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“Hey, I lost you for a minute.” Callum tightens his arms around me. I can feel the knots of his muscles pushing into my skin. “What's going on in there?” He brushes his lips against my temple.
It feels good. Too good. I'm aware that if I give in to the fog of comfort that wants to envelope me, everything will be lost. How can this be anything more than a fling to him? I'm an intern, ten years younger, and with a hell of a lot to lose. If anybody ever found out...
“I should go home.” I sit up, all too aware of my nudity. My clothes are scattered on his shiny wooden floor. Like Callum, his bedroom is intensely masculine, dark woods and grey linen, the art colourful against the stark white of his walls. I feel awkward and out of place here, so I clamber to my knees in an effort to escape.
“Come here,” Callum croons, as if reassuring a frightened animal. He wraps his arms around my waist, and it takes every ounce of my strength not to melt into his body. “What happened here? We had a good time didn't we?” He frowns. “You did come, right?”
Blushing, I remember the three amazing orgasms he gave me. “It's not that.”
“Then what is it?”
I brush the hair out of my face. Callum is frowning at me, two vertical lines furrowed between his eyebrows. I reach out to smooth them away, but pull back as if I've been burned.
Maybe I have.
“This can't happen.” I gesture between the two of us. “We can't do this.”
In spite of my protestations, he gathers me into his embrace. “I've got news for you, sweetheart, it just did.”
“I know,” I wail. “And it shouldn't have. I almost work for you, you should be giving me orders, not orgasms.”
He smirks, and it's sexy enough to make me want to slap him. “I can give you both, if that's what you're into.”
An image of Callum standing over me naked, and barking out demands, flashes through my mind. “I'm not into that.” It's a complete lie. I could be so into that. I could be into anything he wants. But I shouldn't be, and the whole damn thing is so confusing. “I should go.”
“Look, babe, you're tired, you're overwrought, and you need to get some sleep. I can take you home if you want but I'd much rather you stayed here with me.”
There go those biceps again, flexing deliciously. They cage me in—a muscle-bound prison—and it would be so easy to relent.
“I need to get home. My mum will be wondering where I am.”
Callum says nothing, just gets out of bed and starts to pull on his clothes. The intimacy disappears, and we're little more than strangers sharing a dressing room. Though I know it's my fault, there’s nothing else I can do, we're already skating on thin ice.
When we're dressed, I start making his bed, lifting the sheet and billowing it up. Callum stops me.
“You won't say anything?” I ask. “At work, I mean?”
He scowls. “Why the hell are you so afraid, Amy?”
“I don't want to lose my job.” I whip my head around, matching him grimace for grimace. “And if I get thrown out I’ll also flunk my degree and end up at square one.”
“You won't lose your job,” he says calmly. “I wouldn't let that happen.”
He’s so sure of himself I almost cave. But then I remember the contract I signed on my first day at work. There's no way I can risk it.
We walk out into his hallway and I scoop my jacket off the floor. Shrugging it on, I turn to look at him. “Can you call me a cab?”
He reaches for my hand. “Stay.”
I start to waiver. “Callum...”
Scowling, he grabs his phone from the jacket hanging in the entranceway and slides his fingers across the screen. A moment later he's ordering a taxi, his eyes still on me. My mouth tastes of bitterness and regret. Though I try hard to make it disappear, the flavour still lingers.
When the taxi arrives he opens his front door and waves at the driver, before wrapping his arms around me. He holds me tightly, pressing his lips to my hot forehead, and I want to crawl back into bed with him.
“I won't give up on you,” he warns, releasing me outside his front door. “I know you're scared, and I know this has come as a surprise, but I like you, Amy, and I think you like me, too.”
He's right on all counts. I am scared and I do like him, and that's why it’s so difficult. I'm still a mess of emotion as I climb into the taxi and he gently closes the door behind me, tapping twice on the roof to let the driver know he's good to go. As we accelerate away, I twist in the seat, my eyes seeking Callum as he walks back into his house. At the last second he turns, his gaze meeting mine.
