Hot Blooded (15 page)

Mick nodded, obviously satisfied with that response. I glanced down at my watch. Just past midnight. My mind had been whirring with plans since leaving the club earlier in the day, but that was details. The main point was I had to leave - my flat, Streatham, my life. Get paid, leave. It was that simple. The only choices were: stay where I was and keep working for Gazza or quit working for Gazza and move. I couldn't quit working at the Club and stay in Streatham, it just wouldn't work. What a gigantic pain in the arse. I thought about the money. At least I'd have some money to set myself up somewhere new, maybe somewhere in the east end?

At some point near Leicester, Mick started to grimace intermittently and lean over the wheel. I said nothing until I noticed sweat starting to bead on his forehead.

"You alright mate?" I asked.

"Yeah," he wheezed, clearly not alright. "Think that curry I had for lunch is doing a number on my guts."

We kept going and Mick's distress kept getting more evident. We'd just passed Nottingham when he spotted a petrol station lay-by and yanked the wheel suddenly, turning in at the last minute. He pulled the lorry into a darkened, empty part of the parking lot and jumped out of the cab, running half bent over into the shop.

Five minutes passed. I thought about Lily. She'd been on my mind all day, just there in the background behind all the immediate worries. How would she react to my sudden change of location? She was definitely going to be curious, and I wasn't sure how much it would be prudent to tell her. I knew she had feelings for me, but I also knew she was level-headed. Women like that didn't tend to go out of their way to get involved with the type of man who suddenly has to drop his whole life and start a new one somewhere else.

Ten minutes. Still no sign of Mick. I got out and walked the length of the parking lot to stretch my legs. When I got to the back of the lorry it didn't even occur to me not to open it. There was no one around and we were parked away from any CCTV cameras on the premises. I was bored and curious. I wanted to see if the load we were hauling was as big as the one we'd picked up outside Paris or if some of it had been skimmed off the top for other buyers. I pulled the door open.

The lorry was, as I had assumed it was going to be, full of the wooden crates I'd recognized from my bloody, slightly delirious journey back across the Channel. Some of them has sheets of plastic sticking out between the slats. I stepped a little closer and tugged on one of the sheets. Something shifted inside the crate. The sound it made was hard, almost metallic. Bricks of nose candy don't make that sound. I glanced across the parking lot but it was still deserted, so I hopped up into the back of the lorry and lifted the wooden lid off one of the crates.

How long I stood there, staring, I cannot say. Maybe five seconds, maybe five minutes. The crates weren't full of drugs, they were full of guns. Not handguns, either. The kind of guns you see in movies. Black and shiny and malevolently sexy. Who else had Gazza lied to? All of us? Or was I the only one who didn't know I was running a major consignment of illegal weapons in a country that was currently in the grip of a terrorist panic?
Jesus H Christ.

I replaced the lid of the crate and closed the back door before hopping back into the passenger seat, my pulse racing. No part of me trusted Gazza to have made sure we were in the clear. Visions of the terrorist squad pulling us over filled my head and I felt my palms starting to get clammy. Drugs are one thing - you still get arrested and you still go to prison, but it's not the same story with guns, not these days. You don't get sent down for a couple of years for guns, you get sent down for the rest of your life.

When Mick pulled the door open my body jerked so hard I almost hit my head on the roof of the cab.

"Jesus, Callum, you're jumpy."

I forced a laugh. "Oh, yeah, sorry. Must have dozed off."

"You alright?"

"Fine. You?"

"I'm fine now, mate. Don't envy the person who has to clean that toilet, though."

Disgusting. I turned and looked out the window, determined not to think of the scene of Mick's stomach troubles.

We didn't say much for the rest of the trip. I just sat in my seat silently praying that we wouldn't get stopped, knowing I wouldn't feel any relief until the lorry was empty and I was as far away from its cargo as I could get.

It was still dark when we got to Leeds and what looked to be another storage facility. A single man, older and serious-looking, met us outside a row of garages. A minute later, three more men appeared, each of them headed to the back of the lorry, which they then began to unload. Mick smoked a cigarette and I paced. It took over half an hour and I spent every second with my skin crawling, just waiting for the inevitable shout of "Police!"

