by Liz Lee
The man met Callah’s eyes and Riley felt the temperature drop a good twenty degrees. “If I knew that answer, ma’am, this would all be over.”
Callah didn’t look reassured. “And what happens if you figure that out too late?”
The man barely showed emotion. “That’s not a concern. Just remember, everything that’s been done was with your safety in mind.”
And with that, the man stood, placed his hat on his head and disappeared out the front door.
Riley watched him go then looked where Callah sat, her head clasped in her hands.
“Callah.” She dropped her hands and blew out a long breath, and he reached across the booth, covered her hands with his. As he did, he tried not to care that she thought of him as a make-believe hero. God knew she was right to think of him in those terms. “He’s one of the good guys, babe.”
The derisive sound she made let him know her thoughts on that score. “How can you say that, Riley? He sat there talking about this as coldly as if he were talking about paint chips or grocery shopping. He didn’t even blink when he said someone wants me dead.” She pulled her hand from his and rubbed her temples.
Riley couldn’t let her ignore what they’d learned. “He cleared your father.”
“If anything he said was true.” She continued looking at the table, and he knew he had to let it go. She wasn’t willing to see the positives yet.
“You’re right about one thing,” he said as he recaptured one of her hands. “He is one seriously scary dude.”
Callah closed her eyes, dropped her head against the booth seat, but she didn’t take her hand away this time. “With a seriously screwed up story. I feel like I’m living in some alternative reality. Like any minute I’m going to wake up and realize I fell asleep with the TV on and this is all an X-Files episode.”
He wanted to make her smile. “Callah, I hate to break it to you. But I’ve been with you for the whole ride and not once have we encountered aliens.”
Callah looked at the empty doorway, her fierce frown still in place. “Would you swear to that, Riley? Because that man could very well have been from outer space.”
“I think there’s a good chance your dad is involved in some serious stuff.”
“He’s sitting in a prison cell right now on treason charges. Yeah, I’d say he’s involved in something beyond my scope of understanding. I bet it’s just coincidental that someone dropped me on his doorstep. Sure.”
Riley shrugged, determined not to argue. Not to take her father’s side in this. Not to make Logan Douglass into some mysterious savior when they had no idea about him or his agenda. “I’m not saying that. Until you get to talk to him, we don’t know what’s coincidence, what’s not. But now we know Douglass is on your side. That for one makes me feel a little safer.”
Callah shivered in her seat. “Well it scares the crap out of me. And frankly, I’m pretty tired of being afraid.”
He could see that. Could see the dark circles around her eyes again. The worry lines on her forehead.
“I wish I could do more.” He ran his finger down her palm and up again.
Callah smiled sadly, hopelessness filling her eyes as she pulled her hand from his. “You whisked me away to your lake house then brought me home. You took on the FBI. You wrote my story. You helped me forget everything this morning when I thought I’d go crazy from it all. What more are you going to do, Riley?”
He could take her mind off this entire mess again. Could let them both pretend that the attraction they felt for each other was normal. That he was something more than a make-believe hero. “What more are you willing to let me do?”
When she smiled, the fear and exhaustion on her face disappeared. She dragged her index finger through the condensation on the outside of the cup in lazy lines, and his mouth went dry. “Damn, Callah.”
She laughed. “You have the most one track mind.”
No sense denying it. “I just assumed we were talking about sex.”
“Are we?”
“Do you want to be?”
She bit her bottom lip as she met his eyes and he saw the honesty there. “I don’t know. I just want all this to be over. And it’s not going to be. Nothing we do will change that. So, I guess, yes. Yes, I want this to be about sex. I want you to take me home right now. Make me forget again. Make me feel something other than helpless.”
His body hardened in response to her words. She was vulnerable. Confused. So damn hot. He could see the want burning in her eyes. Could feel the awareness even though they weren’t touching. They needed to get the hell out of the diner.
He’d pay for this later. Pay for letting this happen when she was so seriously scared. But he couldn’t deny her. Not now. “Your wish is my command, Princess.”
Second verse same as the first. The song lyrics played through Callah’s mind as she watched Riley across the cab of his pickup and wondered why she was even playing with this kind of fire.
They’d already been in this place, this halfway between amazingly hot sex and the brutal reality of the moment. Last time hot sex won. And what good did it do?
He took a corner too fast, and she shivered as she remembered exactly what good it did.
He saw her watching him and misinterpreted her thoughts. “I’d kiss you if I could, but this truck takes two hands.”
She wanted to fill the silence, to say something. But what? Thank you? That was the way to fan the flames of desire, all right.
He took the final corner to her house and pulled into the alley, avoiding the press out front. She started to open the door, but he tugged her across the cab to his side. “You’re way over there and I’m way over here. Too much space.”
She half fell into him, grabbed his shoulders and looked into his eyes. Saw something hidden. Some reluctance on his part. Seeing it she hesitated, almost changed her mind, but then his eyes darkened with desire and she told herself this was what they both wanted.
She pressed her lips to his and almost immediately, the kiss turned hungry, carnal. She could barely breathe, but somehow she pulled her mouth from his, pointed to the house.
