My voice shakes with the need to tell him how I really feel. I want to tell him that I’m jealous because I care about him more than just some casual arrangement. I want to tell him that I don’t want to share him with anyone else. I want to tell him that I think of him as mine, even though he’s not and never will be.

“Why do you even put up with me?” My attempt at a diversion fails, because he answers promptly.

“Because you’re one of my favorite people on this island. You call me on my shit and it’s sexy as hell. You’re passionate and caring. You work hard, you fight hard, and you love hard. Not to mention you’re gorgeous.” His hands press into me harder, and it’s heaven. “Do you want me to keep going?”

I shake my head. Any other time I could listen to him talk about what he adores about me all night long. But that’s not what I want right now.

“What do you want, Nikki?”

It’s the millionth time he’s asked me this. I remember the first time he posed that same question while standing in the foyer of his parents’ empty house back in London. He asks me what I want almost every time we hook up, and I usually show him with my hands or mouth. But now the words sound like a completely different language in this conversation where we’re both fire-breathing dragons ready to demolish the other.

“I want you, Callum. Right now.”

His left hand slides to my forearm. “You’re burning up,” he growl-whispers.

Hot with jealousy, simmering with arousal. The flames are the same; it’s just the feelings that change. And he’s the root of them all.

“I can’t help it,” I pant. “You do this to me. Every single time. I’m burning whenever I’m around you. I act like the biggest fool because of you.”

That’s the watered-down truth of my behavior today. That’s as much as I want to tell him.

He leans down and his mouth lands softly on the side of my neck. My eyes flutter as I let the tingles make their merry way down the rest of my body.

“I suppose I should cool you off, then,” he says against my shoulder.

He takes me by the hand to the bathroom in the hallway. He turns the knob in the tub, and a rush of water shoots from the showerhead. We both shed our clothes in silent unison. There’s no need for words right now.

Callum steps in the shower before I can get a proper look at him. It doesn’t matter how many times I see him naked. I’m forever in awe. Under the brightness of the overhead light and the sheen of the water, he is stunning. Like always.