Until finally he was buried inside her again, her legs wrapped tightly around his hips, rocking together as his arousal climbed toward completion.
His desperate need was as much emotional as physical—both of them building, cresting, releasing together.
He kept kissing her, and she kept shaking helplessly with suppressed emotion, but soon her body was shuddering through an orgasm and he was choking out a wordless sound as he came with hard waves of pleasure and feeling.
He was still holding her against him when his body relaxed completely, even the hard, ruthless compulsion that had driven him all his life finally easing into a moment of peace.
And his last conscious thought before he fell into dreamless sleep was that he’d never had sex like that before in his life.
13
Kelly had completely fallen apartthe night before, and she’d almost ruined everything.
There was no excuse. She hadn’t liked the way they were having sex in bed initially—it was too traditional, too personal, too intimate—so she’d tried to turn it into something kinky, a vague scene out of a generic sexual fantasyso it would feel less emotional, less real.
But it hadn’t worked. Even as he’d tied her up, it had felt deep, real, hard, and then he hadn’t even let himself go and taken what he wanted the way she’d been expecting from him.
He must have read some of her conflicted feelings and had responded in a way she never would have imagined.
He’d been gentle, tender, giving as much as he took.
And she’d wanted what he’d given as much as she wanted what he took.
She’d come for real. Again. Couldn’t even begin to fake it.
It was wrong. So wrong in every way that she couldn’t let it happen again. She had to be more careful, or she’d never be able to do what she had come here to do.
All those thoughts filtered through her mind before she’d even opened her eyes the following morning. As soon as she did, she realized she was still in Caleb’s bed.
They’d slept all night together. They’d never done so before.
She watched him for a minute. The way his dark hair, mingled with a few strands of silver, was rumpled and kinked up over his left temple. The way his bare chest rose and fell, the cover pushed down toward his belly. The way his long fingers gripped the sheets as if he was under pressure, even in his sleep.
He looked normal—like any other man—when the cool intelligence and innate power in his brown eyes was masked by sleep.
In some ways, hewasjust like any other man.
In other ways, he was more.
He wasn’t completely a monster. She had to admit that to herself after last night. He’d been careful with her, gentle, undeniably sensitive. He’d held her last night and given her what she needed—even though what she needed was the last thing she’d wanted.
He couldn’t know that though. He’d genuinely tried to be there for her, and there was no way for her to mentally turn it into something else.
It didn’t matter. He didn’t have to be a complete monster to do what he’d done. And a few soft moments weren’t a sign that her mother was wrong about him.
All it meant was that Kelly needed to pick up her pace, or she would never be able to accomplish her purpose.
He trusted her as much now as he would ever trust her, so she needed to get moving. Any more time would only weaken her and allow him a chance to uncover her lies.
Making a sound in his sleep, Caleb rolled over, and Kelly used the shift in position to slip out of the bed without waking him. It was just seven on a Sunday morning, but she couldn’tlie around looking at him anymore. She was already unnerved enough.
He was still sleeping after she showered and dressed, so she went downstairs for coffee, and then she took a walk around the grounds with Ralph, the German shepherd.
His place was really more of an estate than a house. There was a separate building for the garage, a swimming pool, tennis court, and stables—plus acres of grounds, some of it wooded, which she would never venture into.
Just the thought of going into the woods made her queasy, and it made her cringe thinking of what she might have revealed to Caleb of her real self on Saturday in the park. She turned her back on Caleb’s woods and walked toward the stables—which were empty because he didn’t keep horses.
They’d probably been part of the grounds when his father had bought this place.