He laced the fingers of one of his hands with hers. “What if we don’t?”
Fretful, she rejected that nonanswer. “What if we do, Caleb?”
“The only regret I’ll have is walking away and losing another day pretending we don’t want each other.”
Sending him away would be hard. It would stink. But… “But what if something does go wrong? What if it makes you afraid to come around the family?” She frowned when she noticed he was smiling. “What about this is amusing?”
“The part where you still say ‘what if’ at the beginning of every sentence when you are feeling out of control,” he admitted unashamedly.
“I’m serious, Caleb,” she said, refusing to be drawn into playful banter designed to redirect her questions. “What if it’s not what we thought it would be? Will we act strangely? All this build-up. What if—”
“What if—” he drew her wrist to his lips “—I kiss you here.” His mouth pressed to her pulse point, and she felt it all over her body. “Or here?” He opened her palm and kissed it, as well. “Or even here?” He kissed the bend of her arm, which was really, really sexy, in a way she’d never imagined. No one had ever kissed her there. Shay shuddered with arousal.
His lips lifted with satisfaction as he asked, “At what point will I convince you…it’s going to be good?” He folded her in his arms, his body cradling hers, his lips near her ear. “Because it’s already good for me.”
Shay buried her face in his neck, inhaling the scent of him. “I’m just—” she hesitated and decided to be honest—this was Caleb after all “—nervous.” She laughed. “Yeah. I’m really nervous.”
He pulled back, his hand sliding down her hair. “I’m still me,” he said, his eyes warm with comfort. “The same guy you once pushed into the swimming pool, ruining my boots.”
A sudden spell of laughter bubbled from her lips. She should have known he’d come up with the perfect thing to calm her nerves. “You were so mad. I’d venture to say you were furious.”
“And you never told me why you did it,” he reminded her.
“I don’t remember,” she said coyly, but of course, she did. She’d worn a dress to get his attention, and he’d told her it was too old for her, treated her like a kid sister. Not fifteen minutes later, she had the opportunity and took it. Caleb went into the pool, fully clothed. Seeing him sopping wet had done a lot to ease the bite of his reprimand.
“Liar,” he purred, nibbling at her neck and picking her up, his hands sliding around her backside. Shay wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms wrapping around his neck. “Why’d you push me into that pool?”
“I was sixteen and hormonal, and you were in the way,” she said, which was the truth—just not the whole truth. She intended to keep her youthful pettiness to herself.
Caleb headed down the stairs toward the living room, rather than toward the bedroom, and she knew it was because she’d told him she was nervous. The man was full of all kinds of awesomeness. Big, brawny and manly, yet he could be so darn sensitive.
“Liar,” he accused, sitting down on the couch and taking her with him.
Shay automatically leaned into him, her hands leveraging her weight on his shoulders, the V of her body intimately spread across his cock. He was hard, his eyes hot, his hands gentle as they caressed her back. Thin layers of clothing separated them, but nothing more. Clothes that would soon be removed. And she knew he was thinking the same thing. She could see it in the heaviness of his eyelids, the tightness around his mouth.
“You were mad at me over the dress,” he said softly, sliding his hands under her T-shirt, his calloused fingers brushing the skin of her midsection with delicious friction. “I wanted to turn you over my knee and spank you for strutting around half-naked, inviting that kind of attention. You were asking for trouble.”
“Spank me?” she repeated. Something about her bare butt across his lap was so erotic. Maybe because she knew he would never really hurt her. But what he might do was please her, and that intrigued her. A slow smile slid onto her lips, and the familiar teasing between them banished her nerves. “Might have been fun.”
He didn’t laugh. Heat flared in his expression, arousal etched in his face. He molded her closer, pressing her body tight against his, bringing his lips a warm breath from hers. “Watch out,” he warned softly, “or you might get more than you asked for.”
Had any other man said that to her, she would have probably run for the hills. She certainly wouldn’t have volleyed the seductive challenge back at him. But this was Caleb, and they not only volleyed, they volleyed well together. “Or maybe you will,” she warned softly.
