But she couldn’t force him to feel things he didn’t. And maybe he was right, and it really was the unusual circumstances under which they’d met that had created a false image of what was real and what wasn’t.
She knew what she’d felt for Caleb last night. What she still felt for him now. But maybe once she was away from him and this situation, she would be able to see it for what it really was: gratitude on her part, expediency on Caleb’s.
“You’re right.” She gave him a warm smile. “We should just forget it ever happened and move on.”
Caleb didn’t remember saying quite that, but if it was how Lena wanted to deal with it, so be it. He had no right to expect any more from her after what she had already been through. No right to think last night had meant the same to her as it had him. All of it. The lovemaking. The way she had soothed him after the nightmares.
The way I rejected her afterward!
Well, yes, he had done that. But he still believed he had done it for the right reasons. He didn’t want a pity fuck from Lena. That would have been almost as bad as allowing Dmitri to take her against her will. Thank God that hadn’t happened. He had no doubts from her response that Lena had been with him completely during their lovemaking.
He held his arm out to her. “Shall we go back and rejoin the others?”
She tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. “Yes, let’s.”
“I guess this is good-bye.”
Lena felt the sting of tears in her eyes as she gazed up at Caleb.
They had arrived in England on the Androccan royal jet just a few minutes ago. Everyone else had already departed the plane, as if having unanimously decided they would give her and Caleb a couple of minutes’ privacy in which to say that good-bye.
Lena appreciated their thoughtfulness, knowing once she stepped off the plane, her parents and Angela Sinclair would be waiting to welcome her home. There wouldn’t be another opportunity for her to speak with Caleb on their own.
It wasn’t helping that he looked heart-stoppingly gorgeous. His shoulder-length hair was loose and gleaming darkly in the sunlight shining in through the windows, his eyes were a warm pale green, his sensuous mouth utterly kissable. He also looked almost as dangerous as Gabriel, dressed completely in black: T-shirt, combat trousers, biker boots.
And looking at him made Lena’s heart skip several beats.
“For now, at least,” he added. “I’ll probably see you again at Angel and Gabriel’s wedding?”
Her smile was shaky. “If I’m invited.”
“You will be.”
“When is it?” She desperately needed some time scale of when she might see Caleb again…
“Depends how quickly Angel gets her divorce from Sinclair.”
She bit back her disappointment. “Of course. I— Thank you for everything, Caleb… God, those words don’t sound nearly enough for what you did for me!” she choked.
His expression softened. “Maybe if they were accompanied by a hug?”
“God, yes.” She laughed through the threatening tears as she launched herself at him, her arms about his shoulders and her face pressed against his chest. He smelled so good, of lemon bodywash and spicy aftershave and the male musk that was all Caleb. Lena could happily have curled up in his arms, been surrounded by him, for the rest of her life.
“Forgive me?”
She lifted her head to look at him quizzically. “Forgive you for what?”
Caleb grimaced. “Everything. Being that bastard Dmitri Volkov. The fact I was almost as much of a bastard to you as Caleb Knight,” he added self-disgustedly. “Despite what I said, hoped might happen, there’s no guarantee I would ever have got you off that island alive.”
“The fact you were willing to try means everything to me.” She touched his clenched cheek. “You’re a hero, Caleb. As far as I’m concerned, a one hundred percent hero.”
He didn’t feel like a hero. Heroes were brave, fearless, whereas a part of him now wanted to get down on his knees, to crawl, and beg Lena not to go, to stay here with him. Very heroic!
Instead, he forced a grin as he teased, “I can always accept a little hero worship.”
She nodded. “Are you really going to look for the rest of those girls Spiro sold?”
He sobered. “I’ll do what I can, yes. My brothers will help.”
Her smile was rueful. “The formidable Knight brothers.”
“That’s not what a lot of people choose to call us,” he drawled.
“I can imagine.” She laughed. “Gabriel is scary, isn’t he?”
