Page 57 of His Good Girl

I swallowed. “I’ll try not to.”

“Good girl.”

The words went through me like a spark.

I hated my body. I hated the soft little pull of need that answered him, how some reckless part of me wanted to hear those words again under very different circumstances. I hated that Jules would have read the moment perfectly and then made a joke so obscene I would have needed to lie down. I hated that Callum was looking at me as if he could see far more than I had given him permission to see.

Then his gaze dipped to my mouth. It was only for a second.

But it still happened.

I stopped breathing. He looked back to my eyes immediately, and something in his face closed, almost like a man shutting a door inside himself before he could see what was on the other side.

“You should go inside,” he said.

I nodded too quickly. “Right. Yes. Nine tomorrow.”

“Nine tomorrow.”

I opened the car door before I could wait for him to do it, which was probably both childish and self-preserving. The cool night air hit my face. I stepped onto the sidewalk, turned back, and found him watching me from the dim interior of the car.

“Goodnight, Callum,” I said.

“Goodnight, Avery.”

I closed the door.

The car did not pull away until I was inside the building. I felt his eyes on me while I fumbled my key into the lock, opened the door, and pushed into the dim lobby. Only when the door shut behind me did I exhale. My knees felt unreliable. My skin felt too tight. Every place he had not touched me seemed aware of the omission. I felt the disappointment of every one of those too-numerous places. Once I made it inside my apartment, I dropped my purse onto the counter, leaned back against the closed door, and pressed both hands over my face.

My phone buzzed.

Jules:Are you alive?

I laughed once, weakly. How could she possibly have known I had just walked in the door?

Me:Physically.

Jules:Emotionally?

Me:Contested.

Jules: Sexually?

I closed my eyes.

Me:I’m not answering that.

Jules:So no, but in a hot way.

Me:He was a gentleman.

Jules:Tragic.

Me:Jules.

Jules:Define gentleman.

Me:He bought me a chocolate tart and talked about my parents and told me work needs distance tomorrow.