To Be With You

by Daphne Abbott

  I nodded, and because my brain was still a little fried, I only said, “Please.”

  Callum moved quicker than I was expecting, and before I knew it, he’d tossed me onto the center of the bed. His show of strength was shocking, not because he didn’t have the muscles for it, but because it was the first time he’d used it with me.

  His mouth was urgent on mine, and his hands seemed to be everywhere at once. The only sounds in the room were the harsh rasp of our breathing and the occasional moans of pleasure. When I reached out to pull at Callum’s clothes, he leaned back and pulled my hands from his body and pinned them to the bed above my head.

  “Keep them here,” he said.

  I shivered at the roughness of his voice and the harsh commands. I watched from my position on the bed as he leaned back and pulled off his shirt in slow, controlled movements that were like a striptease. Moonlight framed his body. And once again, the beauty of his tattoos dazzled me. We had talked little since our last encounter, and I reminded myself to ask the meaning of the flowers all over his body.

  He dropped his pants and underwear in one move, then he leaned to the side and pulled out a drawer in the nightstand. I wanted to ask if he’d put the condoms there before we’d started our arrangement or if he’d bought them with me in mind. But I didn’t feel like I had a right to ask.

  After tossing a packet on the bed next to my head, he crawled back toward me. My breathing quickened, and my body felt electrified by my anticipation. I kept my hands above my head as he’d commanded, but I couldn’t stop myself from arching up to rub my body against his as he crawled over me.

  Callum trailed the tips of his fingers over my thighs and up the sides of my body. He touched every part of me except for the places I wanted to feel him the most. Every slide of his hand against my skin inched closer to my breasts. But never once did he give me the relief I needed.

  Just when I thought I was going to go crazy from waiting for him to touch my nipples, he leaned forward and sucked one into his mouth. Hard. The suction and heat of his mouth were enough to make my pussy contract and flutter, but I wasn’t ready to come yet, so I concentrated on calming down so I could enjoy the buildup some more.

  Callum wasn’t a talker in bed—neither was I—but he made the most delicious noises as he used his mouth on my breasts. The little hums and growls added to my excitement and had me teetering on the edge of orgasm sooner than I’d ever been with anyone else.

  Every time I moved my hands to touch him, he would stop whatever he was doing until I put them back. I wanted to touch him and feel his skin under my hands, but Callum seemed intent to make me remain passive through this entire encounter.

  When he finally used a finger to slide along the seam of my pussy and tease my entrance, I thought I would weep from the pure pleasure that shot through me. The anticipation and teasing had centered all my desire on that one point.

  “I think you enjoy giving me the control,” he whispered in a dark voice. Then he plunged two fingers deep inside me and began pumping them in and out slowly.

  I cried out and arched my hips toward him, needing more of whatever he was giving me. Needing to feel the relief of an orgasm we’d both been denying for long minutes. “Please,” I sobbed when he pulled his fingers away.

  “Shhh,” he soothed, as he took his hand from my body. Then I heard a sucking noise and realized he was licking my juices from his fingers. I could only describe the noise he made as he tasted his hand as feral. “You taste fucking amazing.”

  My stomach dipped and twisted at the dark promise in his voice. Callum was a surprise, a welcome one, but still a surprise. “Let me taste you,” I demanded.

  He chuckled and leaned back on his knees. “Maybe later.”

  “Cal–”

  “Shh,” he cut me off. “I’m in charge here, or did you forget?”

  “If I said no, what would you do?”

  He laughed again, and I heard him rip open the condom packet. “You’re a real brat, you know that?”

  Brat. That wasn’t a word that was usually applied to me. Rather, that was something people said about my best friend. I was the good girl, the one that followed the rules and did the expected things. I didn’t act out or talk back, even when I had a good reason.

  But here in this dark bedroom, Callum Waite was calling me a brat. And I loved it. I did something I never, ever did. I broke the rules and reached out to run a fingertip from the hollow of his throat, down his hard chest, and to the center of his stomach.

  Cal hissed out a breath and batted my hand away before I could circle his cock. “You’re going to pay for that.”

  He dove on me and fused his mouth so tightly to mine I couldn’t tell where I ended, and he began. His hands gripped my hips with such force I was sure I’d feel it for days after, and the thought thrilled me. His first thrust was smooth and slow but so firm there could be no question who was in charge right now.

  “Fuck, that feels good. Thought I imagined how good it felt last time.”

  I dug my nails into his shoulders and licked a path along his throat, where a philodendron vine twisted in a beautiful piece reminiscent of a Celtic knot. “Feels better this time,” I whispered. It was true. The sensations tonight were more intense, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to examine why. This was only our second time together. I would not ruin it with feelings. I wasn’t done with him yet.

  “Hold on to me.”

  I wrapped my legs and arms tighter around his body and held on as he thrust into me with hard, quick movements that was exactly what I needed. I urged him to go harder, faster, deeper. I needed more.

  I needed it all.

  I was careening toward my orgasm, and this time I wasn’t holding it back. I jumped headlong over the edge as Callum pounded into me with a force that pinned me to the bed. I must have yelled my pleasure because he took a hand and covered my mouth as he fucked me through the completion of one orgasm and kept going until I was staring down the barrel of another.

