Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 152853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 764(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 510(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 764(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 510(@300wpm)
There are more important things at stake. If this plan works the way we need it to, I won’t be here much longer. I’ll be able to take her back where she belongs, and then…
Then what? We go back to the way things were before? As much as I want that, I wonder if it will be possible. Now that I know the feeling of her body writhing under me, grinding against my dick, pulling at my clothes… I’m supposed to pretend like none of it happened? Is it possible to forget something like that?
Get your shit together. I sit up straighter and shake my head at myself before reaching for my phone. I need to get it done. It’s not like he’ll be able to tell from my voice that I came damn close to fucking his little girl last night. He doesn’t have to know she hates me worse than ever because of it.
When you’ve spent years working closely with someone, you pick up on their habits, their ups and downs. You might not mean to do it. I know I didn’t start out wanting to know everything there was to know about Callum’s personality any more than I wanted him to know everything about mine. Ten years can do a lot.
Which is why he picks up on my twisted mental state right away. “Why do you sound like shit?” he demands once he hears my voice. “Are you sick?”
“Just tired.” Because I had a sleepless night after I almost fucked your daughter, and now I’ve gone out of my way to avoid her all day because my life depends on it. Sure, that would go very well. He would be in the car on his way here before he ended the call.
“Everything okay over there? Is there anything I need to know about?”
“No. Sometimes…” I hate saying this, but it’s better to lie a little than to end up with my ass in a sling. “There’s a lot of shit I spent a long time trying not to think about. There are moments when it comes back, whether I feel like dealing with it or not. I’m surrounded by it.”
“I wondered if that would happen,” he murmurs. “I know it was a risk, sending you out there. However, it was the only location nobody but the two of us knew about.” I wonder if he’s reminding me or himself.
“You don’t have any reason to worry,” I insist, clenching my fist hard enough to hurt. I owe him everything, yet I was ready to throw it all away. It’s enough to make me wonder who I am. Whether I’m the man I thought I was all this time.
“You don’t have to tell me that,” he insists with a gentle laugh, and the sound is a white-hot knife in my chest. I am betraying him with every filthy fantasy. Every time I look at her for longer than I should. When I imagine the sort of shit I don’t need to think about while I have him on the phone. I can’t seem to control my thoughts anymore. What is happening to me?
There’s a reason I called him, isn’t there? Fuck, I need sleep. “I’m sending you the plans I drew up. Next steps. I think we start ramping up and move ahead with the arrangements we discussed.”
“Absolutely. You have everything secured?”
“I’ve been working with my contacts. They’ve always come through for me. It might take a little time—there’s some red tape issues, and the local government out there can take a little more time to work around, but things should move along once I give them the go-ahead.”
“And how is she?”
She had to come up eventually. “She’s ready to come home.” At least that’s not a lie. “Tired of my company, that much is for sure.”
“What, my daughter doesn’t like being told what to do? I’m shocked. Where is she? Trying to get her on the phone is like trying to get an audience with the Pope.”
I gaze out the window overlooking the backyard. Mrs. Cooper is out there tending her new mums. “She is next door, with the neighbor lady. Helping with her garden.” It’s a lie, but the alternative would mean telling him I haven’t spoken to Tatum today. I’m sure she’s in the house – I’ve heard her opening and closing cabinet doors in the kitchen. It’s a change from the way she’s hidden herself the past couple of days. I thought after last night, she would be more determined than before not to see me unless one of her limbs was hanging off.
But this is different. I didn’t just piss her off last night. I rejected her. So what if it took literally every last scrap of my self-control? All she cares about is not getting what she wanted, when she wanted it. She wants to turn it into something it’s not. To accuse me of thinking she’s weak and broken and unworthy.