Page 76 of Only One Tour Bus

He’s wearing low-slung gray sweatpants and a white shirt. Everything is unnecessarily tight, and I look away so he doesn’t feel like a piece of meat. I’m still thinking of him as one, but I can’t control that.

He kneels by his open suitcase, probably arranging his own things for tomorrow. I slide past him in the narrow space to get my contacts case that I left in the bathroom. I’m trying so hard to avoid looking at Callum that I run straight into him before I realize he even stood up from his task.

I’m plastered against him from chest to knees, and his hands reach out to my upper arms to steady me.

“Sorry,” I whisper. This close, anything louder than a whisper seems too loud, too abrasive.

“It’s my fault,” Callum whispers above me, apparently feeling the same way about the moment.

We’ve both apologized with our words, but our bodies show no intention of moving away from the predicament we’ve found ourselves in. If anything, Callum’s fingers are rubbing small circles on my upper arm, just below where my sleeve ends, inching a little higher under my sleeve as he goes.

“I should…step away,” Callum whispers.

“Good plan. I should, too.” But neither of us moves apart. Instead, I tilt my head farther back so I can see more of Callum’s face. His expression is intense, like he’s reading a dense book on medieval history to prepare for his tours and he keeps getting the King Edwards mixed up. There are quite a lot of them.

“So why can’t I step away?” This time, the whispered words blow warm breath over my cheek and I move a little higher onto my tiptoes, putting our mouths closer together. He bends his head down until we’re so close I should move to measuring in centimeters.

“Don’t know. I don’t want you to, though,” I say.

“This is a bad idea.”

“So was the internet, but now we get videos of cats and dogs being friends occasionally.”

“Are you comparing my kiss to animal videos?” He moves his head a fraction of a centimeter back, but that’s not what I want. I bring my hand up to the back of his neck and tug his head down.

“I think I’m technically comparing your kiss to the internet. What are you going to do about it?”

With a frustrated growl, Callum gives in, crushing his mouth on mine. He immediately gentles his approach and the growl transforms into a groan.

I melt against him while his lips flutter kisses around my mouth before going in again for a proper kiss, this time with tongue. Before I can get my fill of the sensations bombarding me, like the lust and warmth melting all my muscles so I’m just a mass of person slumped against him, he pulls away. With no support, I stumble a step before he catches me.

“How do you always taste like chocolate?” He licks his lips in confusion, staring at my mouth.

I know somewhere better he can lick. “I keep emergency chocolate in my backpack.” I lean up trying to get his lips again.

But he stubbornly resists. “What constitutes a chocolate emergency?”

I rock back on my heels, frowning in confusion over why we’re talking about this now. “I really like chocolate.”

“Of course,” he mumbles, I think more to himself than me. Before I can follow up on the comment, his mouth is on mine again.

This time I throw my legs around him as I wrap my arms around him, climbing his body to get height so he can’t pull away as easily again. He’s on board with the idea, grabbing my thighs and then my butt as he moves me toward the bed.

Blood rushes to my head as he tumbles us both down onto the mattress, making me feel even more lightheaded than I was when he started kissing me. Before I can regain my equilibrium, his hands slide up my shirt, caressing stomach, sides, back, and inching up to my breasts.

I grab his shirt and tug it furiously up, almost causing us injury when the shirt smacks us at our fused lips.

“Oh, shit. Sorry,” I say.

Callum laughs at me. Well, that’s rude. I sit up and glare.

“I didn’t expect to get physically assaulted by the Wee Sunshine for kissing her. Do you have hidden depths?”

“Get over here and see my hidden depths for yourself,” I say indignantly, still a bit embarrassed I almost took off both of our lips. Callum laughs when he realizes what I said. “Great, you choose this moment to discover you love to laugh. I’ll put on Archer later, but can we get back to this now, Rain Cloud?”

“Yes. I have depths I’ve been ordered to discover.”

I roll us on the bed, getting on top. If he’s going to choose this moment to embrace whimsy, when I have been trying to get him to loosen up all trip, then I’m going to be in charge.