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I no longer have to wonder if guilt is what’s keeping her there. She’s running the Barrel out of familial responsibility and duty. Not because she loves it or even likes her work. And I know Jo. She won’t make a change unless she doesn’t have a choice in the matter.
Something concrete in her life I can fix.
I’ll talk with Sandra tomorrow, get moving on the buyer she mentioned. They’ll take over the space, lift this weight from Jo’s shoulders. She’ll finally be able to pursue cooking like she secretly wants—with a little help from me when I line up a new job for her—and I’ll breathe a bit easier.
I kiss the top of her head. She doesn’t stir, and my eyelids droop.
I’m suddenly as tired as the dead. Too drained to plot or relive tonight’s messy confessions. My body drapes more heavily over Jo, everything drifting away except for the constant ache in my chest.
chapterthirty
Callahan
Heat. Slick skin. Damp cotton. A warm heart beating against mine.
I blink. Confused, unsure where I am. Then it hits.
Jolene’s bed.
Light filters through her window. Her bedside clock reads 8:27 a.m. I should be at work with Jake soon, but I’m tangled together with Jo, and she’s moving.
No, not moving.
She’sroaming.
Her hands are gliding over my bare back, under my shirt. And hell. I’m as hard as Sheetrock. So fucking hard for her, my erection pressed into her thigh as I grapple with my control.
“Jo,” I say. One barely croaked syllable. “How are you feeling?”
Way to go, Cal, resorting to small talk instead of addressing the erection in the room.
“Frustrated,” she says. “But fine.” Her lips hover at my neck, barely brushing over the straining tendons. “I want…”
She doesn’t finish, and she’s not the only one whowants. Her hot breath on my skin has my eyes nearly rolling into the back of my head. “What do you want?” I whisper.
“To know.”
“Know what?”
A full press of her mouth to my neck. “What your lips taste like. I know we can’t be together. But what you said last night and how it made me feel…” She trembles against me. “Just once. Just one kiss. I want to know your taste before I let you go.”
“Just once?” I hear myself saying. I am certifiable. Maybe I fell and hit my head too.
“Just once.” Her tongue flicks over my collarbone.
I hiss through my teeth. My hands find her hips and dig in. “Just once,” I repeat, because I need this too. To be selfish for a spell. One small taste. Then I’ll be the good brother. A stand-up guy. Look out for Jake the way he always looks out for us.
But we need utter honesty, or this can’t happen.
“One kiss won’t work anything out of our systems,” I say, as my hands roam too. Around her back and into her hair.
“I know.” Her thigh pushes between mine. “It’ll make it worse, but I need to know.”
I grunt. I am nothing but pumping blood and too-big feelings crammed behind my ribs. Her fingers massage my back. I anchor her against my thigh, andJesus. She’s wet. Her sleep shorts are riding up and rubbing against my quad.
“Please,” she murmurs, and I’m done thinking and worrying and waiting. A lifetime of pining for Jolene Daniels.
I dip my head as I surge over her, capturing her lips with mine. The second we connect, the electrical force between us ignites. Sparks up my spine. Static crackling through my limbs. Currents of energy surging through my heart. She groans into my mouth, grips my hair and gets more demanding, our tongues slipping into a seductive slide.
