Page 48 of Fallen Hero

Fallon’s eyes moved to the stairs. When they came back to me, he smirked. “I warned you one day this whole ‘I don’t fuck empty pussy’ would make you snap.”

My already clenched jaw tightened.

It pissed me off he was right. I had snapped.

Though it didn’t have anything to do with lack of sex and everything to do with a woman who had driven me to the brink of insanity. The vulnerability she’d shown me last night was now at the top of the list that made me insanely attracted to her. Her bravery was just under that. Her desire to right wrongs was closely under that. Her smart-ass mouth and the way she wasn’t afraid to give as good as she got were also on the list.

Which meant her pretty face, great tits, and long legs weren’t even in the top three things that made Calista irresistible.

So, no, it wasn’t sex or the lack thereof or the intensifying need to have her that made me finally snap.

But fuck if I didn’t want her hands on me again, this time while my hands were on her.

I ignored Fallon’s comment and his bare chest, opting to pull shit for French toast from the fridge rather than giving him more ammunition to piss me off. Besides, I had no say. Calista wasn’t mine.

I set the carton of eggs and bread next to my untouched coffee, spied my stash of chocolate on the counter, and detoured. The bowl could wait, but the kataifi, pistachio, and milk chocolate couldn’t.

“We gotta go over Calista’s op,” Pete unnecessarily informed me. “Us being here as muscle is a good cover both for her and for us.”

This had already been discussed, so I didn’t know why Pete was bringing it back up.

“Right,” I prompted around a mouthful of God’s best creation.

“Also, Shep got Jack, Catarina, Gavin, and Aiden on a flight. They’re on their way. Ryan’s staying back,” Pete announced.

A twinge of guilt soured the chocolate as I swallowed both down. Instead of being out on the balcony with Calista last night, I should’ve been helping Pete arrange travel for our team, or at the very least stayed downstairs while he briefed Shep and the guys.

“When will they be here?” I asked.

“A little after twenty-three hundred.”

The penthouse had five bedrooms with only one currently available, which meant we’d have to double up. Jack and Cat would obviously share one; that left Aiden and Gavin to bunk with me and Fallon. Pete would sleep on the floor in the kitchen before he’d share a room with someone.

Without permission, my mind wandered to Calista and her bed and what it would be like to sleep next to her again.

Maybe a little forced proximity is what we needed.

Christ, where the hell had that come from?

Needing something to do to purge my mind of all things Calista, I tossed half the chocolate bar on the counter and went in search of a bowl to start breakfast.

“Why do rich people insist on buying shit that feels like it’s gonna break?” I asked as I pulled a bowl from the cupboard.

“It’s called china, you uncultured idiot,” Fallon piped up.

As gently as I could, I set the bowl on the marble countertop. And Christ, what was it with all the damn marble? “I know what it’s called, but does it have to be so thin?”

“I believe it’s also called delicate, not breakable shit,” Fallon helpfully corrected from his place across the kitchen.

“I hope you spill coffee down your front and burn your chest and your—”

“I swear on all things holy,” Pete interrupted our bickering. “It’s like the two of you are twelve.”

“If we promise to be good, can we have dessert, Daddy?” Fallon quipped.

“I can come back later,” Calista said from somewhere behind me.

I craned my neck to see her staring at Fallon, wide eyed.