Chapter 25 Emma #2
I sank down until he filled me so perfectly, I could do nothing but gasp, arching helplessly as he met me with a single sure push of his hips.
With a rough groan and those hands tightening on me, he locked his gaze on mine for a single beat before lowering it to where we were connected. “Emma.” He sounded gruff, strained, and it thrilled me.
“I’m sure, Caleb.” Truth was, I was more sure about this than anything else in my life.
His hands flexed on my hips, as if trying to hold himself back, trying to stop this incredible, mind-blowing feeling that threatened to consume him.
“Trust me?” I tried for a teasing tone, but I sounded as desperate as he did.
“With my life,” he breathed.
“Good to know.” I climbed off him, wrenching a groan of protest from his throat. Then I went to my bag and rifled through it. “Yes!” I whirled back to him, holding up the condom in victory.
I didn’t know if I’d ever seen Caleb truly surprised before. His eyes widened as he tugged me down for a hot kiss. “I know you’re not supposed to say this when you’re naked,” he murmured, “but I’m pretty sure I just fell in love with you.”
A laugh bubbled out of me as I tossed him the condom and reclaimed my spot on top, sitting on his thighs while he tore the packet open with his teeth. I took the condom from him and rolled it on, enjoying myself so much that I took my sweet-ass time about it too.
Caleb gripped the sleeping bag beneath us in tight fists, swearing the air blue as I tortured him. When he caught my gleeful smile, he growled deep in his throat. “I’m adding up your infractions.”
I laughed, but there was a smoldering intensity in his lustful gaze that left me breathless. I slid down, taking him into me again as we both gasped in pleasure.
His hands tightened on my hips as I began to move, and when tremors of pleasure scattered through me everywhere at once and my rhythm faltered, he rolled us, tucking me beneath him, his hands flat on the sleeping bag on either side of my head.
He spread my legs with his thighs to make room for himself, his face hovering over mine while I tried to suck in oxygen.
By the time his fingers curled under my butt and raised my hips to the perfect angle, I was so stimulated, I started to come the second he surged inside me.
He kept moving, prolonging my pleasure, withdrawing from me almost entirely before plunging back in, until I was crying out, body shuddering as I came undone, taking him with me.
The entire universe seemed to halt as we rocked together, the pleasure seemingly endless. Finally, we both sagged, boneless, clutching each other, panting, sweaty, shaky.
“Caleb,” I whispered, the only word in my head.
He pressed a sweet kiss to my damp brow. “Right here.”
“That was…”
“I know.”
I had no idea how much time passed, the only sound our heavy, stuttered breaths before he pulled back and searched my eyes.
I smiled. No one else. No one else had ever made me feel the way he did, in or out of bed, and I wanted to tell him. I wanted to tell him a lot of things. I was still searching for words when his jeans rang, the pocket lit up by the phone inside.
He ignored it. But when it rang again, he muttered “shit” against my neck and reached for the pants.
“What?” he answered with a bit of a snarl that did something to my insides. Something really, really naughty, but also really, really good.
He listened for a minute, brought his phone down from his ear, and thumbed through his notifications. Then he said “shit” again, with a whole bunch of feeling, before grinding out, “On it.”
Then he turned to me.
But I already knew. “You have to go.”
He grimaced. “I’m sorry.”
A niggle of unease ran through me. I’d gotten caught up in the moment, dropping my guard. We’d had that near miss in the storm, but we hadn’t missed tonight, that was for sure. With my body still quivering with tiny little aftershocks, I understood I had a problem.
I liked him way too much, was in far too deep. It left me feeling…exposed, raw.
Vulnerable.
And I didn’t like it. I sat up and began pulling my clothes back on. Which, by the way, was a lot harder than taking them off, especially with our bodies damp from the river. What had I been thinking, coming here with this man, the one man who had the power to hurt me?
That was easy—I hadn’t been thinking.
