“No. This isn’t about Callum. This is something I should’ve had the balls to do before I left London. We’re over, Matt. Please don’t contact me or my parents. It will only sour things further.”
“Your parents will be devastated.”
“I think you’re thinking too much of yourself. They just want me to be happy and I’m not with you. That’s pretty much what it comes down to. Good luck with everything, Matt.” I hung up and turned my phone off. He would try calling back at least half a dozen times.
Alpha, gorgeous, rich, successful, possessive, demanding, dominant… for some women he would be the perfect catch. For me, he was an experiment that failed.
I was shit at relationships.
The bath was full and steaming. Somewhere in my luggage I had my fully charged, fully loaded eReader, the waterproof version so when I dropped it in the bath it would survive. I’d learned how to risk assess myself and generally did a fairly decent job, most of the time.
I stuck a foot in the water once I’d located my eReader, bracing myself for the temperature, which I knew would be hot enough to boil lobster, not that I ate lobster. Anything that had that fate I felt sorry for.
My book was one of those that made you forget everything else but the characters and the hot, rather kinky sex, they were enjoying. It was about as close to satisfying that I’d been in the last few months, somehow forgetting that decent sex wasn’t a maybe. Matt had been vanilla, without the seeds. Without much of anything. Aside from the first few times when it had been new and semi-interesting, we’d reverted to missionary, Matt categorically telling me that he didn’t like it when the woman was on top. When we’d come back in from having a few drinks I’d asked him if he’d ever been tied up or tied someone up. The look on his face had been one of pure astonishment, as if he’d never considered anything other than functional in out with the lights off.
My book was reminding me of what I’d missed and it was a damn sight better than what I’d had. The water cooled, my skin wrinkled and I felt half human again. Two orgasms, completely in sync with the heroine’s and I was ready for food.
Room service. Side of alpha male optional.
Callum
Seph:How’s Dubai?
Maxwell:I thought you knew how Dubai was. You went there in February.
Seph:I’ll rephrase and elaborate on my question then. How are you personally, Callum, finding Dubai? Is the hotel to your taste? Have you been arrested yet?
Claire:Don’t you have a meeting in like ten minutes, youngest brother?
Seph:I do, and I’m fully prepared. So I thought I’d take the time to find out how our brother Callum is doing.
Jackson:If you’ve spare time, how about you sort out the photocopier and the coffee you spilt on it this morning?
Seph:That wasn’t me. I swear that was Payton. I didn’t even have a coffee this morning. I’m on green tea at the moment. Health reasons.
Claire:I think Maxwell just choked. If anyone wants to practice the Heimlich he’s in his office.
Jackson:I can hear him. He’ll be okay. And if he’s not, I’m pretty sure we can get a replacement to cover his cases. Did you arrive safely, Callum?
Payton:I wasn’t responsible for the coffee, by the way. Didn’t you grab a coffee for Eli, Seph?
Seph:It was Eli. He spilt it.
Maxwell:Seph, go and clean the fucker up.
Seph:I thought you were dying?
Maxwell:Your luck ran out earlier. How was the flight, Cal?
I sat backon the balcony and read through the messages sent by all my siblings apart from Ava who was probably working. Aside from Ava and myself, they all worked for our family’s law firm, every single one following in our father and Marie’s footsteps. Ava was technically an interior designer, but she spent most of her time flipping houses and being casually loved up with Eli, who was a partner at Callaghan Green. I was the youngest of the first four, Ava the youngest of us all and we were the two who hadn’t done what was arguably expected of us.
Offices and sitting at a desk weren’t for me. I needed fresh air and movement, the chance to move around and make things better. When my father first found out I had no intention of studying law, he’d tried to persuade me to become a doctor and for a moment I’d considered it. Then our slightly overweight and arthritic rescue dog, a Labrador Marie had found in a shelter, had bounded over to me, swollen joints be damned, and had licked my face, reminding me that I was okay as a human even though I disappointed my father on a daily basis and I opted for fur and feathers rather than humans.
It was a decision I’d never regretted. Especially lying in the heat of the middle-eastern sun while my siblings were stuck in London where it was probably one of the many shades of grey.
Callum:The flight was great. Hotel incredible. Weather perfect. Thank you for being concerned about me, Seph. Hope London is sunny.
Maxwell:You’re a fucker, Callum Callaghan. That’s why I wasn’t going to bother to ask.
