Page 58 of Bad For Me (Rock Canyon, Idaho 5)

No, he didn’t just want someone. He wanted Callie.

But last night, after he’d woken up and realized he’d grabbed Callie, he’d been sure she was going to run. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that someone had hurt her, and grabbing her arms in a vice grip because he was too fucked up to realize he’d been dreaming had probably sent her into a déjà vu tailspin.

But instead, she’d been understanding and kind. A complete 180 from his ex-wife.

“God, I can’t sleep with all your moaning and screaming! Go sleep on the couch, for fuck’s sake.”

Then again, Alicia hadn’t ever been the sensitive type. She’d grown up in a military home and had wanted to marry a military man. He’d met her when he was almost twenty-two and getting ready to deploy. After knowing each other for less than a week, he’d bought her a ring and promised her a wedding when he returned. But she’d convinced him she loved him, that she knew they were right for each other, and she didn’t want to wait.

So one trip to Vegas later, he had a wife, and over the next four years, they spent a grand total of eight months together. When he’d come home for good, Everett figured that they would start creating the life he’d imagined, but after she walked out, he’d spent a lot of time in therapy, trying to figure out why.

It had come down to wearing blinders, especially when he was lonely and scared. Alicia had come into his life just before he went into a hot zone, unsure if he’d make it back. Having her waiting for him had given him something to come home to.

With Callie, it was different. He was lonely, sure, but he wanted to be with her because of how she made him feel, not because he was trying to fill a void. With Callie, there was fire and electricity. There was desperate need and wanting that created an ache inside him when he couldn’t hear her voice or watch the sunshine dance across her hair.

It was official. He was a fucking goner.

“Well, thanks for driving me home,” Callie said. A gleam of humor danced in her eyes. “Even though it was against my will.”

Before she touched the door handle, he used their linked hands to tug her toward him and tangled his free hand in her hair.

“I owe you a kiss,” he whispered, his lips a fraction away from hers.

“You make it sound like you don’t want to kiss me.” Callie’s warm breath fanned across his lips.

“If you don’t know how badly I want to kiss you, then I’m doing something wrong.”

His mouth covered hers, and the air in his truck grew humid. Sweat trickled down the back of his shirt as she met each thrust of his tongue. Her hand still held his, but he could feel the fingers of her other hand inching up his thigh, and his cock grew in response, hardening against his jeans. With each scrape of her nails or slide of her thumb, his dick twitched and flexed.

Wanting to be closer, Everett released her briefly only to pull her toward him more tightly. Mindful of her ankle, he gently urged her leg over his lap so that she straddled him. Once Callie was seated on his lap, he groaned into her mouth.

He wanted to remove everything she had on, inch by inch. To press his mouth against her collarbone, to trail kisses downward until he took her breast into his mouth and sucked until she was writhing against him.

His hands had just slipped under her sweater and began to ease it up when she grabbed his wrists. “Not here.”

It took all his self-restraint not to drop his head back and curse.

His cell vibrated against his leg, breaking the tension, and he tilted his hips to get it out. When she tried to climb off his lap, he put his hands on her thighs and shook his head. “Not yet.”

Everett answered the phone when he saw Justin’s picture. “I’m busy.”

“Dude, you were supposed to be here ten minutes ago,” Justin said.

“And I will be there, but I had something I needed to do.”

“Well, hurry up.”

Everett swiped the end button, grumbling.

“You did say you had to help out,” Callie said.

Glancing up at her, with her hair falling wildly around her face, he grinned. “They can get started without me.”

But before he could pick up where they left off, she stopped him. “Can we just slow down for a half a second?”

Damn it, he had been too eager again and freaked her out. “Yeah, sure.”

“I just . . . I love kissing you, but . . . I don’t take my shirt off. For anyone.”

---