It didn't come. It didn't come and when the last crate was unloaded, all I wanted to do was get the fuck out of there. Apparently Mick did, too, because we were back on the road in almost no time.

"That was surprisingly easy," I said, breathing normally for the first time in hours.

"Clockwork. These people don't fuck about. They got this planned, innit? Down to the last second."

I wanted to push Mick. To try and glean how much he knew about what it was we were transporting. Did he know? He certainly didn't look like a man who knew he was risking his life, but he didn't give enough away for me to get a handle on him.

I was tired, though, and the release of tension in my body had made it suddenly impossible to keep my eyes open. I fell asleep thinking of Lily and the soft, helpless little sounds she'd made when she was underneath me, taking me. All I wanted was to be with her. If I had that, we could be in fucking Antarctica for all I cared.

Gazza met us in Croydon when we got back to London, and after a brief conversation with Mick as to how everything had gone, handed each of us a brown envelope. I looked inside. Rolls of hundred pound notes. That was it, then. I was done. No getting greedy. From there I went straight back to my flat, threw the money in the closet next to the rest of it and crawled into bed, too mentally drained to do anything except sleep.

The next time I saw Callum it was at a pub in Fulham, close to the PR agency. I hadn't actually been doing any work. I'd taken the afternoon off - first to go to Boots and pick up a new prescription for birth control, and second to do something I'd never done before - go to a posh spa. Pandora came along - in fact it was her who recommended the place. I'd made the mistake of mentioning I should get my legs waxed and she'd jumped right in.

"Oooh, Lily, I know just the place. We should go this afternoon, I promise you it'll be worth it. I always feel like a newborn baby walking out of there."

So I gave in and weakly tried to tell myself it was just to get Pan to back off, but it wasn't. It was for Callum. I liked the idea of my skin feeling all soft and bare and smooth
for him
. Pandora was onto me. She elbowed me in the ribs as we walked along the sidewalk and grinned conspiratorially.

"He'll love it, Lily. Men always love it. They sure don't understand the actual effort that goes into it but, I dunno, I guess that's for the best isn't it? Do we really want them knowing how much it takes to not look like a hairy beast all the time?"

I laughed. "Yeah, I suppose so. Am I going to have to take my clothes off?"

"Well, yeah. That's the whole idea."

Fabulous. I'd never been one for public nakedness. Pandora wasn't wrong, though. I did walk out feeling like a newborn baby. Fresh, smooth, hairless, massaged and primped to perfection. She looked me up and down before I left to meet Callum at the pub.

"You look good, Lily. I like your hair like that, it looks sexy. And your skin looks great. He's gonna have to walk out of the pub bent over like a fifteen year old."

It took me a few seconds to get what she was alluding to. "Oh God, Pandora."

"What? Stop being so coy all the time, Lily. Getting their dicks hard is our job and there's no reason to be embarrassed about it, is there? We're adults."

Pandora always had that ability to make me feel like a small child when she spoke to me. She air-kissed me on both cheeks before she headed back to the office and I walked to the pub. My skin, all freshly scrubbed and moisturized, felt very bare and sensitive against my clothes. I really wanted to see Callum again. In fact I was starting to wish I'd just arranged for him to come to my house instead of a public place.

He was seated at the bar when I walked in, facing away from me. My stomach did an excited little flip when I saw him and I decided to sneak up behind him and kiss his neck. As it turned out, I couldn't quite reach his neck so I settled for his upper arm.

"Lily."He turned to me and I could see at once that he was feeling the exact thing I was feeling.

"Why did we arrange to meet in a pub?" I asked, smiling.

"Because you're playing hard to get, missy, and because I'll do anything you ask me to," he replied, reaching out and grasping my waist with one of his huge mitts.

"Ha. I doubt that."

"Should we get a booth?"

It was an older pub, one of the ones with high-backed booths and stained glass. Other than the customers, who were all of the loud and moneyed variety, it was a beautiful little place. I slid into one of the bench seats and waited while Callum got me a drink, watching him out of the corner of my eye and near-bursting with happiness just to be with him. He saw me grinning like a fool as he sat down.

