Page 3 of Bitten By Desire (Crooked Point #1)

Saturday

I wanted to run after Callum and get the kiss I was still craving. I also wanted to throw my camera at his fucking head. Seriously, what the hell was that?

“Damn, when I said you needed to move on I didn’t realize you’d go for a hot older guy,” Zoey said. She whistled. “Jackson can eat his heart out.”

I hadn’t meant to do any of it. I’d lost my mind as soon as Callum had opened his mouth. Or maybe it was when my eyes had met his. One look and he’d completely captivated me.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine.” I wasn’t. I needed a million STD tests. Why the hell hadn’t he used a condom? And he could have at least pulled out. But I also could have asked. It was like I’d completely lost all reason as soon as he’d touched me.

“Are you sure? That looks painful.” She was staring at the side of my neck.

Was the hickey already forming? I reached out to touch it, but she caught my hand.

“You’re bleeding!”

“What?” I looked down at my hand. There was blood dripping down from my fingertip. “I’m fine,” I said again. I put my finger into my mouth and sucked the cut, picturing Callum’s mouth sucking instead. Had he bit me that hard? It hadn’t felt that hard to me .

“I expected you to scream. Not moan my name.” Why would I have screamed? I’d loved every second of that. Until I realized he hadn’t used a condom. And pretended he was just giving me directions. How had he walked away without a second glance?

Tonight had felt momentous to me. But it clearly hadn’t been for him.

Zoey’s phone chimed and she glanced at the text. “The goalie is just about done with our car.”

Zoey rarely bothered to learn the names of the guys she hooked up with. If she slept with another goalie, he’d just be dubbed goalie #2.

“Shall we grab more drinks? Or are you ready to head out? Maybe you have a professor to bang?”

I cringed. “Can we please just go?” I never should have left the house.

But just thinking it made me shake my head.

Callum walking away from me like I was nothing stung.

Him being the coach stung a little more.

But for just a few seconds there, I’d felt alive.

Desired. God, I don’t know what I’d give for him to touch me like that again.

Zoey looped her arm through mine and told me all about hooking up with her goalie. But every time she asked me a question about Coach Walsh, I just shrugged.

I didn’t know what to say. I’d known him all of two minutes before he had me stripping for photos. I’d lost my freaking mind. At least the photos were on my camera instead of his phone.

“Please tell me you at least got a picture of the two of you together,” Zoey said.

“No, but I got one of him.” I lifted my camera as we made our way past the hallway of portraits .

I looked up and stared at one of the sets of eyes following me down the hall.

I was just imagining it. I had to be. I shook away the thought and looked back down at my camera.

The most recent picture on the camera should have been of Callum.

But it was just a picture of the doorway of the sitting room.

I shook my head. I’d definitely taken his picture.

I scrolled through more of them, angling my screen away from Zoey.

I stared down at a picture of the hem of my dress pushed up past my stomach.

Hadn’t his hand been splayed on my stomach there?

I swear it had been. But it was just me in the picture.

Picture after picture of just me in inappropriate positions. Without Callum whispering sinful things in my ear, I felt neither confident nor sexy. I just felt really confused.

We walked out the front doors of the house. My car was waiting for us.

“Do you want to drive or should I?” Zoey asked.

“Um…you.” Because I was drunk. I had to be.

Because maybe Callum had moved his hand from my stomach before taking the shot.

And maybe he had moved out of the frame before I snapped my photo of him.

But I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I’d taken a picture of the portrait that resembled him.

I’d taken pictures of lots of the portraits.

But…none of them were in my camera roll.

The photos jumped from one of Zoey and the goalie dancing to me in the sitting room.

I turned back and looked at the house. Maybe I was drunk. Part of me felt like none of that had just happened .

“I can’t believe you slept with the coach of the Wildcats. So epic.”

Okay…so I didn’t imagine all of it. I was glad Zoey had seen Callum too, or else I would have been worried I was losing my head.

And there were also all the illicit pictures of me on my camera.

But I didn’t want those. I wanted pictures of Callum.

I shook my head. Surely I’d just skipped over them.

I’d find them when I uploaded them to my hard drive.

***

Every day that passed, I tried to push what happened aside.

I’d had a momentary lapse of judgement. But I was officially not pregnant.

And all my tests had come back clear. So I hadn’t ruined my whole life after one intoxicating golden stare.

But every time I closed my eyes, I saw Callum’s eyes.

And no, I wasn’t sick or pregnant. But my chest hurt for some reason.

It had only been three weeks since I’d seen him, but I knew he wasn’t thinking about me like I was thinking about him. After all, he’d walked away like I meant nothing.

I grabbed the stack of photos from that night. When I stared at them, I could almost feel Callum’s lips tracing over my neck. I could hear his breath in my ear. And his cold touch on my skin.

I knew it meant nothing to Callum. But that night meant something to me. Or else I wouldn’t keep staring at the pictures. I’d even gone to get my camera fixed, swearing that something was wrong with the memory card. But the IT guy just looked at me like I was insane.

I didn’t get it. Sure, maybe once in a blue moon I was a terrible shot. But I hadn’t been distracted when I took the pictures of the portraits. And there was really only one reason why they would be missing.

After I’d told Callum I had a picture of the portrait that resembled him, he’d taken my camera. He’d distracted me by telling me to pose. But had he really only taken the camera as a ruse? To delete the pictures I’d taken of the portraits?

Had he even believed the things he said to me?

Gorgeous. Confident. Sexy. Or was he just trying to distract me?

I put my face in my hands. This was ridiculous.

I just needed to go talk to him. If I couldn’t get him out of my head, there was a possibility he couldn’t get me out of his either.

I tossed the photos in my night stand drawer and walked out of my room.

I was glad Zoey was in class, because I didn’t know how to explain what I was doing. I didn’t know how to explain any of it. I just needed to see Callum again.

I climbed into my car and made the trip back toward the forest. The winding road didn’t seem as sinister when the sun was shining brightly.

I didn’t even see any large cats running around.

Just thinking about almost hitting one made me slow down.

If I got stuck out here all alone, I’d be seriously screwed.

Zoey was the one that knew how to flirt her way into free car repairs.

I really should have brought her with me…

I turned up the music and kept driving. I’d looked Callum Walsh up online. But there was very little information about him. No social media profiles. Just one measly article about how he’d moved to town a few years ago and took over as head coach. And the article did not include a headshot.

It was hard to be that invisible online. Not one picture of his face? How was that possible ?

I turned at the bend in the road and pressed down on the brakes.

The gothic mansion looked creepy in the day too. More so because of the boards all over the windows and door. I stared out the windshield at the boarded up house.

Apparently Callum Walsh wasn’t the coach of the Wildcats anymore. I wasn’t sure if this had even been his house. I honestly wasn’t sure he’d ever existed at all.

But that wasn’t true. Because I saw his golden eyes every time I crawled into bed.