  When the second set of tremors built inside my body, Callum took his hand from my mouth and covered my lips with his again. The only sounds in the room were the slap of skin and the groans we made as we chased our pleasure.

  Just as my second orgasm subsided, Callum planted a hand on the bed by my head and used the other to shift my hips higher. His thrusts became more erratic and forceful. And if I hadn’t already come twice, the new angle would have sent me over the edge.

  “Come for me,” I whispered, and threaded my fingers through his hair.

  My touch must have been what he needed, because his entire body shuddered, and he let out a growl as he slammed into me twice more before stilling. My pussy twitched in response to his orgasm, but instead of chasing another orgasm, I concentrated on holding Cal and using my mouth on his skin.

  By increments, our breathing slowed, and our muscles relaxed. The silence of the room felt peaceful, and it wasn’t long before I felt my eyelids felt heavy.

  “You gonna fall asleep with my dick still inside you?”

  I laughed, startled at his ridiculous question. “I could. You exhausted me.”

  “Good,” he muttered, and brushed his lips over my forehead. “Sleep. I’ll go clean up and check the house before I come back.”

  “What if I want to come with you to clean up?” I asked.

  Callum pulled back, and I felt rather than saw his grin. “I will never say no to a shower with you, Olivia.”

  * * *

  Callum

  “I’d ask how your night was, but the performance was loud enough for the entire lake to hear.”

  I looked up from the paper and glared at Fabián as he sat in the deck chair next to me with a massive coffee cup in hand. “Cool it with that shit when Liv gets out here, okay?”

  “What? The Princess of Eagle Creek can’t take a joke?”


  “She can,” I argued, and stole the mug from his hand to take a long sip. His French press was always better than anything I could muster. “But she had her RV vandalized last night and probably won’t be in the mood for jokes.”

  “Vandalized?” Fab’s voice cracked in horror. “Is she okay? What about the house?”

  “House was fine. She’s physically fine. But the RV and a ton of her clothes and shit got damaged.” I took another sip before passing the mug back to him.

  “I’m going to need you to rewind and tell me everything that happened after I went to bed last night.”

  “I worked for a while on the proposal for the updates to the town hall. Around ten, I saw lights flashing on and off around Liv’s house.”

  “You drove over and see if you could get a little dessert,” Fabián said with a laugh.

  I felt my cheeks heat, but I didn’t rise to the bait of his joke. “Anyway I got to the house, and the place was dark, but I could see someone trashed the RV.”

  “Dieu,” Fabián whispered. “Was she there at the time?”

  “No, luckily, she was at dinner with her cousins, Pru and Pris.” I looked over my shoulder to make sure Olivia hadn’t gotten up yet, then turned back to him. “Her brother and I worry this money thing has brought out the crazy in someone.”

  “Money does strange things to people. Especially people who think that money is theirs.”

  “You mean her dad?” He nodded, and I grimaced because he’d hit on the exact fear I had. “I mentioned that to Liam, but he didn’t think it was something slimeball would do.”

  “Maybe not him, but he seems like your typical entitled old dude that would hire out his dirty work. It’s practically a tradition for politicians.” I couldn’t help but laugh at Fabián’s joke. “What? Don’t laugh. I’m from the south. We practically invented the breed.”

  “If it was him, Liam’s going to have a hell of a time proving it. The mayor may be an asshole, but he’s loved by the older generation.”

  “What about the younger set?” Fabián leaned forward. “I can’t imagine men, like Gray and Hunt or your brothers, would put up with a crooked mayor.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s been years since someone tapped me into this place and the gossip.”

  “Well, we know a few people that can help us there.”

  “Help you where?” Olivia asked as she joined us on the deck.

  I turned and watched her come out wearing a pair of tiny running shorts and one of my RISD sweatshirts. Her long bare legs had saliva pooling in my mouth and my dick twitching in my pants.

  “Down, boy,” muttered Fab.

  I glared at him before turning to pull Olivia into my lap and give her a brief kiss. It wasn’t worth tempting Fabián’s tolerance for PDA to do more than that.

  “Morning,” I whispered.

  Her smile was almost shy, and it made my stomach dip and twirl in some emotion I couldn’t define. “Hey.”

  “Miss Olivia. Nice to see you this morning,” Fabián said with devilment in his eyes.

  I handed Olivia the coffee I’d stolen from Fabián. “Play nice and go make more coffee.”

  His mouth dropped open. “Excuse me? Do I look like a maid?”

  “Not right now, but I know you’ve got the costume back at home,” I replied deadpan.

  Fab gasped in mock horror. “Dieu, you’re sassy this morning.”

  I didn’t bother responding because he got up from the chair and walked toward the door. “Liv, do you like crepes?”

  “Love ’em.”

  “Perfect. I’ll whip up a batch for you and me.” He glared once more at me and went inside to cook.

  “Did I walk in on a fight?” Olivia asked as she got up from my lap and took the seat Fab had abandoned.

