by Stella Rhys
“It still weighs on me, Lake. I can’t stand for you to think that I treat women like that. I was just a teenager then and what I did was… classless, to say the least. So I wanted to get this apology off my chest. We should’ve never ended that way.” I was barely listening. His words floated meaninglessly through my head as I realized something. When I looked up suddenly from my coffee, my stare big and unblinking, Theo cocked his head and smiled at me. “What is it, Lake?” he asked, looking charmed.
“I just realized it was never the pictures that bothered me.”
“What do you mean? Of course it was.”
“No. I didn’t care about me. I only cared about him. What you did to him that morning.”
“Lake.” He chuckled tensely. “I was still in the hospital. Where he sent me, by the way.”
“It wasn’t just some random crime. Don’t deny it,” I said hotly. And suddenly, the air shifted. Theo’s smile started to sag. It melted like candle wax into a smirk. He studied the anger on my face and from the way he finally rolled his eyes, I could tell he’d given up on his gentleman act for the afternoon. Glaring, I remembered exactly why I hated this man. I could’ve forgiven him in some way if he’d just come clean but nearly a decade later, he was still denying it. “Everyone knows you were behind it, they just don’t talk about it because of who you are. But you know it yourself. You, your brother and whoever was there that day – you guys did that to Callum. Even if you weren’t one of the ones who hurt him, I know you planned it. You made it happen. You changed the course of his life forever.”
“Oh, Christ,” Theo laughed. His whole demeanor transformed before my eyes as he leaned back and took his time to speak. “If anything, Lake, you did that.” He gave a little sniff of a smirk when I failed to come back. “Callum had a path laid out for him since he was born. You were the one who screwed that up for him. For Caroline, too. Everything was going fine for them before you came along. But then boom, Grandma gets sick, you move in and suddenly, there’s divorce and fights and all this humiliation. I didn’t have the power to spring all that on them, Lake, you did. And to top it all off, you said thank you by bailing on them just like that.” He shook his head and clucked at me like I was an amusingly disobedient child. “I can only imagine what kind of trouble you got yourself into these past six years. Shameful stuff, I’m sure. So don’t talk to me about denying my past, Lake. You’re in no place to judge anyone when you are and have always been the worst offender when it comes to keeping secrets and ruining lives.”
Chapter Thirteen
Lake
There was an uneasy quiet about the apartment when I got home. The lights were on but I couldn’t detect movement anywhere in the house. When I called out Callum’s name and heard nothing, I went to the kitchen to pour myself a glass of water. My throat had been dry, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth since leaving Theo. But no matter how much I drank, I couldn’t get rid of the nasty taste he left. His words had cut right through me. I couldn’t tell if I hated him or myself right now. All I knew was that I needed to calm myself down before seeing Callum. I didn’t want to be greeted with his sweet kiss and gorgeous smile only to return with a weak laugh and a shitty mood. I’d waited forever to enjoy him again. I wasn’t going to let Theo Spencer ruin it. I just wasn’t.
“Lake.”
I jumped and spun around when I heard Callum. “You’re home.” I tried to make my voice sound light, breezy. I hadn’t come close to fixing my mood yet but from the looks of it, Callum wasn’t in the best one either. I could tell he was freshly showered, shirtless, his hair still dripping, flecks of water on his crisp blue jeans. He looked so damned good but the dark expression on his face was hard to ignore. What happened? We had left each other on cloud nine this morning and now this. I wet my lips nervously as he came near me. “Are you okay?” I asked, giving him a little smile that wavered at the corners.
“I’m fine,” he lied. “What about you?” He stood so close my back pushed into the counter. I didn’t realize I was leaning gradually away till he tilted his head at me, a silent repetition of his question.
“I’m fine.” I pulled my stare from his chest to his face. I avoided eye contact when lying and he knew that. His stare bore into mine but then he nodded, accepting my answer. For now. I knew he didn’t believe it but I hoped he’d let it go. I didn’t want to talk about Theo Spencer tonight, especially not with him. I couldn’t predict his reactions when it came to Theo and they tended to scare me.
“Good.”
