Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

Liddy slammed her hand on the handle of the shower, shutting off the water, and shivered.

This day has been a total disaster.

They'd got back on land after a harrowing trip in the storm, at which point several of the guests had been seasick from the rough waves, including both her parents and Quinn's dad. Once on shore, Kat had been the hero of the hour, waiting with beach towels and dinner for all—delivered to the comfort of their rooms, of course—and a deep, scathing frown for Liddy.

She'd given Liddy an earful about going rogue and not keeping her in the loop with plans, treating her practically like a toddler, then squirreled Elle away for "pampering and planning."

And Elle hadn't answered any texts since.

Kat probably took her phone.

Liddy ignored the dinner Kat had brought in and went to take a shower, only to get doused with freezing water halfway through shampooing her hair.

Which, frankly, tracked for this trip.

Liddy stepped out of the shower and dressed in her pajamas, then towel-dried her long hair. She would give anything to be at her apartment right now and make a cozy cup of tea. Read a book. Fall asleep on the pages.

At this rate, she would need a vacation from this vacation.

She opened the door to the shower, then pushed her way out to find Callum sitting in the sole chair in the room, staring at his phone. He gave her a wry glance. "Penguins?"

Liddy looked down at the fuzzy gray pajama pants, which featured cartoon penguins sliding down hills in the snow. "They're my favorite animal."

And I never intended for you to see my pajamas.

"Very cute." Callum put his phone away and stood. "So bad news. My sister arrived here a bit ago. I haven't seen her yet, but apparently, she couldn't get the wedding dress. Despite the call we made where we explained the incident, who was going to collect the dress, and your permission, the airline wouldn't release it to her. They will only give it to you with your passport."

"Are you serious?" Liddy groaned.

Just one more thing to do tomorrow.

"We'll figure it out." Callum grabbed a few things from his bag. "If nothing else, we're still partners in crime." He headed into the bathroom, then shut the door behind him.

Liddy stared at the closed door. Since that kiss on the boat, they'd seemed to fall back into the easy camaraderie they'd formed over the past few days.

Not that a hot kiss solves anything.

The water started, and she drew a breath, then stepped forward to warn Callum.

Then she stopped short, a smile coming to her lips.

A yelp, followed by a "Holy fuck," came from the bathroom.

She suppressed a giggle, then went over to the bed. Turning on the light on the bedside table, she grabbed a book from her bookbag and sank against the pillows, her back aching as she did. She winced, trying to stretch her shoulders back.

Probably from the ATV.

The day hadn't been all bad, though. She'd always wanted to go four-wheeling and had never attempted it. She'd been scared that it might hurt her back, but once she'd been there, she hadn't wanted to make a big deal out of it either.

She could still picture the smiles on Elle's and Quinn's faces as Granny had ridden past them all.

And somewhere on her phone were photos of a toucan and some sloths they'd seen.

The boat ride had been amazing until the storm, and she was convinced ceviche was her favorite appetizer—ever.

Plus, that sunset.

Combined with that kiss.

She'd spent the rest of the evening feeling weak in the knees every time she thought about it. Callum was good with words when he wanted to be—and even better with his mouth when he kissed.

But I'd better not think about that right now.

Settling onto the bed, she opened the book and laid on her left side to read, facing the wall. She'd barely started reading when the door to the bathroom opened, and Callum strode out. A moment later, the towel snapped against her backside, stinging, and she cried out with a laugh. "What the hell was that?"

She turned to see Callum standing a few feet from the bed, his wet hair sticking up in several directions, towel slung over his shoulder. He had shorts on but was shirtless, a few drops of water still clinging to the rigid muscles of his torso. A grin was on his handsome face. "That's what you get for not warning me the water was frigid."

She grinned and gave a scoffing laugh. "Who doesn't check the water temperature before they get in the shower?"

"Someone who's expecting it to be already warmed up." Callum leaned past her and grabbed the empty pillow. "And I'll take that for my comfortable floor bed, thank you." He glanced at the sheets she'd already crawled under. "Do I get a blanket tonight, or should I resign myself to a wet towel?"