"What are you so happy about, Lily Parker? Did you have a good day? Have you saved the reputations of many D-listers?"

I rolled my eyes. "But of course. I'm like the superwoman of second rate soap stars, don't you know? No..."

I didn't like lying to him. I didn't know when exactly it had happened, but there had come a point where it started to feel uncomfortable telling him falsehoods about my work. I knew I didn't have a choice, but it still felt shitty.

Callum reached across the table and slid his fingers under my wrist, rubbing me gently. "No, what?"

"No, that isn't why I'm happy."

"Why are you happy then?"

"Callum! I'm happy because I'm here with you!" I said, exasperated and still totally unable to stop smiling. He caught my eyes for a few seconds and we just sat there looking at each other.

"Good," he said."Me too. I just wanted you to say it."

"Why do you always want me to say things?" I asked, pushing my smaller hand into his bigger one and reveling in the simple, rushing joy of touching him.

"Because I think you're one of those women who's afraid of being out of control. You know, always trying to act like you've got yourself together. There's nothing wrong with being happy to see someone, Lily."

"I know there isn't," I responded, taking a mock lecturing tone, "and I don't need the man-whore of South London giving me life lessons, either."

To my surprise, his expression darkened when I said that, and I was apologizing at once."Callum, I'm kidding - I'm sorry, that was a joke."

"I know, Lily. It's not that - it's not you. Being here with you, right now, is the happiest I've been since - well, since the last time I saw you. I just, uh, well actually, maybe we should go somewhere more private."

It was on the tip of my tongue to invite him back to my flat. He already knew where I lived, so what harm could it do? None. Well, none to the investigation. But inviting a man back to your place, maybe even spending the night sleeping next to him – that was a big deal. In some ways it was a bigger deal than the sex itself. It meant things had gone beyond sex. I hadn't shared a bed for non-sexual purposes since Thomas, and that was years ago. Callum saw the look on my face.

"Look, Lily, it's alright if you're not ready to have me over. I understand you're trying desperately not to fall in love with me-"

I slapped his wrist and he laughed.

"I am very loveable, after all. But I really don't feel comfortable discussing this here. Is there a cinema around here?"

"A cinema?" I asked, confused. "Are you sure we can't talk about this here - there's no one sitting close to us and we're pretty closed-in here. What's going on?"

He looked around and my eyes slid slowly over the contour of his cheekbone and jawline as he turned to the side. I felt like a pervert looking at Callum, poring over his physical self with an obsessive attention to all the little details. His ears were surprisingly fine-boned, like seashells.

"Lily!"

"Huh? Oh, what?"

He'd said something and I'd missed it.

"Jesus, woman, can you stop staring at me like I'm a juicy steak for one second? I said it's probably fine if we stay here, I'm just being paranoid."

I completely ignored the comment about paranoia, too taken with the other parts of the conversation - and him - to notice.

"But you are a juicy steak, Callum. That's exactly what you are. A big, thick steak in human form."

"Too much of this talk and I'm going to start feeling objectified, Lily."

I sipped my cider and he watched my lips, not taking any care to hide it. Then he leaned across the shiny wooden tabletop and whispered in my ear, "You're making me so hard it's actually physically painful."

Even if I'd known what to say in reply to that, I wouldn't have been able to. Words from a man had never, up until that moment, been enough to cause such a distinct physical response. I tried to smile and come up with a smart-ass comeback but it didn't work. Instead I just sat there, mute and breathless, as a flower of heat bloomed between my legs and my mind faltered. He saw - and understood - exactly what was happening.

"Callum, what the
hell?"
I whispered, when the ability to form words came back to me.

He just watched me with a little half-smile pulling one corner of his mouth up, clearly enjoying every minute of my fluster. I was done with the pub. Done with chatting. Done with everything that wasn't his hands on me and his hot, fast breath in my ear.

"We - uh, Callum, call a taxi. We should call a taxi."

"I drove here."

"Well then we should take your car."

He stayed where he was, looking at me the way a cat looks at a mouse. I loved his gaze, his eyes when they were focused so intently on me and only me.

