11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Michael

Callum and I were bound together.

Because apparently, he was a terrible witch, who couldn't do spells without dire consequences.

Because that's how my life was going.

But damn, he was cute.

And those eyes of his were stunning.

And I liked it when we held hands.

A small part of me wondered if he had cast a love spell over me, because I couldn't remember ever being as besotted by someone so quickly as I was with Callum.

Even being bound to him, not being able to get more than ten feet apart from each other without my head exploding, didn't upset me as much as it should have.

There were worse people to be bound to.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I stared up at the ceiling of Callum's upstairs bathroom, thinking it could use a fresh coat of paint. The entire bathroom could use a fresh coat of paint. Updated tile. A new tub. The narrow room was pushing what I would classify as a full-size bathroom, and it was straight out of the nineteen sixties. Pepto pink tile and all.

"Dude, are you going to go or what?" Tapping my foot, I stared straight ahead, out into the hallway that ran the length of the upstairs.

"I'm trying!" Callum hissed, "You're not looking, are you?"

"Not yet. Want me to hold it for you?" A smirk played on my lips.

"Not helping!"

The wind howled outside, shaking the old house with its force. "So, um…this walking tour thing?"

"What about it?"

Wincing as thunder rumbled loudly, I shook my head. "Is the weather any kind of deterrent? Do we need an umbrella? Not that it would help much," I mumbled the last part under my breath.

"Oh that," Callum didn't sound the least bit concerned. "It will stop in a minute."

Opening my mouth to ask how he could possibly know that, I decided better of it and clamped my lips together tightly. Moving my neck from side to side, I groaned when it cracked. Damn that felt good. "Hurry up, now I need to go."

"I can't help it if I have a shy bladder!" Callum moaned.

"My offer to hold it stands."

Out of the corner of my eye, in the medicine cabinet mirror, I saw Callum look at me over his shoulder. "Are you just trying to get a look at my dick?"

"Hold it. Look at it," I shrugged, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, because we'd been at this for ten minutes if not more and I really did need to pee. "Either. Both. Mostly just want you to pee, so I can."

Another thirty seconds of silence went by, then finally I heard a steady stream hitting the toilet, and Callum let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Finally!"

"This is so embarrassing," he moaned, putting himself to rights and moving to the sink to wash his hands. Sliding past him, no easy feat in the tiny bathroom, I took care of my own business. "So, I hate to bring this up and cause you further embarrassment, but what's the plan for when one of us…you know…"

"You know?" He sounded so confused, and I couldn't help the grin that broke out across my face. Teasing Callum was probably more fun than it should be, but I couldn't seem to help myself from doing it.

"Number two. "

Zipping up, I shouldered him from in front of the sink, watching him in the mirror as I washed up. I knew the minute it dawned on him what I meant because his cheeks took on that lovely pink hue they had gotten in the shop.

"Oh, um," he ran a hand across the nape of his neck, which was almost as pink as his cheeks, "there's a tiny half bath in the shop, for customers. And so we don't have to run back up here. It's small enough that one of us should be able to use it while one of us stays outside at the door."

As I had quickly discovered when Callum had finally admitted, with red flaming cheeks, that he needed to use the restroom, the Turner house had a total of one full-size bathroom in it. Located upstairs, along with the four bedrooms that took up the second story of the house.

Technically, I could have probably waited in the hallway for Callum to do his business, but it would have been pushing the distance we knew made my head explode into a million pieces of pain, and neither one of us wanted that happening again anytime soon.

"I need to get changed for the tour," Callum took a couple of steps, waiting to make sure I followed him. Which was cute and sweet. He was very worried about making sure we didn't do anything to cause me any more pain.

I knew he felt horrible about binding us together and having to wait for Daphne to get home. He'd even offered to try to call the…coven? Witch retreat? I had no real grasp on what it was his family was actually doing and with who, and I was good with that. In the end, I had told him it wasn't necessary to try to reach his family and have them cut their…trip… short. They would be back the weekend after next, and it wasn't like I was missing anything in my life while hanging out with Callum.

When I had checked with my condo's management team, they had informed me we likely wouldn't be let back into the building until early next week, if then. The fire Marshall was still assessing the damage and determining the cause. Plus there was the whole being banned from my office thing, my cases stripped from me, my hands well and truly slapped.

Okay, that was super dramatic, Michael , I told myself, following Callum into his small but neat bedroom, my eyes glued to his very round ass. You're just feeling sorry for yourself.

Hex jumped up on the bed, meowing at both of us about something. Callum moved to his small closet and rummaged around, and I took the opportunity to get my first look at his space. The walls were a very pale…moving closer to get a better look, I chuckled. Purple. The walls were purple.

"What?" he asked, and I turned just in time to see him pulling a long-sleeved black shirt over his naked torso.

Well damn, I'd been so busy looking at the paint color on the walls I'd missed the good stuff. But the glimpse I got of Callum's pale tight skin, with a thin line of dark hair from his navel that disappeared into the waistband of his jeans, had my mouth watering. My dick gave an appreciative twitch too.

"Your walls are purple." My hungry eyes ran down his body, now fully clothed again, and yeah, I liked what I saw. Callum had a sexy geeky nerd vibe going on. I had a feeling he had no clue just how sexy he was. And when he blushed so prettily–something he did surprisingly often–he was absolutely fucking adorable.

