KALEB’S HOUSE WAS CLOSER. As soon as they got through the front door, her mouth was on his, her hands grabbing at the sides of his shirt as he walked her backward. “I don’t know where we’re going.”
“Do you need to know? I just want to enjoy the journey.”
“Mmm. That sounds good.”
So she let him kiss and touch and caress her as they inched their way through his home. She didn’t have time to look at anything. Didn’t need to look at anything. All she wanted was his hands on her.
Through a door they went and the next thing she knew, her legs were against the mattress of an unmade bed. She swallowed. He’d slept there last night, his body pressing deep into this mattress the way she wanted him to press into her. Her mouth went dry.
She was never going to forget this night.
His arms slid up her back, and he pressed her against him. “Do you trust me, Nic?”
A frisson of excitement went through her. “Yes.”
His lips curved, a slow, knowing smile that touched parts of her that were already aching with need. He turned her around until she faced the bed, fitting himself against her back, that long hard part of him pushing into the softness of her behind.
She shuddered. Everything about him was a study in sensuality. He knew how to use his voice, his hands, his body, to make her writhe with need. And each time had been different. The first time, boozy and free. The second time, naughty and rushed. And this third time... Oh, God, she had a feeling he was going to take her places she’d never gone before. Things between them were changing. And he seemed okay with it. Willing to sit in the driver’s seat, even.
His palms slid down her arms, until one hand reached her breasts. He cupped one, while his other hand trailed down her stomach, holding her in place while he pushed rhythmically against her. His lips were next to her ear. “Can you spend the night?”
What? How was he even forming complete sentences? Her brain was mush.
Somehow, she replied, “Yes.”
“Good.” He nipped her earlobe. “Because once isn’t going to be enough. Not nearly enough.”
The hand at her stomach slid lower, curving over her mons and exploring what he found there. Continuing to hold her against him, he released himself and guided his engorged flesh between her legs. “Close them.”
Excitement bloomed when she realized what he was going to do. She squeezed her thighs together, his groan rumbling against her ear as he thrust, pleasuring himself and her, while she bit her lip until it hurt.
All too soon, he slid free.
“No...”
“Shh, I’m not done, honey. Not by a long shot.”
He pulled her shirt up over her head, hands going back around to squeeze her breasts, before finding the front clasp of her bra and releasing it. He then slid the straps down her arms and let the garment fall to the floor.
When he cupped her again, her breath exited in a hiss. They were so sensitive—the nipples seeking out his palms and the decadent friction they could give.
“I love that you like this, Nic. So soft. I could touch you for hours. But first...”
He pulled back again and unbuttoned her trousers, sliding the zip and then pushing them and her undergarment down her legs. Behind her, she could hear his own clothing rustle as he discarded it.
Then he was still for a minute. But only a minute.
His hands went to hers, pulling them forward, even as he used the weight of his body to bend her torso toward the bed. She shivered, realizing what he was going to do. He pressed her hands into the mattress.
“But I want to touch you,” she said.
“Next time. I promise.”
His words wrapped around something inside of her and made it sing.
His fingertips skated across her shoulders, skimmed down her spine, smoothed over the curve of her backside. He pressed his lips into the middle of her back. “Spread your legs for me.”
Her breath caught as she slowly walked her feet apart, the cool air in his apartment flowing over her in an intimate caress that made her moan. Then his hands were on her hips, holding her still for what she knew was coming. For what she needed to come.
He was at her entrance, slowly pushing inside, stretching her in a way that was too delicious for words. He went deep, straining into her. Like her nipples, everything he touched was unbelievably sensitive. It was like her whole body’s nerve endings were tuned in to his every move...each awaiting their turn to be stroked.
He eased back and drove forward again, going just as deep, holding tight against her. She tried to increase the pace, her need rising up, but he held her still, shushing her when she made to protest. “It’s okay. I need to feel you. All of you.”
He wasn’t touching her anywhere else, but she didn’t need it. Her whole being was focused like a laser beam on that single point of contact. His movements stayed slow and deliberate. She would say lazy, except he seemed to be keeping a razor-edged level of control, pushing his limits—and hers—to the very brink.
