Page 110 of Dial L for Lawyer
This time when he enters me, it's different. Slower, deeper, like he's trying to reach something beyond physical. I wrap my arms around him, finally free to touch, to explore the muscles of his back, the width of his shoulders.
"I need you to know something," he says, voice rough as he moves inside me.
I can only nod, overwhelmed by the feeling of him filling me completely.
"This isn't just sex for me. It's never been just sex." His forehead presses against mine, our breath mixing. "From that night at the gala, when you relaxed enough to let me see past your walls—I knew I was done for."
My heart pounds against my ribs. I want to tell him I feel it too, that somewhere between pretending to hate him and trying to protect myself from him, I fell completely. Part of me wants to break the moment, push him away, make some awful joke to keep us in our old pattern. But I don't. I just surrender, matching his slow rhythm, letting him see every flicker of pleasure and vulnerability on my face.
He comes with a shudder that shakes the bed, our bodies pressed together. He buries his face in my neck instead of letting me see his own moment of falling apart. For all his confidence, Caleb is as scared of being soft as I am. Somehow knowing that makes me want to laugh and cry and never let go.
We come down together, lying tangled and sweaty, neither of us speaking. City lights paint patterns on the ceiling, and I trace circles on his chest, feeling his heartbeat slow under my palm.
"So," he says after a while, voice still rough. "This lawyer you met. The devastatingly arrogant one."
I smile against his shoulder. "What about him?"
"You plan on keeping him around? Now that you're getting your life back?"
"I don't know," I say, pretending to think about it. "He's got some good qualities."
"Such as?"
"Well, he's not bad in bed."
"Not bad?" He rolls us so he's hovering over me again. "I just made you see God with a silk tie and my tongue, and I get 'not bad'?"
"Fine. He's adequate."
"Adequate, huh?” Caleb pauses, studying me like he’s memorizing my face. Then he grins, brushing his thumb over my lip. “Let me show you adequate."
But instead of the bruising kiss I expect, his mouth is soft and slow, like we have all the time in the world.
"I'm keeping you," he murmurs against my lips. "Just so you know. This lawyer of yours doesn't stand a chance."
"Good," I whisper back. "Because I'm keeping you too."
The words I can’t say yet hang between us anyway. In the space between our bodies, in the way we hold each other like we’re both afraid to let go. Maybe love doesn’t always need words to be real. Maybe it just needs to be felt.
And God, do I feel it from him. Everywhere. In every touch, every look, every moment where he sees all of me and stays.
What scares me is how much I feel it back. How close I am to saying something I swore I wouldn’t, not this soon, not when I know how dangerous it is to trust someone with that part of me.
But for tonight, wrapped in his arms, it feels possible.
And maybe that’s enough. For now.
CHAPTER 27
Caleb
"This is not what I had in mind," Dominic says, staring at the chaos of the aquatic center with genuine horror. "When you said 'the pool,' I thought you meant that new rooftop bar in River North."
"Why would I go to a bar at nine in the morning?"
"Day drinking is a thing. Bottomless mimosas exist." He watches a pack of small children run past, shrieking. "This is a nightmare. Why are they all wet?"
"It's a swim meet," I say, scanning the pool deck for Michaela. "What did you think would happen when I said I was going to my niece's swim meet?"
