He could get her up to the porch. There was a darkened corner there—
Tessa moaned out his name and he went rigid.
What the fuck are you doing?
Slowly, he eased away.
When she tried to follow his mouth, he brushed hers with soft, soothing kisses.
There was no way in hell he could possibly do this.
Not with Tessa.
She’d finally seen him.
He couldn’t risk blowing it.
A few strained seconds passed, her heaving chest rising to meet his own and then she opened her eyes.
They stared at each other in the light coming down on them from the garage.
He twined one lock of golden hair around his finger.
“There’s a game tomorrow.”
She blinked.
“Baseball.”
“Yeah?” She licked her lips and Caleb could have whimpered when her lashes fluttered and a low hum echoed out of her throat.
“Maybe we could go.”
“Yeah. Maybe we could.”
∞
Tessa glanced at the clock as she settled down behind her computer.
She’d left the office over an hour ago and she wasn’t due to return for ten days.
Ten whole days.
She had three days booked at a cabin in the Shenandoah Mountains where she would read, lounge in a hot tub, and do nothing but lay around. Then she would do the same thing here. Nothing glamorous, but she was looking forward to it.
And then there were a few dates with Caleb.
The first one was tonight.
In twenty minutes.
Since she had some time to kill, she was going to download some books for her upcoming laze-away.
But instead of going to browse around the bookstore’s website, she found herself at her inbox.
She only checked in her personal inbox once or twice a week—or that’s about how often she needed to check it.
There had been a time when she’d checked it daily—sometimes more.
Because she’d be waiting for a note.
It had been three weeks since she’d heard from him.
Her secret admirer.
He’d told her soon, and then he’d all but dropped off the face of the planet.
Out of the blue, he’d up and sent her an email. It was a short little dirty piece about them. A fantasy, of sorts, she guessed.
He told her about how he’d imagined taking her out.
She was dressed in a way that made him think about all the ways he wanted to take her, and make her his.
By the time the night was over, he’d been so greedy for her, when they got home, they got out of the car and hadn’t made it any farther.
∞
I push the skirt you’re wearing up over your ass, pretty little Tess. Did you wear it to tease me?
You’re moaning as I bend you over the hood of the car. It’s still hot from the drive, but you’re hotter.
You burn me as I squeeze my dick inside you. Can you feel it? Squeeze down around me and let me feel it.
I want to feel you come as I push inside. You’re wet and you’re gripping me. Just like that.
She read through the email, her face flushed.
She skipped to the next one.
It was a poem, a famous one.
I read this and thought of you.
Below those words was the poem, May I Feel Said He, by E.E. Cummings.
She skipped to the next email.
Through the open front door, she heard a door slam and she jumped.
Shaking, she closed the email.
Then, in a fit, she deleted them.
For some insane reason, Tessa felt guilty.
She didn’t even know why, but she felt guilty. Like reading these emails from a man who had been flirting with her for months was…cheating.
“It’s not like Caleb doesn’t know about him,” she muttered, shoving back from her desk.
Her skin was hot, flushed. Her heart was racing and she was panting, like she’d run a race.. All because she’d let herself read those emails. Let herself think about him again.
“I’ve got to quit this.”
Staring through the window, she watched as Caleb carried some grocery bags into the house.
He’d be over here soon.
They were going bowling.
Bowling. She found herself smiling because she hadn’t been bowling in years. Turning her head, she stared at the computer. Would her secret admirer think to take her bowling? Lately, he didn’t even think to contact her.
She bit her lip while indecision warred inside her.
So many things about Caleb felt right.
But the wild, crazy freefall with her secret admirer…that felt good.
What if this thing with Caleb didn’t work out and she’d told her secret admirer to stop? Then she would just be…alone?
Moving across the floor, she stared at the books that lined her shelves from floor to ceiling. Caleb had built them for her, one summer when he had a longer leave than normal, thanks to an injury. He’d built the bookshelves, helped her paint them and even then, he hadn’t stopped. He’d teased her endlessly as he helped her put her books into place, everything from Where the Red Fern Grows to The Story of O. Her favorite authors ranged from Laura Ingalls Wilder to J.D Robb and from John Grisham to Sylvia Day.
He’d thumbed through her copy of The Story of O and wagged his brows at her. “Maybe I should borrow this, see if I can learn something.”
She’d thrown a pillow at him.
Taking the book down, she opened it, but she wasn’t seeing anything on the page.
She was thinking about words written to her in an email.
Why are you marrying that guy, Tessa?
He can’t give you what you need.
You know what you dream about.
I know what you dream about…and I can give it to you.
She groaned, because he’d been all too descriptive. And all too right. She wasn’t experienced, but Tessa’s fantasies had never veered toward the sweet and innocent. Or the tame.
What if the guy who could give her what she needed was the man whose name she didn’t know?
Feeling a set of eyes on her, she looked up.
Caleb was standing in the doorway.
Watching her.
She put the book up and smiled at him. “Come on in,” she said.
