Chapter Eighteen #2
Achy Breaky Heart blared out of the dusty, old jukebox in the corner. I groaned internally but Caleb grabbed my hand. “Come on,” he said.
We took our time choosing the perfect song. He fed the machine a quarter and I pressed J-14. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sang to the uninterested bar about how waiting was the hardest part.
“Burgers are ready,” the waitress called.
Caleb waved and led me back to our booth. He waited until I was seated to take his own. I thought it sweet that, for all his rough edges, he still had the manners that were probably expected in our grandfathers’ day.
“You ever had a boyfriend?” Caleb asked. His cheeks flushed and the mortified look on his face told me he didn’t mean to wonder out loud.
My face was probably scarlet, too. I tried to ease his discomfort by answering. “Once. I was twelve.”
Caleb’s eyes danced with relief. “What was his name?”
“Jeremiah Prichard. He was short and brainy, but he didn’t ask me too many questions, and he talked enough for the both of us. I let him hold my hand once.”
Caleb passed me an onion ring off his plate. “Scandalous.”
“I thought so. My foster parents would have whipped me good if they found out. That particular couple had a distinct paranoia about their foster kids getting knocked up on their watch.” I giggled at the memory as I shoveled a forkful of cheese fries onto Caleb’s plate, but he stared at me with ghosts in his eyes.
“Do you ever wish things would’ve been different?” he asked.
I shrugged as if it would lift the unease at dredging up old memories.
“No use crying over spilt milk. I’ll be right back,” I said, excusing myself.
The gritty bits and stories from my past left me raw and exposed, and I didn’t want to ruin the night with them.
I needed a minute to put the screaming demons back in their boxes before they came tumbling out for all to see.
The bathroom mirror was a judgmental little beast. As I stared at my pale face, I could all but hear the scritch scratch of little claws tearing at my chain-locked memories.
Things I had long ago put away for a day when I was strong enough to deal with them.
The locks rattled, thunking softly against memories of my whiskey-shootin’ stepdad, and I took a deep breath to steady myself.
Thinking about him now would undo me. Maybe I really was crazy like everyone said.
Caleb deserved better. I didn’t disagree, but I could sure as hell justify going straight back to that table and trying to be better for him.
Rooney’s had changed during my short-lived escape.
Minutes ago, it had been a barren landscape with only a few men drinking or snoring softly against the bar top.
Now, it was another planet entirely. Every square foot of space was taken by a body.
The air stank of cigarette smoke and grease.
My gaze fell on Caleb, like a paperclip to a magnet.
He sat at our booth, and through the gyrating, raucous crowd, I could see that our table was now full.
Becca plucked a fry unapologetically from my plate.
I hesitated. A slow fury burned in me, and I couldn’t bear down on them in such a state.
They would see me as a starving dog defending a meal.
Caleb scanned the crowd and lit up with obvious relief when he saw me.
The crowd pulsed as we tried to reach each other.
Everyone was lost in their own world, dancing to a rhythm that was more internal than to the barely audible jukebox music.
I laughed at the ridiculousness of our effort as Caleb reached me.
I didn’t know if it was the energy from the crowd or his frustration over Becca, but his lips crashed down on mine.
I was shocked into stillness, but as the masses around us kept dancing, I gave into him.
I was reckless to be closer to him. I splayed my fingers against the expanse of his chest and felt the hard planes there through the thin cotton of his shirt.
A delicious desperation fed his kiss. I touched the long scars that ran down his neck, and he shuddered and dragged my waist closer to him.
I wasn’t concerned with hurting his healing wounds.
I wanted him to feel me. My mind had stayed stubbornly on those beautiful marks across his flesh for weeks, and I couldn’t wait any longer to feel them beneath my touch.
“Caleb,” I said, raggedly. I would lose my mind if he didn’t stop.
He pulled away, panting. “Dance with me.”
It was a natural transition from touching him to dancing with him.
I had never danced with a man before, but my body didn’t seem to care.
I wondered where my shyness had gone as I moved and laughed and spun.
