you?”
His fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “Leave it alone, Lily.”
“My mother left just before I turned eight. I didn’t sleep through the night for a year,” I blurted. “My stepdad and I woke up one morning and she was...gone. Left a note to say she was never coming back and we shouldn’t try to find her. Even after we received papers the next week from her lawyer granting my stepfather full custody of me I still thought she would come back. Stephen was sterile and couldn’t have children of his own. That’s the only reason he kept me.”
Caleb cursed under his breath. “That’s his loss, Lily, not yours.”
I attempted to shrug his sympathy away, but my shoulders didn’t comply. “I wasn’t entirely blameless. It...hurt, knowing my mother could leave without a second thought, and my stepfather would’ve walked away if he had children of his own. I acted out. Sometimes.”
“That’s still not an excuse for what he did.”
“I know, but...” I shrugged.
“Deep down you wish things had turned out differently,” he said.
I sniffed away the unexpected tears. “Stupid, right?”
“No. Not stupid at all,” he murmured, reaching out to glide a finger down my cheek.
Damn, there he went, being all gentle again. A fat drop rolled down my cheek.
He cursed again as he turned off the ignition. A distracted look outside showed we were in SDM’s parking lot. It was still early enough that there were only a handful of cars around, the nearest one six bays away.
When his thumb brushed my chin, I tried to pull away, more than a little terrified of the softening happening inside me. He clamped his fingers in my hair, forcing me to look at him.
One brow was cocked, but his eyes were gentle. “I told you this was too heavy for this time of the morning. You should listen to me more often.”
Another tear slipped free. I tried to laugh it away. “I have no idea why I’m crying. I’m over all of that. Counting the days until I put him and Chance in my rearview.”
His fingers tightened on my nape. His other hand patted his lap. “Come here,” he commanded.
My breath caught. “Why?”
“So I can make you feel better,” he answered, his voice lower, deeper, curling around my turbulent emotions.
I shouldn’t.
I really, really, shouldn’t.
My hands slowly went to my seat belt, freeing it despite the voice screeching warning at the back of my head. Caleb’s seat, already extended fully to accommodate his long legs, afforded me plenty of space as I crawled into his lap.
The hand on my nape speared into my hair and the other clamped one hip.
“Open your jacket,” he instructed.
Hands shaking, I complied.
The sun wasn’t fully up yet and the tinted windows shielded us as I braced my knees on either side of him. The moment my hands landed on his shoulders, he pulled me down and fused his lips to mine.
Caleb ravaged my mouth like I was his last meal, and I was more than happy to be devoured.
Between my legs, his erection thickened, pressing insistently against me. Shamelessly turned on, I ground against him, earning his tortured groan. We kissed until the need for more oxygen forced us apart. He kneaded my ass, encouraging me to grind against him. The feeling was intensely exquisite.
God, I could come from just rubbing my clit on his cock.
The thought drew a hungry moan but when I tried to dive back into the kiss, he stopped me.
“I didn’t see a zipper on your dress when I helped you with your jacket earlier. Where is it?” he demanded hoarsely.
I motioned dazedly to my left rib cage.
“Take it down for me, baby,” he said, his eyes still consuming me.
My racing heart tripled its tempo but I couldn’t have stopped myself if a freight train was bearing down on me. I lowered the zipper until the corset gaped to reveal my breasts.
Caleb stared at me for another tense second before his gaze dropped. He exhaled sharply. “Fuck.” His hand dropped to brush the back of his knuckles over one tight nipple, making me jerk against him. “I wondered whether these would be pale or dark.” His gaze flicked to my face, absorbing my reaction as he repeated the gesture over the twin peak. “I have no clue which I would’ve preferred because seeing them now...they’re fucking perfect.” The words ended in a groan as he yanked me forward and clamped his mouth around one tight bud.
“Oh, God!”
He suckled me, hot and urgent, then flicked his tongue mercilessly over the sensitive bud, all the while dragging my damp center back and forth over his erection.
He transferred his attention to the other nipple, catching the freed, wet bud between his thumb and finger.
Stars exploded across my vision. “Yes!”
My fingers dug into his hair, desperate to keep him right where he was. I threw my head back as my hips took on a life of their own, fixated on riding him to the bliss that hovered on the horizon.
“Holy fuck, you’re beautiful,” he groaned against me, staring up at me with an intensity I couldn’t fathom.
“Caleb...”
“You have no idea how gorgeous you are, do you?”
I couldn’t breathe. This man was unraveling me, piece by piece. Body and soul. And I couldn’t think of a single reason to stop him.
My body was a knot of seething sensation, waiting for some unknown directive to explode. Caleb wrapped one hand around my throat, restricting but not hurting. The other slipped beneath my dress and nudged my panties aside.
My fingers dug into his shoulders.
“I wasn’t going to. But I need to feel you, Lily.”
“Yes.” Agreement was as easy as breathing, my need unstoppable.
His eyes hooked into mine, Caleb dragged his tongue across my nipple as he sank one thick finger inside me.
A tight scream erupted from my throat. He added a second finger and pleasure rained on me, quickening the movements of my hips as I chased ecstasy.
“Damn, you’re so fucking tight,” he exclaimed harshly, his breathing a ragged mess. “I can’t wait to bury my cock inside you.”
“Caleb...” I couldn’t form any other words other than his name as he drove me insane with his fingers.
Sweet vortex swirled
