“We’re just dancing on coals around one another. Why bother with something like that, huh? You can’t have me.”
“Having and keeping are two entirely different things,Emmy.”
“Are they?” she asked.
“I can have you however I want you, as long as you let me. I simply can’t keep you.”
“The elevator only stays open for so long, Emmy,” Calisto added.
Her nickname coming out of his mouth sounded a lot more affectionate than she was
willing to admit. He spoke it soft enough to make her think that maybe he cared. Emma couldn’t get mixed up in that trap.
Calisto tugged her closer. Without a word, she wrapped her arms around his middle and buried her face into his chest. He held her tight because having her closer was far better for his selfishness.
“Calisto made the choice, after all. He’d chosen her. He had allowed himself to become attached to and love someone who wasn’t free. The consequence of that was a heavy heart, a cold morning, and an empty bed.”
Yet, none of them interested Calisto.
Not a damn drop.
He wanted a distraction. Something to take his mind off the experience he’d had earlier with Emma, or the way he was still thinking about it—her—and her naked skin under his palms.
She wasn’t supposed to have him like this, soft, sweet, and attentive. It wouldn’t make things any easier when it came to an end, but Emma couldn’t make herself tell Calisto to stop.
Not when she felt like this.
Emma turned around to face Calisto, and kept a hold on his jacket to keep it in place. She was worried that if she didn't give her hands something to do, she might just reach out and grab him instead.
She had wanted him closer for a long time.
She missed him all the time.
Just touching Emma gave Calisto all the calm and serenity he needed.
He wasn’t quite sure why that was.
She had always done it for him.
When things were too much, when he needed to think, when he wanted to breathe, Emma was the one thing that gave all of that to him.
Admitting he found his uncle’s bride-to-be attractive was one thing. Feeding the attraction was quite another. One that would find him in a grave next to his murdered father and dead mother.