Page 40 of Surprise Me Tonight

Fran nods once, like she’s been waiting for me to catch up with myself.

Then she leans back in her chair and says, perfectly deadpan, “Oh good. Now that we’ve established your emotional collapse, can we finally discuss the important thing?”

I blink at her.

She lifts her mug. “How was the sex?”

The question lands like a pebble dropped into water — quiet, but rippling straight through me.

I blink again, open my mouth, close it. Then let out a shaky, disbelieving breath and slump back in my chair, pressing the palms of my hands to my flushed face and whisper, “Fran.”

“Just tell me if it was worth risking your job for.”

“Fran.”

“I’m serious. Did the man deliver?”

I drop my hands and stare at her. “I didn’t even know that sexcouldfeel like that.”

Her grin spreads slowly. “That good, huh?”

“He ruined me. It was… intense. Like he’d been holding himself back since we first met and then just—”

“Unleashed the beast?”

“God, don’t say it like that.”

She laughs.

I shake my head, but I’m smiling now. The kind that hurts your cheeks. The kind you don’t want to admit is creeping up on you.

“I shouldn’t feel this way,” I murmur.

“Maybe not,” she says. “But you do.”

I nod. Because there’s no point denying it now.

And when I close my eyes, I see him — jaw clenched, looking at me like he’d burn for the chance to touch me again.

And my entire body answers with a heat that hasnothingto do with tea.

I lie in bed staring at the ceiling, covers pulled up to my chin, the room quiet except for the occasional creak of the pipes and the low hum of the wind outside.

I should be sleeping. I should have taken a bath, made a chamomile tea, put on something mindless and gentle and safe — but instead, I’ve been staring at my phone for twenty minutes, trying to be reasonable.

Then I stop pretending I’m capable of that and type the message.

Me

Are you sleeping?

Three dots appear almost immediately. Then disappear. Then reappear.

Callum

No.

I hesitate for a second longer, then press the call button before I can talk myself out of it.