Chapter 9 Piper
PIPER
Working at the coffee shop always forces my mind to think of other things. I greet my regulars and spend some much-needed time with the espresso machine. Coffee makes everything better. I can vouch for that as I take my first sip of bliss.
I let the caffeine work through my system. I take it strong these days, especially when Caleb’s walking around like a hot piece of ass. No matter what he wears, there’s a high chance I’m gonna stand and drool.
People tiptoe around me about my house, and of course they ask where I’m staying.
“You could always stay at my place for a while,” says one of my regulars. “It’s the least I can do for all the good coffee you make me.”
I’d be over there in a heartbeat if it wasn’t for Sonny. He doesn’t do well with transitions, and only did well after the fire because he saw where he was gonna be living. I keep reminding him—and myself—that Caleb’s place is temporary, but the kid doesn’t wanna hear it.
And neither does my own brain, apparently.
I work all morning and head back to Caleb’s at lunch, usually to find a spread prepared. I rarely eat at work, so I come back starving out of my ass.
But I see him and forget about my appetite completely. My heart trembles every time he steps into the room. No amount of mental preparation could prepare me for Caleb Rourke, especially when he’s in uniform.
The days go as follows: He works. I work. Grace visits if both of us are scheduled at the same time. He cooks. I clean. We catch each other’s eyes throughout dinner, and I pretend not to feel the ache in my heart, because it’s easier to pretend than it is to admit the hard truth.
The fantasy is becoming real, and is manifesting now in real time.
More each day.
One night, he’s working late and I’m just finishing using the bathroom, when we collide unexpectedly in the corridor.
He’s in uniform, hair slicked back from his face.
Our mouths are so close that I can faintly smell the coffee in his breath, perfumed with other delicious scents that make me go crazy.
I search for what little self-control I have left, and head to bed.
But the desire revisits even stronger the next morning when I see him again.
This time he’s in nothing but a towel.
We’ve done well to get this far and not catch the other one naked…kinda.
Technically, he is naked underneath the towel.
The crisp white color contrasts well with his tanned skin. Fresh out of the tower, hot water droplets are still trickling down his chest. They vanish between grooves of muscle. And I can’t look away.
Caleb has to clear his throat to break me out of my trance.
We’re alone, and it’s early in the morning. We have time and opportunity to break contact.
“You wanted the kids in bed an hour later last night,” I state. “Why is that?”
His jaw tenses so much that it looks ready to snap. “Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to, Hart.”
I’m salivating like a dog, and the burning between my legs is sure to end me in a second if I push my limits any further.
I’m waiting for him to act first, but he challenges me with his eyes. He wants me to be the first to break, after what I did to him last time we were in the hallway together.
But I can’t be the first to break when he broke me first. He broke me into millions of pieces that he left me to pick up. Alone. And I’m still in the process of picking up those pieces, even today.
“No,” I say, more for my own benefit.
I head back into my room and wish the door had a lock on it. I don’t trust myself to stay away. And the insurance claim is complicating things. All I need is James Taylor to quit being a bastard and finish assessing the damage.
It was fun and games at first to tease Caleb. But the teasing unfortunately goes both ways. I can finger myself alone in my room and kill the desire, but it resets straight after.
I collapse onto my bed and take a look through the window.
The first leak of daylight bleeds into the sky and turns the corner of the sky purple. There’s still a while yet to go until dawn. Constellations stretch across the sky, since it’s dark enough to still see them.
The desire transitions into something greater as I remember everything we lost.
“Theoretically, camping seemed like a good idea.” Caleb grimaces at the uneven ground, home to many critters that he would’ve never had to encounter in the city. “The reality is not as appealing.”
“It’s all part of the fun.” I wiggle my brows at him and pitch the tent.
His apprehension about camping out in the wilderness isn’t going to get in the way of our first night together. I’m determined.
“It didn’t strike me that you’d be such a baby. Look at the size of that thing compared to you.” I point at the spider crawling up a tree.
The fright comes alive in Caleb’s eyes. “You have to be fucking kidding me.”
“Welcome to the real America.”
I pitch the tent and throw the waterproof cover over. The forecast could’ve blessed us with better weather this weekend, but I can’t complain too much.
I think I might be in love.
The tent is supposed to hold up to three people, and Caleb only just fits inside.
“Now what?”
“We set up a campfire while we still can.”
He frowns, waiting for elaboration.
“Rain and fire don’t tend to go well together,” I say.
“Sounds like we’ll be forced to stay inside of the tent for most of the trip.” Caleb meets my eyes and starts a whole different kind of fire in my belly.
Then he embraces me with a kiss that I couldn’t have surrendered faster to, and his tongue darts inside of my mouth and slips against mine.
Oh. My. God.
I don’t think we’ll need the flint and steel.
He presses a smaller, chaste kiss to my lips before pulling away. “An open flame in a wooded area?” He grimaces. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
“I take it that means you’re not keen on the idea of s’mores?” I flash him a grin and wait for him to change his mind.
“Okay. Only if you let me be in charge.”
He disappears to collect firewood, and I stare at his ankles—since that’s all of him I can see, wondering what kind of things he’s had to endure as a fireman. Death? Incinerated bodies?
Lighting a fire in front of a fireman? What was I thinking?
“I’m sorry,” I say as soon as he’s back at the tent. “I didn’t think this through. Maybe we should leave.”
“No.” His voice is final enough to kill all of my overthinking. “I’m enjoying myself. And I want to taste these s’mores.”
The sustained eye contact makes me fold.
He doesn’t give a damn about the smores.
For a man who puts out fires for a living, Caleb sure knows how to start one. I sit back, impressed with how quickly he gets the flames roaring—contained, of course. He rarely takes his eyes off the fire. If he does, it’s to look at me.