He studied her, his eyes hungry and a bit primal, before he smiled and nipped her lips with his teeth, soothing the bite with his tongue. “I thought you were nervous?”
“I changed my mind.” Her fingers went to his face, her mouth to his, where she whispered, “I’ve wanted you too long to waste our time being nervous.”
A low growl escaped his lips, the intensity matching that look he’d given her—masculine and rough, in a way that stroked a path down her nerve endings and right to her core. A second later, and not soon enough, Caleb’s tongue parted her lips, tasting her with hot, wet demand. And she loved it—loved that after all those years of wanting him, of trying to push him over the edge, he was falling and taking her with him.
And finally, finally, he was touching her, and doing so with confidence and skill, without trepidation. He’d made up his mind this was happening. There was no turning back. Thank God, she thought. He touched her back, her hair and—yes, please—her breasts. Shay moaned into his mouth as he filled his palms and kneaded. Moaned again as his mouth traveled to her neck, her shoulder.
His fingers splayed wider on her bare skin and then began inching her shirt upward, pausing as his eyes found hers, searching, a silent question in the air—do you want to stop? She pressed her lips to his and let them linger, before murmuring, “I want you so very much, Caleb Martin.” Shay leaned back and pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it aside, leaving her sexy Victoria’s Secret pink bra in place, thankful now that she hadn’t been able to find her plain T-shirt bra when she’d left this morning.
“You’re beautiful,” he said, his fingers trailing over the curve of one breast, a light, barely there touch with the effect of a mist over the ocean, splaying tingling eroticism through her entire body. His arm wrapped around her waist, and he lowered his head, mouth pressed hotly to the center of her chest. His hand and mouth traveling, mouth exploring the delicate line of her breastbone. Somehow he unhooked her bra without her knowing.
Shay caught it before it fell. Caleb arched a brow at her action, his hands stilling at her waist. “Second thoughts?”
It was her turn to give him a slow smile. She’d been teasing Caleb unmercifully for ten years—a dress here, a sexy top there. An accidental-on-purpose touch. Tonight somehow wouldn’t be right if she broke her pattern.
“Why don’t I show you how nervous I am?” she suggested. She pushed out of his lap and stood before him. Out of reach—that was key. He’d touch when she said he could touch. And she was planning on giving him a reason to want to touch. Shay let the bra drop to the ground.
10
CALEB DID NOTHING to disguise the raw hunger in his stare as his gaze raked over Shay’s naked breasts, his body thrumming with demand. He wanted to take her, to rip her clothes off and find his way inside her, this woman who’d driven him to the brink so many times. That she was special, that she was undressing for him by choice, was as close to heaven on earth as he’d ever been. Or he was lying half-dead somewhere on a mission and hallucinating about Shay. It was one hell of a hallucination, at that.
Her breasts were high and full—he’d known that from her bikini and the many low-cut tops she’d intentionally worn for him. Tormenting him. She had absolutely, completely tormented him. But now, he had her, and he had an answer to a question he’d contemplated plenty
of times over the years since that birthday kiss. Her nipples were not red and ripe, but pale rosy pink, as perfect as her ivory skin.
She kicked off her shoes, her pretty pink-painted toenails somehow a seduction of their own. Every little detail about Shay enticed him. And when she started to wiggle her jeans down her hips, her breasts wiggling with them, he had to force himself to rein in his control, to sit back against the couch cushion, loose-limbed. Otherwise, he would take the lead, he would take control. He wanted her too much not to. But he also wanted to know what she’d do next.
And he got his answer—and it wasn’t what he expected—but then maybe it should have been. She discarded her jeans and before he could fully appreciate the neatly trimmed triangle of blond hair between her spectacular legs, she turned and sashayed toward the brown chair, her gorgeous backside on full display.
“Your turn,” she said, sitting down in the chair and crossing her legs, as if intentionally blocking his view. Her hands dangled off the high arms of the chair, her eyes lit with challenge. “Undress for me, Caleb.”
