Flight Risk (Antiques in Flight) (22 page)

“Who could stay just friends with such an amazing woman?”

When Frank’s attention was elsewhere, Callie pretended to gag, but Trevor kept grinning.

“Take care of that nose, Frank.” Trevor began to pull her away, but Frank obviously wasn’t done with the conversation. He stepped with them, his once charming smile morphing into a twisted scowl.

“Figures you two would finally end up together. After all, Callie wouldn’t be satisfied until she slept with the whole town.”

She could feel Trevor’s body tense beside her, but before she let history repeat itself, she stepped between the two men and glared at Frank.

“You know what, Frank? You’re a sorry son of a bitch. If I see you so much as touch another woman at this wedding, I will find your wife’s number and let her know that you’re running around pretending to be divorced.” Maybe she had a little revenge in her after all.

He sputtered at that, surprised she seemed to know.

“You move away from small towns and you forget everyone knows everything about you.” Callie smiled. The shocked, outraged look on his face was almost as satisfying as throwing a punch. “Have a nice night.”

She turned to face Trevor. “Let’s dance.”

“Revenge without punching somebody’s lights out. Well, color me impressed.” He allowed her to pull him onto the dance floor.

“You were far more in danger of throwing a punch than me.” Trevor’s hand rested on her hip, the other took her hand in his.

“I guess some people don’t grow out of asshole.” His expression slowly changed into a smile. “Man, was he pissed I brought up breaking his nose.”

“And you were tempted to break it again, weren’t you?”

“I guess it was a little residual FBI agent withdrawal.”

“You miss it.” Callie leaned her head onto his shoulder. She closed her eyes, breathed in the faint scent of his soap. She didn’t want to think about the FBI or Seattle or anything beyond this moment.

“You’re wearing perfume.”

Callie couldn’t fight a smile. He was changing the topic. “You like it?”

“Well, it’s not quite as sexy as airplane grease, but it’s not half bad.”

His thumb brushed the inside of her wrist, his hand on her hip moving to the small of her back. Her pulse began to thump faster, a slow heat building from her core and waving outward.

This is what she’d been avoiding, but in the moment she couldn’t remember why. The sensations were warm and nice, the feelings cozy and familiar. What was so wrong with this?

Callie sighed, pressed closer to Trevor. Whatever foolishness she’d felt before was gone. Leaning against Trevor, swaying to the rhythm of a slow song, she realized how much she’d missed him the past few weeks.

All the pushing away and avoiding, and what had she accomplished? Nothing. Because she was beginning to realize there was a bottom line here. Either she could push him away and lose him as a friend and whatever else was between them, or take her chances, temporarily, on what was between them and hope they could remain friends afterward.

Trevor inched his body away from hers, though he didn’t loosen his grip. “You’re going to have to back off a little bit.”

“Why?” She pressed up against him, unable to fight the satisfied smile. She felt reckless tonight. She was tapping into some of that old Bad Girl Baker stuff, wasn’t she? Why not take advantage, full advantage.

It couldn’t be any worse than staying away.

He hissed out a breath. “Because I’d like to be able to get out of here without walking funny.”

“What if I said I could take care of that for you?”

“Jesus, Callie.”

“I’m BGB for the night, remember? Might as well have some fun. But only for tonight.”

“Just tonight?” His hand traveled the curve of her spine all the way up and back down again, sending sparks of heat down her entire backside. She pulled back so she could look up at him, and she rolled her eyes at the cocky grin on his face.

“Well, maybe not only tonight.” Surely they could tear up the sheets a few times before it got too complicated. “But it has to be temporary. I’m not starting something permanent with you.”

“Even if I decide to stay?” His breath whispered across her ear; the hand on her back moved upward and toyed with the ends of her hair.

Callie thought about Lawson’s words, dampening some of her good mood. “If you decide to stay, you’ll eventually leave.”

“Callie.”

Tomorrow she’d worry about the ramifications. For tonight, she wanted to let herself go, cut the string of this damn yoyo. “Do you want to take me home, Trevor?”

“Hell yes.”

“Then let’s go. We can argue about this later.” She squeezed his hand, began pulling him off the dance floor.

“Later?”

She looked at him, smirked. “After.”

He grinned. “After what?”

Callie quirked an eyebrow. “Play dumb and we might not play at all.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He followed her out of the crowded reception into the lobby of Pilot Point’s only hotel. He dropped her hand and slid his arm around her waist. “You sure you want to do this?”

Callie stepped into the cool night and took a moment to study his face illuminated by the parking lights. “Yeah. I do. It would be pretty shitty to spend the rest of my life pushing you away because I can’t seem to keep my hands off of you. Might as well find out what it’s like, and then I don’t have to push you away anymore. As long as you understand it’s—”

“Temporary.” He frowned. “I get it. But—”

She slapped a hand on his chest, pressed herself against him. “Stop.” She pressed her lips to his, a hard, promising kiss. “Arguing.”

He cleared his throat. “Uh huh. Let’s go.”

They both hurried to the car and slid in fast. Trevor started the car, pulled out of the parking lot. Callie was in some kind of alternate universe. She tried to focus on the physical stuff. The way his hands felt on her back, the hard length of him pressed against her, his mouth on hers.

Thinking about all that had a flutter of panic surfacing. “Remember, this is temporary.”

“I think I get the fucking picture,” he muttered. But when she looked over at him, he flashed a grin. “What if I’m pretty confident I can change your mind?”

Callie rolled her eyes, focused on the strong feelings instead of the panicky ones. “Trust me. No one is
that
good.”

“That sounds like a challenge.”

