Page 26

25

Fane

After

“Put me down!” Cali whisper-yelled while simultaneously squealing. I was pretty sure there was a giggle in there somewhere that she tried to disguise with a pretty burly-sounding “ Grr.”

“Nope.” I reached up and slapped her ass lightly.

“Fane!” She really did yell that time. “You did not just do that!”

“Do what? This?” I slapped her ass again, and this time the giggle was definitely there before yet another grizzly harrumphing sound.

“Fane!” Cali’s squealing laugh was worth every second of all the middle fingers and cuss words I was sure were in my future. I set her down right next to my car.

“Motherfucking fucking… fuck!” Cali stomped her foot, and the move was so unexpected my eyebrows shot up to my hairline. “You…you’re not allowed to do any of that ever again.” She held her hands up in a big X in front of her.

“Sorry.” I wasn’t sorry at all.

“I can drive myself.” She crossed her arms. “And you touched my ass. Twice.”

“I know you can, but I’m going to help and do it for you. And it’s a nice ass, but you’re right. I should’ve asked first.”

“I—” Her blush was fluorescent. “Thank you,” she mumbled before she frowned at herself and mouthed the word, What?

“Get in, we’re going to be late.” I jerked my head toward the open passenger side door.

“I’m not—”

“Cali, I swear to God, I will physically put you in that seat.”

Her face had gone slack, and her mouth hung open, but she did it, grumbling all about how she’d see how I’d like it if she slapped my ass and then something else that sounded a lot like, “What? No. Why would I touch his ass?”

Needless to say, she sulked the whole drive into Sunshine, arms crossed and whole body angled away from me. My attention was half on her, half on the road, and just like every other time her café came into question, the need as to why she picked that name wanted to be screamed in her general vicinity.

It sat like a lead weight at the bottom of my stomach. Like that same pathetic bit of hope that had been doused the moment I got into town suddenly started to show signs of a pulse.

But I held back. Even though my plan sucked, things were…I don’t know what they were. But they were changing, and I was approaching her like I would a scared little kitten. With caution and patience and protective gear.

“People are going to think I’m your hostage,” she said, jumping out of the truck and heading off down the alley to the café.

“People are going to think we’re in love ,” I corrected her, following just behind.

She snorted, tossing her words at me over her shoulder. “What a rude shock that will be for them.”

Oh, well. That wouldn’t do.

“Cali,” I said, voice sharp and urgent, stopping her mid-step. She turned in an instant, eyes raking over me with a furrow between her brows. Assessing.

She stepped toward me, and whether she knew she was doing it or not, her hands gripped fistfuls of my shirt, pressing her body against mine and then her head started to turn over her shoulder.

“There’s a crowd,” I murmured, my hand sliding to the nape of her neck, fingers threading into the silky strands of her hair. “And we do have appearances to keep.” My thumb brushed against her skin, tilting her head back ever so slightly.

“If they don’t think we’re in love,” I rasped, my lips hovering just over hers, “Then we’ll just have to rectify that immediately.”

I didn’t let her think about it. I didn’t give her time to argue. I kissed her.

Maybe what was happening hadn’t actually hit her, or maybe she was a stellar actress because she kissed me right back. It was like stepping directly into a moment in time I had fucking dreamed of, day after day.

Her body melted into me, lips soft and eager. This kiss was nothing like the one I had stolen from her weeks ago.

Yes, there was a crowd across the street, but it was more of a group of older women who were promptly bustling into what looked like a fabric store from the glance that I gave them.

I was expecting Cali to give me a tight-lipped nothing before dragging her hand across her mouth and saying I had cooties or something equally as ridiculous.

I hadn’t expected this .

She met my hesitance with an arm sneaking around my neck to pull me closer to her. I whimpered—fucking whimpered —at the way she let me pull her close. At the way that I got to feel her, feel the way she wanted me close, the way she kept me there.

Leaning down, I wrapped an arm around her and backed us into the alley before she wrapped her legs around my waist, and I pressed her against the wall.

Cali’s hands were in my hair, gripping the strands in tight fists, tugging until the bite of pain made me grunt, going straight to my cock.

Gone was the fight she carried in every interaction since I’d arrived. Kissing her now felt like returning home after war—raw, tender, and too overwhelming to fully process.

