It had been hard getting to sleep. More than once she had dreamed of his tongue seeking hers and now that she was fully aware of what he could do with that tongue and those fingers, she wanted more.
She drew in a deep breath, thinking there was no way she would ask for a repeat performance. She could now stake a claim to knowing firsthand what an orgasm was about with her virginity still intact. Imagine that.
She couldn’t imagine it when part of her dream last night dwelled on Callum making love to her and taking away her innocence, something she’d never thought of sharing with another man. The thought of being twenty-four and a virgin had never bothered her. What bothered her was knowing that there was a lot more pleasure out there that she was missing out on. Pleasure she was more than certain Callum could deliver, with or without a silver platter.
All she had to do was tell him what she wanted.
“Good morning, Gemma.”
She turned around quickly, surprised that she had managed to keep from spilling her coffee. She hadn’t heard Callum come down the stairs. In fact, she hadn’t heard him moving around upstairs. And now he stood in the middle of his kitchen, dressed in a way she’d never seen before.
He was wearing an expensive-looking gray suit. Somehow he had gone from being a sheep-ranch manager to a well-groomed, sophisticated and suave businessman. But then the chestnut-brown hair flowing around his shoulders gave him a sort of rakish look. She wasn’t sure what to make of the change and just which Callum Austell she most preferred.
“Good morning, Callum,” she heard herself say, trying not to get lost in the depths of his green eyes. “You’re already dressed and I’m not.” She glanced down at herself. In addition to not wearing shoes, she had slipped into one of those cutesy sundresses Bailey had given as a gift for her birthday.
“No problem. The house isn’t going anywhere. It will be there when you’re ready to see it. I thought I’d go into the office today and let everyone know that I’m back for a while.”
She lifted a brow. “The office?”
“Yes, Le’Claire Developers. It’s a land development company similar to Blue Ridge Land Management. But also under the umbrella of Le’Claire are several smaller sheep ranches on the same scale as Ramsey’s.”
“And you are…”
“The CEO of Le’Claire,” he said.
“You named it after your mother?”
He chuckled. “No, my father named it after my mother. When we all turned twenty-one, according to the terms of a trust my great-grandfather established, all four of us were set up in our own businesses. Morris, being the firstborn, will inherit the sheep farms that have been in the Austell family for generations as well as stock in all the businesses his siblings control. Colin is CEO of the chain of hotels my family owns. The one we stayed in the other night is one of them. Le’Shaunda received a slew of supermarket chains, and I was given a land development company and several small sheep ranches. Although I’m CEO, I have a staff capable of running things in my absence.”
Gemma nodded, taking all this in. Bailey had tried telling her and Megan that she’d heard that Callum was loaded in his own right, but she really hadn’t believed her. Why would a man as wealthy as Bailey claimed Callum was settle for being the manager of someone else’s sheep ranch? Granted, he and Ramsey were close, but she couldn’t see them being so close that Callum would give up a life of wealth and luxury for three years to live in a small cabin on her brother’s property.
“Why did you do it?” she heard herself asking.
“Why did I do what?”
“It’s obvious that you have money, so why would you give all this up for three years and work as the manager of my brother’s sheep ranch?”
This, Callum thought, would be the perfect time to sit Gemma down and explain things to her, letting her know the reason he’d hung around Denver for three years. But he had a feeling just like when his father had tried explaining to his mother about her being his soul mate and it hadn’t gone over well, it wouldn’t go over well with Gemma, either.
According to Todd Austell, trying to convince Le’Claire Richards it had been love at first sight was the hardest thing he ever had to do. In fact, she figured he wanted to marry her to rebel against his parents trying to pick out a wife for him and not because he was truly in love with her.