Page 73 of Five Days

I couldn’t have agreed more and didn’t even feel guilty about him having one foot in the grave. “He’ll be dead in a matter of weeks. Looked sick as fuck.”

“Good riddance,” Sean added. “So what now?”

“I’m going to go home and crash. Hopefully, clear my head so I can decide what the fuck I should do about the rest of the drama in my head and heart.”

“Jamie requested you for next weekend.”

“Shit.” I huffed an exhale, annoyed with myself and the entire situation that had churned up my life. While I enjoyed every night between the sheets with my favorite client, the idea of sharing my body with him didn’t sit right. Even a little blue pill wouldn’t have made it as enjoyable as fucking him had been once upon a time.

“I explained you weren’t on the menu until further notice,” Sean told me before I could decide what to do.

“Thanks, man.”

“No problem. Just get your shit figured out and let me know what you want.”

“Will do,” I agreed.

Landon had shown me how forgiveness could be a simple choice. If only my mind could be swayed as easily.

Chapter 29

Landon

Edits completely buttoned up, I took an entire week off to empty my head of the plotline I’d fucked up but had managed to fix. Cyn had loved the changes, claiming it was my best work to date.

Callum and I had celebrated sending the manuscript off to the formatter only a couple days late with a bottle of wine on our back deck before fucking long into the night. Joy flooded me along with his cum, but a part of me still ached. We’d shared my bed ever since we’d returned from the island, and while we clung to each other at night and loved the growing connection between us, a vital part of our whole was missing.

One we heartily agreed we both longed for desperately, regardless of how much our love for each other deepened with every passing day.

Neither of us had spoken about our desires that final morning Zack had been in bed with us back on the island. Callum and I had lain spent and entwined, watching Zack pull on his clothes as he readied to return to his room to pack. His flight left a few hours before ours, so we hadn’t needed to climb from between the soiled sheets until closer to lunch.

There had been no lingering kisses goodbye, no promises to see each other in the future.

Callum told me later that he’d bitten his tongue to keep from asking Zack for more, and I’d admitted to doing the same.

Zack had tucked himself behind his walls after they’d taken me together, and although we’d all gotten off a few more times in the hours that had remained to us on that final day together, he’d lacked emotion while doing so.

He’d made his wants clear, shutting himself off to anything but the physical pleasure we’d gorged on.

While part of me was elated at having Callum’s focus in ways I’d never considered once we’d arrived back at home in Rhode Island, the other half of my heart ached, sometimes overshadowing delicious sparks from the newness of our relationship.

I curled on our couch with a throw blanket over my legs, staring out the window splattered by rain that warped the reality beyond as Callum took care of some things in his office. The view was as clear as the jumble of feelings inside me. A complete watery mess, which often caused tear tracks to line my cheeks like the rivulets running down the glass panes.

My chest ached with intense longing I couldn’t force away or ignore. Even worse, I knew I wasn’t the only one suffering, and I was powerless to lessen Callum’s heartache as well.

A shuffle of feet reached my ears seconds before he rounded the couch. More than the usual sadness filled his widened eyes. Face pale, he worked his throat.

I pushed upright so fast my eyesight went dark. My blood sugar was low—I needed to eat more than I’d been able to since our return. “What?” Blinking twice brought him back into focus.

Without a word, he held his cell out toward me. His hand shook, and my breath left in a rush.

Callum always kept his cool. Fucking always.

I clenched my fingers into a fist rather than taking his phone from him. With how badly I suddenly trembled, I would have dropped the phone to the floor.

The image on his screen was one of me in profile, clearly recognizable from a fellow vacationer on the island. And the moment captured in time and posted on social media that had gone viral according to the number of likes and comments?

I held both Zeke and Callum’s hands as I’d dragged them toward our hotel intent on experiencing double penetration.

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