Chapter Fifteen
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Caleb
A s soon as I saw Alyssa exit the ladies’ room with a smug look on her face shortly after Stevie went inside, my entire body tensed in reaction, my gut telling me that my ex had probably stirred up some kind of shit with Stevie.
My instincts were confirmed when Stevie came back out a few minutes later and approached me, her expression subdued. Gone was the lively, exuberant woman I’d been with all night, and in her place was someone who almost looked…defeated.
“What did Alyssa say to you?” I immediately asked.
She shook her head, the distress in her eyes unmistakable. “Please, can we just leave?”
It took every ounce of control I had to not demand answers so I could take care of whatever the problem was, but I respected her request and ushered her out of the ballroom while texting Dylan to bring the car around to pick us up.
But once we were settled in the back of the vehicle, I took her hand in mine and approached the issue once more. “Stevie, what happened with Alyssa?”
She looked at me, and the pain I saw in her eyes was like a direct hit to my heart. “I promise to tell you everything, but not here,” she said in a soft tone. “Just…let’s get back to your place and let me change out of this dress and get more comfortable first. Please?”
Not wanting to pressure her further, I relented for now. “Okay,” I said, though that easy agreement went against every grain in my body when I was a man who preferred to face things head-on.
The rest of the drive was quiet as she stared out the passenger window, and it drove me insane the way it felt as though she was shutting me out, or maybe putting up her guard. There was a disconnect between us that I despised, and I was furious at the thought that Alyssa had done or said something to cause that divide.
When we arrived back at my place, I gave her the time and space she’d asked for while we both changed out of our formal attire. I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and went back into the living room to wait for Stevie while she removed her makeup in the bathroom and joined me a short while later, wearing one of the casual cotton sleepshirts she’d kept here for her overnight stays.
She sat next to me on the couch, turning toward me and curling her legs beneath her. I waited for her to start the conversation, and she did so immediately.
“The first and most important thing I need to tell you is that when I walked into the ladies’ room, Alyssa was in the lounge area by herself,” she said, her fingers absently pulling at the hem of her sleepshirt. “I caught her by surprise, and she was pouring prescription pills out of a bottle to take one, or a few, I don’t know. She dropped them onto the counter as soon as she saw me because I startled her, and she had a hard time picking them back up and seemed under the influence of something. It could have been too much champagne, for all I know.”
My stomach clenched and I swore beneath my breath. “Do you know what she was taking?”
She shook her head. “I wasn’t close enough to see exactly what kind of pills they were, but it was definitely a bottle from a pharmacy. It could be nothing at all, but considering her past substance abuse, I wanted you to be aware of the situation.”
I scrubbed a hand along my jaw. “Thank you for letting me know.”
I wasn’t sure what to do with the information Stevie had just given me, but my first reaction was to jump to my own conclusions, which weren’t good ones and only based on my past with Alyssa. In reality, the pills could have been for her migraines, or even antibiotics…hell, I had no idea what Alyssa’s current health history was, so I knew I had to be careful about making assumptions without proof.
Regardless, I was concerned because of Owen. I had him back for the week starting tomorrow, and while I thought about confronting Alyssa when she dropped him off, I knew if she had relapsed, she’d deny that the pills were anything more than just a prescription for a current ailment. And despite my worries, I had no right to demand she show me those bottles just to ease my conscience. We were divorced, and she didn’t owe me anything just based on a hunch or speculation, and accusations, if inaccurate, would only cause more friction between us.
I had a week to figure things out and my first thought was to see if Remy, who was a skilled private investigator himself and had a law enforcement background, had any ideas on how to handle the situation. Or if there was a way to find out what her current prescriptions were. Doubtful, because of patient privacy laws, but the unease of it all sat in my stomach like a rock. I was just grateful that I would have Owen in my custody through next weekend, since we’d be at the Hamptons for his birthday.
“Something else happened between you and Alyssa,” I said, addressing my next concern because it was imperative to me that I knew everything that had transpired between Stevie and my ex. Especially when it had changed Stevie’s demeanor so drastically. “I saw the smug look on her face when she walked out of the ladies’ room, and she wouldn’t have looked that way if she hadn’t felt as though she’d gotten the upper hand somehow after you caught her with the pills.”
She shook her head and glanced away, but not before I saw the dismay etched across her features. Yes, there was something else, and it seemed more personal than the pill situation.
I gently touched her jaw and turned her face back toward mine, needing to know what had caused that distress. “Whatever it is, Stevie, you need to tell me,” I said emphatically. Because I cared…more than she probably realized. She wasn’t some random, one-time date for me that had an unfortunate run-in with my ex. No, Stevie was a woman I wanted to protect, in any way I could.
It didn’t escape my notice that my feelings for her had grown over the past few weeks in her company. I’d spent the last couple of years since my divorce keeping my emotions on lockdown, saving whatever I had for Owen because I’d been wary of another woman taking advantage of me the way Alyssa had.
