Chapter 15
The next day, Kelly went to meet with a new client. It was the first client she’d seen in almost a month.
She felt like her entire life was on hold until she finished this thing with Caleb, but she’d told him that she wanted to start getting her life back in order and he would expect her to follow through.
One part of that would be to get her business going again, so she’d touched base with the two clients she’d had in progress, and she’d even managed to line up this new one.
The meeting went well. The retired woman seemed to like her and the sketches she’d made of her treasured pet Pekingese.
They went over a schedule, plan, and budget for getting the portrait done, and Kelly headed back to Caleb’s place, relieved the meeting was over so she could focus again on Caleb… and what she needed to do.
During a break, she called up Jack Martin to get an update.
He told her he’d planted a few clues about her possible connection to Russians in Brighton Beach, just so Caleb would believe he was on the right track.
She’d told him about the files she’d copied and sent them to him so he could have someone go through them. He ended by telling her to be careful.
She would have liked to talk to Jack more often, but she was worried about Caleb finding out. She’d nearly had a heart attack when he’d appeared out of nowhere in that dressing room. She didn’t want to risk anything like that happening again.
There was no way she was going to risk revealing herself. Not after she’d gotten so far.
When she arrived back at Caleb’s place, it was after seven in the evening, and he was already home.
She found him in his office, where he was predictably working on his computer.
“How did it go?” he asked, turning away from the email he was writing at her knock on the door.
“Good. She likes my ideas.”
“Did it feel good to get back into working?” His eyes were thoughtful and observant.
“I guess so. It was a little weird, to tell you the truth. It feels like so much has happened since I last painted a portrait. Like I’m almost a different person.”
The words were true. She could hardly remember the person she’d been before she’d met Caleb in the park.
“I’m sure it will feel more familiar once you get back into it. Were you nervous about being out?”
“A little. It felt like someone might be watching around every corner.”
“That’s why the bodyguard is there. He won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Yeah, but it’s weird to go around with a bodyguard too.”
He frowned deeply. “I don’t care if it’s weird. This guy sent thugs after you once. What’s going to stop him from doing it again? You need protection.”
“I know. I appreciate it. It just feels strange.” As they’d talked, she’d been drifting toward his desk, and now she leaned back against the edge. “Is everything okay with work?” She nodded toward the computer.
“Yeah. The emails just never end.” He sighed and smiled at her tiredly, rubbing his neck. “Are you hungry?”
“A little.”
She saw the expression change on his face as he scanned her from head to toe. “You have your work clothes on, I see.”
She wore another long, flowing skirt with a lacy, bohemian top. Her hair was pulled back in a knot at the nape of her neck. She smiled at his expression. “Got to give the clients what they want.”
“Are your clients the only ones you give what they want?”
“I might make an occasional gesture toward someone else.”
He slid his arm around her waist and pulled her between his legs. “So did you want to eat now?”
She reached out and grazed her fingers over the rough skin of his jaw. “Maybe we can eat afterward.”
He released his breath with a little groan and slid his hand to the knot of hair at the back of her neck, pulling out the clip that was holding it up.
Her hair cascaded down her back in long, thick waves, and she saw the change in Caleb’s eyes as he watched it fall.
It was almost like awe kindling in his eyes, and seeing it there was thrilling and terrifying both.
She leaned toward him instinctively, letting him pull her down into his arms. Instead of kissing her, he kind of buried his face in her neck.
She could feel his hot breath and the press of his skin against her throat. It made her shudder with pleasure, and she let out an involuntary little sound when one of his hands moved up to cup one of her breasts.
She was tired and wasn’t thinking clearly, and his touch, his breath, his need seemed to soothe a hidden, damaged corner of her heart.
When she tensed up at that realization, Caleb pulled his head up and studied her closely, his whole body tight, his desire reined in. “Kelly? Is everything all right?”
It wasn’t all right. After what she’d discovered on his computer yesterday, she shouldn’t want to be close to him like this.
But she did. She did.