She grimaced, glancing at the hard tile he'd slept on the first night they'd been in the room. He hadn't protested or even asked for a different arrangement, but the guilt was there regardless.

She scooted over closer to the wall, pushing her pillow. "You can sleep in the bed. I'm not going to pretend we haven't already shared one."

"What about our body parts being close together?" Callum asked, laughter in his eyes.

Considering your tongue was down my throat today . . .

Liddy threw him a glare. "Do you want to sleep on the bed or not?"

Callum tossed the pillow back down beside hers. Climbing on the bed, he swung his legs onto it. He laid back, head on his pillow, then shifted to his side, leaving a respectable amount of space between them.

Which must be hard in a full-sized bed.

She glanced at her book, then shut it. "Will you put this on the nightstand?"

Callum retrieved it, glancing at the spine as he set it down. " Every Piece of Me ?"

Great. Here comes the commentary. "Yeah, it's a romance."

"The half-naked man on the cover gave it away." He smirked, then shut off the light. "So that's what you enjoy?"

"Among other things." She rolled onto her back. The room was mostly dark except for the faintest moonlight from the crescent moon. The curtains wouldn't have helped if it was a full moon.

"So what other things? Elves and fae or shifters?"

What?

She glanced at him and laughed. "You read romance?"

"I read nonfiction. But I'm aware of what's popular." He leaned closer and said in a mock whisper, "Contrary to popular belief, I'm actually not an ogre who never leaves my office cave."

"Yes, if I remember correctly, there seemed to be quite the parade of girlfriends in your life when we first met."

"Playthings, not girlfriends." He set his arms behind his head. "And if we're being completely honest, I haven't gone on a date in months. The sheer boredom of it has made it less appealing recently."

She choked out a guffaw. "I'm not sure I can sleep in a bed with any self-respecting man that calls a woman a plaything."

He shrugged. "I never claimed to be self-respecting. Or decent. You keep making assumptions about me, and I keep telling you I'm no good."

She shifted closer to him. Whatever body wash he'd used was intoxicating. Sort of like him. "You know, if we're going to continue to pretend to date for the next few days, we should probably learn some basics about each other—things our families would be surprised our significant other didn't know."

"Like your love of penguins and smut?"

Reaching over, she flicked his ear.

"Ow. It's true, you know."

"And you like . . .?" She prodded, but he didn't answer, so she continued, "What do you read?"

"History books."

"What era?"

"I'm boring. World War II."

"And your favorite animal?"

"Sloths, actually."

"They are pretty cute. Maybe I should change my favorite to sloths."

"Not unless you want me to tease you for lack of originality."

His weight shifted on the bed, and his thigh brushed against her, sending a shiver up her skin. "Did you just scoot closer to me? Knowing two things about me isn't that much, Romeo."

"I'm falling off the damned bed, Liddy." He released a long sigh. "But anyway, I never cared for the industry standard of ‘what's your favorite movie/song/color?' We're beyond that."

"Still, it would be useful information. Also, it would be Saving Private Ryan, Daydream Believer, and turquoise."

"Stop feeding me answers you think will make me fall in love with you. No woman loves Saving Private Ryan. "

She poked him in the ribs. "I do. It was the first movie my dad and I watched together, just the two of us. And I love it because of that. What are yours?"

He shook his head, then rolled onto his side, propping his head up with his hand. "I have no idea. I can't remember the last time I watched any movie with my dad. If I ever did. Also, those questions wouldn't be what I'd ask you on a date."

She didn't dare turn to look at him even though he was clearly staring at her in the darkness. Thank God for the dark. He would be able to see her blush traveling into her face with his nearness. She was incredibly aware of that—and the fact that he was still shirtless. She kept her hands at her sides, breathing shallowly.

He doesn't need to know how much he turns me on.

"What would you ask me?"

"I'd ask . . . what's the one thing on your bucket list you could do right now, and what's stopping you from doing it?"

