Page 60 of Caleb's Salvation
“Ow! What was that for?
“Are you a fighter or are you not? First time I met you, I thought,she’s got no shot up here. But you had a stubborn chin and you made some pretty ballsy requests and I thought,maybe, just maybe, she’s got what it takes. He’s sitting there at that camp, most likely going crazy overthinking about you and what he’s going to do with you. So remind him you’re here to fight for him. Or aren’t you?”
Emboldened by her speech, I considered my alternatives. I could wait until Caleb came to me, and these past few months had proven he couldn’t stop himself from doing that, only to run away again after. Or I could head out to meet him on his territory.
“You take my truck. Do you know how to drive?” Eve asked.
I’d made Pop teach me when I got the job at the diner. He’d been reluctant, of course, as driving wasn’t something he thought a woman needed to know how to do. But I’d fought him on it and won.
Because that’s what I was. A fighter.
“Yes. I do. Okay, I’m going to do this,” I agreed, and Eve dropped a set of keys into my hand. I started for the door but stopped. “Wait, what excuse do I give him for being there?”
Again, Eve looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Vivienne, baby, he’s going to know why you’re there. But if he asks, just tell him you ran out of sugar. That should do the trick. Oh, and take this.”
She pulled a condom out of her back jeans pocket and handed it to me. With a not at all embarrassed shrug, she said, “I’m off birth control until we decide if we’re going to have another kid and Zeke insists that I always be prepared.”
Right. I shoved the condom in my back pocket and nodded.
Sugar. Then it dawned on me. This was me driving out to camp to push Caleb’s buttons so that he would have sex with me. Basically, this was me initiating sex.
The idea was completely unnerving and, as inexperienced as I was obviously, another first.
So was getting your butt spanked and you liked that!
I tried not to blush as I said goodbye to Eve and headed for her truck. I assured myself that I was not a pervert because the spanking thing was not something I would be asking for on a regular basis. For one it smarted, and two, it put him in charge of everything. Wrestling control from Caleb was something else I definitely wanted to try.
No, it wasn’t the spanking, per se, that had done me in. It was Caleb and the air of pent-up frustration, anger and desire around him. Like he’d been thinking about me all these months, just like I’d been thinking about him, and finally, he could release everything he’d been feeling.
“On my ass,” I muttered, smiling to myself as I remembered it.
Eve had given me the basic directions, which meant the navigating wasn’t hard. There was only one road to and from camp. Once I was on it, I stayed on it and that pretty much covered it.
A little less than an hour later I came upon the cluster of buildings that represented the camp. I was from the Texas Panhandle. I knew what oil rigs looked like, but somehow, this setup seemed so much more diminutive. Sure, there were a few scattered wells that rose above the compound buildings in the distance, but they seemed so much more subtle than those I was used to.
Maybe that’s just because they did everything bigger in Texas.
I drove around the compound to where I found the most parked vehicles gathered. Mostly trucks and a few SUVS. I parked but didn’t get out, feeling the butterflies build in my stomach.
“Calm down, you know most of the guys from Bud’s,” I said even as I took a few calming breaths. “You just want to know if Caleb is around because you have some…questions for him.”
Was that too vague? Maybe I should be more subtle than that.
“Hey, guys, I was just so curious about what camp was like I decided to drive up here and look around. Oh, you mean Caleb is in his office? Two doors down to the right? Sure, I’ll just go say hi.”
Lame.
“Just do it, Vivienne.”
They were the same words I’d said to myself when I clicked on the contest link. The same words I’d used when I’d received the email saying I’d been selected for this adventure. The same words I used when I’d gotten on the plane with Sam.
I hopped out of the truck and made my way along a covered walkway to one of the larger buildings. Surely there had to be some kind of reception area inside where someone might point me in the right direction.
It was cold, and it smelled like snow coming, (I couldn’t believe I was someone who now knew what snow coming smelled like) but the storm wasn’t here yet. Eve said it wouldn’t start until later tonight. The snow, however, wasn’t the issue. It was the arctic temperatures that would follow that were the real problem.
Nevertheless, I hustled my way to the door. Once inside I breathed warm air and sighed. Felt like I’d accomplished some major objective. It was only when I looked around that I realized I was in some type of rec room, which was filled with guys.
All of whom were looking at me.
