by Aly Martinez
“Chains, huh?” she questions with a sexy smile pulling at her lips that goes directly to my cock.
“Oh, Emmy, you need to leave. I’m about thirty seconds away from bending you over this desk. I’d probably lose my job for cuffing you then fucking you in the middle of the office. But if you throw another one of those smiles my way, I might be willing to choose a new career path.”
Emma chokes out a surprised laugh. “Well we can’t have that. I’m too high maintenance for you to be unemployed.” She tries to cover it with a joke, but judging by her nipples suddenly peaked under her shirt, she’s turned on. The mental image of those beautiful pink nipples gives me an idea.
“Give me a hug then get out of here.” I pull her hard against my body for what any outsider would assume is an innocent goodbye gesture. I squeeze her tight then whisper into her ear, “Your nipples are so responsive to me, and tonight, we are going to do a little experimenting. See, I like a challenge too. It just dawned on me that I’ve never made you come without touching your pussy. I have no doubt it can and will be done tonight though. It’s just going to be my hands, mouth, and these.” I bring a hand between us and gently brush over her nipple.
I quickly release her and step away. She sways, almost tipping over at my sudden departure. She can’t hide the lust behind her eyes any more than I can hide my hard-on.
“You always do make the best plans.” she breathes, straightening her un-messed hair. “I’ll be at your place at six. Don’t be late.” She leans forward for a light peck then walks out the door.
I watch her ass as she walks away. I don’t know what I did to deserve a woman as amazing as Emma. It sure as hell wasn’t being kind or forgiving. But regardless of why, I silently thank the Lord for whatever it was.
“HUNTER!” EMMA squeals.
I watch as some asshole picks up my woman and spins her around like they are in the middle of some atrocious romantic comedy.
“Hey, sugar,” he says, putting her back on her feet.
It’s been six weeks since Emma moved up to Chicago, and “the guys,” as she calls them, are just now dragging their lazy asses up here with all her stuff.
Emma and I have been doing really well at balancing our lives together. We acknowledge Sarah but never discuss her. Emma goes to visit her twice a week at rehab, and on those nights, I lock myself in the shop and catch up on my woodworks. Yeah, it’s my way of being a bitter dick without taking it out on Emma. It never gets easier, knowing that Emma is spending time with the woman I hate most in this world. I did, however, agree to make it work. And if it means I get to keep Emma, I can bottle that hate up. I’m just terrified it will eventually explode.
Emma and I spend more time together than apart. I’m not falling in love with Emma. Oh, I’ve more than passed that. I am unquestionably in love with Emma Jane Erickson. And while that feeling usually elates me, some days it scares the ever-living shit out of me. I never thought I would feel this way again after Manda, and I am constantly on the edge of my seat waiting for it all to be snatched away from me again. That alone is the only reason why I haven’t told her how I feel yet. I think Emma loves me too, but I want to give it some time before I drop the L-bomb on her. That shit changes everything—for better or worse.
So I stand here watching her fawn all over these two guys, and it isn’t sitting well with me. I’m not usually a jealous guy, but no other man should be looking at her the way this “Hunter” guy is right now.
“Caleb Jones.” I extend a hand, forcing him to release her in order to shake it.
“Hunter Coy,” he answers, giving my hand an unnecessarily hard squeeze.
Oh yeah, this asshole is challenging me.
“Caleb, these are my best friends Hunter and Alex.”
I extend a hand to the big guy who towers over me. Alex is huge and, thankfully, a bit standoffish with Emma. He gave her a hug when they first got here, but he quickly released her. Unlike this Hunter prick, who ran into her arms with his ridiculously tight nut-huggers and frat-boy-pink polo shirt.
“I can’t believe y’all are here!” Emma jumps around, and both of these jerk-offs’ eyes glance down at her boobs. Yeah, this little visit isn’t going to end well.
“All right, let’s get this unloaded so you guys can get some rest. I’m sure you’re tired from the drive. What hotel are you staying at?” I ask the big guy.
