Page 61 of Shattered

They stumbled through the door and he had her up against the wall. When his mouth finally found hers, she felt it all the way to her toes. She lost track of time when he kissed her.

The world went silent.

“Where is your room?” His words came in between pants. He was already out of breath from the attack he had levied on her neck.

“Upstairs. Second door on the right.”

He lifted her higher and headed for the stairs without another word. They didn’t break apart again until he kicked her bedroom door open and laid her down on the bed. His hands once again tortured her by slowly trailing their way around her body. He touched every piece of exposed skin he could reach.

She could tell he was holding back again, but today she wanted none of that. Her body was ignited and she didn’t want this feeling to end. She wasn’t sure how to voice the words, so she let her actions do the talking as she quickly lifted his shirt over his head. Her movement caught him off guard and his eyes bored deep into hers in question.

“Sam. Don’t do this for me, okay?”

“I’m doing this for me.”

He stalled for a split second before he could no longer fight it.

It became a push and pull. Sam fought to get him undressed just as fast as he was fighting for her. The wet clothes sticking to their bodies and Sam’s constant need to reattach her lips to his made reaching the goal a little more difficult. When he at last lowered the straps of her dress and threw it to the floor, he stopped and placed her onto his lap. She was stuck under his gaze in just her bra and underwear now. There was little to hide the evident need he possessed for her and she could feel him straining against the fabric of his boxers.

She leaned in again, desperate for another kiss, when he stopped her.

“Let me look at you.” The way his eyes slowly trailed down

her body made her feel so beautiful. She had never had someone look at her like this. Like she was the last drink of water and they were about to enter the Sahara Desert. She had never been so bare before someone and yet, the way he stared at her made her feel more brave than she had in any other time in her life.

“Fuck,” he said as he laid back and covered his eyes with his hands.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t do this.”

“You what?” She leaned across him, letting her wet hair drag over his chest.

“I can’t do this to you.”

She wanted to laugh at the absurdity. “Callum, I promise I am a perfectly willing participant. We are doing this together.” She leaned down to pepper his exposed chest with kisses and trailed her lips along the vines that covered his body. His breathing was now

ragged and he reached down to grip her thighs. As her kisses continued, that grasp became so tight it teetered on the precipice of pain and pleasure. She decided to go with the latter. Her lips made their way to the patch of hair that trailed down his stomach before she felt his hand grip her chin and lift her face to meet his.

“Sam. Wait. Come here.” He pulled her up to meet eye to eye. “You would regret this later. You would hate me.”

“No, I wouldn’t.”

“I can’t give you what you need right now, and the last thing I want is for you to regret this…regret me.”

She was so damn tired of the back and forth, and yet here they were again. She didn’t think she could handle it. She pushed off his body, reaching for her shirt.

“No.” He tried to stop her as he grabbed her wrist. "I’m not letting you go. I…damnit.” He fisted his black hair. “I want you so bad I can’t think straight, okay? You have consumed my every thought since you spilled all those drinks on me. You are literally all I think about. I have tried so damn hard to forget you and stop this. But I can’t. I want it to be real for you. I would never allow myself to be in a relationship and you deserve someone who can give you that.”

“So I don’t get a say in this? What if this is what I want?”

“I don’t want you to hate me.”

“So we just go back to what we’ve been doing. Fool around, fight, make-up, fool around again, fight. It’s an endless cycle, and honestly, it's driving me insane.”

“I don’t want that,” he agreed. “Maybe you should stay away from me?” He quickly stood and she could tell by the look on his face he meant the exact opposite of what he was saying.

“You are the one who showed up here,” she all but screamed at him, her frustration getting the better of her. “And now you’re saying that you don’t want to be near me?”

---