Chapter 29 Emma #2
“If you want me to come kick your ass, keep talking,” Caleb said, clearly still on the phone.
“Remember when you fell for Penny, Ry? Because I do. You fought it with everything you had, when anyone with eyeballs knew you two were endgame. I did everything I could to support you, even when you were a complete asshole about it. I backed you up no matter what—” He listened for a beat.
“I’ve known Emma for far more than a month.
I fell for her back in college, and apparently the feelings never went away. ”
I froze, melting over the sentiment, but also filled with horror that I was causing this fight.
There was a longer silence this time, and when Caleb finally spoke again, he sounded much less frustrated and angry. “Love you, too, dick breath.”
Afraid of getting caught eavesdropping, I quickly whirled around for something to do with my hands. Two leashes hung by the back door. Perfect. I leashed up the dogs, which caused a riot of excitement. “Settle,” I said, and to my shock, they did as I led the parade out the back door.
The night was chilly, and I shivered when I stepped off the porch and into damp grass. I had no idea where I was going, but I knew it wouldn’t be far enough to escape the fallout from getting caught tonight.
Refusing to cry, I kept moving, realizing that Caleb’s yard backed up to open land, and none of it was fenced. The night was bright, the moon big and round above, negating the need for a flashlight.
As for the dogs, they were in heaven, sniffing every tree or bush we passed. About a hundred yards from the house, Calvin and Klein stilled in front of me and growled low and shockingly vicious in their throats, hackles standing straight up.
“What is it?” I whispered. “What do you see—Oh. Oh shit.”
Glowing eyes about twenty yards ahead, lots of them.
It could’ve been aliens or coyotes, but I was going with coyotes.
In an unraveling nightmare right in front of my eyes, the dogs tore free, racing across the wild grass, their leashes dragging behind them as they dodged around oak trees and God knew what else.
I yelled for them while I ran after them.
Then I suddenly hit my hands and knees, but thankfully not my face.
I’d tripped over a low, heavy branch, nearly killing myself in the process. Death by a solo game of red rover… Picking myself up, I took off again, calling for the boxers as the coyotes disappeared over the hill, Calvin and Klein right on their heels.
“No!” I skidded to a stop at the top of the hill, out of breath while I squinted into the darkness that suddenly felt all-encompassing. “Calvin! Klein!”
Nothing.
Absolutely zero sounds, not even the hum of a single insect.
“Calvin! Klein!” I yelled again and again, whirling back to look at the house on the hopeful chance Caleb had come to find us, and…
There they sat, politely at my feet like two angels. Calvin and Klein looked at me like, You’re cute, but not too bright, are you…?
I put a hand to my heart and gasped for air. “Are you kidding me?”
“Emma!”
I caught sight of a flashlight beam bouncing across the terrain to us.
Caleb.
“Here!” I yelled, then snatched up the dogs’ leashes, heading toward the bouncing light. I got only a few steps before he was catching me by the arms.
“You okay?” he demanded, carefully looking me over. “I heard the coyotes, then realized you were gone.”
And he’d come running. He wasn’t breathing as heavy as I was, but he’d clearly moved fast to get to me as soon as he had. “I took the dogs out for a walk to give you privacy on your call,” I said. “And we ran into the coyotes—”
“You hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.”
He still shined the flashlight over me again, then the dogs, before gently taking their leashes from me. “I’m sorry, they’re assholes when they see a coyote.”
“There were at least six of them.”
He gaped at me. “And you followed them?”
Well, when he put it like that…
“Emma, Jesus.”
“What?” I tossed up my hands. “You think I was about to come back to the house and explain to you I’d gotten your fur babies eaten?”
He took a deep breath and, with the leashes in one hand, steered me back toward the house.
He waited until we were safely back in his kitchen, leashes off the dogs, dogs banished to bed—theirs, not Caleb’s—to take my hand and tug me closer, tipping my face up to his.
