Maybe he wasn’t worrying at all.
Maybe she was making this all up in her head.
Callum huffed. The new waves of anger rolled off him faster than her muddled brain could decipher the situation. Then he abruptly shot up to sit on the edge of the bed, his back facing her.
“I don’t want you to see him anymore.” It was nothing less than a blatant command.
“What?” Sam shot up behind him. The disbelieving tone did nothing to hide the anger that began bubbling up within her at his statement.
“I want you.” He turned back to face her. “I want you in more ways than you could ever imagine.” He looked her up and down as if he was drinking her in. “I want to do so many things to you. I want to make you scream out my name. I want to make you smile and laugh. I want itall. But I can never be with you if I know you are stillfriends with him.”
Sam tried to swallow down the frustration.
On one hand, he had just blatantly admitted to wanting her, to wanting to do thingstoher. Her core tightened and she couldn't tell if it was another PVC, or if her heart was about to give out. On the other hand, he just pulled the most annoyingly misogynistic shit she had ever heard.
“You can’t just control who I hang out with.”
Callum quickly shook his head. “Just him. You can hang out withanyonebut him.”
She wanted to scream.
“No,” she quickly replied.
“Please, Sam.”
“No. He is my best friend. I don’t even know you.” She stood up from the bed and slipped back on her shoes.
“He’s an ass. Trust me, you don’t knowhim.”
“I’ve known him since we were kids. I know him better than you ever will. He may be overprotective and sometimes jealous, and he may not want me hanging out with you, but that’s only because he wants what's best for me. He is trying to keep me safe.” She felt her heartbeat increase. But, this time it wasn’t from nervous excitement, it was from the heat of anger that surged through her.
“No, he isn’t. Trust me.”
She threw her hands in the air, knowing there was no way she was going to get through to Callum. “Why would I give up someone who has been there for me for years, who has taken care of me and loved me like family, just because you might want to fuck me?” Her words came out more harshly than she’d intended, and a flash of pain registered on his face.
“Sam. That’s not what this is and you know it.” His words were pained.
“Really? What is this then?” She gestured between the two of them. “Because you just said, ‘I don’t date,’ and from where I stand, it’s starting to look like you and him have some stupid beef and I’m your way to get back at him.”
“That is not what–”
“Why? Why do you hate him so much?” The plea found its way back into her voice and she hated herself for it.
“It’s complicated.”
“Uncomplicate it for me.” She wanted to stomp her foot on the ground like a petulant child. She wanted to scream and hurl something across the room at his beautiful face. He was ruining it all.
He was ruining it all because of some jealousy and ridiculous revenge.
“It’s not that easy. Just know he isn’t a good guy.”
Sam laughed at that.
“And how do I know you are?”
He stood and reached toward her.
“Sam.” The sound of her name was laced with something she couldn’t quite detect.