Page 31 of Colton’s Mate

“That you’re not boinking?”

“No, pecker. That her house was broken into.”

“Why not? We’ll be right over.”

“Because that. She doesn’t want the whole crew all up in her business. Do you think I’d tell you all my business if you didn’t know it already?”

“Yes. You have terminal verbal diarrhea and you suck at keeping secrets.”

“True.”

“You need me to come get you?” Remy asked.

“Nah. I’m going to hang out a little longer to make sure she’s okay.”

Callie threw a mini videocam at him. He grinned at her and said to Remy. “Correction. She doesn’t need me to make sure she’s okay because she’s a fucking badass. With guns. And claws. Did you know she cold-cocked some guy in that bar fight? And also elbowed a Talon in the balls really hard.”

He was apparently on speaker, because Kitty yelled, “You go, girl!”

He took the phone away from his mouth and said to Callie, “Kitty’s proud of you.”

Another text arrived from Kitty on Callie’s phone—a Bitmoji with cartoon Callie in a superhero cape. Callie texted back a thumbs-up.

Colt said into the phone, “I’m hanging up now because I’m tired of you guys. So is Callie. Leave us alone.” He ended the call.

There was a momentary pause, and then Colt got a text alert. It was a gif of a bouncing dick, with the addition of a boinky-boinky-boinky sound. Callie cracked up.

“Shit, I can’t make it stop,” Colt said, frantically stabbing buttons on his phone while the dick boinky-boinked merrily around the screen.

Callie was laughing almost too hard to send Remy a middle finger gif.

The phone boinked a couple more times and then stopped.

Callie said to Colt, “Thanks for calling me badass.”

“I do think you’re badass,” he said. “Verging on fucking scary.” She raised her eyebrows and he added, “In a good way?”

She just shook her head at him. Somehow he did great with compliments to other women, but with Callie he just made an idiot out of himself over and over.

He opened the last file in his pile. It wasn’t one of Tex’s, though. It was Callie’s contractor file. His card was on the top, and underneath were the bids from the contractors. It looked like she’d gotten some new ones.

He glanced up at her. “Sorry, this one’s yours.” He closed it again so she wouldn’t think he was snooping, even though he wanted to. “Have you picked a new contractor yet?”

She shook her head. “Not yet.”

“Want me to go through these with you? When I haven’t had quite so much whiskey?”

Callie bit her lip, and he could see the indecision on her face.

“I’m only offering advice,” Colt said. “No taking over. I swear.” He leaned forward, trying to be super-persuasive. For some reason it felt really important to help her with this. “Come on. Ask for help. I dare you.”

Chapter 13

Damn him, Callie thought. Apparently, Bad Girl Callie could still not resist a dare. The moment stretched out, but finally she broke. “Okay,” she said. “I surrender. Would you mind taking the bids home and looking them over?”

“Wow,” Colt said, his lips twitching. “I’m impressed. That looked hard.”

She smacked him. “It was hard,” she told him. “I had to overcome an entrenched aversion to overcontrolling men.” He was still leaning in, and his warmth and his scent enveloped her. The butterflies went crazy, fluttering in her stomach.