I gave him a tight smile, trying to pass myself off as normal. But it fell from my lips as he came toward me, closing the gap between us with a predatory roll in his broad shoulders. “Callum,” I frowned when I felt him lean forward on me, pressing my body between the counter and his steel chest. I was pinned. “Callum, what are you doing?” I breathed. But his gaze was silent, heavy and I felt my panic rising when he put more and more of his weight on my chest. “Callum!” My voice rose when I tried moving but couldn’t.
I exhaled when he finally fell back with the glass bottle he’d been reaching for behind me. Oh. His brow furrowed. He looked at me as he stepped back to pour himself water.
“You’re nervous about something.”
“No.”
“It wasn’t a question.”
Callum leaned on the island across from me, studying my face. He stood far from me but now my chest felt crushed by the pressure of his stare. A thousand different suspicions lived behind it and while I knew I was guilty of several things, I wasn’t sure which one he was thinking about.
“You spent all afternoon shopping and came back without any bags. Now you’re acting off so just tell me what happened today.” His tone wasn’t angry but it was firm, hard in a way that scared me just as much. But I realized that he was right – I was acting beyond strange. He was worried about me as usual and his unreadable mood had me misinterpreting his every word and motion. I kept silent as I reasoned that I probably should tell him about Theo. I’d already refused to tell him about why I disappeared six years ago – I really needed to pick and choose my battles.
“I…” My mouth went dry again. Callum’s eyes were smoldering, intense, his attention so rapt on me that in a span of five seconds, I went back and forth on my decision to come clean before just blurting it out. “I saw Theo today.”
His blue eyes flashed with electric shock. I almost heard the sizzle. There was a beat of awful silence as Callum stared at me. He raised his eyebrows.
“You what?”
“Callum, he followed me from here and I only agreed to meet with him because – ” I broke off. Because I was just relieved it wasn’t my stepbrother. I shut myself up when I realized that a full explanation would dip into the story I vowed to never tell Callum. I fumbled with my words. “It was… I only agreed to meet him because – ” I stopped trying to explain when he turned and walked away. His back facing me promptly ripped my heart in two. “Wait,” I followed with emotion wringing in my voice. “Callum. Callum, please.”
When I caught his arm, it felt like I’d grabbed stone. I stared down at it in shock. I froze, my eyes following the thick vein throbbing under his inked skin, from the Roman numerals on his wrist up to the passage written in cursive on his forearm. I lost track of the vein just under the black and white clock on his bicep. My eyes were still on his body, traveling over every tattoo when I felt Callum turn harshly to me. He was still tense, fuming, but he watched in silence as I studied him. I had to do it – to be finally brave enough to get a good look at his new skin and all the marks on his body that he’d accumulated since I left. I had imagined him so much while I was away. I’d gotten so much right and so much wrong but either way, Callum was impossibly beautiful. So grown up and different yet exactly the same. Emotion glazed over my eyes. Our hot breaths swirled through the air. I felt them thawing him and trying to soothe me as I lamented the many different worlds of pain I’d caused him throughout our lives, together and apart.
His skin was always thick though, and it had thickened so much more in the time I was gone.
But thank God it didn’t get hard enough to give up on me.
With a sudden fistful of my shirt, Callum jerked me into his chest. I was silent as I watched his hands tug at the cotton. “Take it off,” he muttered. I lifted my arms and he peeled it off. I didn’t know what he was doing but I went with it. I breathed hard as he cupped my jaw, holding my eyes to his as his other hand undid my jeans. “Were you alone with him?”
“Yes.”
Callum yanked down my zipper. “He could’ve hurt you.”
I disagreed but didn’t argue. I was in public with Theo and would’ve never put myself in danger by meeting him privately, but that was beside the point now. “He didn’t hurt me,” I simply said as Callum’s eyes fell to my mouth.
“Did he do the fucking thing?”
“Yes.” The hello kiss. Callum had always rolled his eyes and found it so stupid but tonight, I could tell he flat-out loathed that Theo’s mouth had been anywhere on my skin let alone close to my lips. A dark cloud drifted over his gaze. I could see the lightning flickering behind it as he parted my jaw and stared into my mouth.
“Then I’m going to need to reclaim this.” Callum drew his thumb rough over my bottom lip. I closed my eyes and heard my own desire in the breath I let out. In his grip, I nodded. Desperately. I wanted him to do it. I needed so badly to please him. “Is that a yes?”
