Yours Completely (Reign 2)

“Great!” she said. “Then let’s continue trying, because I miss your smile,” Harper brushed the cape of my costume off my shoulders, revealing my peasant shirt and cincher. “The girls look great tonight!” she said, glancing at my chest, then spinning toward the mass of people mingling in the large entertainment room. It was never my goal to go as “sexy red riding hood,” which was why I made my own costume. Hence the long red skirt. But, yeah, my boobs were a bit on display, which wasn’t my intention. Not much I could do with a D cup, though, which was the reason I was hiding behind the cape.

“What exactly are we trying for?” a husky voice came from behind me. I knew that voice. The damn thing gave me shivers since the moment I’d first heard it, and every time after.

I turned to find Callum Malone in all his costume glory of…

“You’re dressed as a fire fighter,” I said. Not that I was complaining. The man was tall, all muscle, and filled out his fire gear like no one’s business. His blues eyes burned bright as he looked me over, effectively leaving hot chills. Yep, the administering of hot chills must be something he learned in fire school. Which was one of the reasons I’d avoided him this past month.

He glanced down the front of him. “You don’t like my costume, Kitten?”

“It’s your profession, so it doesn’t count as a costume.”

“Halloween is the one time you get to be someone else,” Harper said with a smile, tossing a hand on her hip, showcasing her police getup.

Cal looked at her. “And I see you chose to dress as a pain in the ass.”

“Funny,” she said, adjusting her badge.

He took a step closer, the smell of spice and man and heavy material that had been in smoke and fire notched my internal temperature up several degrees.

“Why dress up like someone else?” he responded to Harper, but looked at me. “When the night is done, I’m still me, and that’s something everyone deals with. May as well embrace it from the beginning.”

I swallowed hard. There was more to that statement than the surface words he’d used. Cal was Jack’s best friend and knew what I’d gone through with Jack. The basic details at least. I’m sure he was also aware that I was hiding from him because he made me…

Well, he made me feel things.

Things like hope. Maybe even hope for something better than the dull ache and fury that had recently taken me over. Which was stupid. Going down any kind of path, with any kind of man, with any kind of hope, was just flat stupid.

I had made my decision. I was seeking my own control. Not another person.

Cal’s eyes paused on my chest, then he smiled and met my face. “While embodying a different persona is not my gig, I’m changing my stance on dressing up. You should wear that corset whenever you want.”

Harper rolled her eyes, and I put the cape back over my shoulders. Not because I minded him glancing at me, but because I didn’t want him to see those shivers he made me feel break over my skin. Cal was the only man who’d had that effect on me since Jack, which was annoying, since he and Jack were as close as brothers.

Harper looked at the crowd and someone caught her eye. “Well, you two chat, I’ll just be over there,” she said, and patted my shoulder. “Have fun.”

Fun? Cal was the epitome of fun, but he was also hard to be around. Because every time I looked at him, my mind wondered about things it shouldn’t. Things like timing. Like “what ifs” that ranged from “what if I’d met him before Jack,” or “what if his muscles were as hard as they looked” and “what if I bit his bicep—”

I had to stop that line of thinking.

Cal was Jack’s best friend, and Jack was my ex. A hard term I was still learning to say. By a freak chance of fate, I had kissed both of them in the same week. But that was months ago. Since then, I’d found out that Cal was at the bar the night I met Jack. And it was that night I kept rethinking—reliving. Because, while I hadn’t known the two men knew each other, they both had been at the same place, the same time I was. And that night could have gone one of a million directions.

But it hadn’t.

I had laid eyes on Jack first.

However, it was more recently that I’d discovered the reason I didn’t see Cal was because he’d stopped the man who almost knocked my table over.

That’s when Jack had come to the rescue…

Nope. I had to remind myself once again I was not going there. Trying to figure out all the missed opportunities, the moments and experiences and instances that could have gone differently only left me feeling more hollow and angry. I didn’t need more crap to deal with, since one specific emotion was driving me crazy.

Lust.

I’d gotten a taste of candy, and now couldn’t get the sugar off my tongue.

My body was recently awakened to sex, so now I knew what I was missing. Knew what it meant to feel good. Actually, it had been better than good. I’d felt alive and wanted. Yes, Jack had been the main source of my needs—and fulfilling them—but there was one moment, one kiss with Cal that still lingered. That hot memory of his mouth, his warmth and strength as he surrounded me.

Another thought I should extinguish, but couldn’t bring myself to do it.