Page 35 of Playboy Husband

MAISIE

Just like before, I barely had time to look around Callum’s bedroom before he was kissing me again, but tonight, he stood me in front of his bed instead of laying me down on it. His kisses were different too, slower and more reverent. Like he was truly drinking in every moment.

As exhausted as I was, I was in no hurry either. Being with him here, like this, with only the two of us in the intimacy of the moment, it felt like we were already together. Already in love. Married. Settled.

It was hard to even remember that I was keeping something so major from him as his tongue stroked my own, his hands gentle as they moved to the zipper at my spine and tugged it down.

If I was being honest, I would admit that it probably felt like we were already in love because I was at least halfway there—if not more.

I didn’t know for sure how he felt about me, but recently, I’d started suspecting that this wasn’t only an arrangement for him anymore either. Something about the way he’d been with me and with Brody made it feel like it really was becoming more. Like we would’ve ended up here, no matter what.

As he slid the zipper down, he hooked the fingers of his free hand under the thin sleeve at my shoulder and pushed it down, breaking his mouth away from mine to plant kisses there. He kissed my throat next, moving to my chest once the zipper was all the way down and the dress slid to my waist.

I moaned and stroked my fingernails across his scalp, but as good as all this felt, I wasn’t about to miss out on the opportunity to properly explore him tonight.

His tongue licked a hot trail from my collarbone, but I giggled and ducked away, letting the dress pool at my feet before I stepped out of it.

Callum was breathing a little harder than usual, watching me with curiosity and amusement in his eyes as I sat down on the edge of the bed. I lifted my hand and beckoned him to me, never moving my gaze away from his.

He stepped closer, that dark hair falling across his forehead as he cocked his head. “What are we doing?”

“You’re coming over here.”

“Why?”

“Because honestly, I’m not sure how the knots in that waistband work and I’m going to try to be sexy while I try to get your pants off, but I’m going to need to be at eye level.”

He chuckled through a groan but dutifully stepped between my legs and kicked his shoes off. “You’re sexy no matter what you’re doing, Mais. Do you want me to talk you through it?”

I nodded, glancing up at him with a smile spreading on my lips. “Only if you want to get naked at all tonight.”

“In that case, why don’t I just take care of it?” He pumped his eyebrows at me. Before I could even respond, he had his pants open and all I had to do was push them off. “Alright, future wife. Get me naked. I can’t wait.”

I laughed softly, but as I lifted his pants and underwear over his thick length, I realized he might not have been joking. His cock sprang free, already rock hard, and curving almost elegantly toward his navel.

My cheeks suddenly felt like they’d been drenched in lava, but I’d wanted to look at him like this for so long, and now, here he was.

This wasn’t the time to get shy or back down, so I wrapped my fingers around the broad base of him and pressed my thighs together in response to the low, needy groan he released.

“Shit, Mais. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.”

“It’s a great idea,” I murmured as I ran my gaze from the wide, shiny tip, along the long, veiny length of his shaft.

“I, uh, I haven’t ever really…” I took a deep breath, fascinated by the sounds he made every time I moved my hand even just a little bit.

“You’re going to have to help me here, okay? ”

“Okay?” he asked, sounding a little confused, but when I looked up, he swallowed visibly, then nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

I flashed him a quick smile, then opened my mouth and bent closer to him, letting my lips close around his tip. He let out another groan, but it was half growl this time. My head started bobbing up and down, my hand working from the bottom to meet it.

Curving my tongue around the underside, I was surprised by how much this was turning me on, but I got really into it. So much so that when he swelled and suddenly pulled me off him, eyes wild and wide when I looked up, I was genuinely shocked that he seemed so into it.

“You’re too good at that,” he muttered, panting. He pushed me back on the bed. For some reason, he looked extremely angry at me, but as he kept talking, I finally understood. “You didn’t need any help at all, but fuck. One more second, and it would’ve all been over.”

It dawned on me then what had happened and I grinned, ridiculously happy that I’d made him feel so good. “Really?”

He scoffed down a short laugh. “Really, Mais. At some point, we’re going to talk about why you thought you needed help at all, but right now—”

“I need you inside me,” I whispered, my heart pounding and my own body probably just as on edge as his seemed to be. “Please, Callum.”

“Yes.” He didn’t hesitate, just nodding and pressing a hard, urgent kiss to my lips before he reached for a condom and rolled it on.

I peeled my panties off, panting and ready. I watched him lay down on the bed, motioning for me to get on top. Following the silent instruction, I crawled over to him, straddling him and slowly lowering myself down.

Callum wrapped a hand around the nape of my neck and pulled me down, kissing me like I was his source of life. Our bodies finally joined. Even though I was top, he took charge, setting our pace a faster than he had before.

I got it, though. I needed him just as badly. Much too soon, I was moaning and shaking, the sounds he made and the way he felt inside me making it impossible to hold back. The orgasm crashed into me like a tidal wave, pleasure consuming me for longer than I’d ever felt.

Somewhere in the midst of it, I felt Callum’s hips jerk and heard him moan my name, his grip on my hips tightening. He thrust into me hard a few times before he collapsed. Finally spent myself, I lay down beside him, just holding him as I waited for my breathing to return to normal.