Then his hand came around and touched her. Just a light flick. Then another, all as he held still inside of her. There were no boundaries between them. There was no need for them anymore, since she was pregnant. She felt the smooth pull, like a rubber band being stretched, further and further, waiting to be set free.
His finger tapped and released, tapped and released.
She wanted him to move inside of her. Wanted him to thrust hard and fast. But he was so very still, his breath coming in gusts against her neck, making her skin prickle.
What had been a light tap got heavier with need. The silence in the room added another layer of expectancy to what was already happening inside of her. She wanted to moan, to scream, but didn’t want to break up what was happening. She realized what he was doing. He was setting a scene, readying it for the inevitable climax. Her body’s nerve endings had shut down everything in her body except for one tiny set, which was shuddering a little closer with every tap.
Tap...pause. Tap...pause. Tap...pause.
She could feel herself shifting to another plane, her nipples tightening, belly tensing.
The tapping stopped. No. No! No! She hung there for a second, then felt the wave beginning to flicker in preparation for receding from the edge. She clawed to stay there, didn’t want to leave this place. Not ever.
Then without warning, his thumb and forefinger gripped her, squeezing in quick pulsing motions that rushed her with lightning speed back toward her goal. And then she was flying over it, Kaleb’s arm wrapping around her midsection to hold her in place, when she tried to pump. He kept her there, her mind bending as wave after wave of pleasure tore through her. Still motionless, Kaleb suddenly groaned against her ear and she realized he was climaxing without even needing to move.
I want to feel you.
God. Literally that’s what he’d done.
He kissed her neck. Nipped her shoulder. Traced her upper back with his tongue. He took a deep breath and then let it blow out. “Thank you.”
He was thanking her? He was the one who’d done all the work.
“I don’t know what you just did to me. But I don’t think I’m ever going to recover.”
He suddenly tipped her face to look at her. “Are you okay?”
Oh! He thought he’d hurt her. “No. I meant, I have never experienced anything like that in my life. It was...” She chuckled. “There are no words.”
“Mmm. Same here.” He kissed her lips, then pulled free. “But we have a lot more fires to deal with before the night is over.”
He was right. It was just after midnight, and every fiber of her being was satiated. She was bone-jarringly tired. And happy. And...all kinds of other things.
Kaleb leaned back against the pillows, his hands behind his head.
The other two times she’d been with him, things had been rushed and hurried. She’d never gotten to see the “aftermath Kaleb.” As she studied him, she liked what she saw. Wouldn’t mind seeing a whole lot more of this side of him in the future.
But was that what he wanted? She wasn’t sure.
She turned onto her side and propped herself on her elbow to get a better look. “I vote we don’t tell my parents why we needed to leave their house so quickly tonight.”
“I think your dad might hunt me down and throw my carcass on his grill. Medium on the left, well-done on the right.”
She laughed. “Are you worried?”
“It depends on whether you’ll vouch for me if and when he does.”
“Always.”
As soon as she said the word, Kaleb rolled over, taking her with him. His forearms bracketing her face, he ran his fingertips over her cheeks and slid down to her lips. “Always?”
“Yes.” There was something about the way he said that word that made her shiver.
He kissed her. A long slow kiss that seemed to go on forever. Despite how tired she was, her body flickered back to life.
“I think your parents would like to see us married.”
“Mmm...probably. But they’ll get used to it the way it is.”
“Maybe we should.”
His statement came out of nowhere, shocking her. “Should what?”
“Get married?”
“Are you serious? Why?”
There’d been nothing to ever suggest he wanted to get married. In fact, they’d both been pretty adamant that they didn’t.
“Why not? It would make everything so much easier.”
“What things? You mean the baby?”
“The baby. The situation with your parents. With my parents. Our coworkers. It would take care of all the awkward explanations. People have married for worse reasons.”
Her eyes widened. Maybe “they” did, but she didn’t. And the fact that he was willing to uproot his life—change everything—just to make those “awkward explanations” easier to handle was horrifying. Unimaginable.
For one thing, her parents would see through the ruse in no time. Pretending to not know him was one thing. But to pretend they loved each other in public, while in private they both knew it was a lie, that in reality... God!
And he was okay with that?
Well, she wasn’t. Wasn’t willing to put their baby through the eventual meltdown that was bound to happen over time, when Kaleb realized he couldn’t keep up the charade anymore. When he eventually walked out on them...