“Never,” he said, “never follow them if they go after a wild animal. They might look stupid, and sometimes act like it, but they’re sneaky and crafty as hell. They’ll get away safely.”
I nodded.
He relaxed marginally. “What was your plan if you caught up to the coyotes?”
I blinked. “Uh, I…didn’t really think it through.” Possibly the story of my life…
Caleb shook his head. “You’re cold.” He moved to the stovetop. “Tea or hot chocolate?”
“It’s the middle of the night. Aren’t you exhausted?”
“It’s a way of life at this point. I’m having hot cocoa with as many marshmallows as I can fit into the mug.” He glanced over his shoulder at me, brows raised.
“Same,” I said, glad he wasn’t mad that I’d almost gotten his dogs torn apart. “So am I a suspect?”
He set a mug of steaming hot cocoa in front of me, then a massive bag of marshmallows. “No.”
I caught his hand with mine over the bag. “You stuck up for me tonight against your own brother.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He turned his hand over and entwined our fingers, giving them a warm, gentle squeeze. “You know why.”
He cared about me, a fact that gave me a warm fuzzy feeling I didn’t need. “If I were you guys, I’d suspect Goldilocks for sure.”
“You wouldn’t steal or hurt someone you care about.”
The fist that had been squeezed around my chest since he’d caught me earlier in the manor finally loosened. “You seem pretty positive I care about you.”
He snorted as he carefully stirred his hot cocoa that had so many marshmallows in it, he had to lower his head and slurp one up with his tongue. “Oh, you do.”
“What makes you so sure?”
He took a sip and licked the hot chocolate off his upper lip. “Because I care about you, and when I look into your eyes, I recognize the dismay and disappointment that you feel the same.”
I choked out a laugh, and he smiled.
“Caleb?”
“Yeah?”
“I do feel the same. I just…I don’t understand why you believe in me so much.” When so few others ever have…
He hooked a foot around one of my chair legs and dragged me closer, reaching for my hand.
“I realize you don’t have a lot of experience with this, a guy standing at your back instead of walking away when things go off the rails, but I promise you—my old public image aside—I am different.
” He leaned in, holding my gaze prisoner.
“So are you. You’re strong, inside and out.
You’ve got grit, you’ve got heart, and you’ve got a fire burning inside you that won’t quit.
” He shrugged. “It’s unbelievably attractive to me. ”
He said this with simple conviction, and I knew I was in way over my head. Too tired to face any of it, I stood. “I know I owe you a whole bunch of answers, and I promise to give them to you, but we’re both exhausted.”
“It can wait until morning.”
That he would give that to me… I was undone. “You sure?”
“More than answers, I want you comfortable, not stressed out and worried. Do you want to shower before sleep?”
I felt my heart fall over and expose its underbelly that he would give me this. Time. “I want a shower more than I want my next breath,” I said fervently. I headed for the living room, not realizing Caleb was right on my heels until I stopped short and he ran into me.
“What—” He got a look over my shoulder. “Oh, fuck me.”
Calvin and Klein, usually the picture of canine innocence, were sprawled across what used to be Caleb’s perfectly good couch. Now the cushions were shredded, and stuffing had flown everywhere in a fluffy apocalypse.
The dogs stared at us with wide eyes, their stubby tails wagging slowly as if to say, Oops, our bad, stuffing clinging to their faces like rogue marshmallows.
“Well, this is new,” Caleb said calmly. “I mean, they ate my new work boots last week and the contents of my trash the week before, but the furniture destruction is a new low.” He pointed at the dogs. “I’m running you a tab. Get down. Go to bed.”
Calvin glanced over at the jar of doggy biscuits on the windowsill.
“Dream on.”
Calvin sighed and slunk off.
Caleb looked at me. “You’re still taking the bed. You want first crack at the shower?”
His shower was big, with the perfect showerhead, and the scent of his soap was woodsy, citrusy, sexy as hell, and pure Caleb. I nearly had an orgasm just sudsing up.