But Stevie was the antithesis of my ex. Her heart was good and pure. Her intentions equally so, which made opening up my own heart to her, and trusting her, far easier than I’d ever anticipated, despite our short time together as a couple. Yet for her, I knew she viewed our arrangement as nothing more than a fake relationship with an end date, to make sure there was no negative blowback on me for the custody case.
Somewhere along the way, pretending with Stevie had become very real.
There was so much good in her, and the thought of Alyssa doing anything to demean her character in any way set me on edge. “I’m not dropping this until you tell me what Alyssa said or did to you before she walked out of the ladies’ room.”
She huffed out a little sigh, and I would have smiled at her little show of defiance if the issue wasn’t so serious to me. “She just pointed out that I’m not a good fit for you, and she’s not wrong,” she said, and before I could respond to that comment, she quickly continued. “And there is something I need to tell you. It’s about my past. I didn’t think it would matter since our relationship wasn’t real, that this ,” she said, waving a hand between us, “was just temporary, but Alyssa dug up some information about me and if she uses it to her advantage, it could affect you.”
“Okay,” I said, unable to imagine what that could be.
She swallowed hard, and though her eyes were steady on mine, I saw the flicker of something vulnerable in her gaze that made my chest tighten. “Do you remember our first night together, on the drive to your place, when you asked me about my parents and I told you they were both gone?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“I lied,” she said, and before I could react to that, she quickly went on, as if she wanted to get all of the truth out in the open without any interruptions. “I lied because…my father was an abusive and drunk asshole my entire life and took his anger out on my mother, who was so afraid of him she made excuses for his behavior, but it was bad. We lived in a trailer park, and the circumstances were shitty because we were poor and my father couldn’t keep a job because he was an alcoholic. He beat my mother regularly because of his rage issues…until one day he went too far and choked her to death.”
I stared at her in shock, because that was the last thing I’d expected to hear.
She took advantage of me processing that information and continued in a rush. “So, yes, while my mother is gone, my father is serving a life sentence in prison for her murder. Valerie and I left Connecticut and moved to New York because we wanted to sever all ties to our father,” she said, her voice hoarse and her entire demeanor stiff, which I hated. “I know that this isn’t something that could negatively impact your custody case, not when your own twin is in prison for some pretty heinous crimes of his own—”
“I agree,” I interrupted her, before she kept rambling. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shocked because this was the last thing I’d expected to hear, but you’re right. I doubt this is something that would be detrimental to the custody case, so what’s the issue, Stevie?” I asked, because she was clearly very upset.
She wrung her hands in her lap. “Alyssa now knows all this and insinuated that ‘once the word gets out’ about my past, where I come from and what my father did, that it’s going to make me look like a desperate gold digger who latched onto you for your money…and she’s not wrong about that perception.”
I laughed harshly and shook my head at my ex’s last-ditch efforts to try and undermine what I had with Stevie. “The only one here that is desperate is Alyssa.”
“But it’s true how things could look,” Stevie insisted, her fingers still twisting together anxiously. “And the thought of my past creating some kind of scandal for you…”
Reaching out, I cupped the side of her face in my palm, then stroked my thumb along her cheek in an attempt to calm her. “Do you honestly believe I give a shit what other people think about me or anything else in my personal life? I know who you are, Stevie, and it’s never been a gold digger or the kind of woman who would ever take advantage of me, and that’s all that matters to me when it comes to us .” I emphasized that word, wanting her to know we were in this together, whether she realized it yet or not.
“We all have pasts, and yours and mine are not pretty,” I went on. “But you have to know that I understand about your father because of my own situation with Lance. I just wish you would have trusted me enough to tell me before now.”
“I know,” she said, and ducked her head. “It’s not something I’m proud of when it comes to my family, and I didn’t think my past was relevant to our arrangement.”
I lifted her chin back up so her eyes met mine. “That’s where you’re wrong, Stevie. Everything about you is important and relevant to me,” I said, meaning it.
She gave me a small, regret-filled sigh. “I’m sorry…I didn’t want such an amazing night like tonight to end like this, with such a serious and uncomfortable discussion.”
“Tonight isn’t over, and we can end it however we like,” I countered, unwilling to let my ex’s vindictive behavior ruin anything. In fact, I was more than ready to leave the conversation behind for now and focus on the only thing that mattered to me tonight. Stevie.
Before she could argue, I smiled at her and let my fingers trail lightly down the side of her neck. Her eyes darkened with desire, and I watched as she shivered and her nipples peaked against the soft cotton T-shirt she wore—the exact reaction I was hoping for.
“Given the choice, I want tonight to end with me buried deep inside of you, and you coming around my cock,” I murmured huskily. “Preferably with you screaming my name.”
She bit her bottom lip and blushed adorably, my dirty talk doing the trick of putting her in a completely different frame of mind. “That would be my choice, too.”
Decision made, I stood up and so did she. Taking her hand in mine, I led her back to my bedroom. Once there, I pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it to the floor, leaving her in just her panties. Then, I framed her face in my hands and kissed her, slow and soft and sweet. Her lips parted on a moan, and I swept my tongue inside her mouth, keeping things at a languid, unhurried pace.
