Ifeel his energy the second he walks up to the elevator. Most guys make me uncomfortable, but Callum can’t; it’s impossible.
“You going up?” he asks, and I realize I have him fooled.
He has no idea it’s me under here.
I try to change my voice by dropping it an octave. “Floor twenty-eight.”
We walk in, and he presses his floor—fifteen—and my floor.
I can’t believe he doesn’t realize it’s me.
His hand starts to move back to the panel, and confusion runs down my spine. And in one quick push, he slams on the Emergency Stop button, and the elevator immediately halts.
Looking up to him for the first time, I let the light hit my face under my baseball cap—my sense of protection from the paparazzi when I go out—and the only thing I can manage to ask is, “Ho-how did you know?”
He remains silent, so I remind myself that we aren’t together, that I’m not allowed to kiss him or jump him in this elevator. No matter how stupid hot he looks right now in all his sweaty and after-workout glory.
I study him, study his almond-shaped blue eyes, and when my gaze falls to his perfect, plump lips, they tip up into an all-knowing smirk.
Squinting at him, I say, “So, are you going to answer or just stand there the entire time? I have places to be.”
My foot starts tapping, but it’s not because of impatience; it’s one hundred percent all nerves.
His rosy lips part, but he doesn’t say a word. Instead, he takes one step toward me, and I immediately step back. He moves forward again, and when I step back, I realize just how small this elevator now seems to be as my back flattens against the wall.
When he steps again, only two feet of space remain between us, and my heart flies to my throat.
He shuffles to me, closing our distance to mere inches, with him towering over me.
“Ca-Callum, what are you do-doing?” My stupid words come out all choppy.
He remains wordless. Ever so slowly, he closes the space between us, his toes lining up with my own, and he gently brings his forehead down onto mine.
My eyes close at the impact, and I can’t help the small gasp that breaks free.
Every nerve in my body rises to the surface, begging to be touched, caressed. And I didn’t realize how much I’d missed touch—any form of human contact—until now, after I pushed it away at all cost.
He inhales, and the sound of him breathing me in does wicked things to my heart and body. “I miss you. I miss this, Becca.”
A fist slams into my chest, so tight that tears begin to burn the backs of my eyes. I want to tell him how much I miss him. I want to grab his face in my hands and kiss him until the only word left in his vocabulary is my name. I want to tell him that I never cheated on him, that I couldn’t ever do that to him. But my stupid, fucked up brain can only manage to focus on the unimportant thing.
“How did you know?”
His hands fall to my sides, gently running up my rib cage with the pressure of a feather falling to the ground but with the intensity of lightning striking the earth.
For the first time, he opens his mouth, and when that husky, deep tone hits my ears, my resolve almost breaks. “You can dye your hair any color, you can wear anything you like, you can wear a disguise and fool the entire world, but I willalwaysknow it’s you. Even if I were blind, I would sense you the second you entered a room. Because you, Becca … are the only person in this world who owns me. If you told me to kneel, I wouldn’t hesitate. I would drop to the floor in a single heartbeat.”
His lips inch closer to mine, and when he opens his mouth again, his lips graze mine. I swallow that giant lump in my throat and fight the overpowering urge to just give in.
His lips brush mine again as he says, “You could command me to jump off this roof, and I would fall with your name on my lips. If you would just stop fighting this, I would bow to you and kiss my way up your body until the sun set and rose a thousand times. I know you haven’t given up on us. I know you still want me. I can see it in your breaths right now. I can feel it pulsing, the energy that only seems to exist in the space between us. If only you’d let yourself feel the smallest amount of happiness, we could have it all.”
My bottom lip trembles, and as he stands up and pulls away, a cold, painful shiver runs through my body, which already misses him.
He hits the release on the button, and the elevator jerks, quickly arriving at his floor.
His focus remains on the double doors as he says, “And I’ll wait until that day comes, Becca. However long it might be.”
And when the doors part, without another word, he walks through, leaving my heart to shatter in the prison of pain that I built myself.