He sat there a minute and then laughed. Leave it to Shay to tempt, dare and tease. “And if I’d rather come over there and kiss every inch of your beautiful body?”
She lifted her chin and cast him a haunting look. “Then I might have to spank you.”
His cock twitched. He was going to make Shay pay for her tormenting. “We’ll see who’s spanking who,” he said, pushing to his feet. He stopped in front of her, tugged his shirt over his head and tossed it aside.
She sat up, hands by her sides, as if she intended to get up. He bent down and planted his hands on the sides of the chair. “Not so fast, Shay-Shay. I’m not done with you in the chair. You like playing with fire, don’t you?”
“I like playing with you, but I’d like it better without your pants.”
“If I get naked, I’m going to find my way inside you damn hard and fast,” he assured her. “And I still have some playing of my own to do.”
She inched forward in her chair, her breasts high, her nipples inviting, and reached for his pants. “I like hard and fast,” she said breathlessly, her hand stroking his cock, tracing the ridge. “And I can tell that’s exactly what you need.” She pressed her lips to his abs and then surprised him by palming his crotch at the same time that her tongue dipped beneath his belt line, to where the head of his cock bulged. Her tongue lapped the head, to the liquid pooling on the tip. She eyed him and licked her lips. “You taste like you want hard and fast.”
“Witch,” he murmured, going down on the ground in front of her, his hands settling on her thighs. “I’m not done playing yet.” He leaned down and kissed her knee, stroking her calf at the same time. “I want to know how you taste.”
“Just like a man,” she said. “Always have to be in control.”
“I can assure you,” he said, inching her legs apart, “if I had control, I’d have my pants off by now.” She’d had him under her influence since the day he’d met her. He ran his hands up her inner thighs. “You’re spectacular.” His thumbs brushed the dampness clinging to her blond curls, his gaze taking in the pretty pale skin beneath it. She sucked in a breath at the touch. Whispered his name.
He leaned in as if he would taste her, letting his hot breath linger above the dampness of her arousal, but he didn’t kiss her, didn’t lick her. She moaned a plea.
He slid his hands upward over her waist as he admired her breasts, filling his hands and then using his fingers and his tongue to tease her nipples. Suckling and licking. She arched her back and moaned, her hands in his hair. She was so free with him, so willing to offer herself. And he knew she wasn’t like this with everyone. Knew how prim and reserved she could be. His little she-wolf.
The thought drove him wild. He kissed her, twining his hands in her hair, suckling her tongue, nipping her lips. Hungry. So. Damn. Hungry. “Have I convinced you this is going to be good?”
She laughed, agreeing.
He smiled and untwined her arms from his neck. “Then you won’t mind if I do this.” He sat back on his haunches, gently tugged her forward, to the edge of the cushion. Then, his eyes pinned hers as he lifted one of her long sexy legs and drew her ankle to his lips. Her lips parted, her lashes fluttered.
Caleb licked, kissed and caressed a path up her leg before finding wet curls framing her swollen clit. He raised her other leg over his shoulder and then closed his mouth around her. She moaned and grabbed the arms of the chair, and he slid his fingers inside her. She arched into his mouth, into his touch, and he laved her with his tongue, unable to get enough of the sweet honey taste of her. Enough of her moans. She rocked desperately against his hand before spasming around his fingers, her body jerking with the intensity.
He tried to take her down slowly, to sensually tease her to final satisfaction, but the minute her spasms slowed, she lifted her head. “Now, please, will you take your pants off?”
BLESS BE, HE WAS FINALLY NAKED, because all Shay could think about right now was how much she needed to feel him next to her, in her. Feel him, yes. She needed him. The orgasm had shifted something inside her, triggered emotion, vulnerability.
He must have sensed the shift in her, because he’d barely given her a chance to admire his magnificent body, all roped muscle and defined masculine lines, before he lifted her from the chair and sat down in her place.
Shay straddled him, his thick—and impressive—shaft pressed to her backside. Instinctively, she reached behind her and touched it, stroked.
