I snort and click back onto the tracking app. I probably shouldn’t have made it so obvious that I can track her. But at this point, I don’t really care. Unless she goes somewhere by foot and without any device, I’ll know where she is.
And as much as she comments on it, she hasn’t actually asked me to stop. It would be so hard to. My instinct to protect is part of who I am.
See, this is what gets me in trouble with women. This is why they back off as soon as they get to know me.
Movement by the entrance to the bar catches my eye. It’s a crowded Friday night, but I’d notice Callie Callahan even if there were a thousand people around. She walks in, and I swear softly under my breath as the woman approaches us and shrugs out of her winter coat.
She’s wearing a strapless black top with a dip in between her breasts. The shirt leaves a strip of skin showing between the bottom of it and her jeans. Black high heels add threeinches to her height. Her long hair is curled and thick down her back. Her cheeks are pink from the cold, her lips plump and red, her eyes big and dark.
She looks hot as hell. Extremely inconvenient for this evening.
I growl and slide off my bar stool.
“Well, shit,” Noah says from behind me. “So that’s why you’ve been so distracted.”
I ignore him and stalk over to her.
“Fuck. Calliope,” I say with a warning tone when I get to her. She’s got a smirk on that gorgeous mouth.
“Hey, Wesley. Why the grumpy face? You’re usually smiling.” She tilts her head and runs a finger through her hair, bringing it over her shoulder and exposing the side of her neck. There’s just so much skin on display. Her neck, her shoulders, her collarbone, the curve of her tits, her belly.
“What the fuck are you wearing?” I say carefully. Yeah, I might smile more than your average guy, but not when I have a guess at the number of assholes I’m going to have to fight off her tonight, and that number is too high. The more time I spend with Callie, the more it drives me crazy how she seems to purposely put herself in danger. I talked to her about it last weekend when she tried to break into my cabin, but I guess it didn’t really sink in.
“Well, this is an adorable shirt that I’ve owned for years but never had a chance to wear. I don’t go anywhere that’s appropriate for it. So I thought, why not?”
A trio of men slide by. One of them checks out Callie from the side. He looks soft and weak, like he spends all day at a desk job or in a classroom, and I step close and wrap my hand gently around Callie’s arm. I narrow my eyes at the dude and shake my head slightly. He scans me up and down and quickly moves on.
“This is not appropriate attire for a fight club,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, it is.”
I swear under my breath. She’s right, of course. But worrying about other men groping Callie will make my life much more difficult.
“You’re killing me.”
She snorts a laugh, and it’d be cute if it weren’t so concerning. “Didn’t you say your brother would be here? Is he as charming as you are?” She leans around me and waves at Noah, who is probably gawking at us.
I fully plan on being her bodyguard tonight, but I also want to pull her into a dark hallway and make her scream my name.
I shouldn’t do that.
And I need to spend some time working through how I let myself get so attached after only a few weeks.
Instead, I take a deep breath and let my eyes linger on her face, then crawl over all that skin once more, spending extra time on her tits and the way her breathing speeds up when I do so. She’s watching me eye fuck her, and it’s getting to her.
When I finally look back into her eyes, her cheeks are even pinker than when she walked in.
“Are you okay, Calliope?” I’ve managed to regain my calm and am thrilled to see her physical reaction to me.
“Yup.”
“Fine. Come meet Noah.” I smirk and slide my hand off her arm.
Noah and Callieget along like old friends, which issurprising because Noah is a weird dude and many women who meet him instinctively feel like something is off.
They’re right, of course.
But Callie asks him if he watches the series on TV about Maine cabin renovations, and they immediately start discussing their favorite episodes. She’s not just doing it to make conversation, she’s citing episodes about specific cabins. Noah’s delighted. She must’ve been paying attention when I talked about his line of work and either gone home and binge-watched the entire series or kept it to herself she’s a fan. Either way—adorable.
