Breathless Descent (11 page)

“Sorry about that, Doc. Something urgent came up, as in I fell in love. I met someone. I haven’t been so happy in years.”

A red light flashed in her mind. “You suddenly fell in love and that made you miss an emergency appointment?”

“We’d had a fight,” he said. “But she showed up at my house and all is well. I can’t wait to tell you all about her when I get back from Mexico.”

“Mexico?!” she sputtered. The man barely ever left his house. “You’re going to Mexico?”

“Yes,” he said. “And they just called our boarding group. I’ll call you when I get home. Thanks for everything, Doc. I remember all those times you told me, loving someone means you could lose them, but it’s better than never knowing them.” He hung up.

Shay set the phone down and rushed to the bathroom to tell Caleb about George. He’d left the door open and she could hear the shower running. “My client called,” Shay said, sitting down on the lid of the toilet.

He looked around the shower curtain. “And?”

“He said he met a woman and he’s really happy.”

He snorted. “He stood you up for a woman. Nothing we didn’t know. Typical man. Always thinking with the wrong head.”

“Coming from a man,” she said.

He grinned. “I’m a soldier,” he said. “Respect comes before all base needs.” He disappeared behind the curtain.

She opened her mouth to crack a joke, but stopped. This wasn’t typical behavior for George. And that fancy house of his screamed some sort of money source. That would make him a target for the wrong woman. Shay thought of George’s pain over the loss of his wife. She thought of her fears that she and Caleb couldn’t and shouldn’t be together. That their family situation would end their relationship before it really got started, that he’d leave again, no matter how much he said he wouldn’t. The truth was, the only thing for certain was the moment.

She eyed the curtain, his naked silhouette behind the semitransparent material. She might not ever get the chance to make love to Caleb in the shower ever again. Shay stood up and undressed.

Before she could talk herself out of it, Shay pulled back the curtain and stepped inside. The minute she took in the sight of his sinewy muscles dripping wet, Shay was glad she did.

“You do know this isn’t the way to get any sleep,” Caleb said softly.

“I can’t sleep when you’re wet and naked,” she replied, letting him pull her close.

He smiled and moved so that his back took the brunt of the water, and she felt his erection press against her hip. “I’d be disappointed if you could.”

She reached down and stroked his shaft, already impressively ready for her. “There’s something I’ve always wanted to do to you,” she confessed.

“There’s a lot of things I’ve always wanted to do to you,” he said. “I’d offer a demonstration, but it’s going to take a whole lot longer than we have today.”

“I’d rather focus on my ‘to do to Caleb’ list,” she said, smiling. She kissed his chest and then slid down his body until she’d wrapped his cock in her hand and looked up at him. “If that’s okay with you?”

“I’d say that ranks as not ‘yes,’ but ‘hell, yes,’” he said, his hand settling on the wall, as if he suddenly needed support.

Shay smiled and ran her tongue along the base of his erection. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “Definitely a ‘hell, yes.’”

Hearing the gruff, aroused tone of his voice, Shay felt herself respond. Felt the ache between her thighs, the pinch of her nipples, the need to take him in her mouth. She enjoyed control, she knew she did. To control a man like Caleb, as powerfully hot as he was—that was as big a rush as she could imagine. Aside from maybe him controlling her, as contradictory as that might seem.

She lapped at the head and twirled her tongue around the ridge. He moaned and she sucked a few inches into her mouth, then a few more, slowly, deeply. Caleb’s hand came down on her head, and Shay reveled in the thrust of his hips. In the proof that she was driving him to the edge, pleasuring him. She caressed his powerful legs, the flex of his nice tight backside, could feel his balls tighten, feel the desperation in his thrusts. Taste the salty promise that she would soon bring him to satisfaction, when he murmured her name, and pulled back.

She opened her mouth to ask him why he’d stopped her, but he lifted her to her feet and kissed her. He tasted of a man on the edge—of wild, untamed passion. Of desire barely contained. And she knew what it had cost him, not to let her finish him.

He pressed her against the wall, his hand sliding up her body, over her breast. Water, no longer hot, but warm, sprayed over their bodies, as he lifted her leg and pressed inside her, thrusting hard and deep.

Shay gasped as pleasure flooded her senses, and she clung to him, finding herself pinned in his hot stare as he said, “We’re going to come together, just like we’re going to face the family together this afternoon.” He thrust again, stroking her into a whimper, before he demanded agreement. “Okay?”

