by Stella Rhys
“Look at me.” His demand was rough and carnal but I was too lost to listen. He slammed harder. “Look at me, Lake,” Callum growled, his hips pumping like a well-oiled machine into me, faster and deeper than I ever knew possible. “Look at me when I make you come.”
I opened my eyes just in time.
Delirium poured from my lips as I came, rattling between his hot chest and the cold wall. It pulled a surprising growl from Callum, deep and needy from the pit of his throat. He crushed a kiss over my euphoric mouth as I pulsed around him, groaning my name as I brought him to his own shuddering climax. My fingers tangled in his hair as I felt every ribbon of his pleasure surge like a wildfire inside me. Every one rushed through my body, searching the depths of me and finding the walls I still fought so hard to hold up.
Slowly, gradually, I felt them burning down.
Chapter Twenty
Callum
Ana’s eyebrows rose sharply as we walked across the tarmac. She was leaning against the railing of the steps leading into the jet and smoothly pulled her shades down to mask her dissatisfaction. It flashed in her dark eyes the second she spotted Lake, my shoulder draped in her luggage and her fingers entwined in mine. It was noticeable enough that Oz exhaled with a hint of stress, which might’ve been the first time I’d ever heard that emotion from him.
“What?”
He shrugged. “Here’s to hoping she’s not the type for petty revenge,” he muttered when Lake broke away from me to help with her luggage.
“What do you mean?”
“You brought your girl on a business trip and I’m sure the reasons aren’t business-related but Ana looks a wee bit unhappy about it.”
“She’ll get over it,” I said as we climbed the steps and into the Gulfstream.
“You must be Callum’s lovely lady,” Ana held her hand out to Lake when we got in. I shook my head at her when she shook Lake’s hand but looked straight at me.
“I guess so, though I’ve never heard Callum describe me as lovely,” Lake laughed, peering at me. “Or a lady for that matter.”
I smirked. She was too fucking sexy to be described as lovely but of course she was. I kept the thought in and nodded for us all to take a seat. “Nice touch,” I remarked at the table lined with various bottles of Pike Scotch. “Some hair of the dog?” I asked Oz and Lake, who both groaned.
We’d all had too good of a time last night, Lake and myself in particular. By the time we returned downstairs to our friends, Oz had gotten them sufficiently drunk because that was what he did best with people – bring out their worst. We’d mixed Scotch with champagne over five courses of dinner and at the end of it all, joined whatever party was going on in the event hall. While Oz, Logan and Isabel danced their asses off, I sat at the bar with Lake on my lap, both of us just laughing and watching. Some drunk asshole grabbed Isabel’s ass and before Lake and I could move a muscle, Isabel beat him with her clutch like a woman gone mad.
“Shame that she’s married. That was the sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen,” Oz shook his head. “Top five at least. You know that kind of feisty translates well in bed.”
I ignored him. “Know what that reminded me of?” I asked Lake, whose eyes were already wide on me because she was thinking the same.
“My grandma.”
Elena had been the feistiest old woman I’d ever met in my life. Twice she had her purse snatched on the subway and twice she smacked the living shit out of the thief with it when she got it back. The second time, she enlisted the help of a stranger to drag him to a cop on the platform. The memory had us laughing fondly till Oz asked if Lake’s grandma was single.
“She’s dead, Oz.”
He winced. “So that’s a ‘no?’”
“For this lifetime, unfortunately.”
We were all pretty drunk. Lake was apparently enough so to get started on her confession with me. It was after we’d snuck our drinks back upstairs and sat on the top of the steps, watching all the drunken antics unfold below us. It had been quiet for a minute when she tossed back the rest of her champagne and spoke.
“I started talking to my mom again after my grandma died.”
I looked at her without showing my surprise. “Yeah?”
“You know my mom’s name right? My biological mom?”
“Trisha.”
“Trish, yeah. She tried asking my grandma for my contact info once, I think when I was like, thirteen, and my grandma shut that shit down so fast,” Lake laughed, staring bleary eyed into nothing. “She knew she was bad news. Never wanted my dad to be with her. My dad was apparently a good guy. I mean, obviously, since my grandma made him.”
She never really knew him. He didn’t have much contact with her mom and died young in a car accident. I wanted to say something comforting but instead, I just nodded and listened, afraid to disturb whatever had shifted in the air to inspire Lake to talk.
“My grandma warned your mom, too. She said Trish found out about the nice, cushy life I suddenly had and she was suddenly very interested in me. Your mom was worried. She told me to tell her if I ever received contact from Trish.” The amusement faded from Lake’s voice and shame trickled its way in. “I really should have done that.”
“When did she try again?”
“Literally the day we got back from my grandma’s funeral. On Facebook. She was really nice at first, actually. She went through my pictures and said I looked so pretty and I had such a cute boyfriend and she was happy my life was so good. I knew from the way your mom and my grandma acted that it was wrong if she tried to talk to me but it didn’t… feel so bad. She was my mom. She was the only blood I had left. And I was kind of curious about how she might’ve changed. If maybe she’d gotten better.”
“Better? From what?”