He came in, his movements soundless, his gaze watchful. Almost thoughtful. His eyes slid from her face to the book and then back. “Planning for your next reading club?” he asked, his voice low and teasing.
“No.” An embarrassed laugh escaped and she turned away from her bookshelves. “Some of the ladies at book club, man, if they knew the books I read, they just might have a heart attack.”
She started to walk away, but Caleb’s hands closed around her waist.
A shiver raced up her spine.
“They’ve no idea about some of your secrets then,” he said. His breath caressed her neck.
The words made heat spill through her.
When he moved closer, she closed her eyes and let her head fall back against his shoulder. “Do you?” she asked, thinking about the emails she’d been reading, about the questions and doubts she harbored inside.
What would he do, she wondered, if he knew about some of things she dreamed about. About some of the things she longed for? Would he think she was perverse? Tyson had. She’d never outright told Tyson about some of the things she dreamed about, but she’d sketched hypotheticals. It had been easy, thanks to the popularity of the Fifty Shades thing. She’d been into BDSM lit way before that book had even come onto the scene, but she’d bought a copy of the book, casual-like, and Tyson’s mouth had pinched as though she’d shoved a lemon into it. Her former fiancé would have thought she was a perverted freak.
Caleb…
Slowly, she turned in his arms and lifted her gaze up to him.
He thread
ed his hand through her hair. “What secrets you hiding, Tess?” he asked.
∞
The nervous smile she gave him just about twisted Caleb’s gut into knots.
She curled her arms around his waist and leaned in, letting him take some of her weight and he smothered a groan at the feel of her breasts, soft and sweet, flattening against his chest. Her nipples were stiff. He could feel it through her bra and her t-shirt and he wanted to strip both garments away so he could taste those nipples, feel them against his tongue.
“Lots of them.” She bit her lip and then glanced back at her bookshelf. “Reading’s supposed to expand your mind. It’s definitely done that. It also made me…”
Her words stuttered to a stop and he watched as her cheeks went pink. The blush was almost the same shade as her top and her eyes were hot and bright. Nervous. Excited. Slowly, he slid his gaze past hers to the bookshelf, as if studying it for the first time. Not that he needed to look. He knew every damn book on it. Most of them weren’t his sort of thing, but after he’d seen her reading one of the books—a classic among those who enjoyed a certain lifestyle, he’d started paying a lot more attention to her reading material.
Just about all of them were heavy on the romance. And every single one was heavy on the erotic.
“Made you what, Tess?” he asked as he laid his hands on her shoulders.
Her breathing hitched. She licked her lips. Then she shrugged. “Curious…?”
He kissed her.
It was quick, hard and fast and it wasn’t enough, but if he didn’t kiss her then, he thought he just might go out of his mind.
Just that one kiss, he told himself.
She moaned into his mouth.
He angled her head back, twisting his fingers in her hair and cranking her head back until he had her mouth angled where he wanted it. Walking her back, he maneuvered her until she was trapped between him and the couch and then he used his foot to nudge her ankles apart, widening her stance so that he could rest his hips in the cradle of hers.
She shuddered.
Gripping her hip, he held her steady and then moved against her. When she started to shake, he had to fight not to step back and tear her clothes off, bend her over that couch, and drive his dick deep, deep, deep inside her.
“Curious, Tess?” he asked, breaking the kiss and gliding his lips up to her ear. “Curious about…”
Her head fell back, her eyes staring sightlessly up at the ceiling.
He circled his hips against her.
She whimpered.
“I’m curious, too,” he said against her ear. “Can I tell you what I’m curious about?”
There was no response for so long, he started to wonder if she’d heard. But then she nodded her head. It was a movement so small, he might have missed it if he hadn’t been waiting. Once he had that small assent, he slid his hand down to the button of her jeans and toyed with it. “I want to see you naked. I want to taste you. All of you. Then I want to spread you out on the floor and fill you while you moan out my name. I’ve wanted that a long time, but…well, seeing as how we’re friends, it wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to bring up.”
Caleb lifted his head and stared into her eyes.
She was watching him, stunned, shocked.
“Since we’re on the subject, though…” He lowered his mouth to hers again and licked the delicate bow of her upper lip. “Tessa, I really do want to see you naked.”
He said it because he wanted her aware of the idea.
He said it because he was tired of her not knowing.
He said it…because he wasn’t going to do anything about it tonight.
But when he stepped back, Tessa reached for the hem of her shirt.
As it fell from her fingertips, Caleb stared at her as though he’d been poleaxed.
Firm, high breasts filled a bra of palest ivory. Her nipples were pink and he could see them through the lace. Her shoulders were strong, strong and wide, and they suited the lovely weight of her breasts. As he stared at her, he thought about going to his knees in front of her. It was the first time he’d ever had that thought. But he doubted it would be the last. Tessa was the one woman who could bring him to his knees.
She stared at him, nerves written all over her face while her eyes glinted and burned.
“Well?” she asked, her voice breathless.
