Chapter 15
Caleb
Fighting the consuming need I have for her, I remind myself to be gentle.
Slowly, I press forward sheathing myself inside her.
The way she grips me, her arms around my shoulder, legs round my hips, her inner walls clutching my cock, feels so perfect.
Her tight little channel accepts me like we were made for each other.
When I’m fully seated, she sighs relaxing around my rod.
“You feel so good,” she whispers.
God, this woman. She doesn’t flinch at my scars, and I know they aren’t pretty. She lost her husband to a fire yet accepts that’s what I do. She’s brave and strong, yet still gentle and loving. She has amazing talent yet takes time to teach and nurture those just learning.
She has no clue of her value, her worth. I don’t deserve her, but no way in hell am I letting her go. These bastards that are giving her issues now, they’ll pay. No one messes with what’s mine. When this is over, we’ll build a home and a life together.
“You feel perfect.” I take her lips.
“More, Caleb. I want more of you. All of you. I’m greedy and you’re mine now. Show me what you want, how we please each other.”
Her arm is wrapped around my shoulder, her palm cupping the back of my head. I pepper kisses over her neck and face as I increase the speed and pressure till I’m pounding into her and she’s begging for more.
“Love you, Grace. Need you. Mine. All mine.” My words become a constant litany.
“Yes Caleb, yes. I’m so close. Make me come.”
A half dozen more strokes and she explodes. I follow. Struggling to catch my breath, I cradle her languid body against my chest. “Mine.”
“And you’re mine,” she whispers back.
Taking my time, I massage the shampoo into her hair, rinse it and weave her conditioner through the thick strands. Sudsing the loofah, I bathe every inch of her, learning her ticklish spots and erogenous zones. She is so responsive. Also, tenacious.
After I finish rinsing her, she pulls the loofah from my grasp and turns us so my back is to the wall. I tense when she first runs the loofah over my arm and chest injuries, followed by her palm.
“I think your muscles have muscles. Do you spend every off hour at the gym?”
I close my eyes and lean my head against the shower wall. God, this woman is too good to be true. I know she’s trying to distract me to ease my fear of rejection as her palms slide over my scars. “I spend a lot of time there. It helps so I don’t tighten up and I need to stay in shape.”
“I bet a good massage and lotions do, too. Is the bottle you gave to Joe what you like to use?”
“There are two I like that ease the tightness of the scars. I ordered my favorite for both of us.”
“Do you have something we can use tonight?”
“I... you’ve done enough.”
She pauses. “Caleb, please let me help you like you’re trying to help me. I want to be a team. I’m tired of being alone.”
I smile to myself. She can be a touch stubborn so telling her no probably won’t work.
“I have a little left. I put it in the refrigerator.”
In the bedroom she grabs the clean T-shirt I’d planned on wearing and slides it over her head then tosses back the covers on the bed. “Don’t put on any clothes and lay down. I’ll be right back.”
She’s mumbling to Woody, then I hear the refrigerator open and ice clink into a glass.
Handing me a glass of water, she tells me to drink up and roll over on the mattress. Straddling my buttocks, she gently soothes the aloe over my left shoulder, bicep, then lower to my hip and thigh. God her touch feels good.
“You did the right thing. Someday your friend will realize it.”
She’s erasing all the years, the regret, the doubt. She’s in my head, my soul. She fills my heart to bursting with her caring, her faith.
This is love. Real love. How did I get so lucky?
“Grace, I need you again. I need to touch you, hold you. I need you. Your goodness, your resilience, your faith.”
“I’m here. Roll over and let me show you.”
Once I’m situated, she straddles my waist and throws off my T-shirt.
She shivers as I run my palms up her thighs, over her hips and higher to cup her breasts.
She studies me with her intense grey eyes.
Placing her palms over mine, she leans into my touch and smiles giving me the full playful picture of her joy.
“Damn, I love your dimples. When you look at me like that and give me your real smile I just want to eat you up.”
She giggles. “Who’s stopping you?”
“Was that a challenge, baby girl? Game on!”
Flipping her with ease, she’s on her back beneath me and giggling in five seconds flat.
“Do you want me to get a condom. We didn’t use one in the shower.”
“I...” she whispers.
I run a thumb down her cheek. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere. Do you understand what I’m saying Grace? I’m not going anywhere.”
She nods.
“Reach above you and grasp the rungs on the headboard and do not let go,” I demand. Her gaze filled with total trust, she complies.
Damn, she is perfect. Leaning forward, I nuzzle her neck, thrilled by her rapid heartbeat.
She wants this, needs this as much as I do.
I place a kiss behind her ear and a shiver ripples over her body.
She sighs. Trailing a path from beneath her ear to one tight nipple, I suckle and cup the other, teasing the tight little bud with gentle plucking.
Her hips arch against mine and her groans of need fill the air around us. Testing her limits, I tweak a little harder.
“Yes,” hisses from her lips.
This woman was made for me. Increasing the pressure on both nipples has her writhing beneath me.
“Yes. Please, yes,” she pleads.
“You want more, babe? You want me to fill you? Fill you hard. Is that how you like it? What you want?”
“Yes.”
Checking that she’s truly ready for me, I power into her dripping channel. Her moans, the way she grips and squeezes, has me struggling for control. I want this, need this connection to last. I pause. “Grace. Grace, look at me.”
She opens her eyes.
“Grace, I love you.”
Releasing the headboard she cups my face. “I love you, too.”
I start to move, slowly, then deeper, harder. As the need builds, we continue to hold each other’s gazes until we explode one right after the other, sealing our newfound commitment. Our future.