She liked that. Liked that his question was deeper. With his talk of "playthings" and being clearly anti-relationship, it worried her that maybe he was just as shallow as he claimed, and she was trying to fool herself. She stared at the ceiling, then smiled. "I think. . .I'd say skinny-dipping and. . .what's stopping me is the fact that I just got in bed after being cold and wet, and I don't really want to get wet again."

"Are you telling me that skinny-dipping is actually on your bucket list?"

She tried to poke him again, but he caught her hand this time. "It's my bucket list. You can't make fun of it. And yes. You'll find my list is probably more normal stuff. What's on yours? Ménage à trois? Climbing Mount Everest?"

"Ménages à trois are overrated. And not Everest—I have zero interest in spending an ungodly amount of money for a sherpa to do most of the work." He pushed back the covers and cooler air hit her. "But come on, get up. Let's go."

She leaned down and reached for the covers, but he held them back. "What are you doing?"

"I'm making you go skinny-dipping."

No way.

"I don't think so." She grabbed the covers and this time, tugged them farther away.

Callum stood and stripped the top sheet, then, as she squealed, he scooped her into his arms. He set her on the floor slowly, and she came to the tips of her toes, her arms wrapping around his neck like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Oh God, are we really doing this?

Because she had a feeling she knew what he was up to.

Her confidence in that fact had only grown with the kiss on the boat earlier. With that knowledge came a sense of power.

Callum wants me.

So he's doing everything to avoid intimacy.

Her lips skimmed his jawline, traveling down his neck as his hands slipped around her waist, pushing up her shirt and settling against the bare skin on the small of her back.

His breathing had gone shallow, and she didn't have to see that piercing gaze to know he felt desire.

Raw, fiery lust surged through her, making her core lurch and tug, her underwear growing wetter by the second. "We don't have to go outside," she whispered, and her hand traveled down, settling on his chest. His skin was hot, searing her palm and making her suck in a breath. His nipples had gone hard, his chest taut with tension. "It's not going to keep us so busy that this won't happen, Callum."

"Let's just go outside, Liddy. Knock something off that bucket list." His low voice had a rough edge to it that she hadn't heard before.

I'm right.

He's trying to tempt me with something else I want...to keep me away from him.

Despite that, one hand had traveled up her bare back ever so slightly, his palm sending goose bumps up to her shoulders.

"What are you so afraid of?" She stepped back and pushed her penguin pajama pants off her hips, trying to quell the quiver of her own stomach. A T-shirt and underwear were no less revealing than that damn bikini she'd had to wear the day before, but this was different.

His rejection could undo me.

But with each breath, her fear seemed to slip away.

He hadn't moved. She went back toward the bed, her fingers shaking as she reached for the bedside table. Then she flipped on the light, the orange glow spilling through the small room.

"You wanted me to strip down." She reached for the hem of her shirt.

Callum drew a sharp breath. "Don't."

"Or what?" She teased him by raising the hem slowly, revealing her flat belly, the very edge of her breasts. His intense, dark stare followed her movement, his gaze hard as steel.

"Or I'll kiss you so hard that we won't just end up panting on the side of a boat, but completely naked, with you screaming my name as I take you." He stepped closer to her as though he couldn't stay away. "And I can't promise it'll be ever anything more than that, Liddy. I'll wreck your heart, and I won't be sorry."

She almost smiled.

He's conflicted because he cares.

Of all the fucking things I didn't expect, it was that Callum Scott might truly care about hurting me.

His words made her want to sink back and melt against the bed. "You're going to ruin me, is that it?" She arched a brow and licked her lips. "The thing is, Callum, if you don't care about me, then why are you warning me? Why are you stopping yourself?"

His eyes were dark as he stood only inches away, obviously willing himself not to touch her. "Because I know who I am. I'm never doing another relationship. Ever. I will ruin you. And I won't like it. But it still won't stop me."

The hardness of his words, the threat of potential heartbreak, seemed to feelstrangely. . .like a challenge.

