Page 72 of Fall Into Me

“Cali?”

“Don’t call me baby.” My heart was thundering in my chest, and I hated he knew what he’d done to me, purely by the sharpness of my voice.

“You called?”

I flicked my eyes up to the rearview to find him right as rain, completely unrattled.

“This isn’t necessary.”

“What isn’t?”

“You’re tailing me like private security.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment.” I looked up to see him holding up the half of a heart with one hand again and sporting a lopsided grin.

“What are you doing?” I snapped.

“It’s half a heart.” He sounded genuinely concerned that I didn’t know that.

“I know what it is, Fane. I mean,whyare you doing it?”

“Are you going to tell me what happened yesterday?”

“No.”

“Well, then I won’t tell you why I’m doing half a heart.”

“You’re acting like a child.”

“Ah, yes. A big, buff, gym baby. How could I forget?”

“You’re just proving my point.”

“You can flip me off again if you want. It’s kind of a turn-on.”

“There’s something wrong with you.”

“Yeah, all the blood in my body has rushed straight to my d—”

I hung up the phone call and lifted up my middle finger until I saw Fane run his tongue along his top teeth and mouth, “Give it to me,”with way too much enthusiasm.

The only benefit of being the car in front was that he couldn’t see me smiling like an idiot and swallowing down random little chortles of laughter that kept trying to escape my body. The force of withholding them making my eyes water.

The truth was, I was glad he was following me in. I also didn’t hate that he ran with me yesterday.

Yes, I knew that feeling anything remotely positive about being near or around him was actively working against my pledge to loathe him with the fire of a thousand suns, but Fane had always been the embodiment of feeling like you were home. Safe and warm andright. No matter what my brain knew, my body hadn’t quite been able to forget that.

I parked my car down the alley next to the café and around back where I always did. The space spanned behind all the businesses and shops along the main street.

Fane was idling right outside the alley when I walked back onto the street.

“I’ve got some work stuff to do today. I’ll be back at closing.”

“You’re not staying?” I sounded disappointed, and I wanted to disappear entirely when I tacked on a little “Yay!” at the end to try and cover that fact.

“I’d tell you to keep your panties on, but we both know you’re not wearing any.” He winked at me. It wasn’t just a regular wink. It was the wink of all winks. This sexy, smooth, and effortless-looking thing that would have absolutely ruined my panties..if I had any on.

I did my best to get through the day, like I couldn’t feel the response my body had to Fane making a mess of my thighs.

---