Page 11 of Five Days

Zack turned, the blood draining from his face as our gazes clashed across the twenty or so feet separating us.

“The fuck?” he muttered, red flushing his face as fast as the blood had fled a second earlier. “What the actual fuck?” he repeated harshly, glancing at Callum as I closed the distance between us, my sole aim to reclaim what I’d lost.

Chapter 4

Zack

Callum jumped away from me as though he’d been electrocuted.

Awareness prickled over the back of my neck—and I fucking knew who I would see before I laid eyes on him. He’d had that effect on my body when we’d been kids, and it had only intensified to the point the hair rose on my nape as though desperate to reach for him.

Shifting around, I took in the man I’d hoped to never lay eyes on again.

Landon fucking Matthews.

Same as back then, he was like a siren’s song entwining around my soul and yet squeezing like a deadly python hellbent on stealing my breath.

He was quite a bit taller than when I’d last seen him at fifteen, and Landon’s body had filled out to perfection. The light brown hair that could never be tamed still topped his head in a rumpled mess I wanted to spear my fingers into. He approached on swift feet, and those amber eyes with the gold around his pupil came into focus, full of stubbornness as they used to be.

I cursed as heat rushed through me over the fact he’d only gotten even better looking and twice as magnetic. Goddamn him to hell for making me feel this way.

“What the actual fuck?” I shot a scowl at Callum, who stared at Landon as though he’d seen a ghost.

“Zackary.” Landon breathed my full name with a deeper, richer voice than I remembered him having, sending shivers clear from my nape to my tailbone.

Every muscle in my body prepared to throw down, I turned on him, ready to punch his lights out—or shove my tongue down his throat because the conflicting feels were that. Damned. Strong. My five days in paradise had just gone to hell in a handbasket. What that meant for my job and client, I was about to find out.

“Why the fuck are you here?” I growled at Landon.

His gaze darted to Callum. “Was this your doing?” Landon’s voice lowered in a soothing tone.

Wait.

I stepped back, glancing between the two men, wanting to flee over the unknown and discomfort racing through me. Curiosity killed the cat though. “What the actual fuck is going on here?” I demanded yet again, hands fisted at my sides.

“I-I can explain,” Callum said before swallowing hard. He gestured toward our private nook. “Can we please sit down and talk?”

Landon knew from experience the last thing I wanted to do was have a little chat that included him, but Callum didn’t.

Or did he?

The way his nervous gaze flitted toward me, his blue-green eyes filled with wariness assured me he was well aware of Landon’s and my past.

“Absolutely not,” I bit out between my clenched jaw. The shrimp and rice I’d enjoyed for dinner wanted to make an appearance due to the vise squeezing my stomach.

Callum’s gaze flitted over my face before his stare hardened slightly with resolve even though a tremor rippled through him. “What happened to pleasing the client?”

Fucker.

“What about goddamn boundaries?” I shot out, heat lacing every word even though the man obviously wasn’t aware of mine. Still. I stood off-kilter, a riotous mess in every way imaginable, wanting two different things.

Pink flushed Callum’s high cheekbones, and he inhaled slowly as Landon shifted on his feet in my periphery. I became conscious of having every set of eyes in close proximity on us.

“Please,” Callum whispered, and fuck me for not being able to say no. His pleading puppy dog eyes I’d enjoyed staring into while dancing, our bodies pressed tight, arousal thick between us, did me in. “Allow me to explain, Zack.”

“Goddamnit,” I whispered harshly, stomping toward the table we’d vacated a few minutes earlier. So much for a night spent sweaty and sated between the sheets with my new favorite client. Sean would definitely let me out of the contract if I called him, but I found myself flopping onto my chair. Arms crossed, legs spread wide, I glared as the two men approached.

Callum lightly touched Landon’s back, brushing his lips over Landon’s temple before whispering, “I didn’t mean for things to unfold like this.”

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