Only in Dreams (Road Trip Romance Book 9)

by A. K. Evans

  My heart exploded in my chest at his declaration.

  There were so many things I wanted to say, but I didn’t get a chance because the next thing I knew, Cal had dropped to his knees and started feasting on me.

  My head dropped back against the tile while my fingernails dug into the skin on the tops of my thighs.

  Cal ate and ate and ate. He licked. He sucked. He groaned. He threw one of my legs over his shoulder, and he devoured me.

  Is this what it felt like for him? Did he feel the same inexplicable pleasure that I felt right now?

  How did this feel so good?

  There was only one answer.

  It was him.

  He was right. If he felt even a fraction of what I did at this moment, I finally understood his words.

  Cal was beyond my wildest dreams, too.

  I brought my hands to the top of his head and breathed, “Baby, you’re going to make me come.”

  Just like that, I lost his mouth.

  I wanted to cry out, but Cal pressed his body against mine, which meant I felt him hard between us.

  “Fuck me, Cal,” I begged.

  He grinned against my mouth, lifted me in his arms, and kept my back firmly against the wall. Then he drove inside.

  Over and over, he powered his erection into me, his lips trailing over the skin at my exposed throat.

  He built me up quickly, and it wasn’t much later when I was digging my heels into his ass as I cried out through the waves of pleasure pulsing through me.

  Just as I reached the peak, Cal found his release and slowly worked the two of us through to the end.

  With Cal keeping his body pressed firmly against mine, I remained sandwiched between him and the wall of the shower, holding on to him like my life depended on it. Once I managed to regain some sense of myself again and could speak, I declared, “I love you so much, Cal.”

  Cal pressed a sweet kiss to my cheek and returned, “I love you, too.”

  A moment later, he set me down on my feet and made sure I was steady before he let go. Then we finished up in the shower.

  If I was being honest, I did my best to keep my gaze off of him. I couldn’t exactly trust myself not to be moved by the sight of him again. And considering I had to go to work today, I couldn’t get distracted again.

  Twenty minutes later, I met Cal down in the kitchen. After our shower, he’d gotten dressed quickly and decided to prepare breakfast while I got ready.

  I loved the sight of him in my kitchen first thing in the morning. I walked right up to him and gave him a kiss.

  “Good morning,” I said.

  He let out a laugh as he handed me a glass of orange juice. “Good morning, Sam.”

  I took the glass from him and smiled before I moved to grab a seat. In the time it took me to finish getting myself ready, Cal had prepared some eggs and toast.

  “Good to know that one of us has cooking skills,” I murmured after taking a couple of bites.

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” he warned. “My skills are limited.”

  I shrugged my shoulders and reasoned, “Alright, but I’m guessing between the two of us, we’ll figure out a way to survive.”

  He nodded his agreement. “So, since you’re going into work this morning, am I right to assume you’ll be done before I am tonight?”

  It was my turn to nod. “Yeah. I’ll be there until around six tonight,” I told him.

  “Long day,” he noted. “What are your plans for when you get home?”

  “I’ll probably just work on my shirts,” I answered. “I had a couple of new ideas.”

  Cal didn’t respond, so I looked in his direction. He was simply staring at me.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Nothing. I just can’t believe I’m here with you,” he said.

  I tipped my head to the side as I felt my insides melt.

  Cal loved this. He loved the two of us being together, and if everything he’d said was true, this had been a long time coming. It was no wonder he was struggling to come to terms with the fact that we were now officially together.

  “I’m happy you’re here,” I shared. “And I’m so glad we were both brave enough to finally share our feelings with each other. Thank you for taking that step last night and opening the door for me to do the same.”

  “Did you want to tell me how you felt sooner?” he asked.

  “Yes and no.”

  Confusion washed over him. “What do you mean?”

  “Like I said yesterday, way back on my birthday, I had wanted to tell you the truth,” I began. “But then, well, you know what happened. And over the months that followed, our relationship became strained. Not long after I ended things with Mitch and realized how much of my time I wasted on a man like him, all I could think about was you. Unfortunately, we’d gotten so far off track that I merely wished for us to get back to where we used to be. I would have been happy with that. But I don’t think I would have ever told you the truth about exactly how I felt about you. I realized how much I lost, and I didn’t want to risk losing you like that again.”

  “Did you feel it from the beginning?” he asked. “I feel like there were so many moments between us that made that connection and attraction undeniable.”

  “I did. But when you never said anything, I just assumed I’d read the situation wrong. Until, of course, the day you confronted me.”

  “What?”

  I took a bite of my toast, chewed, swallowed, and lifted my glass of orange juice to my lips. After taking a sip and setting the glass back down, I shared, “The day you came here and asked if I was seeing someone, I knew I wasn’t wrong. You had feelings for me. Without a doubt, I knew it that day. But you never said anything. Before you walked away that morning, I can remember standing there, staring at you, silently pleading with you to give me anything. That’s all I would have needed.”

