“Do you mean when I was married to him?”
His chin barely lifted.
“You know he hurt me.”She’d pushed down the bitter memories so far that it was almost like they had happened to someone else.
“I read the summary of the court filings from your divorce.”
She remembered him saying that.But she also knew that paperwork from well-paid negotiations didn’t paint the truth.“There are a lot of reasons a man hurts a woman.Power.Inferiority.Stupidity.Dominic liked control.Anything he did to me physically paled compared to what he did mentally.I lived in constant fear.”
“I would never hurt you.You know that, right?”
“You don’t have to say that.I know.”
“Maybe you know.But now you’ve heard it.”
She loved Callum and had fallen so deeply for him that keeping her mouth shut was nearly impossible.He wouldn’t hurt her, but she couldn’t handle the risk yet.She kissed him instead of chancing the words would inadvertently fall from her lips, and then took off her pajamas.
He stripped and rolled on protection.
“I hate the years I missed with you.”His hand ran over her.“But if there’s a fuckin’ god up there pulling the strings, and all that brought me to you?I have to be okay with it.”
Grace straddled him.He palmed her ass and ran his hands up and down her back.She lowered herself onto him, and his hands locked on her hips, moving her, giving her everything she needed.
He gripped her hips, thrusting into her as she rode him, and as his climax neared, she waited, wanting,needing, to fall with him.She drew tighter, begging for his orgasm.He flipped her over and drove into her.He fell, and she tumbled with him, knowing this would be theirs for the rest of their lives.
Callum woke with Grace in his arms and believed everything would be all right.He wasn’t a look into the future kind of guy.More like look into next week.But that had changed, and if he could count on this type of morning every day, he would die a happy guy.
Carefully he checked the time without waking her.God, he’d slept like the dead, yet the urge to get up and jump into the day didn’t surface.His muscles were loose.His mind was clear.And he was happy.
Legitimately, categorically happy when he had never noticed that he had not been.Grace Willoughby had rewired his brain, and he was here for it.
She stirred against his side, easing into the day with that same sleepy smile that had made him lose his mind only a few days ago.“Good morning.”
Yeah, this was what he wanted.“Morning, beautiful.”
His phone rang, interrupting the quiet peace.
“So it begins.”She dropped an arm over her eyes.“Tell Viv and Dean good morning, too.”
Callum groaned and reached for it on the nightstand.It was Dean.“Got good news?”
“Yeah, hello to you, too.”
He ran a hand over his face and pulled himself out of bed, mouthing, “Give me a minute,” as he tugged on his clothes piled next to the bed.
“Are you just waking up?”Dean asked.
“Just haven’t had my coffee yet.”
“Man, it’s almost eight.Sounds like you’re on vacation.”
“Give me a break.It’s a lack of caffeine, not my stay at the fisherman’s getaway in the forest.”He beelined for the coffeemaker and fiddled with the filters.
“Well, I don’t have much to update you on,” Dean admitted.
Few issues slowed Dean down.An ugly shadow of doubt crept into Callum’s thoughts.His trust in his new teammates had never wavered until Dominic called.Doubting Dean wasn’t fair.He’d given zero reasons for Callum to be concerned.
But therewasan issue, and Dean was the lifeline of information.If that had been corrupted, Callum had bigger problems than Dominic Marino.He cleared his throat.“Not a lot?”