She sure as hell didn’t have to offer the invitation again.
He hauled her up against him and when she would have gasped out his name, he smothered the sound with his lips. Hungry, greedy for what he’d needed for what felt like a lifetime, Caleb caught her bra and all but yanked it down, baring her breasts and catching one plump nipple in his mouth.
Tessa’s garbled shriek bounced off the walls.
He half-thought about picking her up, carrying her to her room. Deciding it was too far away.
The couch?
He boosted her up and settled her on it. She wrapped her legs around him, her knees squeezing at his hips. He grunted as the wet heat of her cuddled against his cock, even through their clothes. Impatient, he held her steady as he started to pump against her. “I want you,” he rasped against her mouth. “Want you wet and naked, squeezing around my cock. Yes, or no. Tell me now.”
∞
Her head was spinning.
What…
How…
Huh?
All of that seemed to combine in her head, forming a demanding question that had only one answer.
Caleb.
When he pulled away just enough to speak against her lips, one simple demand, all she could think was, “Yes.”
And that was what she said.
If she’d thought her head was spinning then, she really wasn’t ready for what came next. In the span of what seemed like a split second, she went from somewhat clothed—her bra twisted beneath her breasts while she wore her jeans and underwear—to nothing. How she ended up naked, she had no idea and she didn’t care, because being naked made it really, really easy to feel the hot, heavy weight of Caleb’s body and it was…amazing.
He was all lean muscle.
When he lifted up and pulled off his shirt, Tessa had a few—admittedly too few—seconds to admire the scarred perfection of his chest before he came back down on her. When had they ended up on the floor?
She didn’t know.
She didn’t care.
She gripped at his shoulders as he began to kiss his way down her torso.
Was he…
Caleb’s teeth scraped over her hip.
Oh, yeah. He was.
His tongue flicked over her clitoris.
She wailed and arched up.
His hands cupped her ass and he lifted her. When he pushed his tongue inside her, Tessa thought she just might explode from the pleasure. It was going to kill her. And if that didn’t—
He teased her between the cheeks of her ass and she moaned, shivering as he parted her there and then pressed up against her. “Caleb…?”
He pushed inside.
She came.
It was hard and fast and she was still convulsing from it when he came up her body and drove inside.
She screamed, but this time, the sound had an edge of pain in it.
Caleb froze over her, his arms locked tight as he stared down at her.
Her eyes, wide and startled, met his.
“Tessa?”
She sucked in a breath and beneath him, he could feel her squirming, struggling to adjust to his weight—to him—the silken glide of her pussy along his cock had him shuddering and he reached down, caught her hip. “Don’t.”
She stiffened.
All that did was tighten her around him, like a fist. Clenching and squeezing…
Caleb could have sworn sweat popped out on his brow in that very second.
“I…” He gulped in a harsh breath and then focused on her face. “Just be still.”
“I can’t really move with you crushing me,” she said.
He almost laughed. Shifting his weight, he slid his elbows under her shoulders, bracing her. Then, slowly, he withdrew.
She winced and he brushed a gentle kiss against her lips. “You’re a virgin. I…fuck, I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
Tessa’s breasts shuddered as she drew in an unsteady breath. “I…I’m fine. Am—everything’s okay, isn’t it?”
“Oh, more then.” Tenderness, possessiveness and primitive greed flooded him as he rubbed his mouth against hers. Mine, he thought. She’s mine…only mine. Eyes on hers, he changed his angle as he slowly pushed back inside.
“Oh…” A soft, breathy moan escaped her.
“Am I hurting you?”
“It’s…” She winced again as he withdrew. “Not bad.”
He bit her chin. “Liar.” Then he adjusted his angle and slid one hand down, bringing her knee to his hip. Then, once more, he slid in, pulled out…and a low, rough moan escaped her. “Not bad,” he teased.
Not bad—
Tessa wanted to yell, beg, scream, plead. Wanted more, needed more, but she didn’t know how to ask and she seemed to have forgotten how to breathe as well. He stroked deeper this time and it knocked the breath out of her, making her cry out and Caleb looked pretty pleased with that. His lips brushed over hers and she opened, trying to kiss him, trying to tell him what she needed.
But he just brushed another soft, teasing kiss.
“Harder,” she managed to say.
He lifted his head up, studied her. “Tessa…”
“Please!”
He drove into her harder.
She tensed.
He paused. “Tessa?”
“Caleb, please!”
He withdrew, the motion slow…
She held her breath.
And he knocked it completely out of her again when he surged in, deep, so deep she lost track of where he ended and she began. The pain was there, slicing and burning, but it mingled with the sweetest, hottest pleasure.
This—
He gripped her ass, lifted her higher.
She moaned out his name.
The noise that escaped him was savage, demanding, possessive.
“Come for me,” he said against her mouth. “I want to feel you come.”
The words, hot, sexy, demanding, rolled across her skin like silken fire but she was already caught up in the grip of her orgasm and she never really understood just what he was saying.
Seduced in Secret Page 4