  I wanted to pull her back onto my lap and give her a real good morning kiss, but I saw the bags under her eyes and the worry lines on her forehead and thought better of it. “No, he’s just being dramatic because I stole his coffee.”

  Liv smiled softly. “He’s a good friend.”

  “The best. I wouldn’t have survived college without him,” I agreed. I realized by the look on her face that something was bothering her, so I squeezed her thigh. “What is it, Liv?”

  She looked up, and I could see tears shimmering at the corner of her eyes. “I feel awful that I’m the one that broke you like that. After you left, Cal, I was sad for a while. But you said it broke you, and I hate it was my fault.”

  My skin prickled in awareness, and I knew it was important to get this next bit right, so she understood how I felt. “I’ll admit, I broke. And leaving you here didn’t help, but it wasn’t the reason.”

  “How could it not be? You were this bright shining star that was getting out of this place, and you offered me a chance to go with you, and I said no.”

  Tears were spilling down her cheeks, and I realized they weren’t only for me. “I broke because I couldn’t hack it at school. I was failing, I had no friends, and my parents kept calling me to tell me how good everyone else was doing, and I just couldn’t take it.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “No one did. Not even my family, except for Mom. I spent all my time drinking too much, partied too much, started smoking pot, and skipping class. By the end of my freshman year, I was on an academic warning, and they were threatening to take away my scholarship for the next year.”

  “Cal, that’s awful. All you’d ever wanted was to become an architect.” Her voice sounded horrified. But the tears had dried up.

  “I think you can understand me when I say, sometimes you just give up on the dream you thought you had and start a new one. I went to school because I wanted to build new structures, maybe even get a building with my name on it in a big city. But I hated the classes about commercial design, and I was only doing good in the history classes and the one cinematography class I’d taken as an elective.”

  “That’s how you met Fabián?”

  I grinned. “No, actually. He was my neighbor across the hall sophomore year. He saw me partying too hard and hanging out with some shady people and started showing up in my dorm with home-cooked meals.” I shrugged. “And once you taste his crepes, you’ll know why I never kicked him out.”

  “I’m glad you found each other,” Olivia whispered, and covered my hand with hers.

  “Me too,” I agreed. “Without him, I’d never have become the person I am today.”

  Chapter 17

  Callum

  “Did Ruby tell you she’d asked me to help her plan a haunted house for the Fall Festival?”

  Olivia stopped walking towards the restaurant she’d picked for lunch and turned to me. “I gave her the idea. She joined the PTA at her sisters’ school and, ever since, has turned it into an event planning whirlwind. The kids love it.”

  “So, you’re good wit me sticking around to help?”

  She shrugged and started moving again. “If it fits in your schedule, I’m sure people would appreciate it.”

  I side-stepped some tourists who had stopped to look in the fudge shop window to watch as they made candy, then chased after Olivia. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  She stopped again and let out a frustrated breath. “Look, we both know having you help will increase traffic to the haunted house. Ruby needed help, and I’m too busy with the reno, so I suggested she call you and Fab.”

  I wanted to push more and ask if her suggestion was a ploy to get me to stay longer, or if she really was only interested in helping her friend Ruby. Olivia didn’t give me a chance to respond because she turned to the glass door to her left and tugged it open. “Ready for lunch?”

  “I’m starved,” I said and grabbed the door from her to let her precede me into the restaurant.

  In the past, the space had been a
bookstore, a t-shirt shop, and a bar. It’d always been tiny and unassumed, tucked in between a ladies’ clothing store and the two-screen movie theater. The small front window and inset door made it easy for people to miss it, which I assumed was why people had struggled to thrive in this spot.

  The first thing that hit me was how bright and open the space was. At some point, they had removed walls and the old drop ceiling. In its place, the owners now had bright lights, light oak floors, exposed brick walls, and huge colorful murals on the walls. Amazed at the transformation, I just stopped inside the door and stared for several long minutes until Olivia pulled me out of the way so a couple with two young kids could move past us.

  “This is amazing,” I breathed and nearly gasped when I realized they had added a large skylight to the roof, which was adding to the airy feeling of the space.

  “Yeah, Logan and Nick did a great job.”

  “What?” I turned to her, mouth agape. “They did this work?”

  Olivia’s smile was smug. “Yes, don’t you know who runs this place?”

  I looked around at the restaurant for clues. One mural on the wall held a logo that said Fern’s Table and something about farm-to-table, but nothing rang a bell. “No, I’ve never heard of this place before.”

  Olivia’s smile was wicked, and I could tell she was excited to show me what I’d missed. But before she could say anything, a loud whoop came from behind me. I spun to see a large man barreling toward us.

  “Look who’s finally made it to my corner of town!”

  I grinned and met my cousin Leo in the center of the room and let him crush me in a bear hug. Leo was tall and broad like Logan, but where my brother was lean and trim, Leo was built like an offensive lineman with a barrel-shaped body and thighs so thick with muscle it looked like they could crush my skull.

  “This is your place?” I asked, in shock. “Since when do you know how to cook?”

  Leo laughed and squeezed me once more before letting go. “You remember my grandma on my mother’s side, Grandma Budgie?”