Intensity, desire, brutal handsomeness—all etched his face. And so did pain. He reached for her hand and settled it in front of him. “Condom. I forgot condoms.” He squeezed his eyes shut as if he couldn’t bear the thought of stopping.
She leaned forward, pressed her lips to his, then whispered, “I’m on the pill.” She’d been engaged. She’d been sexually active. She’d never been sexually satisfied. Until tonight. His eyes lifted and she said, “Unless you’re worried about—”
He pulled her forward, her chest to his, and kissed her, a deep, demanding kiss that tasted possessive and angry. It stole her breath, it tightened her chest. It turned her on. His fingers tangled in her hair, and with a gentleness that defied what she felt in his kiss, he eased her head back, pinned her in a dark stare. “You were on the pill for the guy you almost married,” he said roughly.
His directness surprised her, but she’d never lied to Caleb, and she wasn’t going to start now. “Yes.”
“Did you love him?”
“No,” she said without hesitation. “I should have. He was a good man. But I didn’t.”
He studied her a long moment, as if deciding whether he believed her. His mouth met hers, and she pressed her hand to his chest, when an uncomfortable thought occurred. He’d been out of reach, out of touch. “Were you ever…married?”
“Never even close,” he told her.
They stared at one another, the air thick with implication. This time she let him kiss her. She had no idea where this was going, no idea why his answer had mattered so much, or why he’d cared about hers. A frenzied rush of kissing and touching. Of melding their bodies together, until he lifted her hips and guided her. Shay reached behind her and wrapped his shaft with her hand. It was hard and hot and pulsed in her hand. She gasped as she slid down him, felt him deep inside her. Caleb was inside her. They shared an intense look for several seconds before somehow, someway, they both ended up smiling.
Caleb’s hands slid around her backside and leaned her forward, her mouth near his before he smacked her cheeks. Shay’s breath caught in her throat at the erotically charged connection, her body clenching around his cock. Her eyes shutting. His fingers plucked at her nipples, rough and…exactly right. She’d never thought she liked rough. Not that, by any means, he was being too rough. No. He was exactly right.
Before she knew it, her nipple was in his mouth. Shay rocked her hips against his, the sway tugging the stiff peak, but he held on, suckli
ng with delicious pressure, creating shock waves of pleasure to the center of her body. She wanted more. Of him. Of the sweet tug on her nipple. Reality slid away. There was only Caleb, and the ache to feel him deeper and harder. And this blissful sense of not thinking…not wondering what he was thinking. Knowing he wanted what she did on some level, that threw inhibition to the wind.
But the erotic tension, the sexual frenzy, shifted yet again. Shifted in the depths of a kiss. Turned to a slow seductive dance of their bodies that settled around them with the warmth of shared emotion. Soft touches, shared looks. Gentle, satisfying touches. Shay felt the edge of orgasm only seconds before it rushed over her. She moaned into Caleb’s mouth and felt her breath catching in her throat. The first spasm jerked her body, the feel of him inside unbelievably good. She would have moaned if she’d been capable. Instead, she buried her face in Caleb’s neck and clung as one ripple after another clamped down on his body and sent darts of pleasure all through her limbs. A low guttural sound slipped from Caleb as he pressed her hips down and thrust hard inside her. She felt the pulse of his release as his hand came to her head, and he leaned his face into her neck. Shay relaxed against Caleb. “Mmm,” she murmured softly, utterly sated.
They didn’t move for some time, holding each other, saying nothing, doing nothing, but just…being. A little piece of reality slid back into her mind and Shay swatted it away. But it came back, and she wondered if her silent satisfaction might be his silent guilt.
She pulled back to look at him, cupping his face in her hands. “Is this where we have an awkward ‘after’ moment? Whoops, we just had sex.”
“After is a long time away, sweetheart,” he said and pushed to his feet, her body still wrapped around his. “Where’s the bedroom?”
11
SHAY WOKE ON HER STOMACH to the erotic touch of Caleb’s hand on her backside. She sighed in contentment as his hand caressed her back, her shoulders. She blinked awake to find the room dark, but for a dim, shadow-inducing light coming from behind her, most likely from the bathroom.