Page 11 of The Consequence of You (Heathley Academy #2)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CALLIE

R ushing to my car, I stop only to grab my belongings and sign out.

What the fuck did I just do? Asher is the first person I’ve touched like that since my ex-boyfriend Nico.

It’s not like I haven’t had a few offers, at parties, in the gym, even as recently as a fortnight ago, but I’d never been close to doing anything.

But today, from the moment he stripped off his clothes, I felt like a cat in heat; I’d been reduced to the most basic form of myself, squirming with need as we spent the afternoon together, the heady scent of his aftershave, the slight undertone of man as he worked up a sweat painting.

It was like an aphrodisiac I couldn’t help but inhale.

When he stood at the bottom of the steps and looked up at me, I couldn’t fight the attraction any longer.

His usually perfectly styled blond hair was tousled and splattered with tiny paint droplets.

His green eyes searched my face, predatory and knowing.

Didn’t matter how hard I tried to deny it; in that moment I was lost to him.

And then his touch, the way he ran his fingers across my bare skin, his rougher skin caressing my softer stomach.

The way he reverently lifted my vest, seeking my permission; I would have stripped it off myself if he hadn’t done it first. He gave me plenty of opportunity to say no and yet I continued to let it happen. Willed it, even.

Is this how his other conquests feel? Like they have no choice but to throw themselves at him?

I’d been seconds from coming myself when he mouthed my nipples, the gentle sucking with the sharper edge of pain as he tugged at my piercings was like a direct line to my clit.

Only when he stopped and pulled away did I come to my senses.

The warm spray of his cum across my stomach was probably the hottest thing I’d ever seen, until it became a cold dose of reality, and despite wiping it off, I can still feel him on me.

I need to get home and shower. I’ve been so stupid. So careless with my actions. My mind starts to race with possibilities of what might have happened if I’d let it continue. What would have happened next? What if Susan had walked in, or one of the residents?

Fuck.

Approaching a busy junction, I slam on my brakes, only realising at the last moment I’m about to run a red light.

I’m too distracted to be driving, too emotional.

I take a deep breath and wait for the green light.

Slowly, I cross the junction, and after a couple of hundred metres, I pull into a quiet supermarket car park.

Switching off the engine, I rest my head on my steering wheel. As I breathe in and out, I try and fail to bring my racing heart under control. I lose all track of time as I relive the afternoon and shame courses through my veins.

Four years of weighing up my choices, making considered decisions. Putting other people’s needs before my own and what for, to lose my mind when a pretty man looks at me a certain way? A man, who, let’s be honest, has been nothing but rude to me for the entire time I’ve known him.

A sharp rap on my car window has me jumping out of my skin. I look up to see my security detail, Carlo, standing beside my window. I frown, not instantly able to understand why he’s here. I wind down my window.

“Miss Messina. Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He’s fairly new to the team and can’t be much older than me.

“I’m fine, Carlo. I just had a hard shift at the nursing home.”

Concern covers his face.

“Did you lose someone?”

“Gosh no, nothing like that. I…” My voice trails off. “Why are you here?”

“You were late back, so I called the nursing home. They said you signed out a while ago. I used the tracker on your vehicle. I’m sorry if I overstepped, but it’s protocol.”

Fuck. I had clearly lost track of time.

“Did you call my father?”

“I… yes. It’s in the protocol, Miss Messina. I’ll call him now and let him know you’re okay.”

Carlo pulls his mobile phone out of his pocket and steps away from my car to make the call. He keeps his eyes on me, not looking away for a second. He lowers his voice so I can’t make out what he’s saying, but it’s clear when he moves the phone away from his ear that my father is not pleased.

Regret courses through my veins further.

This. This right here is why nothing good can come from losing myself in the moment.

Nothing had really happened, yet it was enough to have me forgetting my responsibilities.

Enough to forget about the people who care about me.

I know from experience what the result of that is. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and see multiple missed calls from Carlo, Rossi and my father. Message after message, despite it only being an hour after I left the nursing home. The thought of my father worrying about me makes me feel sick to my stomach.

As I stare at my phone, the sleeve of my cardigan slips down on my wrist, exposing the words I had tattooed there to remind me of everything we lost. My father has been through enough in his life. This is why I can’t be reckless.