The room was dimly lit, only pale ambient light from the city far below filtering in through the giant glass windows. My body was still humming from him, his touches, his kisses, and the way he’d looked at me like I was the only person in the world.

Callum lay beside me, arm stretched across my waist, his fingertips drawing absent shapes on my hip. Tonight, being with him here, in the after, felt too easy. Too good.

“Brody asked me about his dad again,” he said quietly, his voice rough in the stillness.

My throat went tight. “He did?”

“Yeah.” Callum shifted onto his side to face me, his eyes shadowed but intent. “On the golf course this morning. He asked me why I thought his dad didn’t want him.”

I stared at the ceiling, willing my heartbeat to slow. “I never told him that. I’ve never said that his dad didn’t want him.”

Callum’s hand stilled on my hip. “It sounds like he overheard your parents talking. I’m not sure if he heard them say exactly that or if that’s just the conclusion he came to, but I thought you should know that he brought it up again.”

My breath caught. In that moment, I wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to tell him the ugly truth, all about the fear that had been living in me since the day I’d found out I was pregnant, and about how many times during this journey I’d almost broken, but the words wouldn’t come.

Finally, though, I found myself admitting to at least a part of the story. A part of the truth. It was more than I’d ever given anyone who wasn’t Georgia or my parents.

“I never told his father,” I whispered, my voice barely there. “It wasn’t… we weren’t in a relationship or anything like that. By the time I found out I was pregnant, I honestly didn’t even think he would remember my name, and the shock?”

Callum’s expression softened, his thumb brushing gently along my side. He didn’t push for more and didn’t ask the million questions I knew he had to have. He just nodded once, like he was accepting what I’d been ready to give.

“You did what you had to do,” he said. “I don’t think anyone can blame you. One minute, we were all convinced you were going to take gold in the next Olympics, and the next, you were gone. It can’t have been easy for you to accept.”

The weight in my chest loosened but only just. He believed me, but lying here, cocooned in warmth and with the steady beat of his heart against my back when he pulled me closer, all I could feel was the gnawing truth I hadn’t told him.

The truth that, sooner or later, was going to tear all of this apart. I swallowed hard, my eyes tracing the shadows on the ceiling like the answers about how to do this might be etched there. “I was so young, Callum. We were both so young.”

He held me a little tighter but didn’t interrupt. “You’re right, too. It really wasn’t easy. My coach was furious when I told him I was dropping out. There were issues with my scholarship. I was barely holding it together myself.”

I felt more than heard him suck in a sharp breath. “You went through so much.”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t only about me. I knew the very last thing Brody’s dad would have wanted back then was a baby.

” My chest squeezed, each word dragging.

“It would’ve derailed his life and I couldn’t do that.

I couldn’t be the person responsible for taking the future he was meant to have, so I didn’t tell him. I kept it all to myself.”

“You gave up the future you were meant to have instead,” he murmured quietly, an astonishing amount of emotion in his voice. “That wasn’t exactly fair to you either, but I get it.”

“As soon as I found out about Brody, it stopped being about me,” I whispered, but it felt like my throat was closing.

“That was my choice and I’ve never regretted it, but at the time, I didn’t think his dad would’ve believed me anyway.

There was too much going on. Too much on the line.

Going through everything with my coach, and my teammates, and the school was traumatizing enough, let alone the prospect of actually having a baby when I still felt like one myself. ”

The silence that followed stretched, heavy and suffocating. My heart pounded as I waited for judgment. I might even have been waiting for him to pull back and see me for the coward I was. My fingers twisted in the sheets.

“Does that make me a bad person?” My voice cracked, and suddenly, the ceiling blurred, hot tears stinging the corners of my eyes. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. In fact, I was trying to stop someone else from hurting. Trying to stem the bleeding.”

“No.” The word came fast, certain, and almost fierce.

Callum lifted himself up on his elbow to look at me and cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing away tears I hadn’t even realized had slipped free.

His gaze held mine, as steady as stone. “You were doing what you thought would protect him. And Brody. That doesn’t make you bad.

It makes you the strongest fucking person I’ve ever met. ”

I wanted to believe him. I wanted it so, so badly, but my chest still ached like the part of the truth I hadn’t spoken was burning its way through my ribs. Callum’s gentle touches grounded me though, his certainty enough to loosen something knotted deep inside.

I let out a shuddering breath and leaned into him, letting him pull me against the solid warmth of his chest. For once, I stopped fighting. I stopped running, and instead, I let myself give in.

Surrendering to his comfort and the safety I found in his arms, I let myself listen to the steady beat of his heart under my ear. When he pressed a soft kiss to my hair and murmured that he had me, that he wasn’t going anywhere, I let myself believe that, too.

Just for tonight. I let myself stay with him, here in his bed, cherishing these moments that I so wished would last forever, but the longer this went on, the more certain I was becoming that he was going to leave me as soon as he found out.

Because Callum Westwood wasn’t who I thought he was. It turned out that I’d had him all wrong. Maybe he might’ve believed me back then after all. Hell, he might’ve done more than just believe me. He might even have stayed.