“Caleb! They’re staying with me. You know that. Quit being a dick,” Emma says, calling me on my bullshit.
I roll my eyes and head to the back of the U-Haul, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible. Three days. They are only in town for three days.
“I want to go out tonight,” Hunter states, once again pulling Emma against his side.
“Yes! Let’s do it. Hey, babe!” Emma yells. “You want to go out with us tonight? I bet they would love that bar we went to in the city.”
“Yeah, sounds good,” I lie. It sounds like shit idea, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let Emma go out with these two alone.
“You grab the back. I’ll get the front,” Alex says, pointing to the dresser at the opening of the packed truck.
“Yep. One, two, three.” We both lift the dresser and carry it toward the door.
Hunter and Emma are still talking and laughing on the sidewalk.
“Little help here?” I shout pointedly at Hunter.
“Shit. Yeah. Sorry, man.” He leans forward and kisses her on the forehead before running our way.
It’s all I can do not to drop this dresser. He kissed her—right in fucking front of me.
And just in case that alone didn’t have my blood boiling, he finishes it off by saying, “I’ve really missed you, sugar.”
Hunter and I will be having words tonight. I don’t care if it does piss Emma off. She’ll have to get over it.
“HELLO.”
“Hey,” Sarah says flatly.
“Hey!” I squeal back at her.
I love when Sarah calls. Things have been going great since my first visit with Dr. Clark. I get to see her twice a week, and she usually calls once, but it’s always at random times. We’ve been spending this time getting to know each other all over again. She’s really not that different, but I let her pretend that she is.
“What are you doing?” she asks, trying to strike up conversation.
“Just moving in.”
“So the guys finally brought all your shit up?”
“Yeah. It probably took this long just to pack the truck. I did not realize how much stuff I have.”
“You never were a minimalist,” she jokes.
“Oh and you are? You forget I moved all your stuff too.”
“Where do you want all your photography stuff, sweetheart?” Caleb says walking into the bedroom I’m currently hiding in.
“Who was that?” Sarah quickly asks even though I can tell by the tone of her voice that she knows exactly who it is.
Sarah and I are doing really well, but I still haven’t broached the whole Caleb topic. I just figured it would be a topic better saved for later in her treatment and recovery.
“Oh just one of the guys helping me move.”
Caleb lifts a questioning eyebrow, but I shake my head and try to push him out of the room. He doesn’t budge though, but he suddenly becomes very interested in my phone call. He crosses his arms and leans against the doorjamb. All I can do is roll my eyes and go back to the conversation.
“So what are you up to?” I try to ignore the hot, tattooed elephant in the room.
“Why is Caleb Jones helping you move?” she asks, obviously recognizing his voice.
I flat-out lie to her. “Um, he offered to help.”
“You know he used to call Manda sweetheart?”
“What?!” I shout, whipping around to face him.
“What’s going on, Emma?” she asks.
“Shit, Sarah. I…” I stumble over my words. Caleb’s eyes go wide, and the veins in his neck begin to strain
. “We’ve been seeing each other since I moved up here.”
“What. The. Fuck!” she screams.
“I’m sorry! I should have told you sooner. I just didn’t want to upset you. I mean, I’m not even sure how serious it is.” I lie again, frantically trying to backtrack out of situation that might hinder her recovery.
“No, what you should have done is not started fucking my best friend’s fiancé!” she screams so loud I have to pull the phone away from my ear.
Fantastic. I’ve downplayed it too much and now she thinks we are just sleeping together. I glance up at Caleb, whose wide eyes have turned murderous.
“Sarah, it’s not what you think.”
“What is it then?” she yells back at me.
“We started talking a couple of months ago when I first came up.” I begin to explain everything so that hopefully she will understand, but she quickly interrupts me.
“Did he tell you that he hates me? That he blames me completely for the wreck and killing Manda? That he thinks I should pay for it?”
“Sarah, no one blames you for the wreck.”
