“It’ll have everything you need.”At the stop sign, he turned off the main street.“We could literally bunk there for weeks without having to leave.”
Playing house with Callum sounded like fun, so long as the moody, broody man driving the truck transformed back into the man who made her stomach flip.
After a series of turns, they found themselves in front of a small two-story brick apartment building that couldn’t have held more than a dozen units.Air conditioners hung in the windows of the bland building.The flower planters were the only sign of personality.
“Home sweet home.”He shifted into park.“It’s nothing fancy and is barely furnished.”
“I can wait in the truck if you prefer.”
His eyebrow arched.“Why?”
“You don’t seem happy I’m around, to be honest.”
“I’m happy.”He opened the door.“Come on.Let’s go.”
“I don’t believe you,” she muttered under her breath, but joined him.
They crossed the parking lot together, and Callum took her hand.Alrighty then.Grumpy.Moody.But willing to hold hands.She could work with that and glanced up.He didn’t look down, but he squeezed her hand.
Butterflies stormed her stomach.The handhold made her float.She pinched her lips together to hide how over the moon his touch made her.She didn’t know what was bothering him, but his taking her hand said more in the last two seconds than he had since they’d left his office.
They reached the front of the boring brick building, and Callum released her hand after another squeeze.He unlocked the glass door and led her to the second-floor hallway that was broom-swept and spot-cleaned.Clean but bare, this place wasn’t where she imagined he would live.
His unit was at the back of the apartment building.A corner unit.The apartment door opened to… not much.Grace stifled her reaction as they walked into a space devoid of anything.
“Like I said, home sweet home.”Callum tossed his keys onto the counter.“Furniture came with the place, and I’ve never spent more than a couple of nights in a row here.I travel a lot, and whenever I’m off the clock…” His shoulders lifted.“…I ask for more work.”
She tapped her teeth.“It’s good to stay busy.”
He followed her gaze to the closed blinds on all the windows.
“If you open the blinds,” she suggested, “you’d get a little light in here.Maybe liven the place up.”
“I’ve never thought twice about the lighting.This is where I sleep and shower and store my clothes.”
“That’s a little sad, Cal.”
He dropped his duffel bag onto a pathetic couch.“When my housing becomes a priority, I’ll find a place I care about.”
Was that his time in the Army rubbing off on him?No, she didn’t think so.Callum and Hayden had always lived together and never given the impression that they lived in bare-bones apartments.Their housing assignments and rentals leaned more toward bachelor pads.
“Give me ten minutes to pack a bag, and we’ll hit the road again.”
She wanted to ask more about his empty apartment and his quiet mood in the truck, but thought of the way he held her hand in the parking lot instead.Grace stepped between him and his bedroom.“Wait.”Before she lost her courage, she pushed onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.
He didn’t kiss her back.
Her heart sank.Callum didn’t move away.He searched her face as if he needed answers.She didn’t know the questions.After wanting him for so long, she refused to let whatever had happened break the connection heating up between them.She steeled herself for rejection and kissed him again.
Callum Hale didn’t kiss her back, and she thought she might die.
Until he did.
Whatever had fouled his mood and kept him at bay disappeared, and growling into the kiss, wrapped one hand around her waist and threaded his hand into her hair with the other, holding her to him as if he planned to devour her in the hall.
She knotted her arms around his neck, needing to be closer.His tongue delved past her lips, hot and needy and driving her wild—Callum pulled back, leaving her too exposed.Too raw.Too much in need of this man.“What?”
His chest heaved.An awful expression darkened his face.She saw regret and wanted to be sick.