She didn’t fight me and if she had drawn a line in the sand for herself, she stepped over it willingly.

The way her mouth moved with mine wasn’t angry. It was desperate. It was starved . It was like she missed me in the same way I had missed her, even though the very sentiment of that seemed impossible.

She tasted perfect. With every swipe of my tongue into her mouth, she pulled me tighter into her, her hands tugging harder. Her moaning pleas turned even more urgent.

My hand snaked between us, brushing the button of her jeans.

My fucking luck, this was the first time she’d worn pants to work in two whole fucking weeks. That was when we pulled apart, when those wide, trusting eyes I remembered but hadn’t seen once since I got here settled onto me. Open and guardless and wanting.

Just when she pulled back to give me room, a delicate throat clearing came from the mouth of the alley.

“I…am so sorry to interrupt this.” Sammy had her eyes right on the ground beneath her feet. “But we have a bit of a line and…” She gestured toward the front of the café.

Cali’s eyes were on me, widening with each passing second as she realized that we’d been practically dry-humping on a wall next to her place of work, and not silently.

I slowly dropped a frozen Cali to her feet, unable to stop the full-body shiver at the feel of her pressed against me. It was a fucking mission to drag my eyes from hers, lids still heavy with the need that made my balls ache so damn bad the need to reach into my pants and squeeze them was almost overwhelming.

I leaned around the corner just to come face-to-face with what was, just as Sammy said, a very big line of people waiting to get the best coffee in town. The first person I saw was Ashton, who was smiling at me like he should be committed.

“Hey, Fane!” he yelled, or more accurately screamed, drawing every single pair of eyes. He then proceeded to point at my crotch. “Is that a portafilter in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?”

I ducked back behind the wall, cussing out my best friend while I shoved my hand into my jeans to readjust my now painfully hard cock. Cali’s hand flew up to cover her mouth, a second too late in stopping the chortle that erupted from her. Her wide eyes met mine before she threw her head back and let loose the loudest cackling laugh I’d heard in years.

Her eyes were squeezed tight, but still a tear escaped and fell down her cheek. She was powerless to stop it all the while she clutched at her stomach, letting wave after wave of laughter just pour out of her.

I stood there, stunned stupid for a second. Watching her. Listening to her. Fucking bewitched by her.

I snatched the keys from her hand and threw her over my shoulder again, giving her ass another smack and marching her around the corner.

Ash’s grin was maniacal and spent the entire time I was unlocking the café poking Cali in the ribs.

To her credit, she managed to both fight him off and punch him definitely close enough to the dick region that he relented.

By the time she was back on her feet, her face was beet red, her hair was disheveled, and I had settled into my usual corner of Sunshine.

Without a word, I got into work, shielded in part by all the caffeine deprived patrons that had bustled in after us.

All the presentations Ash had gotten everyone to refine showed me exactly what I thought it would. The best part was that, essentially, I now had enough to put together a case for no one to touch this town with a ten-foot pole.

Normally, if the project was viable, this would mean moving on to budgeting and project projections—allocating funds, estimating returns, and putting together a plan to present to the board. But none of that mattered anymore. Darling wasn’t just resistant to development; the data painted a clear picture of how spectacularly it would fail.

The numbers didn’t lie. Any attempt to develop the town in the way the original plans suggested would result in a tanked investment and a PR nightmare for Mackenzie Co.

In plain words, I didn’t need to be here anymore.

All the work that needed to be done, to finalize and then present it to the board, didn’t need to be done here, but no one needed to know that. At least, not yet. Leaving wasn’t an option. The very idea of it made my organs twist uncomfortably.

Darling had never been the whole goal, and that was selfish, I know. It had been the excuse to finally make my way back to Calista Grey. To face the possibility that I might not be able to fix what I’d broken, but that I’d be damned if I didn’t fucking try.

There were ways to delay. A few tweaks to the timeline, some loose ends that needed ‘tidying up’. The first step was giving the crew a few days off, which conveniently gave me the breathing room I needed.

That was the last email I sent before Cali stopped in front of me, her hip jutted out and those heart-shaped lips of hers pursed to the side in that way that always made me want to bite them.

She didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to. Her narrowed eyes did all the talking as she turned on her heel and headed for the door to lock up.

And just like I always would, I followed her.