Lake shrugged. “I was six when I left her. I don’t really remember knowing names or any official diagnoses of what was wrong with her. Looking back on it, and just from what I saw on her Facebook, she was… obviously on drugs. She made some crazy poor choices when it came to men.”
My muscles tightened. “Did any of them hurt you?”
“No. They hurt her but they never touched me. Then again, I think they forgot I was even there.” She looked at me, bracing me for laughter. “I hung out in the closet a lot, with the door closed. Even when I was home alone. I just liked the dark. I’d just sit there braiding my hair like a little dumbass,” she giggled at herself. I cleared my throat, offered a smile as my heart crushed at the thought of little Lake before I knew her, sitting alone in a pile of laundry and oblivious to how she was saving herself. “I mean I’m sure it wouldn’t have stayed like that if my grandma didn’t eventually take me away, but honestly, all the bad that came from that time was from Trish. From living with her. She just wasn’t mother material – she was fifteen when she got pregnant with me.”
I kept my face decidedly frozen. I didn’t want any look of surprise to discourage Lake from going on. But I hadn’t known that detail. I hadn’t known much at all about her family aside from her grandmother, Elena. I didn’t consider Trish her family at all. I had no idea she was ever curious to. “What was it like living with her?” I asked. From what my mother told me, Lake came from a “broken family” but it hardly seemed like she even had a family to break.
“It’s foggy. I remember being home alone a lot. I honestly can’t even remember if that house was an actual house or a trailer home. I don’t even remember what the neighbors’ houses looked like.” She let out a breath of disbelief as she realized it. “I didn’t even go to school. I kind of existed as this little thing that floated around bothering her and reminding her that she probably should’ve gotten an abortion instead of thinking that a baby would make her a better person.”
I flinched. Couldn’t help it. I supported every bit of a woman’s choice but the thought of Lake never existing rocked me to my core.
“Anyway, I’m sure you can imagine it,” she murmured, setting her empty champagne flute
on the stair below and gazing into it. “She was unemployed, on drugs. A complete mess if there wasn’t a man in her life or at least her bed that week. It’s weird – I feel like I can’t recall a single image of her eating.” She laughed but I was sure she found nothing funny. “It was like – bottle or needle, bottle or needle. That was what she subsisted on. I thought maybe that was the secret to not being hungry so I was like, four years old, for God’s sake, when I tried drinking what I’m pretty sure was whisky. Spit it all out. She smacked me right across the face for wasting her shit.”
My insides burned hot. I hated this Trish with everything inside me but I continued bottling it all up so Lake could have the peace with which to keep talking. When she looked up at me, I leaned in and pressed my lips to her forehead. She closed her eyes.
“She asked me to send her money to get away from her new husband.”
When I pulled back, she was looking into my eyes with shame. I figured it out before she said it and suddenly, it made so much sense I wondered why I never thought of it on my own. It was for Trish that Lake used to steal from us.
“Your mom gave me a credit card to use for emergencies. You had one, too.”
“Yeah.”
“Except you actually only used yours for emergencies, which you basically never had,” she smirked, shaking her head at herself. “Even before Trish started messaging me, I took that thing and got myself mani-pedis with Isabel so many times. I was such a little asshole. But your mom was like, ‘Who says nice nails aren’t an emergency?’”
I laughed. “That sounds about right.”
“Anyway.” The slit in Lake’s dress fell wide open as she hugged her knees to her chest. “Trish said she needed money, so I started buying things with the card that Theo was gonna buy anyway. He’d just give me the cash for it and your mom would just think I was buying him a lot of presents. And that seemed to work. She thought we were cute. But then I went too far and she finally had a talk with me. And even though I knew I was always pushing her to her limits, the second she got mad at me for anything, I turned into this… depressed, kicked puppy.” Lake snorted at herself. “I said to myself after that – no. Never again with the credit card. I can’t handle when Caroline’s mad at me so I’m going to find another way. I felt like I had to. Trish always said she couldn’t wait for the day that she’d see my graduation photos but at some point, she started talking crazy, like she was afraid she wouldn’t make it to see that day.”
“Because of her husband?”
“Dean. He was a vet and she said he had really bad PTSD. She sent me this article from this assault charge he got. They lived in this trailer park and he was the manager of it and the article said he…” she trailed off and suddenly looked with guilt at me. “Sent someone to the hospital with a baseball bat. But it was different from you. That guy ended up brain-dead.”
Christ.
“Am I scaring you yet?” she asked, her voice small.
“No.” I gave her some sort of look to lighten the mood. “You don’t scare me.”
“You’re not mad that I took so much shit from you and your mom and sold it to give to my horrible family?”
“That wasn’t your family. We were your family.”
“Exactly,” she murmured, shaking her head. “So why did I do it? I don’t know why I ever let her talk to me. I should’ve known she was poison. Real…. hateful… bloodsucking poison.”
I took one look at Lake’s fast-falling expression and pulled her tight. “Come here.” I buried a kiss in her hair. “That was a complicated situation. You were young and she was blood. Anyone would’ve felt at least some obligation.”
“She was horrible though. She was nice at first but then she got so mean and I still let her into my life. Why was I such a stupid teenager?”
“Because that’s redundant. Every teenager is stupid.”