Tantalizing. She shivered, feeling more daring and fun than she ever had—even when jumping off canyons and plunging down a zip line. Wilder than she would doing something like skinny-dipping.

This is fun.

And there was something in that rawness, that honesty, that made her feel like she was the one in control here.

"Maybe I want to be the woman that you try to stay away from but can't. Or maybe I don't even care. You think I can't handle you?" She forced herself through the fear his words were supposed to bring and stepped closer still. "I don't want to handle you. I want to fuck you. And I don't want you to apologize for wanting me."

He drew a breath through his teeth as though her words were a gut punch, and his hands dropped to her hips, grasping her so hard that she was certain he'd leave a mark. "Liddy, I'm warning you?—"

She splayed her hands on his chest, her face only inches from his. "Let's be real, Callum. Even if you had gotten me outside tonight, jumping in that ocean naked, you think I wouldn't have pulled you into the water with me? And then we'd be right here." Her lips brushed his lower lip. "And then I'd just be a different sort of wet."

He groaned, then crushed her with a bruising kiss, his arm wrapping around her waist, pulling her tightly against his hips, the hardness of his length thick against her.

"I don't treat the women I fuck like the women I work with," he growled as though it was taking everything in his power to convince himself not to do this. His lips were on her neck, his arms still cradling her against his hips.

A heavy feeling built in her breasts—longing to be touched—and her clit throbbed as pressure and wetness flared between her legs. God, I want him.

I want to be the woman he fucks.

This whole trip, Callum had seemed determined for her to challenge her perceptions of herself. Set herself free.

And this. This he holds back on.

She wanted to be fun. Wild.

"You promise?"

That seemed to be enough for him. He returned his lips to hers, slanting his mouth over hers with a scorching kiss.

Oh God.

His tongue.

God, the taste of his tongue is incredible.

His hands pushed beyond the waistband of her underwear, cupping her ass and grazing lower. She wanted to push back against his hands, feel his fingers slide behind her, but his palms cupped her ass, then pressed her hard against him.

"Fuck, Liddy. Told you I wanted you. You're so fucking beautiful."

Electric energy sizzled its way up from her core.

And his hands.

She didn't doubt for a second that Callum had much more experience than she did. But he didn't make her feel like that.

Not bent.

Not broken.

Not imperfect in any way.

He makes me feel like a fucking goddess.

His hands left her ass, then pulled her shirt off in one fluid move, and she gasped as his lips left hers briefly. Pushing her onto the bed, he stripped the underwear off, too, and then lay her back. Eyes dark, deep unreadable pools of desire, screaming how dangerous he was. And I want that danger.

He's the most danger I've ever felt.

And it made her feel alive.

She watched as he pushed his pants down, her eyes dropping to that long, hard length— God, he's big— and she swallowed. His eyes never left her body, watching her lips, her breath, her breasts. Gaze sweeping to her legs, his knee pushed between her knees and parted her for his view.

She shivered in the cool, humid air, her breath falling fast. "Touch me," she rasped.

Those full lips, still wet from kissing her, curved in a smile as he leaned over her, then flipped her onto her stomach.

And then she gasped.

She'd never let anyone see her like this. Heat burned her eyes as his hands skimmed the surface of her back. He crawled onto the bed behind her, lips dropping right between her shoulder blades.

It would have been sexy even if she didn't know exactly what he was doing.

The scar she'd hated so much. That she'd been so ashamed of . . . his lips trailed down it, nearly making her body spasm with the soft sensation.

His hands cupped her ass again, this time his fingers dipping lower, pushing between her legs and inside her as she moaned, her legs coming together reflexively.

"Let go, beautiful. Let me in. You want this? Don't hold back."

She released a shattered breath, her body trembling as he pushed one finger, then two, deep inside the slickness there. "Yes. . ."

I want him to fill me. I want his cock inside me.

Callum pulled back, then rolled her gently onto her back. His hands rested on either side of her shoulders as he leaned over her, his mouth catching hers in a kiss once again. "You're like a fucking delicious feast, Liddy. I don't know what part of you I want to taste first."

