Page 97 of Second Chance Fate

“No,” he stated flatly, teasing her as they pulled into the parking space in front of the Honeymoon Suite cabin. “I think it’s thebestidea.”

He glanced to his right and was relieved to see Taylor was smiling at his lame joke. “But if you don’t, we can leave. We don’t have to stay. Do you want to go?”

He waited to see what she wanted to do. If she wanted to go, he’d turn around right now. He didn’t want to, but he would. Thankfully, she exhaled with a smile and shook her head. “No. I don’t want to go.”

After hopping out of the driver’s seat, he sprinted to the passenger side to help Taylor out and then grabbed the bags from the back. As they made their way up the porch steps to the cabin door, the night enveloped them like a warm hug. The crisp air carried a faint smell of pine and earth, coupled with a subtle hint of moisture from the nearby lake. The fresh, earthy scent combined with the sound of water lapping against the shore and the soft rustle of leaves conspired to create the perfect romantic atmosphere, drawing in all the senses.

“But what if someone tries to break in again?” she asked as they reached the cabin door.

Caleb put the key in. “Eric has someone watching the house in case they come back.”

When Caleb’s mom called them over, it had nothing to do with Viv going into labor; it was because one of his neighbors called in suspicious activity around his house. A patrolman wentand checked it out, and there was a broken window on the side of the house. It didn’t appear as though anyone actually broke into the house, though. Nothing was stolen from what Caleb, Taylor, and Owen could tell.

From the ring camera footage and audible witnesses' testimonies, there was a loud sound of glass smashing, and then both dogs barked with what his neighbor, Mrs. Timmons, calls her Minnie’s ‘serious bark.’ After that, a figure dressed in black is seen in the far distance of the ring camera disappearing back into the woods that back up to his property.

It was so frustrating that the footage was grainy and so far away; it gave him nothing to go on. He hoped that it wasn’t Patsy, but the way she’d stormed out of the sanctuary, he couldn’t be sure. One thing was for certain: if it was her and he could prove it, this time he would press charges for vandalism or criminal mischief, and he would sue so she had to pay for the damages. Last time he used his own money to fix up the things she vandalized at the church, but he would not do it again if it was her.

They walked inside the cabin, and Caleb set down the bags after he closed and locked the door. When he straightened, he noticed Taylor was biting the inside of her cheek nervously. He stepped forward to try and put her mind at ease. “Owen is at Jonah’s, the dogs are at my parents’ house, and we are going to spend the night in the honeymoon suite. The house will be fine…or it won’t.“ He shrugged.

Her eyes lifted up to meet his as a mile-wide smile broke out on her face. He liked that he was starting to pick up on her and Owen’s inside jokes. He’d missed so much in both their lives, and even though he was a glass-half-full guy and so grateful that he had them now, it did still feel like a sucker punch in the gut sometimes when he stopped and thought about it.

He flipped on the light switch located on the wall beside him, and the room was bathed in a warm, flickering light from the fire in the gas fireplace crackling in the corner. The cabin was cozy and inviting, the perfect mix of rustic and modern. The star of the show was the king-sized bed in the center, perfectly made with plush pillows and a thick comforter. In the other corner sat a huge white porcelain bathtub with brass features and a promise of relaxation.

“This is so beautiful! You didn’t have to do this.” She turned back around and looked up at him, and Caleb felt his heart actually stop in his chest; that was how beautiful she was.

“As much as I’d love to take credit for this, Amanda and Justin gifted it to us. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“They’re the ones with Parker, right?”

He nodded. Amanda had given birth to a little girl whom she and Justin named after her late father, who was a pillar of the town and had been one of his dad’s close friends and confidants. Parker had also lost a wife, just like Caleb’s dad had lost his first wife, and from what Caleb saw, the two bonded over that shared experience.

“I’ll send them a thank you card and gift basket, but I’llalsooffer a free night of babysitting,” she said under her breath, more to herself than anyone else.