After a few minutes of slow, deep kisses, she pressed her palms against my bare chest and gyrated her lower body against mine, making inarticulate noises in the back of her throat. The kind of needy, impatient sounds I was striving for.
I’d imagined under regular circumstances that our night would have ended much differently, with wild, hot, filthy sex. The kind that was fast and hard and primitive because of how greedy and insatiable she made me feel. That’s mostly how it had been between us since our first night together—uninhibited, mindless, I-can’t-keep-my-hands-off-you, orgasm-inducing fucking.
But tonight, my only goal was to make love to Stevie. To take my time, despite her impatience, and savor everything about her. To make her feel special, and adored, and most importantly, chase away any of those insecurities that Alyssa had planted in her head.
I wanted every last one of those vulnerabilities gone, and when I was done with her tonight, I didn’t want her to have a single doubt in her mind that she was mine, in every way that mattered. The words would come next, when she was ready to hear them. I had every intention of rectifying this temporary arrangement of ours once the custody case was over in a few weeks. When Stevie would be more apt to believe my intentions toward her were real and true and not all part of some fake relationship ruse I’d paid her for.
But for right now, I was going to show her without words what she meant to me. I was going to shake things up and spend the next hour unraveling every part of her, until she was stripped down to nothing more than raw, intense emotion. So that when I finally slid inside of her, there would be no doubt in her mind who she belonged to.
Me .
I lifted my mouth from hers and looked at her beautifully flushed face. Her eyes were heavy-lidded and glazed over with desire as I slipped my hands into the waistband of her panties and pushed them down her legs until she was completely naked.
“Get up on the bed and spread your legs for me,” I ordered gruffly, while I removed my sweatpants.
She did as I ordered, her head resting on the pillows, and her parted thighs giving me a breath-stealing view of her glistening sex. I moved up onto the mattress, and starting at one upraised knee, I trailed hot, damp kisses downward, mixing it up with a few love bites that made her gasp and the scratch of my stubble abrading her skin so she’d feel those chafe marks later. Reaching her pussy, I settled onto my stomach and slowly, leisurely, swiped my tongue through her folds, intending to be down here for a good long while.
She moaned, her fingers sliding through my hair and her hips shamelessly angling upward for more pressure, more friction. In time, when she was finally begging for release, I gave her both, loving the way she cried out my name as her body shuddered from the force of her first orgasm.
Then, I immediately started all over again, licking, sucking, tongue swirling over and around her clit while two fingers fucked her slow and deep to rekindle those intense sensations. It took longer to get her there this second time, but when I did her fingers gripped my hair as she bucked against my mouth, a hoarse cry of bliss escaping her throat.
Her body went lax, then tensed back up when I stayed right where I was, looking up at her from between her spread thighs and making her watch as my tongue did wicked things to her pussy and the tips of my fingers dragged along that sensitive spot inside her body.
She whimpered, her fingers twisting in my hair in an attempt to pull my head away. “Caleb…I can’t.”
“You can,” I rasped, intending to prove her wrong as I pulled her clit between my lips and lashed it with my tongue, making her shudder and moan. “You will , because I’m not leaving this spot until you give me all your pleasure.”
She made a soft, mewling sound and shook her head against the pillows. “I want you inside of me.”
“You’ll get my cock when I’m good and ready to give it to you,” I growled against her pussy, ignoring how said dick ached and throbbed with the need to feel her internal muscles gripping me. “Now, be a good girl, stop fighting me, and give me what I want.”
I slowed things down, softening my touch until I felt her relax and give herself over to my ministrations. A short while later her hips started gyrating again, seeking firmer pressure against her clit, a deeper penetration of my fingers. I knew her body well, having learned all those little nuances that told me she was heading toward another climax—the soft panting of her breath, the arch of her back, the way her thighs tensed before she clutched the bed covers in her fists and I felt those rippling spasms around my thrusting fingers.
Before the sensations ebbed, I was up and over her, my thick, rigid cock easily gliding into her body and filling her up. I’d never been so grateful that we’d discussed not needing a condom a few weeks ago, because this… fuck , being inside of her bare was goddamn sublime.
I groaned and thrust into her, feeling those last little internal contractions milking my cock and knowing I wasn’t going to last long. Her fingers pushed through my hair, bringing my mouth down to hers. She kissed me deep and wild, and linked her ankles together just beneath my ass so every time I slammed into her she dragged me in even deeper.
Then it was me who was panting, shuddering, fucking unraveling as my orgasm tore through me in sharp, delicious spikes of pleasure. I released everything I had deep inside of her, then collapsed on top of her, doing my best to keep most of my weight on my forearms to keep from crushing her.
Breathing hard, I buried my face against her neck. “You’re fucking mine,” I growled possessively.
I heard her light, amused laughter as her fingers stroked down my spine. “Okay, caveman.”
She thought I was joking, being a Neanderthal after sex, but she’d find out soon enough just how serious I was.