When I was done, I gave the bathroom over to Caleb, and in his bedroom, I pulled on my big, baggy sweats—best birth control out there. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to sleep with Caleb, because I wanted that more than air, but if I fell for him, I wouldn’t be able to get back up, so—
Caleb strode out of his en-suite bathroom in nothing but a towel and a few drops of water making their way south down that amazing body. His hair was wet, and as he walked, he ran his fingers through it, shaking out the excess water.
When he caught me staring, I whirled to the bed. “It’s so…big.”
He laughed, and I corrected myself. “Your bed. Your bed is so big. God, you’re such a guy.”
“Guilty.” He moved to the closet and pulled out a folded blanket and a pillow. “I’ll be in a toddler bed down the hall if you need anything.”
“You won’t fit.”
“I’ve slept on worse.”
“Caleb, I can’t sleep in this bed if you’re not comfortable.” I gestured to the massive thing. “It’s big enough for ten, just stay.”
“Think you can control yourself?”
I hesitated, and he let out a very masculine, very sexy laugh. “You can’t control yourself.”
I sighed. “Shut up.”
His grin was smug. “Between one and jump me ten, where you at self-control-wise?” he asked.
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m a rock-solid one.” Although my stupid voice cracked, giving me away.
He gave a head shake, sending droplets of water across the room, then rubbed a hand over his still-damp and perfect abs. When my eyes followed his every movement, he smirked. “And now?” he asked.
“Two, but only because you’re cheating.” I spread my arms to give him a good look at me. “And you?”
He took in my sweats, not an inch of my skin revealed between my chin and toes, and his eyes heated. “More than a two.”
That low-timbre voice, gah… Was it getting hot in here? And why did the air suddenly crackle like it was electrified? I said, “If I’m making this too hard…”
“You’re making something hard, all right.” He grinned unabashedly. “But the move is yours.”
I took in the light in his eyes, which I now knew was not just hunger but affection, and it was a revelation. It lifted the last of the dread in my belly, and I gave him a playful smile. “How much more than a two?”
“Twelve.”
My knees did that melt-away thing.
“Not that it matters,” he said, “because nothing’s happening until you say the word.”
“‘Until’? Not if? Wow, sure of yourself much?”
His mouth curved. Cocky bastard. Then that smile spread as he bit his lower lip at the same time, and just like that, I knew I couldn’t control myself, not one little bit.
“The word,” I whispered.
“Be sure, Emma.”
“I’m irrevocably sure.”
His smile went carnal when he came at me with slow, sexy, predatory intent, making my heart race and my breath catch as I backed up a step, really hoping he kept coming.
He did.
When my back hit the wall, I leaned against it for support, my pulse skipping a beat as he stopped a foot from me.
“You smell good,” I whispered.
He laughed softly, leaning in to bury his face in the crook of my neck. “So do you.”
“I used your soap. I smell like you.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Caleb?” I whispered.
“Yes?”
I went up on my tiptoes, slid my fingers into his silky, damp hair, and kissed him until we were both breathless. Pulling back only for air, I let my gaze run slowly over his heart-stopping body, let my fingers scrape down his stomach and toy with the edge of his towel. “I’m at a twelve too.”
With a wicked smile that promised all sorts of dirty things, he dropped the towel.
I was still looking my fill when he settled his big hands on either side of my head and tipped it up so he could kiss me, heated and demanding.
My ragged, encouraging moan and his rough breathing were all I could hear as he leaned in, pinning me against the wall.
“You have no idea what you do to me,” he said huskily, his lips moving against my neck as his hands slowly, thoroughly, stripped me down to skin. “What you make me want to do to you.”
I arched my head back, my knees going weak as he took his mouth on a tour of my body with hungry, aggressive kisses, the intensity of which had me fisting my hands in his hair and tugging his head back so I could stare into his heavy-lidded beautiful eyes. “Take me to bed and show me.”