“Nah.” His smile was affectionate. “He’s a pussycat now that he has Angel back in his life.”
Then Lena hated to think what Gabriel had been like before he had Angela to soothe him!
Caleb looked down at her intently. “We really should go.”
“Yes.”
“Your parents are waiting to see you.”
“Yes.”
“And Angel and Daniel.”
“Yes.”
Still, neither of them made any attempt to separate and leave the plane. Lena because she didn’t want to let Caleb go. Caleb because… Well, probably because her arms were still unashamedly clinging about his neck, refusing to let him go!
“Kiss me good-bye,” she invited huskily.
Caleb drew his breath in sharply, knowing this wasn’t going to end well. Touching Lena, holding her in his arms, was already playing havoc with his self-control. He had no idea what might happen if he kissed her.
No matter whether they saw each other again, he knew the two of them would always share a bond after what they had just been through together. To think that it meant any more to Lena than that would be a mistake on his part.
He forced another of those teasing grins. “Yes, ma’am.” He lowered his head and pressed his lips lightly against hers.
He’d meant to keep it that way. Light. Meaningless. But the moment Lena’s lips parted beneath his, he couldn’t hold back. His arms tightened about her waist, molding her body against his as his own lips parted and he deepened the kiss.
This was what Lena had wanted since the moment they left Petros. Even before they left. She had looked out the window at Caleb standing on the balcony of his bedroom yesterday morning and known, despite his rejection of her during the night, she wanted to make love with him again. That she wanted it as much, if not more, as her next breath.
Pride had held her back from making the first move. Fear of a second rejection.
Then there had been no more time after the Androccan prince and the Knight brothers had arrived.
Now they were back in England, surrounded by their families, and she didn’t even know if she would ever see him alone again.
Which meant she should make the most of kissing Caleb while she could!
His lips were both soft and firm. Soft to the touch. Firm in their demand. A demand Lena met with one of her own as she parted his lips with a velvet-soft stroke of her tongue.
She gave a low groan as she tasted him. Hot and sweet, at the same time as his tongue met and then became entangled with hers, stroking, and then possessing as it chased her tongue back into her own moist heat. He claimed and stroked every part of her mouth as he held her body pressed so tightly against his, she could feel the rising and stiffening of his cock now pressing into her bare abdomen where her T-shirt had ridden up.
Lena didn’t think twice, didn’t even hesitate, continuing to return his kiss as she tightened her arms about his neck and lifted her legs so they curved about his waist. She sighed her satisfaction when Caleb’s hands moved to cup her bottom, her jean-covered cleft now pressed against and then riding the hardness of his shaft as it rubbed against her sensitive nether lips. Her clit pulsed and swelled at the excruciating pleasure of rubbing along the length of Caleb’s cock.
Her fingers became entangled in his hair as she kissed him back. Firmer, deeper, as she continued to lift herself up and down the length of his cock. Seekin
g. Needing. Wanting. Desiring. Oh God, desiring.
She had never wanted anyone the way she wanted Caleb. It had become a constant ache. A huge chasm of need that only he could fill.
God, I want him inside me.
To the hilt. Filling her. Taking her. The two of them giving each other the pleasure they had only touched upon two nights ago. Lena knew there was more. So much more. If only—
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but your parents are becoming a little anxious at the delay, Lena…”
Caleb scowled as Lena abruptly ended the kiss. Her cheeks blazed with embarrassed color as she turned and looked over to where Gabriel now stood looking at them from the doorway leading off the jet, one dark brow raised mockingly.
Caleb had been so lost in Lena, in kissing and touching her, in relishing the warmth of her pussy rubbing up and down the sensitized length of his cock, he had forgotten where they were, let alone why they were here.
Reality clicked into place.
Lena was safely home.
Her parents were waiting to greet their long-lost daughter.
And I need to get her off my dick, put her the fuck down, and get my hands and everything else off her!