Why does everything sound sexier in his smooth, cultured accent?

With his tongue diving deep into her mouth, his hands cupped her breasts, his thumb and forefinger rolling her nipples, then pinching, hard.

She groaned into his lips. "More."

He smiled, then dropped his lips to one nipple. Taking it gently into his mouth, he sucked, and her stomach clenched, her hips thrusting up against his.

"Oh my God, Callum."

Her fingers were in his hair, tugging at it, her body aching for more.

He repeated the process with the other nipple, until they'd become hard and wet, pliant with his kisses, the peaks cold in the absence of his warm mouth.

I've never been this wet in my life.

He knelt between her legs again, rubbing her clit with the tip of his cock, and oh God, more, oh God. She panted, hips arching, longing to be filled by him.

"Grab my cock, baby."

And something in the nickname made her want to put him in her mouth. But she did what he ordered, wrapping her fingers around his thickness, a deep pulse surging through him at her touch.

"Fuck. I want to take you hard, Liddy. I can't be gentle right now."

"Please, Callum."

A smile hinted at his lips, then he reached for his pants, still on the bed, and fished out a condom from the pocket.

She grinned. "For someone so determined not to do this, you came prepared."

He is huge.

The thought of him pushing that length inside her was nearly undoing her.

"Just because I don't think it's a good idea doesn't mean I wasn't wanting you with every fiber of my body." He rolled the condom on, then edged closer, his thumb stroking her clit. Her body spiraled with every stroke, her legs trembling as he pushed the tip of his cock closer to her. He held her hips, his eyes locked with hers.

"Tell me you want me."

A gasp left her as that rhythmic stroke of his thumb continued. She was dizzy with desire. "Yes, Callum, I want you. Oh God. Yes, more. . . more , please."

He leaned over her, then pushed inside her, slamming his full length into her body with a feral groan as she cried out. Oh my God, he's fucking inside me, and it's incredible. . .

His touch hadn't let up, either, and she writhed as he pulled back, then pushed again, somehow going deeper as she jerked her hips against him. "God, Callum."

"Say my name, baby. I want to hear you."

"Please fuck me, Callum. Fuck me hard."

The tension in her body felt like a string ready to snap as her hips rose to meet each thrust of his hips. "I'm going to fuck you, baby. And not just once. I want to fuck until we both can't walk tomorrow. Say you're going to fuck me."

Her body seemed to float above her. " Yes."

"Come for me, baby."

With the sensation of bursting into a thousand shattered pieces, her body broke free, an orgasm ripping through her as she cried out. He was relentless, driving her higher and higher through the orgasm until her legs clamped against him, and she screamed. "Fuck, Callum."

Then as she floated back to earth, he grabbed her hand, setting it at the base of his cock. "Squeeze me."

As she did, he moaned, heat surging through her hand as he poured himself out, his orgasm throbbing inside her. She gasped, then closed her eyes, spent, her body still tingling.

Exhilarating.

She'd had sex. She'd never fucked . Not like this.

Not with someone who made her feel like this either.

Callum pulled out and the fact that she suddenly missed his warmth was startling as he rolled to his side on the bed. As they both caught their breath, he looked over at her. "Good?"

She smiled, a wave of happiness rolling over her.

I just fucked Callum.

What on earth happens now?

"Eight out of ten. Would fuck you again."

He raised a brow. "Only an eight?"

"If I give you a ten, it leaves no room for improvement. And I'm a big believer in achieving perfection."

He closed his eyes, and she could see his pulse on the skin above his heart.

"That's because you're perfect, Liddy."

His words were surprisingly gentle.

And stung.

She didn't want to think about his warning. That this was just a physical thing, nothing more.

Because, dammit, I really like him.

"I'm not perfect. But you know what I am?" She rolled over and looked at him. "Hungry. Like really, really hungry. Know anywhere we can get food close by?"

He checked his watch. "Almost ten . . . maybe, but it'd be a drive." Then his eyes lit, growing almost . . . mischievous? "Actually, get dressed, sexy girl. I have an idea."