The fear she’d had right after she realized she was pregnant came back to haunt her. That thought that he might want to marry her just for the sake of the baby. Back then she’d blurted out that she had no intention of getting married. He’d agreed with her at the time. And yet here he was, knocking on her door and saying the complete opposite.
There were worse reasons, he’d said.
Except she couldn’t imagine anything worse than what he’d just offered her. A marriage of convenience. Of necessity, to avoid awkwardness.
She closed her eyes. She’d always thought if she eventually married, it would be the real deal. It would be because someone loved her. That they couldn’t imagine life without her. But Kaleb felt none of those things.
Even Bill had loved her for...her.
In his office, she thought of how sexy Kaleb was, how he could end up being a real heartbreaker, but that he hadn’t broken her heart.
She was wrong. Because he just had. She recoiled away as a terrible realization swept over her, swamping her and pressing her flat. “Absolutely not.”
“Why? Give me one good reason why it wouldn’t make life easier for both of us. For the baby.”
Why? Because as she’d been lying here staring up at him, the truth had dawned on her. A truth so tragic that it made what he’d just said to her feel obscene.
Somewhere during the ten weeks they’d known each other, an astounding thing had been growing inside of her. Something that had nothing to do with the baby.
And everything to do with love.
She loved him.
She wasn’t sure exactly when or where it had happened, but it had.
He was right. Marrying her would make everything easier. Would make everyone happier.
Everyone except for...her.
Oh, no—please, no.
And explaining to him her reasons for turning him down was not an option. She couldn’t do it. And she definitely couldn’t stay while he continued to list all the reasons why she should say yes.
Because she couldn’t. Couldn’t say yes.
Not now. Not ever.
Those two phrases repeated over and over in her head until she thought she might vomit.
“I... I’ll, um... I’ll let you know.” She would. But not right now. Not when the burning behind her eyes was about a minute away from turning into a very real flood.
Right now, all she wanted or needed was to escape. To get away before he realized she’d just become the biggest fool on the face of the planet: a woman who’d fallen for a man who only wanted to marry her to make things easy.
Well, it wouldn’t. They would make her life hell on earth. Because he was bound to find out the truth, and when he did...
She pushed him off of her and sat up, dragging the sheet around her. “I need to get going. I have an early shift and Danvers wants to run another case by me.”
Kaleb frowned, then levered himself up, too. “Are you okay?”
The question almost broke her in two. It was the exact question he’d asked her after they made love tonight. And her answer now was the polar opposite of what it had been then.
“I’m fine. I—I had a good time tonight, thank you. And thanks for coming to my parents’ for dinner. See you tomorrow?” No, he wouldn’t, but she was not going to let him know about the plan that had just crystalized in her head—a plan that was based solely on a survival instinct she didn’t realize she had. Emotional survival rather than physical.
“Do you want me to drive you home?”
“No, my car is here. It’ll be easier in the morning if it’s at my house.”
She hopped out of bed and started dragging on her clothes, trying not to make it look like she was hurrying, but with the way her hands were shaking, it was hard. She threw him a smile just to make sure he didn’t follow her outside. “We’ll sort out appointments and so forth sometime next week.”
“Okay.” He got out of bed and caught her wrist. “Are you sure you’re okay, Nic?”
“Yes. Just exhausted.” She gave a short laugh. “You wore me out.”
The correct phrase would have been that she was emotionally wrung out, but that might have made him ask more questions.
“Stay the night, then. You said you would.”
“No.” She casually lifted her hand to her head to force him to release his grip. She then dragged her fingers through her hair as if straightening it, when really, she didn’t care how she looked. “I don’t have a change of clothes here, and it’ll be so much easier to just...” Too late, she realized she’d parroted his earlier words back to him. It wouldn’t be easier. Nothing would be easier for a long, long time.
She could figure everything with the baby out later, but right now, she just needed to get out.
“Okay. Call me to let me know you made it home.”
No way was she doing that. “I’ll let you know.” She’d send him a one-word text, and that was it.
She grabbed her handbag and headed for the front door, just hoping she could make it to her car and onto the street before she broke down.
And then tomorrow, once she’d composed herself, she was going to put her plan into action. Before anyone—especially Kaleb—realized what was happening.