“Inside. Fast. I don’t want to see this on the news tomorrow.”
With shaking hands she somehow unlocked the door. Everything in her wanted to turn to him, feel him, taste him. “I’m not used to this, Riley,” she said as she wiggled the key in the lock, willing it to turn.
Riley pressed his hand over hers, and she swore she could feel the thrumming of his pulse as he steadied her hand. The lock tumbled and released.
Riley followed her through the door. Closed it. Wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back to his chest as his breath touched her ear. “I’m not all that used to it either, Callah. Relax.”
His hands brushed down her arms. Soothing. Soft. Wonderful. She let her head fall back against his shoulder. Felt his lips on the side of her neck and wanted to crawl inside him. He turned her to face him, met her eyes with his. “We don’t have to rush this.”
His husky voice brushed across her skin and she wanted to laugh, but she settled for telling him he was wrong. “Yes we do.”
She tore her shirt off, threw it across the couch, pulled his face to hers, met his lips with hungry kisses that showed how ready she was.
She pushed his shirt over his head, ran her hands over his bare chest. Kissed the hard planes and muscles and laughed when he practically growled, “Damn woman, for someone who doesn’t do this sort of thing, you’re doing a fine job of it.”
She laughed. “Shut up and kiss me, Riley.”
And then she couldn’t say much of anything other than oh and ah and yes as he moved his mouth to one breast, then the other. When she tried to undo her bra, he grabbed her hands with his, held them tight and continued the onslaught with his mouth.
She cried out as pressure built inside her from every direction.
He clasped her wrists with one hand then reached up to free her breasts. Finally his mouth was the
re again. Hard. Hot. And still he held her hands captive. She wanted to touch him everywhere, but he refused. Pushing her back slowly, he walked her down the hall toward her bedroom.
She started to move to the bed, but he stopped her with his free hand on her waist. She opened her eyes, ready to protest, but he pulled her in front of him yet again. His chest pressed against her naked back. He was hard and ready, and she wanted him now.
“Open your eyes.” He whispered the words against her ear, and she shivered as she did as he asked.
And there they were. The tousled, sexy woman in front of her looked like someone else. Not her. It couldn’t be. She bit her bottom lip and smiled as her eyes met his in the mirror’s reflection.
“For a good girl, you look pretty damn bad right now, Callah Crenshaw.”
“You’re talking again, Riley.”
He ran his lips down the side of her neck, watching her watching him in the reflection. Naked and exposed and loving every minute of it. He held her wrists behind her back with one hand, and she didn’t even try to protest as he used his free hand to palm her breasts, kneading one, then the other. Using his fingers to tweak the nipples until they beaded hard and sharp and dark. She gasped, never taking her eyes from their reflection.
“So damn sexy.” He whispered the words against her neck as his tongue flicked against her thrumming pulse and she pressed against his hardness, whimpered her need.
Slowly, he brushed her bottom lip with his thumb and she bit his soft skin. He laughed low and easy and she watched, mesmerized, as he slid the bitten digit in his mouth then used its wetness to tease her nipples even more.
“Riley. I want….”
“Shhh.” His lips clasped her ear softly as his free hand slid to the button on her jeans. She inhaled sharply as he flicked it open. And then ever so slowly, he slid the zipper down. Inch by inch, but never touching.
Whimpering again, she looked in the mirror, saw her mouth open, her cheeks red, her lips full.
“Riley.”
When he met her eyes, he whispered against her ear. “Tell me what you want, Callah.”
She wanted him to release her hands, to bury himself in her, to let her break apart in his arms.
“I want you.”
“You’ve got me. Tell me what you want me to do.”
Pressing against his hand, she told him. “I want you inside me.”
He laughed softly again. Tormenting her. And then his finger slid under the side of her panties, found her hot wetness and pressed against the pulse thrumming there.
“Like this?” He whispered the words against her ear, and she felt them clear to her center.
“Yes.”
She tried to free her hands, but he held them tighter. “Don’t fight this, Callah. Let it happen. Watch it happen.”
“I want….”
“Watch, Callah. Watch.”
He set the tempo with his finger, soft but fast, slicking the edge of her sex, brushing the hard nub that threatened to be her undoing in perfect time to the pulse deep inside her.
As he spoke, as his fingers played along her body, she couldn’t take her eyes from the mirror. “Riley.” She said his name again and again, and then, finally, she found her release. Hot, fast, intense.
She collapsed against his chest, closed her eyes as he finally let her wrists go.
For a moment, she didn’t think she could move. Didn’t think she could open her eyes. Not yet. Not and see him there behind her.
She started to turn into his chest, away from the mirror, but he stopped her with his gentle hands on her shoulders. “Look at us, Callah. Look at you.”
The temptation in his voice called to her and she did as he asked and there they were. Still standing half dressed, and her completely spent. The woman staring back at her was a stranger. An uninhibited, desirable, sexual creature who went after what she wanted. Something in her heart broke free at the sight. He couldn’t know. Couldn’t begin to understand the gift he’d given her.
