Page 83 of Fallacies

A grin spreads across my face as he surrenders every last hesitation, slides a hand through my hair, and drags my mouth to his.

20

Lucina

Kissing Callan is an instinct. It’s home. It’s heated and desperate, and it can’t come fast enough. It’s all so natural. As natural as breathing.

Callan’s hands move down my torso, gripping my thighs beneath the hem of my shirt—his shirt—and I lift my legs, circling them around his waist.

With a mumbled curse, he yanks me closer, finding a way to deepen an already frenzied kiss. A complete unraveling. His desire equally matched with my own in a perfect storm.

Callan’s grip on my thighs is unforgiving, fingers digging into bare skin, and I throw an arm around his neck when I nearly fall back onto the table. I find I don’t need it as his other hand slides up my spine, keeping me pressed against him.

He rolls his hips forward, and we both groan. With my choice in ‘pajamas’, the fabric of his pants is the only barrier between us, and the friction of the movement makes my head spin.

“Callan.”

He does it again, hands sliding farther up my legs, pushing the fabric of my shirt up my hips.

“Callan,” I say again, inhaling sharply when he slides the shirt up to my stomach, and cool air hits bare skin. “I don’t⁠—”

“Fuck.”

Too late.

“...have anything on,” I finish quietly.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to him. I don’t typically sleep in anything but a shirt, but somehow I’ve rendered him speechless.

Callan stares down at me, chest heaving, and the longer he stares, the warmer my cheeks get.

His nostrils flare, his grip loosening, and chills break out over my entire body as he slides his fingers down, lightly trailing the skin of my inner thigh.

“You…” His lips twitch, the tip of his tongue darting out to wet them. His eyes are molten silver when they meet mine. Devastating. “You came in here like this?”

More heat rushes to my cheeks.

Yes, I did come in here like this, but it certainly wasn’t with this…intention. It was purely what I’d chosen to crawl into when I’d lingered by the office door long enough to be embarrassed by my desperation.

Swallowing, I answer the obvious question with a breathless, “Yes.”

Callan says nothing.

“But not because I thought that we would…” Gods, I hope he doesn’t think I came in here expecting this. My plan hadn’t been to seduce him, just calmly explain that despite the composition of my blood, I’m still the same woman he fell in love with. “I just didn’t…”

When I notice the way he’s looking at me, my words seem unimportant. My explanation is unnecessary. In fact, I’m not even sure he’s listening.

Eyes darker than they’ve ever been, Callan slowly pushes the fabric up my stomach. He pauses at my naval, and when I don’t object, he continues, lifting it past my chest until I’m entirely exposed.

But I don’t feel vulnerable. Not in the slightest.

There’s a dangerous glint in Callan’s eyes, but it isn’t scary; it’s exhilarating. It doesn’t make me want to retreat; it makes me want to fall forward. To be entirely his in every way that matters.

So, I don’t say anything else. I give up on my poor attempt to explain myself and silently lift my arms above my head.

An invitation.

One Callan doesn’t waste as he swiftly pulls the fabric up and over my head and tosses it to the floor. He stills, and it makes me smile—knowing it’s me who has this effect on him. The ever-revered and fearless Captain, stunned at the sight of me naked. Planted on top of all his important paperwork.