Free The Calum by Xio Axelrod Page B

would
you-? W-What about you and The Calum?”
    “ It’s Hamish. ” Jo said his name as
if it were title . “And no. Not yet.”
    “ Are you playing
coy?”
    “ Believe it or not, no.”
She shrugged. “ He is.”
    Lovie laughed. “You’re
kidding.”
    “ I know, right?” Jo gaped.
“He flirts like crazy, but whenever I hint about taking it to the
next level, he backs off.”
    “ Well, huh.”
    Jo went over to an ornate,
maybe even gilded, full-length mirror. It was one of two in the small room.
“Maybe he’s not attracted to me.”
    Not attracted? Jo had to
be suffering from some latent body dysmorphic disorder. She turned
this way and that, assessing her near-perfect figure.
    Lovie sucked in her
stomach.
    “ Do you think he might be
gay?”
    “ I don’t know,” she
replied. “I doubt it. He seems way too interested in your
tits.”
    Jo turned to her,
grinning. “Really? Not that there’d be anything wrong if he were
gay, but it would explain a lot.” She checked out her ass in the
mirror. “Oh! Maybe he and Duff are-”
    “ No, Duff’s straight.” It
came out more forcefully than Lovie meant it to.
    Jo glanced back at her,
puzzled. “Are you sure? You said he has n’t made a move.”
    Oh, he’d made a move. Or
she had. Either way, Lovie didn’t trust herself not to blurt it
out. She slammed the book shut and went over to the bookshelf that
sat by the window. It was old. Everything there was.
    “ I’m pretty
sure.”
    “ Well, I only have a few
days. If I can’t get Hamish to make a play, this whole trip will
have been a bust.”
    “ We could always go down
to Glasgow early. Find another Calum for you there.”
    “ What? After all of
the effort I’ve put into this one? Hell no. I will crack this nut
tonight. Literally.” She bit her lip, grinning.
    “ Um, ewww.”
    “ Hey, I was going to say
‘suck him off’ but you’re such a lady.” Jo curtsied.
    Lovie laughed. “You’re
disgusting sometimes.”
    “ It’s why you love me.”
With one last flounce of her hair, Jo went to the door. “Wish me
luck!”
    Worried, Lovie grabbed her
hand. “Just be careful, ‘kay?”
    “ That’s my middle name.”
Jo winked. The door closed softly behind her.
    Lovie flopped onto the bed
and stared at the ceiling. She needed to see Duff. What happened
between them earlier, whether it was wrong or not, was amazing. Her
lips still tingled from that kiss. She hoped that they would get
another moment alone to explore whatever there was brewing between
them. Not that she would ever see him again after the week was
through, but they’d formed a kind of friendship. She hoped, at
least, to stay in touch with him.
    Oh, who was she kidding?
She wanted that boy, and bad.
    Lovie checked her hair in
the less-ornate mirror. After trying to run a brush through it, she
gave up. If ever there was a lost cause.
    Duff’s room was only two
doors down from hers, but her palms were sweaty by the time she
walked the fifteen feet of carpeted hallway. She took a breath,
rubbed them on her thighs and knocked. Booty calls were so not her
thing.
    Duff opened the door
wearing nothing but his jeans. They were unbuttoned and, just like
that, so was Lovie’s brain.
    Holy mother of
pearl. His chest was a wall of muscle. His
stomach a rippling, slalom course of manly goodness. An inky trail
of hair led down from his navel and disappeared below his open
waistband. When she lifted her eyes to his, one eyebrow was arched
over his piercing blue gaze.
    He had the kind of eyes
that smiled even when he wasn’t.
    He let out a heavy sigh.
“Lovie. Whadya want? Come to ask me more questions?”
    “ What? No, I...uh...I-”
His reaction to her appearance at his door was markedly cold for
someone who had his tongue down her throat a couple of hours ago.
Had she imagined the intensity of their moment on the
roof?
    Her mind went blank. What
was the proper protocol for a botched booty call? She stood there,
hoping for rescue. Throw a