I assemble the s’mores as we toast the marshmallows. Caleb devours his in seconds. His smacking lips make my mind wander to other avenues, to how it might look and feel to have him devouring…another…
“You’re quiet.” There’s a smug grin on his face. “Why might that be?”
“No reason,” I stutter, while feeling my face go beet red.
Him even alluding to the idea of making out has my heart quaking in my chest.
I fear I’m too innocent for him.
My father has been the only male presence in my life. And “presence” is putting it nicely. He’s always absent.
I have zero experience when it comes to dating and relationships. Caleb definitely has a lot. He has a face like a god. A face that every last female on the planet would marvel at.
I still don’t know why he wanted to join the fire service in the first place. Nobody “just wants” to do something for the fun of it.
“You haven’t done this before, have you?” he says. The grin is now gone from his face.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to elaborate.”
“Sex,” Caleb says simply. “You haven’t had it.”
I abandon the rest of my s’more, my appetite gone. It also poses a choking hazard. I can’t stabilize my breathing now that Caleb is talking about sex. It takes my breath away enough, knowing that he’s the living embodiment of the word.
Caleb stands up, pours the emergency jug of water all of the fire, and tramples over it in his hiking boots. Toward me.
His mouth is on mine again, softer than before. And it only makes me crave him more.
I’m first to deepen the kiss this time, my heart going a million miles an hour as I feel him receive me.
“In.” He urges me into the tent and zips up the door.
Jesus fucking Christ.
“I was hoping that I’d be the first man to touch you,” he murmurs in my ear. The dark tone of his voice ruffles me up. I’m completely at his mercy. Happy for him to take me how he likes.
But Caleb slows it right down and gently raises the hem of my shirt over my head. He’s back on my lips again right after removing my shirt, and the pattern repeats until I’m down to my underwear.
Remove a piece of clothing.
Back down for a kiss.
Remove clothing.
Kiss.
He’s topless and I’m in nothing but my best set of bra and panties.
He kisses me with passion, and I feel that passion deep in my core even though we haven’t started yet with anything inside.
I come up for air in between kisses, but Caleb disappears from my side. His hands clamp firmly around my legs, widening them so he can fit his head in between.
I suck in a sharp breath to stabilize myself for something I don’t think I’ll be able to handle…and then I combust as soon as his tongue meets my clit in one slow lick.
Both body and world tremble, with no guarantee of a recovery afterward. He shakes every nerve in my body in the best possible way, his lips smacking the same way they did with the s’more.
As soon as I look down, I explode. I’ve never crushed on a man before, never fallen for a man. But when I first glimpsed Caleb in Bean There, I knew the world was never gonna be the same again.
I melt around his mouth and let the desire seep into every area of my body. When it disappears, I’m desperate for more.
“Get inside of me,” I demand.
Caleb chuckles slowly, still between my thighs mopping up my wetness with his expert tongue. “All manners go out the window when you’re turned on.”
“Please!” I beg like a damsel in distress. “I need to feel you…inside.”
Oh. Fuck.
I didn’t think there was anything better than his tongue on me.
Oh, how I was wrong.
Caleb is feeding more of his length into me one careful inch at a time. I’m already full with his dick, but there’s still more of him to come.
“Holy shit.” I widen my legs as far as they can go to accommodate him. It takes my body a few moments to adjust.
Or at least try to.
“We’ll go slow,” he assures me, gently withdrawing to slide right back in.
I feel his warmth everywhere. In my organs. My skin. The deepest part of my stomach stirs with feeling as he thrusts back inside a third time. His presence is literally making me feel things I don’t know how to explain.
I’m certain that I’m in love with this man.
Is that bad?
He’s thirty-two and I’m not even twenty.
We’re polar opposites in the bedroom department.
In life.
But the fact that Caleb is considering prolonging his stay here suggests that he doesn’t know what direction his life is headed in either.
And that soothes me. Because for the longest time, I thought I was alone in feeling that way.
The pleasure rips through my body, moans spilling out of me uncontrollably. I grab Caleb’s shoulders and squeeze hard, using him as an anchor.
When my climax has passed, he asks gently, “How are you feeling?” He finds my eyes, sweat beading on his brow.
I kiss him on the lips and taste the salt in his sweat combined with the taste of me. I never thought I’d enjoy the taste of myself so much. But I think that’s because it’s coming from him.
His length slides in and out of me now with ease. His pace gets quicker, and my need for him becomes more demanding. I squeeze his shoulders tighter and do all I can do to get him closer. An arched back. Spread legs. It never feels like enough.
“Fuck, Hart,” Caleb pants between heavy breaths. “I could live inside of you forever.”
Then stay, I feel like saying to him.
Don’t go home. Please don’t go home.
“I could want you forever,” he continues.
His words in that voice, together with the giant, perfect body moving on top of me, pushes me to the edge again. It’s a toe-curling moment that has me screaming at the top of my lungs.
My mouth only knows how to say one word, and that is Caleb’s name.
I feel myself gasping for him repeatedly, and only stop when the pleasure reaches its end.
Caleb’s final thrust is desperate as he finishes deep inside of me. He withdraws and collapses beside me, taking my face in his. I didn’t think we could get any more intimate than that, but this eye contact is taking my breath away even more than the sex.
“I’ve decided that I’m going to go ahead and extend my stay,” he says.
My body is flooded with even more endorphins. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Caleb says softly. “I want to stay right here. The more time I spend with you, the more it hurts to think about saying goodbye.”
The feeling low in my stomach spills up into my heart, flourishing the entire organ with goodness. Is this what it feels like to trust a person?
Caleb hasn’t once broken my trust. Instead, he keeps finding ways to earn it. Like he wants to prove to me how serious he is.
Fuck. I’m down bad in love.
In the best possible way known to man.