“You never were.” Lake’s lips grazed mine as she lifted her head at me. “You were always so smart and even and logical. You were mature beyond your years because I was crazy and your mom was crazy and you had to be. You were perfect for me but it was a punishment to you.”
I frowned at her. “Never once.” I tilted my head to meet her roving gaze so filled with shame. “Lake. You were never anything but a blessing to me. Even when you were away because it made me build things I couldn’t have if you were here. Maybe I needed you to be gone for a little bit. So I wasn’t distracted.” I laughed when she did, like it was some ridiculous suggestion. But I meant it. “And now that I have you again, I know to hold on tighter than ever before. I have you back. I have my mom back. I have my career. It’s going good, Lake,” I whispered with a grin. “You’re not a punishment. You’re worth everything.”
She melted into me, her words a sigh in my neck. “I always will be?”
“You know that.”
It was at that point that Oz and Isabel found us and demanded we return to the party. They were hammered and Logan was nowhere in sight, which meant that he was neglected as usual. I wanted to stay where we were but Lake said we couldn’t leave poor Logan alone for much longer, so we went to find him and have a toast the five of us. We downed our shots and Lake immediately suggested another round. I wondered if she was using the alcohol as a bailout but I didn’t press the matter. It was her birthday. So we did a second toast and then a third and a fourth and by now, Oz and I were looking at our own Scotch like it was bottled torture.
“Partied hard after you left me, didn’t you, Callum?” Ana’s question perked Lake’s eyebrows but I knew she had too much pride to show more curiosity than that. I kept my expression unreadable for all.
“We had a good time.”
“I hope you haven’t exhausted yourself too much to give me some good stuff. Of course, I’m used to you refusing me the good stuff these days.” Her voice dripped with the sexual context only we knew. Oz frowned at her, Lake at me. Ana just smiled innocently and cocked her head. “Quick talk with you, Mr. Pike? Itinerary’s back there.”
I followed her to the back of the jet, containing my anger. “Thought you were big on professionalism.”
“And I thought this was a business trip. What is she doing here?”
“It’s her birthday. I’ll be spending time with her when work is over.”
“I don’t need her causing distraction.”
“As of now, that’s entirely your doing.”
Ana simpered. “Well, let’s hope it stays that way because while your company is rising fast, it’s by no means top dog and you won’t settle for anything but the best. At least the Callum I know wouldn’t. Then again, he also wouldn’t bring his fuck buddy to a business trip and make me consider scrapping his piece and writing about his competitors.” She pushed the itinerary in my hands. “Think about what you’re sacrificing here. Look at her and ask yourself if it’s worth it. Because girls like that? With nothing else to focus on? Their drama never stops.” Ana stretched her lips into a grin and straightened my tie before returning to the front of the jet. “And considering the completely generic birthday gift you plan to give her, it doesn’t seem like you’re all that passionate for the girl in the first place.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Lake
There was something about Ana.
She’d seemed simply flirty the last time I saw her at The Pike but the way she spoke to Callum on the jet confirmed that it was something well beyond that. I knew it but I kept my mouth shut because we were all in the same space and I didn’t want to give her the pleasure of looking so much as curious let alone threatened. I just smiled through the tense air, which I knew I didn’t imagine because Oz kept shooting me looks like is something weird? What the hell is going on? I could only shrug and pretend I was unfazed. All I knew was Ana looked smug, Callum looked irritated and neither of them were saying a thing.
Thankfully, Oz went into Oz mode and lightened up the mood with his account of how he and Callum first met in Scotland. He gathered us round for stor
y time and I took more pleasure than usual in sitting on Callum’s lap. “How cute,” Ana remarked. I could tell she didn’t mean it but I returned the saccharine smile she gave me and listened to Oz revisit the birth of the bromance.
They’d been at the same pub in Dufftown and struck up a conversation because the place actually had an old bottle of Pike Single Malt and Oz was drinking it. Callum was surprised because the family distillery had gone under ruin, declared bankruptcy ages ago, had long stopped distributing and had exhausted itself in the fight to recover thousands of perfectly good barrels of whisky from the bank. The company, barely a company anymore, was in shambles until Callum stepped in at the mere age twenty-four, determined to revive it though no one thought he could. He was young. But he did have years of business experience under his young belt thanks to the fact that he skipped college and started a prestigious internship at eighteen.
“Well, I found out about his predicament and I said, ‘Funny I should meet you then, since I come from a bloodline of alcoholics who build distilleries.’ I made a homemade whisky still when I was sixteen. I kept it in my room,” Oz said, knocking back a full two fingers of Scotch like it was water. “I mean it’s a little fucking tragic but I very well may have been nursed on the stuff because my mother reached for the bottle the second those wretched nine months were over. But I turned out okay, I was a strong baby. They tell me I delivered myself.”
“Legend says he walked out of the womb at four feet tall.” Callum’s remark made me spit out my water. Oz nodded seriously as if to say it’s true. I honestly had no idea how Ana was distinguishing the true from the false for her story. I was laughing too hard to even try.
“Now this – this is the part that convinced me that Callum was a good man and I had to hang onto this fellow.”