Page 43 of Colton Family Bodyguard (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

He stilled above her, his breathing faster and his eyes ablaze.

Hazel dug her head into the pillow against unbearable pleasure. She didn’t want her first orgasm to end so quickly. But he turned her on so incredibly much!

Callum groaned. “I can barely hold still when you look so sexy and beautiful.” He withdrew and thrust into her and then repeated the action over and over, moving her body on the bed and sending tingles of ecstasy radiating from her abdomen all the way out to her limbs.

She bit back a cry as she came on an explosion of orgasmic fireworks. He groaned again and slowed as he experienced his own release.

Then he put his head beside hers, each of them catching their breath.

“That was incredible,” he said next to her ear.

“Like the K

entucky Derby, except the most exciting two minutes in sex.”

He chuckled, then rolled off her to prop his head on his hand. “Are you usually this responsive?”

“No. Ed had to work at it for at least fifteen.” Suddenly disturbed by that revelation, Hazel averted her eyes from Callum. What was different about Callum?

After a moment, she turned her head and saw his thoughts had taken a sober turn as well. Not wanting this moment or the beauty of what had just transpired to fade yet, she rolled onto her side with her back to him.

“We can at least spoon for a while, can’t we?” she asked.

After a few brief seconds, he moved closer and said above her ear, “Yes.”

The feel of him against her calmed her and enveloped her in warmth. When his hand caressed her arm and he planted a soft kiss on her cheek, she knew he had fallen under the same spell, the spell that had landed them in bed together. Tomorrow would bring whatever it brought.

* * *

Callum ordered room service the next morning. Hazel had gotten up after him and gone into her room before Evie woke. Now Evie was busy with her dollhouse and Hazel was finishing getting ready. He’d heard her shower turn off a few minutes ago.

When he had first awakened to Hazel’s sleeping face on the same pillow as his, he had been overcome with affection and arousal. Her ankle was over his calf. Her plump breasts were molded into tempting mounds above the sheet and blanket. He could start every morning like that.

And that was precisely the thought that had sent him careening back to reality. Annabel’s face rushed forth. He didn’t feel guilty or that he had betrayed her. It had been too long since she had died. It was more of a threatening feeling. He was in danger of welcoming a woman and her five-year-old girl into his life. He had failed at protecting the last mother and daughter he had been involved with. Did he want to take that risk? No. At least not now. He didn’t know if he’d ever be ready for that.

Hazel’s responsiveness to him had only increased his pleasure and, if he were brutally honest, the bond he felt with her. It was too overwhelming. Too potent.

He had told her what he had told no one, not a living soul other than Annabel’s family. He recalled the day of her funeral, when her father had asked why no one from his family had attended. He had said they couldn’t make it. Annabel’s father had looked at him strangely. He didn’t know it at the time, but all Callum had wanted was to leave and be as far away from any reminders of Annabel as he could.

Annabel’s murder had occurred in another city, not Mustang Valley. Another police force and even the feds had investigated but with no real zest. It had been assumed her killer had fled to Mexico. It hadn’t made big news. No one in his family or circle of friends had heard about it, by some miracle. He had needed to be left alone.

No one would have understood. No one who hadn’t gone through what he had would be able to understand. The terribleness of her murder. The helplessness of not being able to find her killer. The knowledge that her murder and the killing of their unborn child would never be solved.

There wasn’t a day that passed when he didn’t think about that. Who was her killer and where was he today? Did anyone know what he had done and could it lead police to him? Was there a way to extradite him to the States if he was abroad?

Maybe that was what he needed. Annabel’s cold case solved. Maybe then he could move on. Maybe then he wouldn’t think about what was taken from him so violently whenever he spent time around women with children. Pregnant women got to him the most. He had missed out on that.

One could argue he could find another woman and start a family, but for him it wasn’t that simple. Not only had Annabel and their unborn baby been taken from him, so had all of the first-time experiences and the happiness. The wonder of the creation of life, the stages of pregnancy, the anticipation of the birth. Looking up names. Imagining being a family—a close family.

Everything good about being with a woman who was pregnant with his child had been destroyed. All that came to his mind now in connection with pregnant women was Annabel’s lifeless and abused form on the coroner’s table, the baby bump still there, but full of death now.

He had put up with enough when it came to family, so why did he have to go through that? His was not an idyllic family. His former stepmother, Selina, loved drama and enjoyed driving wedges between his siblings. Callum never understood why his father allowed her to keep her job at Colton Oil. Everyone thought she must have something on Payne. She also kept jovially reminding everyone of the Colton Oil bylaws that said the CEO had to be a Colton by blood. With the discovery that Ace was switched at birth, that presented a significant problem. Her heartless pokes reminded Callum of his estrangement from his father and how terrible it would be if Payne never woke up from his coma.

He snapped back to the present and poured Evie some cereal. “Evie, come get breakfast.”

Saying that made him feel like a father figure. Taking care of Evie came so naturally. How had that happened? Would he ever be the same after this?

Just then Hazel appeared in jeans that hugged her slender hips and a silky white top. She eyed him peculiarly and he knew she wondered why he’d gotten out of bed before she woke. Was she gauging him? Maybe she hoped he was an early riser. More likely she thought he had run away.

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