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, okay. Together.” And before she could start thinking about what might go wrong with that plan, he took her away, to a place where together felt really good and sleep didn’t matter.

“I feel like they’re going to know,” Shay admitted, as he killed the engine.

“If they didn’t know yesterday, when we were about to explode with sexual tension, they won’t know today,” he said, and then pointed. Her mother was coming out the front door directing her father, as he rolled a bag toward Kent’s truck. “They’re excited and nervous. They aren’t going to be paying us any attention.” He discreetly reached across the seat and squeezed her hand. “Let’s get this behind us.”

She nodded, drew a deep breath and exhaled before reaching for her door handle. Shay immediately rushed toward her parents, and he tried not to notice the way the light denim of her jeans hugged the sweet curve of her backside, the same one his hand had hugged less than an hour before. The slight expansion around his zipper region had Caleb slowing his pace, in no rush to join the chaos of pretravel jitters.

Kent shoved the screen door open and sauntered in Caleb’s direction, trying to act nonchalant, but the stiff set of his jaw said he was far from relaxed. Kent’s early obsessions with the racetrack had apparently been foreshadowing the future, a fear Caleb had begun to nurse on a visit several years back. This wasn’t the first time Kent had asked him for money, and he still hadn’t seen the return of the first loan. Not that he was biting at the bit to get it back. He had money. He was more concerned over the fact that Kent didn’t have the money to return, and what that said about their suspicions of a gambling problem.

Kent stopped beside him, placing his back to the family. “Mom’s making Dad crazy, she’s so afraid of forgetting something,” he laughed, but the sound was strained.

“They’ll be fine once they get on the plane,” Caleb said, and motioned to the house. “Let’s go inside.”

Kent nodded, and they walked in silence until they stood in the kitchen. Caleb tossed an envelope of cash on the island counter and then leaned on the counter, hands behind him. Kent snatched it up and stuffed it in his pocket, as if he feared it would be seen.

“Thanks, man,” he said. “I know I owe you, and I’ll pay you back. I have a bonus coming at the end of the year.”

Caleb noted the smudges under Kent’s eyes, the jerkiness of his movements. “You got the gambling bug pretty bad, don’t you?”

Kent shoved his hands in his pockets and laughed. “I was gambling with Dad, Caleb.”

“Last night,” he said. “And still you lost your backside instead of walking away.”

“It was Dad! He egged me on, and I didn’t want to say no.”

“You got a bookie?”

“Caleb, man,” he said.

“Do you have a bookie, Kent?”

“I’m a single guy with no responsibility.”

“So, you do.”

Kent scrubbed his jaw. “I don’t have a problem if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“You don’t have a dime to your name, Kent.”

“I’m in a slump,” he said. “My end-of-the-year bonus will fix that.”

“Gambling’s like drinking,” Caleb said. “It’s addictive. If you need help—”

“I don’t,” Kent said sharply, his voice lifting. He shook his head and lowered his voice. “Look, Caleb. I appreciate the help and the concern, but I’m fine. And I’ll get this favor returned.”

“I still can’t believe I’m going to Italy,” Sharon exclaimed as she rushed into the room. “Italy!” She hugged Caleb. “I love you, son, and not because of Italy. Because you’re you.” She patted his cheeks. “And you’re so darn handsome.” Before he could respond, she’d let him go and was talking. “I looked up the hotel online, and they have cooking classes. I’m going to come back and cook you all kinds of wonderful meals.”

Caleb’s gaze lifted to Shay, where she now stood in the kitchen doorway, looking awkward and downright upset. He patted his stomach. “I can’t wait.”

“Please tell me we’re ready to leave,” Bob grumbled as he slid into the doorway next to Shay. “If I don’t get your mother on the plane with a glass of wine in her hand soon, I’m going to blow my top.” He eyed Shay. “What’s this about you locking your keys in your car?”

Shay glared at Kent. “You blabbed that fast.”

“Didn’t I?” Kent asked with a grin.

“That patient of yours must have had you flustered,” her father added. “You normally don’t do things like that.”

“I was flustered,” she agreed. “At Caleb acting like a bodyguard I didn’t need.”

“Oh, now,” Caleb said, “that’s where I have to object. Your building was dark and deserted. You shouldn’t have been there alone.”

“I’ve done just fine on my own for the last ten years, Caleb,” she countered, clearly trying to maintain their normal siblinglike banter. “You’ve been home two months, and I’ve barely seen you, but suddenly, you’re all over me and my business.”

