Page 65 of Elusion

“First thing this morning. Now, sit down and eat, Sport.” I set my glasses on top of the newspaper on the table.

Cate giggles, and I wink at her.

I pour a cup of coffee for Callie and take it over. “Good morning, beautiful.”

Cate growls at me from behind for breaking character.

“I mean, good morning, Kitten.” I check over my shoulder where she nods and goes back to her reading. A distraction I fully intend to take advantage of. I steal the mug back from Callie and put it down. “Honey, Kitten needs help with her science homework before I drop her off at school.”

“That’s nice, dear,” she says, disinterested and flipping a page.

I snake my arms around Callie and back her into the living room, all the way to the couch. I lower us down on the cushions. She laughs when I pull the blanket over us to gain privacy for our study session.

“Anatomy, right?” I brace on my arm and kiss my way up her jawline. “The strongest muscle in the body is in the jaw.”

“Is that so?”

“Mmhmm. And this is the longest bone in the human body.” My hand drags up her outer thigh.

“The smallest is in the ear,” she says.

Not about to argue with that, I graze my teeth over her earlobe. Her sigh attracts the attention of another piece of my anatomy. I skim her fingertips over the scruff on my jaw and then brush my thumb over her bottom lip. “The lips are hundreds of times more sensitive to touch than the fingertips.”

“Any other facts I should know?”

“Kissing raises the pulse to over one hundred beats per minute.” I press her hand against my chest and place mine over hers. Under my palm, her heart races as I slowly bring my face closer to hers. Her gaze drops to my mouth, but I stop just shy of kissing her. She casts her eyes up, and I grin. “This concludes our tutoring session for today. If you enjoyed my services, please recommend me to a friend.”

“You want me to recruit competition?” she says. “Between Felicia and my sister, I don’t have enough?”

I move her hand from my chest and kiss her inner wrist. “Competition implies anyone else would stand a chance. We’ve been beyond that since the first time you increased my heart rate to over one hundred beats per minute.”

She stares up at me, her chest rising faster. “You should be careful, saying things like that.”

“Why?” I ask.

“It could make a girl feel things.”

“Good.” I drop my mouth onto hers and kiss her hard before I get up, taking the blanket with me. “My mission is to make you fall in love with me.”

I leave her all wide-eyed and head into the kitchen for seconds of some imaginary breakfast.

Cate’s refusal to remove her goggles inspires Callie to take her swimming after lunch. We pile into her car and drive about ten minutes to an old stone-faced structure she worked at during high school. She explains the county originally built a fitness center to generate revenue, but a YMCA moved in down the road two months later. Since then, this place has been a hidden gym.

Cate runs inside the creepy building with Connor on her tail. Still partially convinced of my demise on this trip, I secure Callie’s hand on our way up the sidewalk. I hold the door for her, watching the top of Connor’s head disappear down a set of steps inside.

The blonde sitting at a desk behind the counter lights up when she sees us. Shayna looks exactly like her pictures, except she now has blue streaks in her hair. She jumps up on the counter and swings her legs around. “Thank God it’s you, Henders. I thought I might actually have to do some work.”

“Anybody come in today?” Callie asks.

Shayna laughs and picks at something on her jeans. “Not a soul. I fell asleep while reading a bit ago.”

“A normal Saturday afternoon then.” Callie picks up a pen and starts writing on a sign-in sheet without giving me an introduction. I nudge her, and she glances up. “Sorry. Jordan, this is Shayna. Shayna, Jordan.”

“TheJordan?” Shayna says, eyebrows raised.

Oh, the girl has talked about the Jordan.

“She’s mentioned me?” I look at Callie, but she doesn’t notice because she’s giving a death glare to her friend.

---