Page 18 of Callahan's Haven

Cal didn’t answer right away, his focus on the slender column of Haven’s neck as she mouthed complaints to the heavens.

“Dammit, tell me you didn’t kill him.” Declan’s voice had sobered. “You did. Didn’t you? Oh, man—”

“I didn’t kill him—just…almost.”

“Oh, okay. Well that’s alight then.”

“Yeah,” Cal said, shaking his head. “So, are you gonna do what I asked or not?”

“I’m already at your car.” A car door opening and shutting filled his ears. “Give me ten and I’ll be there.”

“Make it seven,” Cal said, disconnecting the call. “Now. I’m going to hand you your phone,” he said, holding it out to Haven but pulling it back when she made a grab for it. “But under two conditions.”

“Are you serious right now?”

“Deadly.”

He waited while she searched his gaze, finally saying after several long, interminable seconds. “Okay. What?”

“Thank you,” he said with a sense of relief. “First, I need you to trust me and let me handle the campus police when they get here. I’ll call them as soon as Declan arrives.”

“And the second?”

“Letmetalk to your father and tell him what’s happened.” She opened her mouth and then closed it immediately—her jaw working. “Then I promise tomorrow I’ll tell you everything I can.”

Cal expected Haven to argue, but she surprised him instead when she asked in a solemn voice, “So, you know my dad well?”

“Very.”

He held his breath while Haven turned away from him, her quietly spoken, “Do you work with him?” almost lost in the wind picking up. She visibly shivered and he’d have given anything to take her in his arms.

He hedged her question. “Tomorrow. I promise.”

More seconds passed while his body finally registered the seeping cold and throbbing in his shoulder he’d ignored up until this point. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was gaining Haven’s trust—for him, a stranger.

She took in a shuddering breath and squared her shoulders before facing him again, her eyes swimming. “Okay. Tomorrow.” She inclined her head toward him. “You promise?”

“I do.”

She blinked and a lone tear tracked down her cheek—then another.

She sniffled and scrubbed one side of her face, saying with a hiccupping chuckle. “I have no idea why I’m crying.”

It was the most natural thing to step close and envelop Haven in his arms. Hell, even if she didn’t need the contact, he certainly did. “Reaction’s setting in,” he told her, holding her close. He closed his eyes, relishing how good she felt pressed against him—how right. His heart set into a rapid rhythm when she rested her head against his chest while her silky hair caught in his stubble where he rubbed his cheek over it.

This was where she should be—always. His heart beat harder when the tentative brush of her hands moved up his sides and around his waist as she burrowed against him.

Minutes passed while they held each other in the silent cold until Cal pulled away enough to look down at her. Haven blinked—another tear falling. He crouched low for his lips to capture and savor the salty taste. “Are you okay?” he murmured against her smooth skin. She took in a deep breath and nodded, brushing her cheek across his lips. He closed his eyes at the kiss-like sensation. “That’s good.”

She nodded again, turning her head enough so their mouths barely touched where she whispered across his lips, “Will you…kiss me?”

Cal groaned. He shouldn’t, but if Haven needed this comfort, he’d give it. He gathered her close and gently pressed his mouth to hers, his senses nearly overloading at the barely there touch of the lips he’d longed to taste. He kept it light—letting her set the pace—her timid exploration more exciting than any wanton kiss from his past.

The kiss was a lesson in restraint—one he used to learn the contours of her soft mouth with each tentative pass while his tongue took fleeting tastes of the little divot in her bottom lip.

He held onto his control when everything inside him begged him to take over. He didn’t give in, even when her hands twisting in the back of his shirt and her body melting against his set his pulse racing. Finally, her slight whimper and the sudden, desperate press of her mouth did him in.

He growled and hauled her close—eating at her mouth while his tongue swept across her closed lips begging for entrance. She opened for him on a sigh. A groan built low in his belly at the taste flooding his senses while her tongue darted against his with each of his forays into the warm cavern of her mouth.

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