Page 30 of Playboy Husband

For a few blissful minutes, I didn’t think about anything except the weight of his arm around me and the steady beat of his heart under my cheek, but reality crept back in when I felt him shift to look at me.

“Stay here tonight,” he murmured, his voice rough with sleep and something softer.

God, I wanted to. My whole body screamed yes, but my heart clenched as I shook my head. “I want to, but I shouldn’t. My mom just got here, and I, uh, I’ve never spent a night away from Brody.”

He was quiet for a moment, his thumb brushing lazy circles over my hip. “Yeah, okay. I get that.”

There was no judgment in his voice, just understanding. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. His lips moved against my hair when he spoke again. “Hey, uh, when we get married, where are we going to live? Do you still want it to be at your place?”

The question made me lift my head and I blinked at him. “Really, now?”

“Yeah, now.” His mouth curved, but his eyes stayed serious. “You’re still naked, so you can’t run away. Now is as good a time as any.”

I groaned. “Fine, then yes. I do still want you to move in with us. This place is great, but there’s no yard or street for Brody, and your house at my parents’ estate seems amazing, but it’d be a heck of a commute for us. Plus, he loves the neighbor kids at our house.”

To my surprise, he didn’t try to argue the point again, nor did he make another smartass comment or try to change my mind. “I thought you might say that, so I’m willing to compromise.”

“You are?” I held those blue eyes, silvery in the dark room with only ambient light streaming in through the windows. “That doesn’t seem like you.”

“Hey,” he protested, tickling my ribs and scowling at me in fake outrage. “I am willing to compromise, but I’m going to need you to do the same.”

“In what way?” I asked slowly, softly, knowing the catch was coming. “What compromise am I making, exactly?”

“I’ll move in with you despite having quite a few other options for us to consider, most of which you don’t even know about yet, but only if you let me pay off the rest of your mortgage.

I know it’s steep, but I’ll wipe it clean.

You’ve built a home there for Brody. I don’t want to take that away from either of you, but I do want to contribute. This is my way of doing that.”

My throat went tight. I hadn’t expected him to seriously be picturing what our lives would look like under the same roof. Also, the way he’d said a home for Brody, like he already thought of it as his responsibility too, made my heart twist painfully.

In that moment, I wanted to tell him the truth more than ever before. I wanted him to know that it wasn’t just Brody’s home, but that it was his too, in a way he didn’t even know yet. The words pressed against my lips, but I couldn’t make them come out.

What if he’s furious at me? What if he hates me? What if… what if Georgia was right and he tries to take Brody from me once he finds out?

Callum’s words were still settling in my chest when he leaned in and kissed me again, his lips slow and unhurried, like he had all the time in the world. I let myself melt into it, holding his jaw and wishing I could freeze us here so we’d never have to go back to real life.

Eventually, he pulled back with a smile. “Your clothes should be done. I’ll go grab them for you.”

Reluctantly, I sat up, holding the sheet around me as he slipped out of bed. A moment later, I heard the dryer door clatter open and then he was back, a bundle of warm clothes in his arms. He handed me my pile first, then tossed his onto the chair in the corner.

“Fresh from the spa treatment,” he said with a crooked grin. “I can’t wait until I get to keep you naked all night, though.”

I laughed softly, but as we both dressed in silence, I felt the weight of a cruise liner sinking down on my shoulders. The drive back to my house was quiet, not awkward exactly, but heavy. At least, for me.

My body still hummed from him, from us, but guilt pressed in hard, making it impossible to relax. Brody was only seven. I’d never left him overnight, and now here I was, about to sneak back into our house while trying to convince myself I hadn’t done something so incredibly wrong.

When we pulled up, the lights were all out, but there was a faint glow inside coming from the lamp in the living room. My mom must’ve left it on for me.

She and Brody were probably both out cold upstairs, but as Callum hovered at the door, I turned to him, my voice hushed. “You can stay. If you want.”

He nodded without hesitation. “I’ll take the couch.”

My throat tightened. I wanted him in my bed, but that wasn’t an option. Not tonight. Maybe soon though, it would be. “Okay.”

We stood there, the silence of the house near deafening, and he leaned down, brushed a soft kiss against my temple, and whispered, “Goodnight, Maisie.”

“Goodnight,” I managed, my chest aching with everything I was too afraid to say.

So far, since he’d come back into my life, the guy had been perfect. Almost too perfect, saying all the right things and somehow being exactly what I needed every step of the way, but that made it even more difficult not to be terrified.

Because I remembered who he used to be.

I’d seen the absolute insanity of the wealth his family possessed.

If there was even the faintest chance that he was still that self-absorbed guy deep down inside, and he came after Brody with that amount of money, I would be entirely powerless to stop it—and I would lose both of them forever in the process.