He settles back, waiting for more.
"Okay?"
"I believed you before you finished the sentence. I just wanted to give you the chance to say it."
I turn back to the window because holding his gaze right now feels like too much. He makes a sound I can't quite read, and we drive for a moment in a silence that feels different from the one before. Cleaner, like something small just got put down between us.
"I don't think it's just privacy, though." Because apparently I can't leave well enough alone. "It's something else."
He chuckles and shakes his head, but that's not answer enough for me.
"What's the real reason?"
I really, really want to know, and one look at my face should tell him I'm not letting this go.
"I have certain tastes."
The words echo through me, and my interest is very much piqued. This is interesting. This is very interesting.
"And I don't want that going through the town mill," he adds, like it's casual, like he hasn't just opened a door I am absolutely going to walk through.
I fix him with blatant, giddy curiosity, because I am extremely invested in knowing what sexual preferences this man has that he can't indulge in the comfort of his own town.
"Tell me of these tastes. Please." I add the please before he has a chance to deny me.
"Nope. I have said more than enough."
"You're going to tell me and you know it." I hit his arm for emphasis, then consider this very seriously, because I am aserious person who takes things seriously. "Wait. Is it cannibalism?"
He turns so sharply the car swerves.
"What?!"
The horror on his face is both hilarious and gorgeous, and I am having the time of my life.
"I'm trying to figure out the scale," I explain, completely reasonable. "Cannibalism seemed like the worst possible option, so I started there. Is it cannibalism?"
"What the... No. It's not... why would you..."
"I'm working top down, stay with me here." I turn further in my seat to face him properly. "Not cannibalism, fine. BDSM? That's not even that taboo anymore, Callahan."
"I'm not discussing this with you." The sternness in his voice would have gotten me to back off if this were any other topic, but it's not any other topic, it's this one, and I am invested now.
"Pegging? Is that it? Are you worried the town will find out you want to get pegged by a naughty girl? Or..." I tilt my head, index finger raised as the epiphany lands. "Boy? Maybe not just gay for Obama, after all?"
The car has stopped at a red light. Callahan has both hands on the wheel and is staring directly ahead like he's praying for patience and not receiving any.
"Where do you get this from?" he asks, clearly horrified.
"Same place as everyone else. Porn sites and Reddit."
"Porn sites and..." He stops himself, and I watch him do what looks like breathing exercises as the light changes and he pulls forward. The man is clinging to composure by a thread, and I am not even a little bit sorry.
"Rome warns me away from you, thinking I wouldcorrupt you," he mutters. "Poor man has no idea his sister is fully corrupted already."
"Rome asks me to stay away from you, too. Poor man, my ass." I pick an imaginary piece of lint off my jeans. "I was away at college since I was eighteen. I studied hard, but I also had a life."
Callahan makes a sound, this low hmmm that scrapes into something rougher at the end. I decide not to dwell on it and move on with my interrogation.
