Page 44 of His to Keep

Oh.The thought of him down there does insane things to my insides. I’m both nervous and excited as he lowers himself until he’s where I never knew a man could be. Sinking my hands into the soil, I grab handfuls of moss and dead leaves as he kisses along my inner thigh.

“Callum,” I groan, knowing my cheeks are as rosy as his. Flicking out his tongue, he licks me first. Slow, gentle. Then his mouth covers me, and I’m as lost as I was in my dream.

Arching my back, he puts his hand flat against my stomach to keep me in place as he sucks and licks, tongue swirling around my clit.

“Ohhh,” I cry out. Bird’s wings flap away from a nearby tree. It makes me jump, but he keeps me in place, continuing to show me how weak I am under him.

When a deep, husky moan comes from his throat, it vibrates through my core, and I buck upward. Throwing my head to the side, I breathe out heavily with my eyes closed, buried in sensation and tingles.

“Don’t…stop.” My hips begin to move on their own, and his tongue meets my every movement, electrifying what I now know to be an orgasm building. And I don’t last. With one final brush of his tongue, I come so hard I cry out. Pleasure hits me in waves until I’m left shaking and panting on the forest floor.

Leaning up and wiping his mouth, Callum slides my panties back up my legs and pulls down my skirt. Helping me stand, my bones rattle as I try to gather my bearings.

Woods. Here. Him.

“We should get back,” he says, removing a leaf and a twig from my hair. Pinching my chin, he leans in and kisses me again. Eyelids fluttering closed, I taste him and myself on his tongue. It should be repulsing, but it strangely isn’t.

Clinging onto his shirt, I don’t want this moment to end, knowing he could slip away from me again. I’m uneasy about my feelings for him and what I’m allowing to happen between us. What I keep pushing to happen. Is it loneliness? Fear? Or am I going crazy?

As I follow Callum back to the house, after locking our feelings away behind the masks we put back into place, I think that I must be crazy. For only a crazy person would think she loves the son of a man who kidnapped her, who will watch him as he turns her world upside down and do nothing.

Love is crazy, and I’m crazily in love with Callum.

Chapter Twenty-Five

My thoughts whirl as we get back to the bedroom. It’s sometime past noon, and Callum’s been quiet since what we did. Thankfully, we didn’t pass anyone when we got back to the house or back upstairs.

As he sits at his desk and me on the bed, I think to myself how can I possibly be in love with him. Should I label my feelings for him? Do I evenknowwhat love is?

I’m not sure, and I push those terrifying thoughts away, not wanting to deal with them and what they might mean. To be in love with someone who will never love you back. For he hasn’t known an ounce of love his entire life.

“I didn’t mean what I said out there,” I break the quietness, tugging my fingers. “You’re not weak—you’re the strongest person I know. You’ve been through so much, and it wasn’t fair of me. I’m just…angry.”

“What happened out there has to stay out there, Ava.”

I stare at the back of his head that he purposefully keeps turned from me.

“Even what happened with us?” My voice wobbles, and after a few tense seconds, he finally turns to me.Yes.It’s in his eyes, and the pain in my heart is too much to bear. Tears fall this time. Letting out a sob, I’m about to run into the bathroom when he grabs my arm and pulls me back. He’s now standing, our faces so close our noses almost touch.

But just before I think he might do something, the bedroom door bursts open.

“Sinners!” Father Aaron’s roar shakes the entire room. Johns behind him, smirk in place. Father Aaron never comes this early to the room.

Callum lets go of me. “No, she was—”

I scream when Father Aaron storms over and punches him in the face, cutting off whatever he was about to say. Not noticing John coming, he grabs my arms and yanks them behind my back.

“Naughty, naughty,” he hisses down my ear as I cry out in pain from having my arms stretched.

“I had my fears this would happen,” Father Aaron growls, turning to glare at me as Callum holds the cut on his face. “Especially considering what happened the last time.”

Last time?

Callum scowls down at the floor, avoiding eye contact with me, and my heart sinks that there might be more secrets.

“She did nothing wrong,” Callum says, tone angry.

“Oh, but she did.” Sneering at me, Father Aaron picks me up, and I scream when my world flips upside down. Carrying me over his shoulder, blood rushes straight to my head as he stomps downstairs. Every step he takes, his collarbone digs into my stomach, though it doesn’t distract me from where we’re going.

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