“They didn’t find anything?”
“Not a damn thing.At least on the inside.Outside will take a while longer.”
Relief flooded Alicia’s face.“Good.I didn’t want to burn my house down and salt a circle around it.How was dinner?”
“Unbelievable.Thank you.”He stepped into the room and eyed the bright walls and frilly curtains.Sherlock followed him and jumped onto the bed beside Grace.“He’s been keeping an eye on me the whole time.”
“As he should,” Alicia said.“But if he didn’t trust you, or he sensed I didn’t, he wouldn’t just follow you.He’d be making your life miserable.”
His eyebrows arched, as if he couldn’t fathom how that would work.He said to the cat, “Guess I’m glad we’re good, little guy.”He wandered over to the floating bookshelf.“That’s a wild range of books.”
Romance novels.Hardboiled mysteries.Children’s classics.New age nonfiction.None matched in genre, size, or color, yet somehow looked as if Alicia had handpicked each book for its aesthetic quality.He pulledThe Wind in the Willowsoff the shelf and ran his thumb over the worn pages.“Ever read it?”
“Of course,” Alicia said.
Sheepishly, Grace laughed.“Not me.”
Alicia studied the book for an extra second, took another bite of her chicken, then scooped Sherlock into her arms.With her free hand, she stacked her silverware and grabbed her plate.“I’m going to let you two talk.”
He returned the book.“I didn’t mean to interrupt.You don’t have to—”
“I have a couple of things I need to do after your people touched every single thing I own.”Alicia shut the door behind her.
The bedroom suddenly felt too small for her and Callum.Somehow, sitting on a perfectly made bed covered with her computer and dinner felt too intimate.Grace focused her attention on the chicken and rice and toyed with her fork.
“Can I sit?”He gestured to the chair Alicia had abandoned by the bed.
“Sure.”
He inched it back and sat at ease with everything around him, the counterpoint to the anxious, exposed energy that vibrated inside her.His knees pressed against the covers.She noticed the powerful muscles in his thighs and the way his shirt clung to his stomach.Callum stretched, tipped the chair onto its back legs as he inhaled so deeply she saw his chest expand.“It’s been a long day.”
Tongue-tied, she blinked at a loss for words.His tight muscles didn’t match his casual demeanor.She could think of nothing except how she would fit so perfectly in his arms.Grace pulled in a shaky breath and dropped her gaze back to her dinner.“Not even a full day since I maced you.”
Callum laughed and rubbed his face as though the mere mention of their run-in brought tears to his eyes.“Hayden will get a kick out of that.”He brought the chair back to four legs and leaned forward, an earnest expression on his face.“Look, Grace, I need you to trust me.”
“I do.”
“The way you say that…” He shook his head.“It’s almost like you’re saying that because it’s what you’re supposed to say.”
“Well, I am, aren’t I?”
“I want you to trust me like you trust Alicia.Trust me like, hell, I don’t fuckin’ know.Like the person who will get you out of this mess.”
Whether she wanted to admit it to herself, she trusted him entirely.But she still didn’t think he understood the complexity of the problems she’d created.“You shouldn’t say you’re going to do that until you actually know what it entails.”
“I don’t need to know all the details to know what I’m going to do.I’ll fix it.I promise.”