He pushed those glasses of his up his nose–God, those glasses made me want to do dirty, dirty things to him–and frowned. "I like purple. Besides, it's technically lilac."

Biting my lip to keep from laughing at his distinction between the two, I busied my hands petting Hex. "My bad. Nice shirt."

He smoothed the material over his stomach, "Macy's idea."

In bold red letters across his chest it read ‘1692…you missed one'. "Her walking tour is called 1692 Witchy Walking Tour. She'll have a matching one on, and that's how people who have bought tickets know we're their tour guides for the night."

"Huh," I took a seat on his bed, then leaned back against the headboard. Might as well see if the bed was comfortable since we were going to need to sleep together. God, I was trying not to think about that. I never slept with people. Not in the true definition of the word. Just thinking of sleeping with someone in my bed made me twitchy. Always had. It's why I never let any of my rando hit-it-and-quit-its stay over. Always asking them politely to leave when we were finished getting off. Okay, maybe not that nicely all the time, but certainly my asking shouldn't have warranted a wannabe placing a spell on me and upturning my entire life. "That's actually a good idea, as well as great marketing."

"Most of the tours do something similar," Callum was saying, standing in front of the mirror on his dresser and fussing with his hair. With his hand he brushed the thick, dark waves to one side, but one errant lock kept falling over his forehead. After a few swipes, he wrinkled his nose at his reflection and gave up.

"You look fine." And he did. He really, really did. His jeans cradled his ass and long legs to perfection. He was long and lanky, but he had some light definition in his muscles. And the very brief look I'd gotten of his torso and stomach had revealed taut skin. His hair was artfully disheveled, a few longer locks tucked behind his ears, giving him a just rolled out of someone's bed vibe.

A dark five o'clock shadow was just starting to bloom over his lower cheeks and jawline, and need shivered across my spine, nearly jolting me from my casual pose across his bed. I wanted to feel that stubble on my body. My thighs. My neck. Against my lips .

He pushed his glasses up, giving me a small smile in the mirror. Then turning, he pointed to the bedroom window. "Told you. Storm's moved out."

Watching his long, graceful finger, I saw that his earlier prediction had come true. The rain had stopped, the thunder and lightning vanished, and even the wind was silent. Shadows cast a gloom over the room despite the storm's passing.

Callum slid his phone in his back pocket, checked his wallet, and was about to say something when my own phone dinged with incoming messages. It had been silent all day–okay, I had turned it off and just turned it back on a few minutes ago–but it still startled me with the volume of notifications that were suddenly vibrating in my hand.

Callum's brows arched over the black frames of his glasses. "You're suddenly very popular."

Waving my phone in my hand, I grimaced. "Because I had it turned off. Do we need to get going?"

He shrugged noncommittally. "We have a few minutes if you need to take care of anything. More if we drive over, though walking is easier. It's only a couple of blocks but trying to park is just…" he shook his head, "not fun."

"Let me make sure there isn't anything I need to deal with right now." It dawned on me then, as I was scanning my emails, notifications, and text messages, that I hadn't missed this. Hadn't missed any of the endless, never- ending buzzing and dinging my phone usually did, all day and night. Hadn't even thought about my phone for hours.

Derek's name in my text caught my attention and I winced. Yeah, I should have at least checked in with him. He was going to give me hell.

Derek: Michael! I just heard about your building! Dude, why didn't you call me? Are you okay?

Derek: Michael, where the fuck are you?

Derek: I'm about to start calling the hospitals.

Derek : Riordan from the 118 said no one was hurt, so I guess you're not dead somewhere, fucking asshole.

Derek : Michael, I swear to God if you don't answer me…

Derek: Why is some nerd from the geek squad answering your office phone? Where is Maggie?

Derek: Michael, what the fuck IS GOING ON?? Cap just told us all intel on Marcone is to go through Shelby. What. The. Fuck?

Derek: I'm going to kick your ass when I find you.

Callum, seeing my many myriad facial expressions as I read through my best friend's worried messages, frowned at me. "Bad news?"

Sitting up, I shook my head. "Just need to quickly calm my best friend down. I kind of went M.I.A. and he's freaking out. If I don't check in soon, he's liable to put a B.O.L.O. out on me." Fuck, knowing Derek, he might already have.

Callum snickered, "I actually know what that is from N.C.I.S. and Criminal Minds . Be on the lookout, right?"

"Very good. He's a detective, and I wouldn't put it past him." We headed out of Callum's bedroom and down the stairs, Hex following close behind. "I'll call him on the walk over."

Callum locked the shop up, telling the cat we'd be back later, and we headed down the street. It was dusk out, the sun, mostly hidden by clouds, sinking in the sky. A crispness was in the air, just cool enough to need long sleeves, or a hoodie, but winter hadn't arrived just yet. Leaves scattered across yards, a mixture of yellows, oranges, and reds. And on practically every porch, sidewalk, or front lawn there was at least one carved jack-o-lantern grinning at us.

October in Salem was this town's jam. Spooky season had descended in all its glory.

Pushing the button to call Derek, I breathed in the fresh, cool air, watching as Callum waved at a few people he obviously knew. Reaching for his hand, I entwined our fingers together and found myself surprisingly looking forward to this witchy guided walk he was taking me on.

No, I realized, what I was looking forward to was spending the evening with Callum.