Page 57 of The Agent
Pleasure gathered in her belly, intensifying as Caleb began to move. There was nothing rushed about his thrusts. He slid in and out, out and in, an indolent rhythm that made her whimper.
His warm hands stroked her face, his lips peppering kisses on her jaw, her neck, her shoulder.
“This is real,” he murmured. “It’s real, sweetheart.”
His pace remained lazy, and not even the restless lift of her hips deterred him. He made long, slow love to her, and when she looked up at his gorgeous face, the emotion she saw took her breath away.
Real. Yes, this felt real. She wrapped her arms around him and dragged her fingernails up and down the hard muscles of his back. The gentle tempo he’d set wasn’t enough anymore. She wanted more. Needed more. With a little moan, she urged him to go faster, arching her back to take him deeper. When he still didn’t comply, she raked her nails down his back and resorted to begging. “Please, Caleb…please.”
Whatever restraint he’d been holding onto snapped like a bungee cord, and then he was driving into her like a man possessed. “Christ,” he choked out. “You’re… I…”
He gave up on talking and kept moving, plunging into her until she could no longer bear it, until all her muscles tensed and…oh,yes. All thoughts drained out of her head as her body fragmented in sweet release. Flashes of light blinded her, while bursts of ecstasy went off in her body. She felt Caleb let go and she held him as he shook from release.
When the waves of her orgasm finally ebbed, common sense returned, urging Marley to push him away. She’d experienced a momentary relapse, a foolish lack of self-control, but now was the time to come back to reality. Caleb had lied to her, he’d hurt her, and even though she’d trusted him with her body just now, could she really trust him with her heart?
Yet her arms refused to let go of him, her legs refused to unhook from their perch on his trim hips. And her heart…her heart implored her to hold him even tighter.
So she did.
* * *
CALEB HAD NEVER BEEN ONEto question good fortune. Even that one Christmas when his current foster mom presented him with a brand-new baseball glove, he’d forced himself not to ask, “Why?” In his experience, people didn’t give gifts withoutexpecting something in return, but Marley…she’d given him something so incredibly important last night. He wasn’t about to ruin that by spitting out all the questions biting at his tongue.
Do you forgive me?
Can you ever trust me again?
He couldn’t help but remember the day in Marley’s kitchen, when she’d asked him if he’d ever been in love and had looked so astounded when he’d admitted he hadn’t. He might have a different answer now, if the unfamiliar warmth flowing through his veins was what he thought it was. It was funny—the women he’d dated in the past had wanted so badly for him to love them, but how could he, when he wasn’t even sure what love felt like?
Now, he thought he might have an idea. The lump of tenderness that lodged in his throat whenever he looked into Marley’s eyes. The heat that unfurled in his body whenever he touched her. The protective rush that shot through him when he thought about the danger she was in.
Was that love?
Sitting up in bed, Caleb watched as Marley moved around the bedroom, folding clothes, shoving a pair of shoes into the closet. She’d barely said two words since they woke up, and he was beginning to grow uneasy. Any second now, he expected her to tell him last night was a mistake and throw him out.
But she didn’t do that. Rather, she strode to the bathroom, then hesitated in the doorway and glanced over her shoulder. “Want to take a shower?”
He was off the bed and moving toward her in a nanosecond.
Taking off the T-shirt she’d slipped into before they’d gone to sleep, she stepped into the shower stall. Caleb shucked his boxers and followed her in, wrapping his arms around her from behind as she turned on the faucet. Hot water poured out of the showerhead and Marley tilted her head, letting the water soak her honey-blond hair. She took a step back, giving him a turnunder the spray while she reached for a poufy-looking thing and squirted a generous amount of body wash onto it. The scent of strawberries filled the small space. It smelled like Marley, sweet and feminine and unbelievably sexy.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she washed herself, white suds sliding down her body and gathering in the valley of her breasts. She was so freaking gorgeous, creamy white skin, gentle curves and full breasts tipped with tight pink nipples.
He opened his mouth to say something. Tell her she was beautiful. Ask her if she needed help. But what came out was, “What does this mean?”
Handing him the pouf, she moved under the spray and let the water wash away the suds. For a long time, she didn’t answer, and he just stood there, feeling slightly awkward as he dragged the fluffy sponge across his body, branding that strawberry scent into his own skin.
When she finally spoke, her voice came out in a sigh. “I don’t know what it means.”
Do you want me to stay?
He didn’t utter the words, fearful of how she might respond. Instead, he asked the question to himself.
Did he want to stay?
His entire adult life had revolved around his job. He worked out of the New York office, but his assignments took him all over the country. Staying with Marley would mean not being able to take certain assignments, or maybe even leaving the agency altogether. It would be too hard, living apart for long periods at a time.
It astounded him that he could even consider any of this. His work was all he’d ever cared about. Previously, the notion of not having his job had brought a knot of panic to his gut.