The lies won’t stop coming out. I once again glance up at Caleb, who might as well have flames shooting from his ears. I’m trying to talk my way out of this, yet I only seem to be digging myself deeper.
“Caleb does! For fuck’s sake, Emma. You can’t be this stupid. He is going to use you to get to me. He is hateful and calculating and will do just about anything he can to hurt me. And in this case, he is doing you! Wake the fuck up!” she screams before hanging up on me.
“Shit!” I quickly begin looking through my numbers to find one for Building Foundations on speed dial. “Hi, Judy, this is Emma Erickson. Can you have someone go check on Sarah? We just had a pretty big argument. I just want to make sure she doesn’t do anything rash.”
“Sure thing. I’ll call you if anything is wrong,” she says reassuringly.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
I hang up the phone and turn my attention back to the man who is damn near exploding in the doorway.
“What?” I scream, becoming increasingly pissed off by his over-the-top reaction.
“Where do you want me to start?” he hisses.
“Oh God, stop the dramatics. Just tell me what you’re pissed about already.”
“You never told her about us, but then again, why would you? It’s not like we’re serious or anything.” He doesn’t say another word before he turns and heads for the door.
“Caleb, you’re acting like a baby!” I shout at his back.
It’s probably not the smartest thing I ever could have yelled, but I’m pissed. If he doesn’t understand why I didn’t tell her or why I tried to downplay it, then he isn’t as smart as I thought.
“Fuck you, Emmy,” he says over his shoulder, charging for the front door.
“Hey, dickhead. Don’t talk to her like that,” I hear Hunter say from the other room, and I know this just got a hell of a lot worse.
I rush into the den and find Caleb standing nose to nose with Hunter, with Alex pushing into the middle to separate them.
“Enough. Everyone just quit!” I yell, trying to break up the chaos.
Caleb’s chilly gaze swings to mine. “Gladly,” he says before walking out the front door, slamming it hard behind him.
I’m so mad right now—at him, at Sarah, at myself—but Caleb is the only one close enough for me to take my anger out on. I immediately head out the front door, catching him just steps away from his truck.
“You recycled ‘sweetheart,’” I say accusingly.
He freezes and slowly turns to face me. “What does that even mean?” he snaps, anger seething from his body.
“You used to call Manda sweetheart.”
“And?” he asks with genuine confusion on my face.
“Well, you call me sweetheart! I thought it was something special. But now I find out it’s just a generic term you use for people you sleep with.”
His already pissed eyes turn dark as he steps in close. “First of all, since apparently you think I recycled the word sweetheart, you need to know a few things. One, I was no more ‘just sleeping with Manda’ any more than I am with you. Two, I was with Manda for years. I also called her babe, baby, honey, love, beautiful, gorgeous, honey buns, sweet cheeks, darling, dear, hot ass, and most recently, angel. Should I also strike all those words from my vocabulary as well?” He lifts an eyebrow while staring down at me. Suddenly I feel like an ass, but Caleb keeps going just to drill that home. “However, never in my life have I called another woman Emmy. Focus on whichever name you would like, but I know the only one that counts.”
How the fuck did I just go from anger to guilt in three sentences? I try to pull myself together and give a bitchy response, but damn. He has a point.
“Caleb.”
“No. Listen to me, Emmy. I’m the type of person who gives the women in my life pet names. It’s what I do. I call Jesse baby girl, my niece Lulu, and my sister bubbles. I’m sorry if that bothers you, but that is what I do for the women I love. I think of disgustingly silly names to make them special. You are and have always been Emmy.”
I suck in a stunned breath. Thank God we are standing outside, because if we were inside, I have no doubt that I would have sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Did Caleb just say that he’s in love with me?
“You’re in love with me?”
“No,” he says very shortly, and the sudden pain in my chest surprises me. “I am absolutely not in love with you. Because that would imply that I could ever be out of love with you. But, Emmy, I do love you. Plain and simple.”