“Shall I tell them you’re just coming?” Gabriel drawled.
The innuendo wasn’t lost on Caleb, any more than it was on Lena, judging by the way her cheeks flushed and then as quickly paled. She gave a groan and buried her face against his shoulder.
Caleb glared across at Gabriel. “Tell them whatever the fuck you like, but Lena will be there when she’s good and ready.”
She lifted her head. “No, Gabriel is right.” Her gaze avoided his as she slowly lowered her legs back to the floor and released her arms from about his neck before turning away. “I’ll go now. I-I’ll see you both inside the terminal.”
Caleb stood unmoving as he watched Gabriel step aside to allow Lena to leave the plane. “What the fuck was that all about?” he demanded furiously as he strode down the aisle to stand in front of his brother.
As usual, Gabriel didn’t back down by so much as an inch. “I don’t know what happened between the two of you on Petros—and I don’t want to know,” he assured softly as Caleb’s eyes narrowed in warning. “But Lena isn’t thinking straight right now. She suffered three months of hell, with no light at the end of that hellish tunnel. In a matter of hours, you became that light, Caleb.” He ran his hand over his buzz cut. “She’s beautiful, I get that. All I’m saying is don’t—don’t mistake her behavior for any more than what it is, because you’ll only get hurt.”
He snorted. “You mean don’t let her become one of my PTSD obsessions.”
“I mean I don’t want you to get hurt,” Gabriel maintained evenly.
“Too late!”
Gabriel looked at him searchingly for several long seconds before nodding. “Then leave it a few months before you see her again. Wait and see if you both still feel the same attraction. Hell knows we have our work cut out for us for the next few months,” Gabriel added grimly.
No matter what Gabriel might think, Caleb was under no illusions regarding Lena and the future. He knew, and accepted, that in a couple of months, she would probably have put him out of her mind, along with the rest of the nightmare weeks she had spent as a prisoner on Petros.
As he also knew he would never be able to do the same where she was concerned…
Chapter 10
Six weeks later
“It’s so good to have you back, Lena.” Angela Sinclair beamed her pleasure as she sat on the bed and watched Lena unpack her things from several boxes and place them in the drawers of the dressing table in her new bedroom. “I thought it best to pack up your stuff from your old room and bring it with us when we moved into the new house. I never gave up hope you would come back to work for us,” she added emotionally.
The two women had spent the day with Daniel, but now he was in bed, Lena was able to unpack. Some things had still been at Angela’s apartment when Lena was forced to leave so abruptly. Now she’d moved into the house that Angela and Daniel shared with Gabriel. She hadn’t bothered to retrieve the items before returning to Spain with her parents, knowing in her heart of hearts that she would be back, mainly because this was where Caleb was.
It had been a long and difficult struggle for Lena since leaving Petros. She had spent those weeks being cossetted by her parents at her grandparents’ villa in a small fishing village on the coast, where she had spent lots of time as a child. She’d been able to swim in the sea, lie on the beach and read, spend time with the friends she had there. She’d even gone out on a couple of dinner dates with a man she’d met through those friends. Even so, she had suffered bouts of darkness as the memories of Petros continued to haunt her.
As well as experiencing overwhelming feelings of helpless longing every time she thought about Caleb.
Which was a lot.
Six weeks, and she hadn’t had so much as a postcard from him to even ask how she was.
She had returned to England only yesterday. Angela’s divorce from Clive was now final, and Angela and Gabriel were to be married in one week’s time. The lawyers were also preparing for Clive Sinclair’s upcoming trial, and Lena had agreed to be called as a witness for the prosecution. She hoped that once the trial was over and Clive Sinclair was hopefully in prison, paying for his crimes, she might finally be able to close the door on those horrendous three months of her life.
In the meantime, and despite the fact the scary Gabriel Knight would, as she had once thought, now be her employer, Lena had finally accepted Angela’s plea to come back to England and be Daniel’s nanny once again. After weeks of feeling as if she was floating in limbo, Lena had made a few decisions about her future. Returning to England and seeing Caleb again had been one of them.