Caleb arched a brow, barely containing a laugh, because she was right. He was all over her and liking every minute. Shay’s eyes registered what she’d said, and she paled.

“You’re too independent sometimes,” Bob said. “I’m glad Caleb is here to look after you while we’re gone.”

Shay crossed her arms in front of her body. “Oh, good grief,” she said. “You’d think I wasn’t a grown woman with a medical practice.”

“The great thing about family,” Bob said, “is no matter how grown up you are, you still get love and protection. And a good kick in the ass when you need it. And for the record, daughter of mine, going to an office building alone, in the dark, deserves a kick in the ass.” He grabbed her and kissed her cheek, then eyed his wife. “Come, woman. We have a flight to catch. Kent—chauffeur and baggage handler—get that bag by the door and take it to the truck.”

Fifteen minutes later, Kent was off on his business trip and her parents were off on their adventure. Shay fell against the door after watching Kent’s truck pull out of the driveway, packed with baggage and family, leaving Caleb and Shay alone. “Oh, my God, Caleb. I practically announced we were sleeping together when I said you’ve been all over me and my business.” She hit her forehead. “What was I thinking?”

He chuckled and pressed a hand on the wall over her head. “No one caught that but me, but I admit, I almost laughed out loud.”

“I know!” she said. “I saw your face and wanted to strangle you.” She shook her head. “And Mom called you ‘son.’
Son,
Caleb.” She leaned her head against the door. “This, after we just had sex in your shower together. We’re playing with fire here. They are never going to trust you again if they find out you’re sleeping with me.”

He smiled with the memory of that time in the shower—straddling her hips with his, his hand on her slender waist. “We had
amazing
sex in my shower.”

“Exactly,” she agreed as if that was the point. “Amazing sex makes it worse.”

He wasn’t even going to try and understand her logic, because there was none. “We’re alone for two weeks, Shay. What would have seemed a nearly impossible feat, but we’ve achieved it. Let’s just relax and enjoy being together.”

She pressed her hands to his chest. “How do I relax when we’re headed toward a crash-and-burn? I don’t want you ostracized from the family, Caleb. They trust you to look out for me.”

“I’m not breaking that trust, Shay,” he said. “You need to know right now—I have no intention of keeping our relationship a secret. Not if we decide that’s what this is. Either we’re working through a fantasy or we’re working toward a future. And I can tell you right now…I like who we are together. I like us, Shay. I don’t want to throw that away because we’re afraid of the family’s initial shock that we’re together.”

She softened instantly. “I like us, too.”

He slid his fingers under her hair, caressing the delicate skin of her neck. “Then let’s be ‘us’ during this rare solitary time we have, and see where it leads. Don’t think about what everyone else will say. Just you and me. Can you do that?”

Her lips trembled. “Yes. Yes, I’d like that.”

He smiled. “Good.” He kissed her temple, and then her jaw, and then her neck. “You smell like sunshine.”

“I smell like your cologne,” she said, a smile in her voice. “I was afraid someone would notice.”

He pulled back and looked at her. “I’m really going to have to work on your paranoia,” he said, his hands sliding up her sides, over her breasts.

She moaned. “Not here, Caleb.”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “Most definitely here.” He shoved her T-shirt up and pressed down her bra, thumbing her nipples. “I’ve fantasized about you in this house too many times to miss this opportunity.”

Her hands went to his arms, but she didn’t push him away. “I have to get the key to my car before the car dealership closes,” she panted.

“I’m staying the night at your place,” he said. “I’ll take you to work tomorrow and get the key before you leave work.” His hand slid around her backside, and molded her to his hips, nuzzling his erection in the
V
of her body. “Problem solved.”

“I don’t remember inviting you to stay the night,” she said.

“Oh, I remember,” he said, brushing his lips over hers. “In the shower.”

“I was being blackmailed at the time, if I remember correctly,” she said. “You were withholding on me.”

She’d wanted to come. He’d wanted assurance he could wake up to another shower adventure the next morning. “I’m staying the night tonight. And tomorrow night.” He stared down at her. “And every night for at least the next two weeks.”

She wet her lips. “At the end of the two weeks, Caleb, then what?”

“I’m sure we can come up with any number of possibilities. Right now. I’m trying to figure out which fantasy to act out first.” He slid down to his knees in front of her. “The one where I strip you naked in the hallway seems a good place to start.”