“What?” I breathe as shock settles over me.
“I get it. Obviously we’re on different pages. I didn’t know ‘we weren’t that serious,’” he says, being sure to throw the air quotes my way. “Somehow, I mistakenly—”
I have to cut him off. When Caleb gets on a roll, there is a very good chance he will never come up for air.
“Stop! Just shut up for ten seconds and let me process this!”
“I don’t want you to process it. I want you to feel it!” he yells, turning back toward his truck.
“I love you too, Caleb. I also hate you because you are a broody ass who hates my sister. Don’t think I don’t notice that you head to the shop every night I visit her. I deal with it because I love you too—no matter how fucked up that huge detail in our relationship may be. You are not exactly the easiest man to love, you know? I may have Sarah, but you have a shit-ton of baggage of your own.
“So far, I have been warned off of you because they either think you are using me or that we are going to destroy each other or some screwed up combination of the two—that you are only using me to destroy Sarah. At this junction in time, I happen to believe neither one of us will be left standing when this ends.”
“Well, I’ve been on my knees for a long time, Emmy. I’m ready to fucking stand again, even if it means I have to fall when this ends.”
“Caleb,” I whisper as the anger ebbs from my body.
He runs a defeated hand through his hair and begins to once again head to his truck.
“Please wait.” My feet become unstuck from the ground and I quickly close the distance between us. I slam into his back just as he pulls open the door to his truck. I wrap my arms around his waist and bury my face between his shoulder blades. “I’m sorry.”
“Emmy, what the fuck are we doing here?”
“Currently? I’m physically restraining you while begging you not to leave.”
“I’m serious,” he says, turning in my arms but keeping me pulled tight against his chest.
“Well, you were overreacting as usual, and I was acting kind of bitchy—again, as usual. Sounds like par for the course for us.”
“Please. Just be serious for a minute.”
I let out a frustrated growl. “Look, I didn’t want to tell Sarah and set her back in treatment. I knew she wouldn’t app
rove. I just thought maybe it would be easier to tell her when we were a little more established and I knew where our relationship was headed. Like maybe…now.”
“I get it. That’s the same reason I didn’t say anything to Brett at first. This is just really hard, sweetheart…I mean, Emmy.”
“No, I like sweetheart.” I look up and catch his mouth in a soft kiss. “So you love me, huh?” I smile.
He holds up his fingers about an inch apart and says, “Little bit.”
“Oh, come on! I love you at least this much.” I spread my fingers about three inches.
He gives me a smirk that Caleb should be famous for. It’s bad-boy sexy but still warm and tender. “Tell me you’re mine.”
I lean into his chest and take a deep breath of his scent. He’s sweaty and sticky from working hard at moving all of my stuff, but he still smells amazing. Part sweat, part soap, and one hundred percent Caleb.
“I’m yours,” I whisper into his neck, giving him the one sentence he asks for daily. It’s true, and it always has been.
“Fuck!” He quickly lifts me off my feet and pushes me against the side of his truck. I wrap my legs around his waist just as his hand roughly moves over my breast and up the back of my neck. He looks deep into my eyes and demands, “Say it again.”
“I’m—” I begin, but I’m interrupted.
“You all right, Emma?” Hunter yells from the doorway.
“I’m fine. We’ll be there in a minute.”
Caleb lets out a string of curses while staring up at the sky. “Fucking prick!”
“Oh, stop it. He’s a good guy. Give him a chance. Will you please still go out with us tonight?” I beg, being sure to add my pouty lip that never works on him.
“Fine, but here is how it’s going down. Tonight, I will put on my best happy face. But I swear to God, if he touches you, I’m going to lose my shit. I’ll try to keep in under wraps, but you’re going to have to help me out a little too. Don’t encourage him, and for the love of God, stop bouncing your tits in their faces. Alex is a big dude. That fight would not end well for anyone involved.”
I let out a loud laugh. “Okay, no touching and no shaking. I think I can handle that.”