Page 29 of Callahan's Haven

“Why do you care?” She snuggled against his chest and then looked up at him. The smile spreading across her face was not the natural one he was used to seeing. Again, she was following his lead and putting on a show. “Besides, I wouldneverthink of calling you myboyfriend.”

And there it was. Nothing with her could be a reality for him.

His heart—the organ that moments before had been racing from her kiss—slowed to barely beating. The truth was, any wishful thinking he had attached to her needed to be cut. He sat slightly away from her. This was a job like any other, and it didn’t include making Haven his own.

No matter how much he wanted her.

“Of course not.” He held her gaze, his jaw clenching. “I’m too old for you.”

A weighted silence met his statement—even the sounds of the coffee shop fading to nothing more than white noise—while he watched the play of emotions chasing over her face. From observing Haven for more than two weeks, he knew she wouldn’t deliberately hurt someone, so he didn’t want to put her in a position where she’d have to.

“Don’t—”

“No.” Haven reached out and ran a hand over his tight jaw, her questioning eyes searching his going soft. “That’s not it at all.” She glanced at his lips and then back up and sighed. “It’s because you’re not a boy.” A blush crept up her cheeks. “You’re very much a man.”

She slid her hand from his jaw to his hair where her tentative fingers pulled at the short strands at his scalp. “What is it about you?” Her brow crinkled and eyes bore into his. “I should be furious with you right now,” she whispered. “You and my dad both.” She took in a deep breath. “But all I seem to want to do is…”

She shook her head and grinned, keeping her hand anchored in his hair as he cupped her warm cheeks in both hands. He didn’t sit any closer but held her gaze as he lowered his head, watching in awe as she closed her eyes and willingly met him halfway.

Their lips met in a soft caress, with slow, eating kisses that were nothing like the two they’d already shared—not the one she’d surprised him with when he’d greeted her at the door, and nothing like the one from the night before.

This kiss held what felt like a promise.

He drank his fill of her with his hands touching nothing more than her face. Haven had him hard and aching and wanting nothing more than to drag her onto his lap. But this—this kiss and her soft sighs against his lips—was enough. Her hand tightened in his hair when he drew away from her with one final pass over her mouth, her eyes shut tight. He ran his thumbs over the beautiful face still cradled in his palms and then over her kiss-plumped lips. “Haven—”

“Why don’t you kiss me like that?”

Haven opened her eyes and met his before they both turned toward the low, accusing voice. Cal gave a slight nod to a young woman staring at them from a few tables over, her smile leaving when she looked back at who Cal assumed was her boyfriend.

“I mean, did you see how tender he was with her?” the young woman said, pointing their way. Cal and Haven shared a grin, with Haven’s face taking on an even rosier hue when the other woman said, “It was beautiful.”

He felt a little flushed himself, which was ridiculous. Nothing embarrassed him.

“But, honey,” the guy said, skewering Cal with a narrow-eyed glare before making a grab for his girlfriend’s hand, “we’re in public.”

“You don’t kiss me like that in private,” she said in a fierce whisper, pulling her hand away and standing up. “Come to think of it,” she said, grabbing her purse, “I don’t think you’veeverkissed me like that.”

Cal stared after her as she walked off in a huff, leaving her young man frowning as she waded through tables and people standing around.

Thenon-good kisserstood up and started after her but turned around after only a couple of steps and pinned Cal with snarling look. “Seriously, man, take it someplace else.” He glanced after the retreating form of his girlfriend and then back at him. “You’re raising the expectations for the rest of us too high.” With that, he took off—pushing people out of his way and calling out, “Suzy, wait!” Several people laughed with the same heckler from before yelling out, “Go get her!”

“Oh, my God,” Haven said, her shoulders shaking with laughter. “Poor guy… Or girl.” She shook her head. “Both of them.”

Cal wrapped an arm around her still-chuckling form and pulled her back into his side, a sense of utter contentment filling him when she settled under the crook of his arm.

“So,” she said on a heavy sigh, her words only for him, “we’re a couple?”

He rubbed circles over her arm and smiled when she shivered under his touch. “Yeah. It wasn’t the plan, but the Collins kid forced us to have to regroup.”

“So, how’s this supposed to work?”

He’d figured she’d cut right to the chase. “As far as everyone will know, we’ve been seeing each other in secr—”

She halted him with a raised hand. “Hope and Destiny won’t buy it.”

“You haven’t even he—”

“Doesn’t matter.” She frowned up at him. “These women know me inside and out. Even if Ihadbeen seeing someone, I’d never have been able to keep it from them.”

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