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Hailey snorted. ‘No, I’m short. There’s a difference.’ She had lost weight over the last year, the effects of what had happened overseas shadowing all areas of her life. But Hailey doubted that her generous curves were under any real threat of fading away.
‘How tall are you?’
‘Five foot neat.’
No wonder he felt like he was towering over her. At four inches over six feet—he did! He kind of liked it, though. It made him want to tuck her under his wing. ‘Wow. That is short.’
Hailey’s breath caught at his light teasing tone and the smile that took his features from sexy to the next level. Whatever the hell that was. Sublime? ‘Don’t let it fool you. I came top in my self-defence class.’
Callum laughed. ‘Really?’
Hailey drew herself up as high as she could and jutted her chin out. ‘Really.’
Callum quashed his smile. ‘I’ll have to remember that.’
Hailey placed a hand on his chest and pushed him gently away until he was a full arm’s length from her. ‘Just you see that you do.’
Callum saw the look of steel harden her soft brown eyes. ‘Look, Hailey, I’m guessing the whole New Year’s Eve thing is kind of freaking you out. I’m sorry. I promise I don’t usually go around kissing women I don’t know.’ Hell, these days he just didn’t kiss women—period.
Sorry? He was sorry? For what? For freaking her out or kissing her in the first place? She shouldn’t feel miffed. But she did. ‘You’re apologising for kissing me?’ Good. That was good. Wasn’t it?
‘No. Absolutely not.’ The actual kiss may have been no more than a peck but the way it was still zinging through his body it may as well have been a full-on, open-mouthed smacker. Callum hadn’t felt such ardent desire since Annie. It felt good to have that rush again. That buzz in his blood. He certainly wasn’t going to apoligise for it. ‘I’d do it again. No hesitation.’
She swallowed. ‘Oh.’
Of course he hadn’t meant right now but her lips had parted on that last word and her face was turned up, her mouth looking very inviting indeed. What would it be like to indulge in more than a chaste, oh-so-close-to-her-mouth kiss?
He took a step back. They were in a panroom, for crying out loud! At work! He cleared his throat. ‘Anyway. My point is…’ he said, groping around his brain for the point he was trying to articulate. ‘The point is, it happened. I don’t think we need to let it affect our working together. Let’s just chalk it up to a bit of moonlight madness and get on with it. OK? I don’t want you ducking in and out of rooms, avoiding me, ad infinitum. It won’t happen again.’
‘You just said you’d do it again,’ she pointed out, her brain still stuck back at that part of the conversation.
‘I meant that night. I’d do it all over again the same way. I couldn’t think of a better ending to a New Year’s Eve ball than kissing a girl with sparkly legs.’
Hailey smiled despite her mind still being foggy with his nearness. ‘It can’t happen again,’ she said firmly.
Callum frowned. ‘You didn’t like it?’
‘No, I…’
He smiled. ‘Ah. You did like it?’
Hailey crossed her arms and gave him a hard glare. She barely knew him and yet already he could tie her in knots! ‘Don’t be putting words in my mouth, Dr Craig.’
‘Ooh.’ He laughed at her frown. ‘You liked it a lot.’
Hailey felt her temper rise as heat flared in her cheeks again. She daren’t admit just how much she had liked the brief touch of his mouth. ‘It was a peck on the cheek,’ she said disparagingly. ‘My brother-in-law could have given it to me.’
Callum raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that a challenge? Is that your way of asking for something…more?’
The remaining oxygen evaporated and her eyes were drawn inexplicably to his mouth. More? How could something so wrong seem so…tantalising? A couple of years ago she’d have leapt at him. That mouth would have been on hers in a flash. But she just wasn’t that girl any more.
‘You need to get this straight,’ she said, deliberately dragging her eyes away from his lips. ‘I’m not in the market for a…an affair, and even if I was, which I’m not,’ she emphasised again, ‘I don’t get involved with colleagues.’
Callum could see the determination in the jut of her chin and her steady brown gaze. He could also see something else. A quick flash of pain before she shuttered it. ‘Is that a standard policy for you or a once-bitten kind of thing?’