“Shut up and drive, huh?” Callie stared at the road ahead, tried to calm the rapid and erratic beating of her heart. It was just sex
.
No biggie. She’d certainly slept with plenty of guys in her life.

The thought had her frowning. None meant anything near as much as Trevor did, and that was kind of pathetic.

Closing her eyes, Callie shook her head. She was giving herself one night to do something reckless and stupid. She’d worry about all these feelings later.

Chapter Seventeen

If he wanted to freak himself out, and he did not have any interest in doing that, he’d let his brain wrap around the fact that he was about to have sex with Calloway Baker.

Since he didn’t want to freak himself out, he focused on the menial things he had to do to get there. Pull up the gravel drive to the cabin. Turn off car. Undo seatbelt.

They were all mechanical, careful movements. Callie didn’t speak, and he didn’t look at her. He got out of the car and followed her to the porch of the cabin trying desperately not to think about, well, what he’d pretty much been thinking about for two months.

They reached the door, but Callie paused. She stood there, her back to him. The night was dark around them, but he could make out her shape in the dim light of the moon. Around them insects buzzed their nightly tune, but over the sound of nature he could hear her carefully inhaled breath.

The darkness, the moment, it all worked together to have thoughts drifting away into action. Trevor swept the hair off her neck, placed his lips on the soft skin. She let out a gust of breath, and he planted another kiss farther to the side, then one just under her earlobe.

She turned to face him, her hand on his chest. He couldn’t make out her expression, just the shadowy outline of her face. “So we’re clear—”

“If you say temporary one more Goddamned time, I’ll turn around and go.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Really?”

“Okay, maybe not turn around and go, but I am definitely going to shut you up.”

She moved closer, her hand on his chest sliding up to his shoulder. “Why don’t you do that then?”

His lips curved upward as they bent to touch hers. In her heels, she almost reached his height, so it didn’t take long. He took it slow at first, wanting the moment, the night to last. He had a feeling the minute it was over Callie would be babbling about temporary again.

One hand brushed through the silky strands of her hair, letting the other roam the small of her lower back.

Temporary? He didn’t think so. Maybe he hadn’t made any firm decisions on staying, but that didn’t mean this had to be a one-time deal.

And it was definitely going on his happy list.

Her kiss became more insistent, her tongue more demanding. She leaned against him enough so he had to push her against the door for balance. For a few minutes, the urgent need took over and he forgot about slow. She pulled off his suit jacket; he pressed her hard against the door.

His mouth roamed her neck, his hands moved from her back, up her ribcage, and then rested over small, round breasts. She arched against them, rubbing center to center until he had to bite back a groan.

He tugged on the low neckline of her dress revealing one rounded peak and the fact she hadn’t been wearing a bra all night about did him in. His mouth traveled down, tasted the warm flesh of her breast. She tangled her fingers into his hair, held him there. Hands now free, he cupped her ass and pulled her closer.

She wrapped one leg around him, moved her hips up and down. He had a fleeting thought of pulling up her skirt, dropping his pants, and going at it right there, but it didn’t feel right. Things were moving too fast.

“Stop.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

He had to laugh at the outrage in her voice. “I meant, momentarily. Not stop altogether.”

She let out a breath that fluttered her bangs. “Good, because I was going to have to kill you otherwise.”

“Give me your keys.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re going to go inside.”

She pressed up against him and a groan escaped his mouth. Her lips grazed his chin. “Why?”

“Because we’re going to do this right the first time. In a bed. We can do it up against your front door some other time. Now, keys.”

He held out his hand and tried not to chuckle at her pout, but she fished the keys out of her purse and handed them over.

Callie frowned at Trevor while he punched the key into the front door and opened it. She would have been just as happy getting it over with right then and there. At least temporary would seem a lot more plausible.

Then he turned to her, a light from inside spilling out and illuminating his face. He smiled, and she kind of forgot all about temporary. He took her by the shoulders, leading her backward inside and through the kitchen and down the short hallway to her room. He backed her against the door, his eyes never leaving hers.

“Open the door, Callie.”

It was continually surprising how much Trevor bossing her around was a turn on. She groped for the doorknob behind her and twisted. When the door moved open, Trevor continued to push her inside until they were in the center of her room.

Then his hands moved to her face, his blue eyes staring straight into hers for a few humming moments before he kissed her. Soft, slow, seductive. All demands disappeared as his tongue lazily mingled with hers.

The kiss lingered, but his hands moved down her neck, to her back, where he slowly unzipped her dress, his thumb brushing the bare skin below as he went down. She shivered at the light touch.

Things had slowed, some of the demands melting into sensations Callie didn’t know what to do with or how to fight. A mix of jittery nerves under the warm pull of everything he was doing to her. A part of her brain was urging her to do something, to move forward, to
hurry
, but the thoughts never became action. She was drugged into Trevor’s agonizingly slow, sweet pace.

Trevor inched the dress off her until it fell at her feet. She wasn’t the most well-endowed woman in the world and she hadn’t been able to find a bra that didn’t show under her dress, so she’d gone without. Now she stood in front of Trevor in nothing but panties and she would have felt self-conscious if he didn’t look like he was about to start panting in appreciation.

Though her hands shook, she kept her eyes level with his. Part of her might be freaking out right now, but that didn’t mean she’d give up all control. She stepped out of the dress and toward Trevor.

Slowly, keeping her eyes on his, she unbuttoned his shirt. He undid the buttons on his wrists and then she pulled the shirt off his arms in a long, fluid movement, and then she let her hands travel down the hard line of muscle from shoulder to wrist, and then over to his abs and up his chest.