When his eyes met hers, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and pulled her to him, cupped her hand against his hardened arousal.
“You’re driving me completely insane. When I’m with you, I want you. Completely. Like this. It doesn’t matter where we are. What we’re doing. This is what I’m thinking about.”
As he spoke the words, Callah laughed, determined to show him he wasn’t the only one.
Riley watched the hooded sexual awareness come back over Callah’s eyes as her palm pressed his hardness, and he sucked in his breath.
How could this woman have ever believed she wasn’t sexy as hell? He turned her in his arms and smiled when she pulled his mouth to hers.
The kiss was hot and deep and carnal. He feasted on her lips, let her feast on his, even though what he wanted was to sink deep inside her. Now. But this exploration was important for her. He knew that. If they were going to do this again, they’d do it right.
“We didn’t even undress.” She laughed against his mouth, and he smiled.
“We didn’t need to.”
She pulled away from him, grabbed his hands and led him to her bed.
A few seconds later they were naked, sprawled on her comforter, and he was bringing her to climax again, this time with his mouth. When she screamed his name, he thought maybe it was enough to heal the place inside him that wanted her ferociously all the while believing he’d never be good enough. Never be the one.
He hadn’t truly realized that thought still controlled him where she was concerned. Even though he’d spent the better part of the last day and half calling her princess, seeing her as that girl she’d been with the eyes of the boy he’d been, he hadn’t realized how deep those old feelings still ran. Not until the diner when she’d called him her make-believe hero.
She stilled beneath him for a few moments and he brought her to climax yet again, this time moving her almost to tears as she whispered his name, begged him to enter her, to finish what they’d started.
And even as she begged, he held back, determined to make this a moment she’d never forget. Determined in some way to mark her forever. So that when this holy hell of hers worked itself out, she’d still look back on this night and remember. And maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to go back to his life of one day at a time, just getting by.
She stilled beneath him again. Her breath slowly returned to normal, and she ran her fingers through his hair as he kissed her stomach, her side.
Testing, he ran his fingers along the cleft between her legs and still, she gasped as her stomach muscles quivered and her legs fell open to give him more room.
He slipped on a condom as he kissed her, and as he did, he felt her relax, ready for the moment they’d been building toward all night.
“Riley?” The question was tentative, unsure. Even after a day spent making love, she didn’t trust him.
He pushed the thought away and kissed her neck, her breasts, her belly.
Then he turned her, knelt behind her and finally, finally thrust inside, slow at first, but he couldn’t continue the slow pace. Not with her begging him to go faster, deeper, please.
She threw her head back as he led her toward climax, and still he continued.
Finally, with a growl he found his release. She collapsed under him seconds later, and he knew she’d found hers once again.
And then she slept. He wasn’t sure he would ever sleep again.
When Callah woke she found Riley’s fathomless blue eyes watching her, and she smiled. This man had awoken a part of her she’d never known existed. So why was he frowning?
She drew a lazy circle on his upper arm. “You okay?”
“Umm.”
One word answer. Not even a real word.
He kissed her shoulder then her neck, and she knew he was trying to distract her. To keep her from asking him what was wrong.
For a moment she considered letting him get away with the stealth move. After all, he didn’t owe her explanations
. They’d shared an incredible day of lovemaking. He’d helped her forget the mess of her life. But he didn’t know how he’d changed her.
Her breath shuddered as he drew a lazy circle along her back, over her stomach, lower. “What’s wrong, Riley?” Her voice shook with desire as she asked the question.
He kissed her instead of answering. Deep, soulful.
Pulling back from him, she waited until he met her eyes and asked again. “What’s going on, Riley?”
“Don’t talk, Callah. Feel.”
She couldn’t fight him. That was her last thought as she went under yet again.
The next morning, Callah lay on the bed listening to Riley’s easy, deep breaths.
Whatever’d been bothering him had obviously ceased to be a problem.
She hugged herself, amazed that she could feel so completely alive after a night spent in arousal. How could she be so happy when everything outside of this house was so crazy?
Shivered, she rubbed her hands down her arms and decided it was time to face the real world once again. She’d had her break, courtesy of Riley Sorenson. But they couldn’t live in bed. She needed to think more about Logan Douglass, her father and whatever else might be going on. And surely Riley needed to go to work.
Quietly as possible, she slid out of bed, got dressed and kissed Riley softly. He opened his eyes and his seductive smile slid back in place.
“Hey.”
She smiled back. “Hey yourself. You better get up.”
“Why? You got a hot date?”
God, barely awake and his voice was even sexier than normal. She laughed. “I think I’m all hot dated out. But I believe the newspaper might be expecting their ace reporter to show up today.”
He covered his eyes with his arm. “The job can wait. At least that job can. Come on back to bed and let me show you some of my other talents.”
As much as she wanted to, she shook her head and walked to her dresser. “Get dressed, stud muffin.”
When she turned to her mirror, he groaned and she watched him pull his clothes on while she put her hair up in a ponytail.