Caleb didn’t take his eyes off me, and when the song was through, we giggled our way off the dance floor.
“Caleb! Mira!” someone yelled over the crowd.
I turned to see Brian waving us back to the table.
Tempting if Evan weren’t there watching me like a tiger watches a mouse, and if Becca wasn’t shooting me with flaming death daggers from her eyes.
I shook my head at Caleb’s questioning look and waved to his brother before I darted out the front door.
Caleb paid for our meal and joined me a few minutes later.
My blood hummed with the high of dancing with Caleb, and I couldn’t quite stop myself from smiling.
His hand was warm and strong in mine as he led me to his truck, and an unfamiliar warmth spread to unknown depths inside of me.
We dodged comers and goers, and Caleb jerked the tailgate of his truck down and set me easily upon it.
I leaned back on locked elbows, the palms of my hands griping at the contrast between the cold metal and Caleb’s absent warmth.
He put his hips between my knees and talked easily.
“Sorry about the crowd. Apparently somebody called Sheriff Clancy and warned him about the party going down at the McCall farm. Brian thinks it was Becca who blew the whistle. So, they peeled out as soon as they saw the flashing lights and moved the party to Rooney’s. ”
“I don’t mind,” I said quietly, my shyness returning little by little. “It was actually kind of fun.”
“Yeah?” He donned a slow smile. “For me, too.”
The moon sat full and low in the sky, and I scrunched my nose. “It’s getting late.”
“Yeah, I’d better get you home.” He helped me down from the tailgate and closed it while I scrambled into the cab of his truck.
The remnants of recklessness clung to me as he pulled into first gear.
Desperate to cast away the creeping shyness that seemed determined to overshadow the remaining high from dancing, I slid over the bench seat and pressed into his side.
He tossed me a quick smile that said he liked me this close and pulled out of the lot.
At the one stoplight in town, he leaned over and kissed my temple, and I rested my head on his shoulder.
The radio played a soft country song, and Caleb’s fingertips stroked the palm of my hand until my heart raced.
My traitorous knees opened for him, and his eyes churned as he watched their movement.
He ran a light touch up the inside of my knee, and I closed my eyes against the shiver that shook my spine and shoulders.
When I opened them again, the light was yellow and we’d definitely missed our chance to go.
No one was behind us, though, so it was really hard to care.
Caleb’s mouth covered mine, and my cheek caught fire where the pad of his thumb rested.
Parting my lips, I tasted him and ran my fingers down his stomach.
I wanted to feel all of him. His breathing became ragged as he dragged me closer still.
The red glow changed to green against his cheeks as the light turned, and he hit the gas and pulled away as I ran kisses down his neck.
His breath came unsteady, and a fierce look of concentration took his face as he stared at the road in front of us.
His mind was on me, though. I knew it with certainty.
I ran my hand down the length of his erection, rock hard under the tight fabric of his jeans.
“Dammit, woman. You have to stop.” His voice was rough like gravel, and he bucked against my hand.
This was too fun to stop. His knuckles shone white against the steering wheel. A muscle ticked under his right eye, and his neck strained with every stroke. He made it all the way up Dark Corner, past my gate, and into the woods before he slammed the truck into park and cut the lights.
I was on fire, burning from within, and the only thing that would save me was his skin against mine.
I loved him. I loved him. I adored every single thing about him.
“Mira,” Caleb growled. “You’re making it really hard to be a gentleman.”
Gentle sounded overrated. “Caleb,” I breathed, laying back on the bench seat, “I already know you’re a good man, but so does everyone else. I want more. I want to know all of you.”
My mind was gone. All logic had fled me at the stoplight, and now the only thing that would satiate me was Caleb’s to give.
His eyes never left mine as he rose above me and lowered himself against my hips.
He was big, strong, and captivating, and just when I thought I would suffocate under his power, he reached back and shoved the driver’s side door open.
Cool air assaulted us, and I gasped as he rubbed against my pelvis.
A desperate sound clawed its way up the back of my throat as I fumbled with the button on my jeans.
“Stop,” Caleb said.
“But—”