Push Me Away : Book 2 of the Teeth Series

23

Smut warning: I can't remember if I've done one for this boom yet. This will be the only warning for the remainder of the book.

"Well..." Fallon was desperate to break the silence. Calum still stared at her with a look she couldn't place. Her mind was going crazy with probabilities of what he could be thinking and while they were probably all inaccurate she didn't have the first clue as to what was actually going through his head. 

At some point, Calum had tucked his bottom lip into his mouth. His always sharp jawline looked particularly lethal as he rolled it from left to right and considered the morning's events. The anticipation was driving Fallon mad. Was he annoyed with her for showing her support so publicly? Would he accuse her of being performative and attention-seeking? Was he embarrassed or angered by the way she had handled it?

The agony of not knowing was daring to send her spiraling. She just needed him to tell her what the hell it was he was thinking but he seemed resolved not to speak. Fallon had half a mind to stomp her foot like a petulant toddler, but she refrained, instead she opted to focus all her energy on opening and closing her fists. Open. Close. Open. Close. She repeated the pattern under the only man she had ever truly loved's gaze until finally, he moved. It happened so suddenly. He had seemed so perfectly content to sit and stare at her in an eerie silence but all at once, his brown eyes burned somehow darker as he stood from his barstool and walked purposefully towards her.

"What are you doing?" Her mind screamed but the words never made it to her lips. Before she had time to process what was happening his rough and calloused hand was cupping her cheek, lifting her chin so that her lips were easily accessible to him as he kissed her. A brief moment of shock had her body going rigid with confusion. It took only seconds for her to relax under his touch, his tongue working in sync with hers and a moan escaping the back of her throat.

Calum's hand pressed tightly against her back, holding her as close as possible to him. All of the challenges that existed between them, the things that her mind had been clinging to that would prevent them from giving things another shot completely disappeared into the background, and the only thing that mattered, the only thing that existed, was her and Calum and this kiss.

It could have been minutes or hours that they stood there, locked together in an embrace and completely oblivious to everything around them. But at some point, Calum's hands slid down from her face where they had been resting, down her neck, over her shoulders, and settled onto her waist. His fingers bit into her skin as he began to move, stepping forward and pushing her gently backward towards his bedroom door. When they made it, kicking the door shut behind them with a soft thud they finally broke apart for a breath.

"Are we doing this?" Fallon asked. Finding her voice now that she was able to think clearly with the foot of space between them.

"It was inevitable really...don't you think?" His torso rose and fell rapidly as he stared at her in question. He took a step closer, closing the space between them and fogging her brain with his proximity.

"Maybe." She confided, still practically panting and her skin still sizzling where his fingertips had been.

He took a step back and once again put some space between them. "Do you not want this?"

There was a clear look of vulnerability and hurt in his eyes and she immediately jumped to correct him. "No, that's not it at all, Cal. Please don't think that."

"Then what is it?" He asked, extending his hand to brush a piece of hair that had fallen across her face backward. The breath she exhaled was shaky and she tilted her head to lean into his open palm.

"I just don't want there to be any regrets." She said finally, her eyes shining with unshed tears as she realized what it was that she truly feared. There was a part of her that was still convinced that Calum would always hold the past against her, and she was terrified of his rejection.