Page 45 of Caleb's Salvation
“Yeah, well, sometimes it happens like that. Knowing Ark, he wouldn’t have wasted any time once he knew what he wanted.”
“Makes sense,” I muttered. Again, having no clue really how anything did happen. The fact that I was standing here next to Caleb not knowing a darn thing to say proved that.
“You going to eat?” I asked him, rubbing his back gently, just like I did with Sammy when I wanted to soothe him. “You should eat. You probably lost a lot of sleep taking care of me and Sammy.”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” he turned then so he was facing me directly. And it was there in his eyes again. That pain inside him that I could somehow feel in my chest. I wanted to hug him. I wanted touch his cheek and rub it until he could feel how much of his burden I would gladly carrier for him.
“Why did you come here tonight?” I asked, feeling the weight of his attention on me. Knowing that he wanted something from me and not knowing if I was willing to give him what he needed. Because, in the end, it might crush me.
“For you.”
He reached out and circled my wrist. Watching now as his thumb brushed along the sensitive skin there. No secret this time, no pretending he wasn’t doing exactly what he was doing.
I took a breath, feeling him in every pore of my body but still in some ways not understanding. “I don’t understand. Why did you suddenly change your mind about me?”
“I didn’t change my mind. I just stopped fighting myself. I want to take you back to your cabin and fuck you, Vivienne. I’ve wanted that since you got off the damn plane.”
I nodded before I could talk myself out of it. For whatever reason, I knew Caleb needed me. To soothe him, to hold him, maybe to heal him if he would open himself to that. And all those things I wanted to give him.
I also wanted to make love. I wanted to know what it was like because, with Caleb, this wouldn’t be some fifteen-minute event in the back of an eighteen-wheeler. This would be Caleb doing what he did best, and that was taking care of me.
“Bud,” I called out because he was in the kitchen. “I’m leaving for the night.”
It wasn’t as late as I usually stayed but after being sick, he’d probably thought I’d hit my limit.
“Yup,” I heard him call back.
“Want to finish your beer?” I asked Caleb, pointing at the half-filled glass in front of him. He stood and bent so he was close to my ear.
“No. I can’t fucking wait to have you under me. But this can’t look like anything to my men. You understand me? You were sick, you’re leaving a little early tonight. Alone. I’ll stay here, finish my beer. I’ll leave alone, too.”
I nodded. That made sense. He wouldn’t want people to think we were something when we weren’t.
Dave used to make me do the same thing. Let him leave the diner first alone, then pretend I was going for a smoke break, even though everyone knew I didn’t smoke.
I didn’t want to think about that, or how it made me feel, so I left Caleb and went behind the bar to get my stuff.
I called out a goodnight to all the regulars as I left and started walking to the cabin. Once inside, I went through the normal rituals of getting out of my winter gear and stoking the potbelly stove. It was strange not to have Sammy in his crib, but of course, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I was going to do with Caleb if Sammy were here and not at Shelby’s.
I thought about what I should do now.
Take off my clothes?
Get into bed?
Wait for him naked?
Instead I sat in the chair near the stove and wrapped my arms around myself. Wondered if this mistake was going to be worse than the mistake I made with Dave.
Because I cared about Caleb and I had no idea how he felt about me.
A few minutes later there was knock on the door and I jumped.
I got up to open the door to him. He stepped inside the cabin without a word and shook himself free of the light snow that must have just started falling.
I backed away and watched him strip out of his winter gear, only he didn’t stop with that. He sat on the chair and removed his heavy boots and socks. Then he stood and shucked the wool sweater he was wearing, the long-sleeved T-shirt underneath that. His jeans, his shorts…all of it until he was standing naked in front of me.
My jaw dropped. I’d never seen a naked man. Not fully. I’d seen Dave’sthingbut that wasn’t the same as having this tall, powerfully built man standing in front of me with a fully hard dick.