  “All you would have needed for what?” Cal asked, his tone bordering on unsteady. I had a feeling he knew where this was headed.

  Suddenly, I didn’t like the fact that our conversation had drifted here. Cal was just going to take it even worse than he already was.

  “Sam?” he called.

  “What?”

  “Tell me,” he demanded quietly.

  I swallowed hard and confessed, “If you would have indicated to me that you wanted me, needed me, or loved me, I would have broken things off with Mitch immediately. I was in love with you and had been for a long time.”

  “Fuck,” he hissed.

  “Cal, don’t do this to yourself,” I pleaded.

  Shaking his head with disappointment, he countered, “How can I not? Sam, babe, you told me you didn’t like dreaming dreams that would never come true. You were talking about us—about me—weren’t you?”

  I couldn’t lie to him, but I didn’t want to admit the truth. Unable to say the words he needed to hear, I simply nodded my head and looked away.

  For a long time, the silence stretched between us. I couldn’t even bring myself to look at Cal for fear I’d see the heartbreak and devastation on his face. I didn’t think I could handle it.

  Eventually, Cal rasped, “I’m so sorry, Sam.”

  I had to look at him. There was no way I could avoid looking at him when his voice sounded so broken.

  When I brought my eyes to him, I confirmed my suspicions. Cal was devastated. A tear rolled down my cheek, and he reached out to wipe it away.

  “I’m so sorry,” he repeated.

  I shook my head before launching myself off my chair and into his arms. “It’s not your fault,” I insisted. “I could have said something to you, too.”

  “You settled for shit, Sam,” he began as he held me tight. “You settled for all that he fed you because I stupidly convinced myself that day that you were no longer mine to take care of. And the fucked-up part about it is that that asshole never took care of you.”

  “Cal…” I trailed off. I tried to swallo
w past the lump in my throat, failed, and tried again. With a tightness in my throat I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt before, I begged, “Let this go. Please.”

  “I’m not sure I can,” he admitted.

  I loosened my hold on him and took half a step back. Framing his face with my hands, I said, “We can’t go back, and we can’t change it. If we don’t let this go, it’s going to eat us alive. We’ll spend so much time focusing on what we both did wrong that we’ll destroy all the good we have between us.”

  He took in my words, brought his hands up to my wrists, and held me there. “How will I ever make it up to you?” he asked.

  “The same way I’m going to make it up to you,” I told him. “We love each other hard from here on out. We support each other in everything that we do. When times are good, we celebrate them with one another. And when it gets tough, we lean on each other for comfort. And best of all, we have mornings like we did today and nights like last night. We have those moments that make us feel beyond grateful that we’re here now. We say the words that tell how we feel, and we never stop sharing those feelings.”

  Cal stared at me, unblinking.

  When he didn’t respond, I added, “We give each other moments like you gave to me this morning. There were six words you said this morning that filled me so full with love, it’s a wonder I didn’t burst.”

  He narrowed his eyes as, I was sure, he tried to remember what words he said to me. I put him out of his misery and repeated, “You’re beyond my wildest dreams, Sam.”

  Realization dawned. “It’s the truth,” he whispered.

  I smiled. “I know. I know it is because you make me believe that with everything you do for me,” I told him. “We didn’t get here when we wanted to, Cal, but we’re here now. Let’s do what we’ve got to do to take each other beyond those wild dreams. I know that’s what I want to continue to do for you, and I have no doubt you want to do that for me.”

  He nodded slowly.

  “Do you love me?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  I smiled again. “I love you, too,” I declared. Then I leaned forward and kissed him.

  Cal’s arms came around me and tugged me close again. We stayed there for a bit, giving each other a bunch of love before we had to go our separate ways.

  Eventually, I tore my mouth from his. Cal would have been content to never stop.

  But I had to go to work.

  Even still, I took a moment to just look at him. I wanted to be absolutely certain he was okay and that he was going to let go of the guilt and regret he felt.

  When I was convinced he had, I said, “I’ve got to get to work.”

  He nodded. “I know. I wish I could keep you here with me all day, though,” he said.

  “I’d love nothing more, but that’s not going to pay my bills,” I pointed out. “Besides, Wednesday is Demi’s last day, and I want to enjoy these last few days there with her.”

  Cal thought a moment before he said, “We should do something.”

  “What?”

  “For Demi.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “To celebrate her leaving a place that wasn’t making her happy,” he explained. “How about Thursday night we throw a little celebration for her at Granite?”

  I grinned at him. He was the best man I knew. “I think that sounds like a great idea,” I told him. “And I only work until two on Thursday, so that’ll work out great for me.”

  “Then it’s settled,” he said. “I can work out the details at the bar on my end. Can you manage to convince her to be there that night?”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “That’s going to require no effort, Cal. She’ll be so happy to finally be done at the hotel; she’ll definitely be down to celebrate.”

  “Good. There’s one more thing we need to discuss before you leave,” he said.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Are you coming to my place tonight, or am I coming back here?” he replied.