She sucked in a breath and tightened her fist into the fabric of his white dress shirt. “Yeah.”
He was breathing so hard he was nearly panting, and the sound of it roused a matching urgency in her own body. He was still holding back though, studying her face with what looked like concern. “Kelly, something is bothering you.”
She tried to think up a convincing lie, but the words that came out were the truth. “I’m just—this is all new to me. Being with someone like this, more than just a onetime casual thing. It’s new to me.”
In the silence that followed, she felt vulnerable, naked. And suddenly worried that she’d made an amateur mistake, implying a relationship was serious too soon.
But Caleb’s face softened, his expression like a caress. “It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything but onetime casual sex too. I think we’re in the same boat here.”
She searched his face, not even sure what she was hoping to see there. A small, trembling feeling burst into life when she saw nothing but understanding, passion, sincerity in his expression.
Because he was in this as deeply as she was.
Unable to feel anything she was supposed to, unable to stop herself from wanting so much more of him, she grabbed his face and leaned into a kiss, his jaw rough with stubble beneath her palms.
He responded by tightening his arms around her as the kiss grew deeper.
When his desk chair started to roll, he broke the embrace and helped her off his lap. “Let’s move this to the couch,” he murmured, standing up and taking her hand to draw her over to the leather couch against the far wall of his office.
He pulled her down beside him and then slid his fingers into her hair, tilting her head back in the process. “God, you’re so gorgeous.”
She tried to tell herself she didn’t love the sound of the words, the way they made her feel.
He lowered his mouth until his lips glanced across hers briefly, the stimulation light and tantalizing. Kelly sucked in a quick breath and automatically caught his lips again. This time he pressed his mouth into hers firmly and slid his tongue along the inside of her lower lip.
She opened a little and caressed the back of his neck with her fingertips. His tongue dipped all the way into her mouth at her silent invitation and then started to stroke along the line of her tongue.
They didn’t usually kiss for this long, but he wasn’t rushing it today. Her body kept responding eagerly, shamelessly, to the stroke of his tongue, the motion of his lips, the way his hands slowly caressed her back. And more than her body was responding.
Finally Caleb eased her backward until she was sprawled out on the sofa—her legs still hanging over the side—with him propped up over her, trailing kisses along her jaw and the curve of her throat.
Kelly was just starting to get control of herself again, shifting more securely beneath him on the sofa, reaching around his body so she could rub his back through the fabric of his shirt, telling herself this was all for a purpose, when Caleb raised his face again. He looked at her silently for a moment.
Then started kissing her again.
She moaned into his mouth, in pleasure… and because it was just so wrong.
This time as he kissed her, he slid his hands under her top, pushing it up until he’d exposed the white lace bra she was wearing.
His lips were brushing against hers, his tongue playing and stroking, slowly and hungrily. He was palming her breasts over her bra, and she arched up into his hands.
He continued for a long time, caressing and kissing her body, moving lower until she finally stopped him from bringing his mouth to her groin. She drew him back up until he put on a condom and slid his cock inside her, adjusting her legs so she would wrapped them around his middle.
He was breathing heavily as he pumped into her for a few minutes. So was she. Occasionally he leaned down to kiss her again.
Kelly lay under him, wishing she could distance herself the way she used to all the time. With Caleb. With all the other nameless men she had fucked.
She couldn’t. Not really. She knew this was Caleb. Knew she hated him. And understood him. And wanted him anyway.
And all of it could exist inside her heart at the same time.
“Fuck,” Caleb finally breathed out, his body clenched, his arms shaking a little, his pelvis jerking in tiny, involuntary thrusts inside her.
Something tight was knotting up in her chest at his reactions, and she felt flooded with heat and confusion.
This was different than the times they’d fucked before, and not just because Caleb seemed to be losing it.
“Caleb,” she breathed, pumping her hips against the weight of his body. “Caleb, please.”
With a muffled groan, he started thrusting again. Beginning slowly but quickly building up to a rapid, jerky rhythm again.