But it wasn’t too late. I could still play this off. Light. Easy. Casual. No big deal. “Am I about to be ghost girl number one thousand and one?” I asked in a teasing tone. Look at me, being all mature about accidentally having sex with someone I accidentally feel too much for…
“That’s not what I’m doing.” Caleb swiped a hand down his face, then met my gaze. “That was Bill. Both cameras on the Henderson job went down. Could be that the power’s out.”
“You don’t sound like you believe it.”
“I want it to be that simple, but since we’ve had weird, mysterious troubles with inventory and theft, I’ve gotta go check and make sure. Come on.” He pulled me to my feet. “I’ll explain on the way.”
“About the cameras?”
“No, the ghosting thing.” He squeezed my hand. “I’ll drive you home, then get your car back to you when I’m done.”
His words warmed something inside me that I wasn’t ready to face, but they also brought panic. “Unnecessary. Just take me with you to the jobsite, and I’ll drive my car home.”
“You’re cold, and it’s late. You told me you live near downtown Star Falls. You’ll get home forty minutes sooner if I drop you there.”
I’d told him that because it was the location of the apartment I wanted. Which I did not yet have… “Getting to the job’s more important,” I said quickly. “Just go straight there.”
He glanced over at me, something in his tone that I couldn’t place, and it was too dark to see his eyes clearly when he said, “You sure?”
Was I sure I didn’t want to explain my homeless problem? “Yes.”
He got us on the road before taking another look at me, clearly sensing something was wrong.
And there was. I just didn’t know how to tell him. I’d waited too long. If I told him now, I’d wreck everything that tonight had been.
And it had been everything.
“About my past…” he said quietly.
“You don’t have to tell me. I get it.”
“I want to make sure.” He had his eyes on the road, but I could tell his attention was on me. “You remember what things were like in college for me.”
“You mean when you were a hockey phenom and everyone wanted a piece of you, especially those of the female persuasion?”
He grimaced. “Up until then, no one of the ‘female persuasion’ ever looked at me twice. I was gawky and awkward, and a bookworm nerd to boot.”
I thought of the sheer size of him, the tattoos, the easy strength—inside and out, and I snorted.
“Don’t judge the package,” he said mildly.
That swiped the smile from my lips, because he was right. I had no right to judge. He’d been through hell growing up, but he’d done his best to leave that in the past, something I’d never quite accomplished.
“When the hockey thing happened,” he said, “I didn’t know how to handle the sudden attention that came with it.
The media was…overwhelming. They created this narrative of me being a player because I never went out with anyone more than once or twice.
And it was true, I didn’t go out with anyone more than that—because it’s hard to make a genuine connection with someone who wants to collect you and then tell the media every sordid detail, which they mostly made up. ”
He’d been young and thrust into the limelight, and he hadn’t had a parent to look out for his best interests. It broke my heart.
“It was never about me as a person,” he said quietly. “It was all about the hockey persona. Girls were doggedly determined, and I never could get rid of them unless I just—”
“Ghosted them.”
“I thought Renee was different,” he said.
“I thought we were good together. But after I got hurt and was told I’d never play at the same level again, that I’d be lucky to walk without a limp—” His smile was mirthless.
“I saw her disappointment, the fear that I’d become a liability.
” He shook his head. “In the hospital, in that sterile room I hated with all my being, I couldn’t face her feelings over what had happened to me, so I broke things off.
” He slid me a look. “And then there was you.”
“Me?”
A knowing smile curved his lips. “The first time I ever saw you, you were working in the cafeteria with that net over your hair and a bad attitude all over your face. You didn’t want anything from me.
Hell, you wouldn’t even give me the time of day.
All you wanted to do was kick my ass in class. I loved it.”
I shook my head, mind boggled at how different our perspectives had been back then. I’d been struggling, and although in a very different way, so had he. “I still want to kick your ass, but now on the job instead of in class.”
He smiled. “And I still love it.”
“You’re a sick man, Caleb Colburn.”
“Guilty as charged.”