  I tipped my chin up, tapped my finger on it, and pretended to think hard about his question. “Do I want to spend the night in Cal’s bed?” I wondered aloud. “Hmmm.”

  I brought my eyes to his and saw his were shining. “I fucking love you so much, Sam,” he declared.

  Leaning forward, I brought my mouth to his ear and whispered, “You better love fucking me in your bed, too.”

  His body went solid.

  I pulled back to look at his face.

  Then he said, “Wildest dreams, babe.”

  I grinned at him as I felt the warmth move through me.

  Ten minutes later, I was out the door.

  Seventeen

  Samantha

  “What a day.”

  I looked up as Demi walked into my office carrying her lunch and sat down at the chair on the opposite side of my desk.

  “Tell me about it,” I returned. “We still have hours left, too.”

  “It was crazy busy out there,” she said, throwing her thumb over her shoulder, indicating the front desk area. “And any time we got a reprieve, and I wanted to come in here to talk for five minutes, you were on the phone.”

  She wasn’t lying.

  I felt like I had been going insane from the minute I walked into work this morning. I saw Demi when I arrived, but she had been helping a couple of hotel guests with checking out. Like she said, I was just as busy.

  No sooner had I sat down at my desk when I noted a large number of emails I needed to respond to and the voicemails I had to return. I’d spent my entire morning doing just that. While some of it was merely me needing to confirm details for an upcoming event, a good portion of it involved setting up appointments for a few people who wanted to come in and check out the location and discuss details for their event.

  It wasn’t uncommon for Monday morning to be busy, but I still would have liked it to be a little less demanding this week.

  “Here’s hoping the rest of the day isn’t nearly as nuts,” I replied.

  “It’s days like today that make me glad these are my last couple of days here,” Demi said as she took her sandwich out of its bag and started eating.

  Demi and I frequently had bitching sessions in my office over lunch. Her impending departure didn’t seem to be making any difference in that. But because I had news I wanted to share and other things I needed to discuss with her, I didn’t want us to spend our entire lunch break focused on the things that were pissing us off.

  So, I declared, “I can’t believe Wednesday is your last day here.”

  My best friend’s face lit up. “I’m so excited,” she bubbled. “I can’t wait until I walk out of here on Wednesday evening and go home. I won’t have to take part in another grimy cheating scandal again.”

  I let out a laugh. “You make it sound like you were involved in a completely different way than you actually were,” I noted. “I wouldn’t recommend going around announcing it like that.”

  “Oh, trust me, you don’t have to worry about that happening,” she assured me. “I have no intention of discussing much of anything about this place after I leave.”

  “Well, speaking of you leaving,” I started. “Cal and I were talking about it at breakfast this morning, and we think it’d be fun to have a little celebration for you on Thursday night at Granite.”

  “A celebration that I no longer have to work here?” she asked. “Do you even think I’m going to turn that down? Wait. Did you just say that you and Cal were talking about it at breakfast this morning?”

  I nodded and did my best not to give anything away.

  “Like… you met somewhere this morning and had breakfast together?” Demi pressed.

  I shook my head.

  Demi narrowed her eyes.

  “Cal made me breakfast at my place this morning while I got ready after we showered together,” I shared.

  Then I grinned.

  Demi’s lips parted in shock. For several long seconds, she didn’t say anything whil
e she allowed my words to penetrate. When she finally digested them, she asked, “You and Cal showered together at your place this morning?”

  “Yes.”

  “And am I correct to assume that he spent the night with you last night?” she questioned me.

  “You would be correct,” I confirmed.

  Her eyes widened before she practically shouted, “Holy shit, Sam. Are you serious?”

  I let out a laugh and answered, “Totally serious.”

  “And it’s official now?” she pressed, clearly not ready to celebrate the news until she was sure she had all the information.

  Nodding, I said, “Yes, we are officially together now.”

  In an instant, tears filled her eyes. I was in shock. I expected Demi to jump up and down to celebrate. I didn’t expect her to get emotional like this.

  “Why are you crying?” I asked her.

  Her head shifted back and forth slowly as she croaked, “I’ve been waiting for this day forever. My two best friends have finally gotten their heads out of their asses and made things official. Do you know how hard it has been for me?”

  “You?” I countered.

  “Yes!” she cried. “Seeing you with Mitch, knowing he wasn’t right for you, while I’d see Cal and know he’d do anything for you. So, how did it all happen?”

  “Cal came over, and we had our pizza night date he’d promised me,” I shared. “Then he told me he fell in love with me the first day I walked into his bar.”

  Her features softened. “My cousin, man,” she sighed. “He’s so romantic.”

  I beamed at her. “He’s the best man I’ve ever known,” I told her. “There’s nobody like him, Demi. I feel so incredibly lucky.”

  “I’m so happy for you. For the both of you, honestly. Oh, my goodness, this is the best news. You’ve made my whole week.”

  Still smiling at her, I said, “I thought your last day being on Wednesday was what was making your whole week.”

  “Nope. That’s pretty fantastic news, but it does not even come close to topping this,” she insisted.