Caleb noticed that she did that a lot, which he thought was adorable. He asked her about it in the hospital, and her response broke his heart. She said that she thinks she started talking to herself because she was lonely. She was moved around a lot in care and never knew from one day to the next where she’d be. She was shy and didn’t make friends easily; also, she said it was difficult to trust the people she did meet because most of them, not all of them, but most, had ulterior motives. She just started talking to herself for conversation and company.

It killed him to think about everything she’d been through. She was the most resilient, bravest, and kindest person he knew. When his dad spoke about obstacles at the wedding ceremony and directed the comment about integrity and putting others needs before your own toward Taylor, it made him so happy that his parents could see the same thing he did in her. That they also appreciated all that she’d carried alone for so long. And he was thankful that she’d never be in that position again. She had him, his parents, and the entire Hope Falls community behind her.

Caleb stepped forward, eliminating the space between them. He reached up and cupped Taylor’s face. His thumbs grazed her cheeks. “What did I do to deserve you?”

“I feel like that’s one of those phrases that can either be areally goodthing or areally badthing.” Her eyes sparkled up at him, filled with something that felt to him a lot like love.

They still hadn’t said those words to each other. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He’d told her he loved her when she was asleep, and he said those words when he proposed, but he felt like the context of that ‘I love you’ was in a more general sense, as in he loved her as a person. It didn’t translate as the soulmate, romantic, passionate love he actually felt for her. The problem was, he didn’t want to make her feel obligated to say it back to him.

“Well, to clarify, so there is no misunderstanding, in this case it is definitely a good thing.” His lips pressed to hers briefly as his thumbs traced her jawline. He may not have been able to tell her how he felt, but nothing was stopping him from showing her.

His lips grazed the outer edge of her ear as he brushed them tenderly across her lobe and then just below, pressing them to the spot that he’d learned was a very sensitive area for her. The second his lips made contact, he felt a shiver run through her body, accompanied by a soft gasp. Satisfaction and gratificationrushed through him. He loved that he knew where to kiss her, touch her, and make her body respond like that.

Caleb's hand traveled down her side past her hip. He wanted to feel just how well her body was responding to him. When he reached her outer thigh, he bunched the material of her dress up and then moved his hand beneath it. His knuckles grazed her bare thigh before they slid between her legs. His hand cupped her sex; her heat radiated on his palm. He began to rub the base of her seam with his fingers as she ground the top of her sex against the heel of his palm. His touch was coated with dampness that was seeping through the lace. Her hips bucked as she tried to push her sex into his hand; unfortunately, it was not a position he could give her more.

Sensing her frustration and knowing she needed more, he turned her around and slowly unzipped her dress, then brushed the hair falling down her back to the side and trailed featherlight kisses at the base of her neck. Her breathing was beginning to grow choppier as he turned her back around to face him. He slid the straps of her dress off her shoulders and down her arms, revealing her lacy white bra beneath. The fabric fell off her body, pooling at her feet, and she stepped out of it.

As she stood in front of him wearing a matching white lace bra and panties, his eyes greedily devoured her, eating up every inch of her body. He couldn’t believe that she was his wife. Her hourglass figure was every man’s fantasy, or at least his. She was plucked right out of his wet dream, but this was his reality.

Taylor stared up at him with a look of complete trust and vulnerability that caused Caleb’s heart to pound wildly against his ribcage as their breaths grew more and more shallow in a soundtrack uniquely their own, cocooning them. Caleb took two steps forward, and Taylor instinctively retreated. He continued his pursuit until her back was against the wall and he stood in front of her, caging her in place.

As she stared up at him, her chest was moving up and down in rapid breaths. He lifted his arms and dragged the tips of his fingers across her soft, smooth shoulders, down her arms, past her wrists, and finally over her knuckles. She lifted her hands so that her palms faced his, and she pressed hers to his as their fingers entwined. Once they were locked together, he lifted his arms, which brought hers with him, and reached above her head. He then kept them there, holding her hands to the wall. Whether it was just instinctual or a reflex, he wasn’t sure which, but she tugged on her arms, pulling down. He gripped her tighter, using more force than he’d ever had with her.

The second he did, he saw her face flush a deeper shade of pink, and she bit down on her lower lip, which was a tell that she enjoyed having her hands pinned above her head and was a fan of his dominance. He made a note of that.

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