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I huffed at his nonanswer. “So, you weren’t annoyed with me? You do like me?”
His icy fingers slid through the side of my hair, and for a moment, he squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m not annoyed by your presence. And I may not be good with people, but I do think I’ve made it very obvious I like you. I’ve been stalkin’ you, for Christ’s sake.”
I burst out laughing. It couldn’t be helped. Callum’s deadpan sense of humor shot me straight in the funny bone. I shouldn’t have been laughing. I was in a giant pile of trouble. But holy granola, I really liked this man. Callum let a slow smile spread across his face, revealing his slightly crooked and perfectly charming white teeth.
“Is that a yes?” he asked.
“It’s not a no. But can we table that for a week or two and maybe get to know one another?”Give me a chance to come clean.“I know it doesn’t seem like it, given my behavior at the party, but I’m not normally like that.”
“I know.” There was more sureness in those two words than I contained in my entire body.
“You do?”
“I do. We’ll table it.” He tipped his chin. “You’ll come over to my place. I’ll feed you dinner. If you say no, I’ll be forced to use the copy of the key I made to your townhouse and drag you out with me.”
I giggled, but he’d uttered his threat so seriously, half of me almost believed him. I must have been a little mental, because the thought of Callum so desperate to be in my presence he’d commit a literal crime to have me, turned me on so suddenly, my thighs clapped together.
“Okay. We can skip the kidnapping. I’ll come willingly.” And I would tell him when I got to his apartment. Even if it hurt and he kicked me right back out, I wouldn’t delay it a second.
“Good girl.” His mouth spread into a grin. “Although, I’d been kinda lookin’ forward to the kidnapping. I think you’d look cute all bound and gagged.”
The flood of heat between my legs practically made me moan. What the hell was with me? A normal reaction to what Callum said would probably involve jumping out of a moving car, not getting turned on. It had to be because of our history, not because I’d been transformed into a kinky monkey.
His grin spread even wider, and a finger skimmed my hot cheek. “You liked that, didn’t you?”
I blinked slowly and let myself smile back at him even though I was confused and embarrassed by my reaction. “I don’t know. Maybe I did. At least the idea of it. I think my aunt would be a little put off if you actually dragged me from our house all tied up.”
His chuckle slid over my skin like warm silk. “I’ll have to remember to make sure there are no witnesses.”
“I wonder if you know how incredibly creepy you sound.”
He lifted a shoulder. “It doesn’t bother me very much. I don’t talk like this with anyone else. Does it bother you?”
“No.” I didn’t hesitate. “It should, but it doesn’t.”
“Who says it should?”
“Well…society, I guess. Threatening to kidnap women if they don’t do what you want is sort of frowned upon.”
With a long exhale, he leaned his head back on the rest and dug his fingers into the sides of his scalp. “Somethin’ you might wanna know about me, Wren. I grew up outside the confines of society with a bunch of criminals. Conformin’ to rules doesn’t make sense to me, but I do it for survival. I don’t like it, and I don’t believe in it.”
I sucked in a little breath. “You don’t believe in laws?”
“I don’t care about laws. I’m not gonna hurt anyone, not unless they ask for it. But when I’m in the privacy of my home, or my car, I’d like to be able to drop pretenses and just be myself. If I say somethin’ that scares you, tell me. But think about it first. Is it scary because you feel it, or is it scary because it’s different than what you grew up believin’ is right?”
I didn’t have an answer, and he didn’t seem to need one. He kept his eyes closed, and a look of contentment relaxed his sharp features. I settled beside him, twisting my fingers together as I tried to predict his reaction to me spilling the truth.
A warm hand landed on my fidgeting fingers. He had turned his head, observing me while I fretted.
“Stop, Wren.”
I swallowed and moistened my lips. “Okay.”
His lips quirked. “Thank you.”
He closed his eyes again but kept his hand on mine. As the minutes passed, tension seeped from my muscles and I relaxed beside him. If I could have tucked this moment into a capsule and hidden it away in my coat pocket, I would have.
But the car pulled up in front of Good Music all too soon and reality set in when I saw Natalie sashay into the building.
