Page 17 of Five Days

More questions littered my brain as my ingrained need to please people and put them at ease roused again. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” He exhaled noisily before lifting his focus to my face. “Landon is my best friend, and I would do anything for him.”

Not lovers, then. I’d been in those shoes before. Hopefully, Callum wised up and created his own distance from Landon before his kindness bit him in the ass.

“He’s a spoiled brat and always has been,” I argued without heat. “Let him fight his own battles.”

Callum stiffened but remained seated. “You have no idea what he’s faced, the pain he’s endured. The secret life he now lives—how fucking fantastic of a man he’s become.”

I studied the color in Callum’s cheeks, the intense passion blazing in his steady gaze. A huffed exhale left me as I realized what was going on, again, so goddamned reminiscent of how I’d felt once upon a time and lied to myself that I no longer did. “You’re in love with him.”

Callum didn’t argue, nor did he look away.

“What’s holding you back from claiming him yourself,” I asked quietly, even though I already knew the answer.

“He still wants you!” Callum bit out the truth with more hurt in his tone than anger. “More than anything. He’s obsessed. So far gone on you that he sees nothing else.”

Him included, obviously since Callum seemed to be one hell of a catch.

An intense silence fell over us, heavy with strife and underlying desire. We both stared as though trying to sift through the other’s thoughts and emotions, but we were nothing more than strangers who’d had a single dinner date. Even though we’d danced close enough to feel how our bodies responded to each other.

Yearning to possess him slithered through my veins at the memory of holding him in my arms, making me itch to take his mouth before bending him over the edge of my bed.

Callum stood before I decided to devour him. He kept his distance even though he had to feel the draw to close the space between us regardless of the massive stumbling block of Landon. “Please…meet him for breakfast at nine.”

The last fucking thing I wanted to do was sit and submit my ears to Landon’s apologies and excuses for his behavior that had landed me on the streets. There was no reason enough for his actions to make me open to amending what he’d broken.

But I’d signed a contract, and that meant I had to please the client. While there was leeway for EEMM employees to call shit off, I didn’t feel threatened or uncomfortable enough in a way that warranted the action.

That was what I told myself anyway.

“Fine,” I stated, moving toward my door to usher Callum out, since I wasn’t going to get a taste of him like my body ached for.

The dude was an absolute martyr, a fucking faithful friend Landon didn’t deserve as far as I was concerned.

Or…

My hand hesitated as I reached for the door handle.

Did Callum have another angle, and I was just a pawn in whatever game he played? Fucking hell, it was bad enough he might be using me—I did not want any part of their drama.

My stomach turned rock-like as I ripped my door open.

Callum followed a little slower, pausing with only a foot or so of distance between us.

Another one of those sparking silences settled, and regardless of that instinctive need to protect myself, every molecule in my body reached desperately for him. To touch. Taste. Possess.

“I’m only doing this for you, Callum. Not because I want reconciliation with the brat.”

He dipped his head as though he’d expected as such.

“Goodnight,” I bit out, and he turned away without another word.

Fuck.

I watched him amble quietly up the carpeted hallway, my chest hurting a little more with each step he took. He disappeared a second later around a corner.

The door slammed shut as I stalked toward the bathroom with a deep scowl, making the water hot as hell’s flames before stepping into the shower.

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