Chapter 13 #2
Cal dropped slowly to his knees between my legs, his large hands sliding gently up my thighs while his eyes stayed locked on mine the entire time, like he wanted me fully aware of what he was doing to me.
The sight alone nearly took me out because there was something dangerously intimate about Caleb Sinclair looking at me like that.
“Nobody looks at you the way I do,” he murmured quietly against my skin before pressing slow kisses higher along my thighs.
My breathing immediately turned uneven while my fingers tightened against the counter behind me.
“Cal…”
He looked up again at the sound of my voice, and Lord… the expression on his face almost felt worse than the teasing itself. Hungry. Possessive. Emotional in a way I wasn’t prepared for.
The tension between us finally unraveled after that.
My head fell back while his hands gripped my thighs firmly, every touch and kiss pulling reactions out of me I could no longer pretend I didn’t feel for him.
By the time pleasure finally crashed through me, my chest was heaving while I struggled to catch my breath.
Cal stood immediately afterward and pulled me against him, kissing me deeply while I tasted traces of whiskey and myself still lingering against his mouth. I kissed him back harder, my lips dragging across his jaw and mouth while he lifted me effortlessly into his arms.
“You drive me insane,” he muttered against my neck while carrying me upstairs.
I could feel how hard he was through his sweats with every step he climbed, but somehow the urgency between us still never turned rough or careless. Everything about tonight felt slower. Heavier. More emotional than either of us wanted to admit.
By the time he laid me against the bed, the room had gone quiet except for our breathing and the distant city noise outside my windows. Cal looked down at me for a long second before brushing my curls back gently, and the softness in that moment almost scared me more than the desire did.
The way he touched me afterward felt nothing like the casual nights we’d shared before.
There was no rushing. No teasing games. Just slow kisses, tangled sheets, whispered words against skin, and the kind of intimacy that blurred every boundary we’d tried creating between us months ago.
And somewhere in the middle of it all, with his forehead resting against mine and his hands holding me like he was afraid to let go, I realized this situation between us had officially stopped being simple.
Cal lay beside me on his back while I rested against his chest underneath the sheets, his fingers tracing absentminded patterns along my bare shoulder.
That almost felt more intimate than everything else we’d just done.
Neither one of us usually stayed like this afterward.
That’s what made tonight feel different.
I closed my eyes briefly while his hand slid slowly through my curls again. Then quietly, almost too casually, he said, “You can tell that dude you not seeing him again.”
My eyes opened immediately. I leaned back slightly to look up at him.
“What?”
Cal’s jaw flexed softly before he looked down at me.
“I’m serious.”
I stared at him for a second, trying to figure out if he actually heard himself right now.
“Cal… I am going to see him again.”
Something shifted in his face immediately.
“After this?” he asked quietly.
I sat up slowly then, pulling the tangled sheets up over my bare chest as the cold air of the bedroom hit my sensitized skin, trying to gather my thoughts because honestly… what exactly was this?
Cal sat up too now, the muscles in his back flexing under the dim light as his expression tightened slightly.
“So, what was this then?”
The question hit harder than I expected, because the truth was… I didn’t fully know anymore. Every touch from him tonight had felt like a battleground, a desperate attempt to claim space he hadn't earned.
“It’s complicated,” I admitted quietly, looking away from the fierce intensity in his dark eyes.
“No,” he replied immediately, his voice dropping into that gravelly, unyielding register. “It ain’t.”
I looked at him incredulously, a sudden spike of irritation finally piercing through the lingering haze of pleasure.
“You do realize you can’t spend years telling me we should keep things casual, keeping one foot out the door, then suddenly act like I can’t date because another man is interested in me, right?”
His eyes stayed locked on mine, unblinking, his jaw shifting as he braced himself against my words.
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Then what are you saying, Cal?”
Cal opened his mouth slightly before stopping himself, his broad chest rising and falling heavily.
And somehow, that hesitation made everything so much worse.
It sparked a sudden, fierce wave of clarity inside me.
For years, I had bent to his rhythm, accepting the safe, unattached boundaries he dictated.
But watching him sit here, silently trying to dictate my life outside of this bed, the illusion of his control shattered completely.
He didn't own me. He didn't get to keep me on a shelf until he decided he was ready.
For the first time in a very long time, Caleb Sinclair genuinely looked unsure. The effortless confidence he wore like armor had completely cracked.
“You got my head gone lately,” he admitted finally, his voice quieter this time, stripped of all its usual arrogance.
I swallowed softly, fighting the sudden ache in my throat.
“That’s not fair.”
His eyes searched mine again, looking for the easy submission he was used to finding, but I kept my gaze steady, letting him see the new distance between us.
Frustrated, he leaned back against the headboard, running a hand aggressively over his face.
“I know.”
Silence settled heavy between us after that—thick, emotional, and suffocating in a way neither one of us knew how to fix.
Because the truth was… we had crossed back into something dangerous tonight.
Deep down, both of us knew there was no pretending this felt casual anymore—but I wasn't going to let his confusion hold me captive.