She had taken Caleb’s advice, tried to put those three months behind her, and move on. As she had tried not to dwell on thoughts of her time on Petros. One part of it refused to be forgotten. Caleb. Because she thought about him all the time. Wondered how he was. Where he was. If he ever thinks of me in the way I can’t stop thinking about him.
There were no answers, of course. Angela hadn’t mentioned him during their weekly telephone conversations, and Lena hadn’t asked. Not because she wasn’t desperate for news of him, but because she was almost afraid of what she might hear. Knowing he was getting on with his life was enough; she didn’t need to know whether or not he had a woman in his life now.
The engaged couple had picked her up from the airport last night, and Gabriel had casually dropped into the conversation that Caleb wasn’t even in England at the moment. Apparently, he was off chasing another lead on one of the missing women on Spiro Dukakis’s list.
And maybe even sharing her bed, if it became necessary…
Lena straightened abruptly as she felt a sharp pain in her chest merely thinking about Caleb being with another woman in the way he had been with her. “I did warn you before I came back that I’m not intending to stay. That I have other plans for my future.”
Angela stood and squeezed her arm. “I’m happy for you to stay for however long it suits you. So is Gabriel.”
Despite her assurances to the contrary, Lena knew Angela felt guilty over what had happened to her. It really wasn’t Angela’s fault. Lena had chosen to become Daniel’s nanny. And no one was responsible for the monster Clive Sinclair was except the man himself. He had chosen to become that man because of greed and the power it gave him over others. If anyone needed pity about that situation, then it was Angela for discovering she had been married to a complete bastard for so many years.
Lena shook off those thoughts to give the older woman a teasing smile. “Gabriel Knight, hmm?”
Angela blushed becomingly. “What can I say, he’s a force to be reckoned with!”
That was putting it mildly, although Daniel seemed to have no trouble relating to his new daddy. Just a few hours of watching the two of them together last night had been enoug
h for Lena to see the pair were as thick as thieves. And Angela was so obviously happy with the eldest Knight brother, which was even more important. It had been apparent to Lena within weeks of starting to work for the Sinclairs that Angela wasn’t happy with Clive.
“Caleb is going to be Gabriel’s witness at the wedding.”
Her heart gave a jolt. “Oh?”
“As you are going to be mine, I hope?”
“Oh!” Lena felt her cheeks pale. She had expected to see Caleb again at the wedding next week, but not quite so up close and personal as them being the two official witnesses. “Isn’t there someone else you would rather ask?”
“No,” Angela answered simply, giving Lena a hug. “I will never, ever forget what you did for Daniel. None of us will.”
“I didn’t do anything—”
“You were with him for as long as you could be, and you kept him calm and safe for that time.” Angela gave a shudder. “I can’t bear to think of how frightened he would have been if he’d been completely alone.”
“He was very brave.”
“But not as brave as you were.”
Both women turned toward the open doorway at the sound of Gabriel’s voice. Angela’s smile said it all as he strolled over with the obvious intention of kissing her. Which he did, very thoroughly.
While Lena looked on, trying not to feel envious.
Oh, not in regard to Gabriel. She still thought he was totally intimidating. But Gabriel’s redeeming feature for all that leashed and formidable power had to be that he didn’t even try to hide the deep love he felt for Angela. A depth of love the other woman obviously returned.
“All settled in?” Gabriel kept his arm about Angela’s waist as he turned to Lena enquiringly.
She nodded. “Yes, thank you.”
Amusement darkened his eyes. “Still not sure of me, hmm?”
Her own eyes widened. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He gave a grin. “There was an unspoken ‘Mr. Knight’ on the end of that ‘yes, thank you,’ despite my having asked you to call me Gabriel several times.”
Capturing Caleb (Knight Security 3) Page 9