“Always.” I panted and opened my eyes to find his gleaming. “It’s never been anything else for you.”
Satisfaction curled his lip. “You’re going to do every last thing I want you to do tonight.”
“Tell me and I will.”
“Open your mouth for me.”
When I did, he thrust his tongue inside, his kiss burning hot. It was deep, demanding as it stroked me, sucked and licked me with such force that all other thoughts in my head flickered out like dead light bulbs. All I could think about was that tongue. It had always been so skilled but now it was commanding. Full of an authority it never had before. I moaned. If it had the power to bring me to these heights with just a kiss then I could only imagine how it could make me feel between my legs. I remembered the relief Callum used to bring me before I’d ever had penetrative sex. The thought of how skilled that tongue had grown since I’d been gone blinded me with arousal. I whimpered at its touch, losing complete awareness of my surroundings.
By the time Callum had taken my mouth back as his, I was already down to my thong. Sensation ricocheted through me, from my chest to my core as he kneaded greedy handfuls of my tits. They felt so full, so heavy and sensitive in his grasp. Every push and squeeze was for both his pleasure and mine. I could hear the appreciation in his breath and it got me wetter with every hard exhale. Panties soaked, I pushed them down my thighs. I couldn’t get them far enough down to simply fall so Callum hooked his fingers through the lace. I gasped away from his lips as he ripped it clean off me, pulling back to take in the sight of his bulging bicep, his arm still curled and my thong torn in his hand. I wasn’t sure I could be more turned on but he promptly proved me wrong.
“I’m not done with that mouth.” His words were so dirty yet matter-of-fact. They made me all the more eager to give.
“Tell me what you want, Callum.”
“I want you to wrap those gorgeous lips around my cock. I’m going to tell you exactly how I want it sucked and when I come, I want you to take it all.”
I could barely speak but I nodded, my shock masking my eagerness.
“Game?”
I swallowed and found my words. “Like you wouldn’t believe.” I could tell my answer surprised him. But he didn’t know how long I’d craved this moment. I’d spent countless nights agonizing over the time I’d taken for granted with him – all the kisses I’d dodged because I was moody, annoyed. I longed for him every night I was gone, ached so badly for a chance to please him again. I’d give him everything in me if I could find my way back and now that I had, my body was churning from head to toe with the need to spoil him with satisfaction.
“Good,” he rasped, crushing a kiss on my lips. His tongue invaded my mouth for barely a second before tearing away and leaving it parted, aching to be filled. “Get on your knees for me.”
I gladly did as I was told, the sound of his zipper spiking my excitement. I tugged on the denim at his knees, so visibly thirsty for him that he cracked a wicked and small but torturously sexy smile. That alone had my clit throbbing. I pumped my thighs, swiveled my hips. It gave my sex a hint of relief.
“Take it out.” His jeans pushed down his thighs, Callum left the rest of him for me to undo and I pounced at the chance. In no time, I had my fingers wrapped around his girth, waiting for his prompt. “Go on.” My mouth closed around the head of his cock. I swirled my tongue, teasing relentlessly till I heard a deep grunt. Then I started sucking, my pace immediately fast, my stroke immediately deep. I took his sudden fistful of my hair as a reward, a confirmation of how good I made him feel. “Fuck. Yes,” he hissed between his teeth. “Look at me, Lake. Let me see those eyes.”
I lifted my gaze at his beautiful face, the hot pleasure contorting it. I kept it on him as I moved back and forth on his shaft, my lips swollen and stretching around him. I could see in his chest, the flexing and un-flexing of his muscles, that his breaths were getting ragged.
“Christ, Lake, that feels so good,” he groaned. “Good girl. Take it. I want to feel the back of your throat.” I rose to the challenge, pulling tight handfuls of his jeans to bring his cock deeper inside me. “Fuck. Fuck, yes,” he breathed out, getting me wetter with every time he repeated the word yes. His voice was filled with such urgency, such erotic gratitude that I felt hypnotized with the need to hear him come. I loosened my throat, took as much of him as I could, wishing in that moment that I fit his every inch. But it was impossible for a man of his size and it honestly didn’t matter because I knew he was in ecstasy. His eyes closed and his head rolled back as he pulled my hair and hissed my name alongside the word yes.
