14
THE INSTANT THEY WERE inside the trailer, Shay found herself against the trailer door, Caleb pressed against her, kissing her. She forgot confessions of love. All she cared about was right here, right now. How much she needed him. And he needed her. Even if he didn’t love her, she felt the raw greediness in him, the must-have, must-touch madness eating him alive, as it was her. It was enough. For now, she repeated in her head. For now.
In a frenzied rush, they began stripping away the layers of clothes. The first skin-to-skin connection jolted Shay’s senses. He was so warm and hard all over. Her hands and body skimmed taut muscle. He was beautiful. Amazing.
Once their clothes were tossed here and there, and they were naked, Caleb’s forehead rested on hers, his hands gently gliding down her shoulders, leaving goose bumps in their path. “You’re amazing,” he whispered.
She smiled. “I was just thinking the same thing about you.”
“Were you?”
“Yes,” she said, her fingers splaying over his chest, lingering on his nipples. “Oh, yes. You are most definitely the most amazing man I’ve ever known…seen.”
With a low rumble in his throat, his hands cupped her backside, and he lifted her. Shay folded herself around him willingly, eagerly. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist, and clung to him, nipping his shoulder and his neck, while he headed toward the bedroom.
He went down on the bed on top of her, the heavy weight of him surrounding her, consuming her. Exactly what she needed. Shay breathed him in, willed him to take control. She didn’t want control—not tonight. She wanted to forget. She wanted to feel. She wanted Caleb. On top of her, inside her. She inhaled his scent, drew him in.
He slid between her thighs, thick, pulsing. The promise of escape and pleasure. Her lashes fluttered shut, her hips arching as he used his cock to tease the sensitive folds of her body.
“Look at me,” Caleb asked her gently, his fingers caressing her cheeks, her face.
Shay opened her eyes, and she wondered if she’d imagined the rigid mask he’d worn in that restroom, because the intense emotion in his face captured her soul.
He entered her then, pinning her in an emotion-laden stare, daring her to look away. But she didn’t want to look away. Not even when he sank deep into the depths of her, stretching her, claiming her, the pleasure causing her to quiver. She clung to the emotion in his face, to the message there that said more than words ever could. She didn’t want this to end. She wanted time to stop. He rotated his hips, deepened his position, settled on his elbows above her, lingering, savoring…unmoving. This is what she needed. For now, a voice whispered in her head, not letting her forget there would be a later.
Shay reached up and stroked the lines of his handsome face, traced his lip. He nibbled her fingers, slowly, sensually. She shoved the voice in her head aside and reached for his mouth, but he didn’t give it to her. Instead, he slid his hands to her hair again—she loved the way he was always touching her hair.
“I had it all planned, you know? Telling the truth. The big confession. It would be just like now. Me inside you. Us together like one. So when it came in the bathroom of a restaurant, I couldn’t bring myself to let go of the plan. To let it be less than how I’d planned it. The moment—this moment—when I would tell you, when I am telling you, that I can’t stand the idea of living another day without you. I love you, Shay White. You are, without a doubt, everything that has been missing the past ten years, and I felt every last second of your absence.”
Shay could barely breathe. “You love me.”
A tender smile touched his lips. “Very much. Shay, I want to tell the family. I want to stop hiding. I want us to be together. We’ll talk about how and when, but we have to do it.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “Yes.”
He kissed her then, and Shay lost track of time, in the many ways they pleasured each other. In the number of times they said they loved each other. Shay fell asleep in his arms, in a happy bubble so wonderful, she didn’t think it could ever burst.
That was until someone started pounding on the front door, jerking her to a sitting position, with Caleb following her. He glanced at the clock. “Who the hell is here at two in the morning?” He climbed over Shay to look out the window and cursed. “It’s Kent.”
“Kent?” Shay exclaimed.
“Yes,” Caleb said, already standing up. “I guess we know he’s home from his business trip.” He scavenged for his pants and cursed. “My clothes are in the living room.”
“Oh, God, so are mine,” Shay said, her heart in her throat. “And my purse. You have to hide them. Hide anything that looks like me.”
He stood there, naked, hands on his hips, and stared at her. “I thought we were done hiding.”
“We are,” she said. When the time was right. When she was sure nothing would go wrong. She had to try to make him understand. How could he not understand? “Having Kent find me in your bed when he’s obviously here for some abnormal reason isn’t likely to make him accept us as a couple, Caleb. We have to tell everyone the right way.” A bad thought hit her. “What if he knows? What if he’s here to confront you? What if he’s going to pick a fight? What if—”
He cut her off. “He doesn’t know, Shay.” He shook his head. “Before I go see what he wants, let’s be clear. You actually want to hide in the bedroom while I talk to your brother?”
“Yes,” she said. “I have to.”
He stared at her for a few hard seconds, during which more knocking ensued, and then said, “Whatever, Shay,” and turned away, heading, in all his naked glory, toward the living room.
Oh, yeah. The happy bubble had definitely burst. He was unreasonable and mad.
***
CALEB STALKED TO the living room and shoved on his pants. He snatched up Shay’s things and shoved them under a kitchen counter. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell her brother about them now. It was the something he saw in her eyes that was upsetting him. The panic. The certainty that she was nowhere near ready to come clean with the family about their relationship.
Again stalking, he headed to the door and yanked it open, to find Kent sitting on the front steps, his back to the door. Caleb flipped on the light and stepped outside, into the muggy night air. Kent didn’t turn around, and that spoke volumes. He was having trouble facing Caleb.
Caleb scrubbed the stubble grazing his jaw and sat down next to him. Silent. He was there when Kent was ready to tell him why he was here.
“I screwed up, Caleb,” Kent said. “I screwed up bad.”
“You’re here in one piece,” he said. “Everything else is fixable.”
He grunted and turned to lean against the wooden staircase, moonlight illuminating the sharp lines and strain of his face. “I was thinking about what you said about me not having a dime to my name. You were right. I’m pathetic.”
Caleb turned to rest against the opposite railing. “I never said you were pathetic.”