"Am I allowed to hope for that outcome?"
"No, but you're going to anyway." I bit back a smile, but it faded. "It's not fair or accurate for you to say you're not who or what I wanted. If you had told me we were fated mates that first day, we could've texted or done video calls or something. I've beenobsessed with you since we made our bargain. I checked the news like twice a day to see if you'd started dating anyone."
"I made sure never to be seen alone with another woman, so you wouldn't question whether or not I belonged to someone else."
"That doesn't surprise me at all."
He increased the pressure on my scalp, and I bit back a moan at how good it felt. "How much money and effort did you put into making my cafes succeed?"
"Nowhere near as much as you'd think. The loan I paid off was the only real expense." He tipped my head back so the water was running down the length of my hair, washing the shampoo out.
Our eyes met.
"Your business is solid, Kitten. Your passion did the rest. There are werewolves all over the city, and they like having a business they can support that's run by one of their own. I'm sure they get tired of being the bottom of the food chain when they outnumber the rest of us so drastically. My marketing department put a little money into playing that up, and it exploded."
My chest warmed. "Well, thank you. You didn't have to do that, since our bargain wasn't real."
"I told you, I technically did have to, to keep our connection a secret."
I rolled my eyes. "You could've just made the one location succeed, Callum."
He didn't argue.
The man knew I was right.
I lifted my head back up, and Callum dragged his hands through my hair, coating the strands with conditioner. He detangled it slowly with his fingers. "What have you decided about the meeting tomorrow?"
"With Gwen? I think I have to go." I sighed quietly. "If something happened to her and I hadn't tried to help, I'd regret it for the rest of my life."
"I agree. If someone's targeting her, we can figure something out. If she just wants Jonah, we can leave. Do you think he wants her?"
"I don’t know. I always thought of theirs as the epic kind of love, but with the way Gwen left him, it might not have been as good as I thought. Maybe she was looking for a way out and I just didn't realize it."
"Or maybe Simon fucked with her head. He enjoyed that."
"Right."
We both fell quiet for a few minutes. When I started scrubbing the rest of my body, Callum batted my hands away and did that too.
"This is weirdly nice," I said.
"Having my hands on your skin is weird?"
"No. I just mean that it's new. I'm always putting your hand on me so you're not in pain. I wish you would stop fighting yourself on it and just touch me when you want to."
"Ialwayswant to touch you. The desire is... unyielding. I'm just trying not to smother you, and I'm aware the sex issue makesyou not want my touch. I try to keep that in mind, and control myself."
"Well, stop."
"I don't think it's quite that simple."
"Then stop thinking."
"I wish it were that easy."
"It is. Stop trying not to touch me when the alternative is being in pain. Trust me to push you away or tell you if I don't want you to. Accept that I usuallydowant you to, even if I'm not happy with you at the moment. Listen to what I'm saying, and stop trying to do what you think is best for me. Including avoiding sex."
"We could try other things, like you mentioned before. Actual sex is still off the table, but I might be able to stay in control if it doesn't get too intense."