“Oh God, that’s so good, Lake. That’s so fucking good,” he muttered breathlessly. When his blazing stare came back to me, it demanded me before his words even could. “Touch yourself for me.” My eyes practically rolled to the back of my head I was so happy to comply. “Hold it there.” He stopped my stroke in the middle of his shaft and gazed down at me, frozen with my mouth full of his cock, my fingers stroking between the folds of my wetness. “Faster. I want you to make yourself come for me.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I was already reeling with arousal. My clit had been begging for attention. I gave it that with unbridled fervor, circling the sensitive swell, my mouth parting as I brought myself to the edge, Callum still hard between my lips. His voice was husky as he watched. “Keep your eyes on me.” In my heightening bliss, it was a challenge, but I opened my eyes, my thighs squeezing tight around my hand as my desperate orgasm mounted. Callum’s fingers combed through my hair, slow, easy. He watched as my jaw went slack and just as I was about to explode at my touch, he pulled my hair.
“Stop now.”
Fuck.
“I want both your hands on my cock.”
I moaned against his hard flesh, tearing my hand away from my sex and wrapping it around his shaft. I wanted to come but a sick part of me was happy to hold out. To drag out my need till I’d maxed out my capacity for his torment. I knew Callum. I knew he was going to return the favor. If I could wait it out, the gratification would be unbelievable and I knew it, so my hands stroked what part of him my mouth couldn’t cover. I kept my gaze on him as I pushed and pulled, tight and fast, wetness building in my mouth. I knew he was on the verge when every section of his six-pack rippled before my eyes, his shoulders rigid as he clenched his teeth. I felt it happening. I couldn’t wait for it.
But with a grunt, Callum held onto it. My eyes flew wide open. They pleaded as I grabbed his thighs, felt them tighten and spasm
as he refused to let go. Not just yet. Every gorgeous line in his body deepened as he saved his release for another few seconds. I bemoaned his game but only sucked harder. I wanted it so bad. His climax was the prize my tongue was waiting for and it had me wild, voracious, giving such full and wet pulls on his shaft that his breath rose quickly to a sharp growl. My scalp tingled deliciously as his fist pulsed around my hair.
I moaned hard when he came. The sound that tore from his mouth as his orgasm flooded my lips was nothing I could describe. But it was the hottest thing I’d ever heard in my life. I was ready to come just from hearing it. Holy God. Never had it felt so good to give.
Or take. I closed my eyes as I felt his hot pleasure sliding down my throat. It felt as if I’d taken everything out of him but Callum’s body went slack for a good five seconds before he grabbed me.
I yelped and laughed as he lifted me up and carried me with him onto the narrow leather chair in the living room. There wasn’t room to straddle him so I knelt on his lap and he bent me back, sucking the tips of my breasts into his mouth, distributing his attention between my tight peaks and roughly groping my ass. I gasped when he let go of my nipple with a wet pop and hoisted me up high by the waist, growling lustfully for me to spread my legs. My jaw dropped as my knees propped onto the armrests at Callum’s sides so that I knelt before him, my wet pussy at the level of his eyes. He sat back like a king on the most erotic throne, wetting his lips as he gazed straight ahead at my sex, presented to him like a gift. My mouth hung open with shock and thrill as I realized what he’d positioned me so perfectly for.
I couldn’t utter a word before he grabbed my ass, tilted me forward and swept his tongue over my clit. I cried out through the skylight, nails digging into the back of the chair as Callum held me still for his mouth. My thighs flexed tight as he swirled wet warmth around my tight pearl, sucked it gently between his lips. Oh God, oh my God. My body was in such a precarious position and it twitched with such overwhelming pleasure that I had to concentrate on not crumpling. I held my muscles tight for Callum as he sat forward, head tilted just so as he drew the flat of his tongue over me, licking with unbelievable skill as he slid two fingers inside. Oh God, help me. It was too good. It felt so incredibly good I couldn’t hold myself together anymore. Suddenly, I understood the need to hold on. I didn’t want to give this up. I never wanted this to end but Callum was thrusting and laving without abandon and my muscles were clenching so deliciously tight I had to let go. “Callum… Callum, I’m gonna – ”