"Should we, Lily? Where are we going?"

I furrowed my brow, aware that he knew exactly what was going on. "Callum, stop it! Let's go. We can take your car, stop messing with me. Please!"

He leaned in close again, so he wouldn't be overheard. "I love the way you sound right now, Lily. So fucking needy."

He said the last three words slowly, drawing them out: "So...fucking...needy."

"Please. Callum."

"Tell me what you want," he said, making direct eye contact, "tell me
exactly
what you want - and we'll go."

Callum Cross was not the only person who could play the game. I gave myself a few moments to calm down a little, then I lifted my eyes up, meeting his, and whispered my response:

"I want you so far inside me I can't breathe or think anymore. I want you to feel what you're doing to me right now."

Callum's eyes closed, just briefly, and I watched him exhale, trying to maintain the facade of control. Then he reached out and wrapped his hand around my wrist, pulling me to my feet. His grip was so tight it hurt, but I didn't say anything, I didn't want to. I wanted him in that state, so aggressive he wasn't thinking straight. He slammed a twenty pound note down on the bar and pulled me out to the parking lot, holding his jacket in front of his midsection. Just as Pandora had predicted.

As soon as we were inside my flat I threw my bag on the floor and turned towards Callum, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my body into his. He actually held me off.

"No, Lily. Not so fast. Not this time."

I glanced down at the unmistakable bulge in his pants and raised my eyebrows as I reached down to stroke it. He caught my wrist and held my hand away, not letting me touch him, and frustration sparked up inside me.

"Goddamnit!"

Callum laughed and ran his thumb over my cheek. "I like you like this, Lily. I think I want to keep you in this state forever."

When his finger found my lips I opened them and sucked it gently into my mouth, curling the tip of my tongue up underneath it, forcing him to think of other places my tongue could be. I saw him waver, but he stopped me before I could push him too far.

"Take your clothes off, Lily."

There it was again, that sudden weakness in my knees, the feeling that I might not be able to keep breathing unless he put his hands on me that precise moment. I reached out for him again but just looked me in the eye and shook his head 'no.'

"Callum," I breathed, trying to step towards him and making a small, helpless sound when he continued to hold me off. "Please...I need-"

"I said take your clothes off, Lily. You're remarkably bad at following instructions, aren't you?"

It wasn't just what he was saying. It was the tone in his voice - serious but edged with playfulness. He knew he was toying with me and he knew I loved it. When I moved to start undressing I could actually feel the slickness between my legs.

When I was naked, standing in front of him and convinced I was going to burst into flames, he picked me up and carried me over to the sofa, kneeling down on the floor between my feet.

"Open your legs."

It was daylight, but lust - and the desire to do what Callum wanted me to do - overcame my self-consciousness and I did as he asked. He lifted one of my legs up and turned his head to kiss my ankle, then slowly began working his way up while I lay there in front of him, burning up with anticipation.

"Mmm, Lily, I could do this all day," he told me."That's not a figure of speech. I could literally do this
all day.
"

He kept glancing up at me between each slow, deliberate kiss. By the time he was near the top of my thigh my whole body was trembling and my breath was coming in quick gasps.

"Callum, please," I begged as he refused to go further, "please."

He moved his mouth closer to me, close enough so I could feel his warm breath on my aching, soaking pussy, and then backed off suddenly and stood up.

"Callum! Nooo!" I moaned, reaching up, grabbing for his hands so I could pull him back down to me.

He just smiled down at me and undid his pants. "Hold on, Lily, I'm almost finished torturing you. I just need to give this thing a little more room because things are getting painful."

I watched him adjust his cock, moving it so it wasn't constrained by his jeans anymore but remained in his boxer-briefs. The sight of that bulge made me feel like I was losing my mind. But I didn't have time to think about it. Callum knelt back down, and with no warning at all, pushed his tongue between my lips and ran it up to my clit. My hips bucked underneath him and I reached down to push him against me. The next time he looked up at me his whole lower face was shiny with my wetness, and his voice, when he spoke, was deeper than it had been moments before.

"Lily, you taste good. You taste so fucking good, baby."