“Fuck.” He laughed against my neck. “Yeah. You really like that.”
Then Calder pulled away, his lips and teeth gone from me too quickly.
I stared at the fine dark threads of his suit, absently noting the wrinkles my grip had left.
What was I doing again?
Calder’s pointer finger slid beneath my chin, gently tugging my gaze to his. The air grew leaden, gravity heavier. The billion atoms between us connecting and colliding.
Without a word, he tugged my dress back over my breast. A different kind of heat settled inside my blood at the realization I’d still been half naked. That he’d taken care of me, before I’d asked.
Then Calder called me a car.
chapter
twenty-one
SHAY
That kiss was…
I pressed my fingers to my lips as the Lyft took what felt like hours to get home. Taillights glittered like rubies. It had started to snow a little, the world outside wet and jewellike.
I didn’t know kisses could be like that. Graham rarely kissed me, and when he did, it was usually closemouthed. He just wasn’t very affectionate.
It was never like Calder, who’d kissed me like he was trying to steal my soul.
My lips still tingled with his kiss. My blood was fizzy and carbonated. That kiss was something electric, something that, up until this point, I thought existed only in my books.
Butwhydid he lie? Was I some kind of game to him?
I bit my thumbnail, gnawing over the night.
Did he think I was fucking stupid?
Chew.
And what thefuckwas wrong with me that I didn’t care?
Chew.
The minute Calder sensed a change with me, he stopped and called me a car. Even though I should be hating him for lying or, I don’t know, finally calling the police, something kept stopping me.
The car dropped me outside of my small apartment building. I thanked the driver and made the short walk through the snow. My sister had music blaring through her closed door, so she didn’t hear me come in.
I wasn’t ready to answer what I knew would be a barrage of questions.
I tiptoed unnecessarily past her door and shut myself in the bathroom. I turned on the water, running a hot bath, and poured some eucalyptus-scented magnesium flakes into the water.
Our rarely-if-ever used linen closet was stocked with fresh and folded towels. Absently wondering what had gotten into my sister to make her do more laundry in one month than she’d done in thirty-plus years, I pulled out a fluffy, fresh towel that smelled like lilac and bergamot. I pressed my face into the soft cotton, mind still reeling.
Void—rather,Calder—had said I was looking for trouble. At the time I didn’t really think too deeply on it. I thought he was being, you know,hot.
Ball of sexual chaos.
Maybe.
Or maybe it was simpler. Maybe I’d read so many romance novels and had begun to think thesparkwas a fantasy, if not a total lie. With Graham I hadn’t felt it. But with Calder? WithVoid? My body was electric.
