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Callum was munching on toast, dressed in just his jeans from last night, sitting opposite her, grinning like the cat that had swallowed the cream. She was sitting wrapped in her bathrobe, her combed, wet hair drying in the sun, her face turned towards the still mild rays, her eyes shut. Her feet were propped on his lap. They’d just showered together and she was reliving every sexy detail.
‘You know those lapels gape and I can see a good amount of your chest?’ Callum mused.
Hailey opened her eyes and looked directly at him. ‘Yep.’
Callum laughed. ‘Tease.’
She laughed and shut her eyes again. Callum was massaging her feet and she felt like a big old tabby cat, warmed by the sun, stroked by its owner, content and very, very happy.
‘Well, I’d love to play hookey for the day like some, but I have to go to work and I need to go home for a change of clothes.’ Callum removed her feet reluctantly.
Hailey opened her eyes and sighed. It had been a perfect twelve hours and she didn’t want it to end. She’d deliberately not thought about what happened next. She didn’t want to have to go back to reality so soon.
‘You could just wear that,’ she suggested, lifting a foot and tracing her toe down the centre of his stomach, drawing it lightly across his fly area, grinning when he blasted her with a sultry look and grabbed hold of her foot so she couldn’t create any more havoc.
He stood, upsetting her position, picking up his mug and plate. ‘I’m feeling objectified.’
‘Yeah, I know how you guys hate that.’
Callum laughed and skirted her chair, evading her hands. ‘I’m going to be late.’
Hailey sighed and gathered her dishes, following Callum inside. ‘Here, give them to me,’ she said. ‘Go get your stuff together.’
Callum passed over his crockery, kissing her hard and brief on the mouth as he did so. She opened her eyes, dizzy from the surge of desire licking at her body, and found him looking at her.
‘I like it when you look like that.’
‘Like what?’ she asked breathily.
Thoroughly kissed. Glazed. Maybe even, in love? ‘Starry-eyed.’ He grinned.
She was about to protest his description, not liking how…how…teenage-girl-with-a-crush it sounded but, then, she had been staring at him stupidly and grinning at him since five a.m. And as she’d been studiously avoiding calling it—what had happened between them—anything, a crush sounded pretty damn good.
A knock interrupted their conversation and Hailey stared at the door, trying to fathom what to do about it, while her hormones were still directing impulses away from her brain.
Callum laughed. ‘Take the dishes.’ He kissed her and then turned her round to face the kitchen. ‘Snap out of it.’ He gave her a gentle push. ‘I’ll get the door.’
Hailey walked automatically, one foot in front of the other. How did he expect her to snap out of it when he kept kissing her all the time? She got to the sink and looked at the dishes in her hands. What had he said she was to do?
Callum was smiling as he opened the door. It was one of those moments. The moment when your life was perfect and you had absolutely no idea that just around the corner, or on the other side of a door, things were about to come crashing to a halt. He’d lived through two of those already and had no reason to doubt that, having been dealt his fair share, he was in line for another.
‘Er…oh!’
Callum blinked at the nonplussed-looking man standing on Hailey’s doorstep. He didn’t have to enquire who it was. It was the man from the photo. Paul.
‘I’m terribly sorry. I’m not sure I have the right address. I’m looking for Hailey Winters.’
Callum nodded, the clipped English accent bothering him more than it should have. ‘No. No, you have the right address.’
They stared at each other for a moment or two, trying to get the other’s measure. Callum could see Paul was confused to be met by a man. A half-naked man at that. He felt his hackles rise. Had he thought she was going to pine away for someone who’d driven her away?
‘Do you think I could…come in? Maybe see her?’
Callum detected the faint note of impatience, maybe even arrogance. He wanted to like this man—heaven knew, he felt sorry for him. He could certainly relate to him. He could have been him, after all. There but for the grace of God and all that. But at the moment all Paul was was a fly in his ointment.
‘Of course.’ Callum gave himself a shake and stood aside to admit…who? His rival? The man who Hailey had loved and lost? He noted the sizeable suitcase by Paul’s side and felt a creep of alarm. ‘I’ll just go and…see what she’s up to.’
