“What, you’re going to fuck me here?” I ask, my hands on his shoulders. “I’ll fall.”
“Put your arms around my neck,” he whispers, and I lean in close to him, despite all of my concerns about my father walking in on us, and wrap my arms around him. My dress is hitched up around my waist, and my breasts press against his face. He buries his face between them, but he doesn’t rip the dress off and cover me with his mouth the way I want him too. “Wrap your legs around me.”
I do, and somehow slide down the front of him as he guides his cock inside me and presses me against the ladder. The sharpness of the railing cuts into my back and the top of my ass, but I’m so overcome by pleasure running through my body that I can’t focus on the pain. I think the pain might even intensify it. I cling to him, my arms and legs around him, but most of my weight rests against the ladder. He drives into me hard, his thrusts short and insistent.
This is not slow and romantic; it’s fast and furious, primal and animalistic.
Every thrust of his takes me higher and higher. We’re both quiet, too aware of the possibility of getting caught. The thought of getting caught makes it more intense, even more forbidden. Caulter brings out something in me that makes me want to lose control. I’ve never been that way before with anyone. I'm not that kind of girl, the one who throws caution to the wind, who doesn't care about consequences. I'm not reckless.
I'm moaning his name as he brings me to the edge, his thrusts harder. "Fuck, yes, Caulter."
"Are you going to come for me, Princess?" he asks.
"Yes," I groan, his question setting me off, and the sweet release overtakes me. He thrusts into me again, once, twice, three times as he comes, and then...
The fucking ladder drops underneath us, making this metallic clanking sound as it slips out of the track and balances precariously on a shelf.
"Shit!" Caulter grabs my arms and pulls me up, somehow sliding out of me, his pants around his ass and a condom dangling off the end of his dick.
"Oh my God, we broke it," I look between him and the top of the ladder. I can't contain my laughter. This isn't me. I'm not the girl who breaks ladders fucking a boy in the library. What the hell has gotten into me?
And then I hear Rose's voice, calling out from down the hallway. "Kate, are you okay? I heard a crash."
"Shit." Caulter has pulled up his pants before I can blink, and is looking casual and blasé by the time Rose opens the door.
"What happened?" she asks, looking back and forth between us.
"I -- the ladder came off the tracks," I say.
Caulter interrupts. "She was trying to reach one of the books on the shelf up there, and it just...gave way. Someone should definitely come out to look at that. It seems like a safety hazard. That's a problem with these older houses." He looks so sincere I almost believe him.
Rose looks at me long and hard and I try not to blush. "You were trying to reach one of those books up there on...medieval history?"
I swallow hard. "I was browsing. For research purposes."
"Research purposes," she repeats. "It's a good thing Caulter was in here to help you when the ladder gave way."
I clear my throat. "Yes. It's definitely a good thing."
Rose turns to leave, but pauses when she reaches the door. "I'm glad to see the two of you getting along so well."
I look at Caulter wide-eyed after she's gone. "Do you think she knows?"
He shrugs. "Maybe. Who cares?"
"I care, you idiot," I say. "Don't you? What if she says something to my father? What if someone finds out? I can't believe we broke the ladder in here, for goodness' sake."
"For goodness sake?" Caulter laughs. "Okay, grandma."
"I'm being serious, Caulter," I say. I'm getting irritated with him for taking this whole thing so lightly. "Behavior has consequences."
Caulter is standing close to me, and I immediately feel the thrill of his nearness. I silently curse my damn body for being so attracted to him. "So what if your father finds out?"
"It'll ruin his campaign."
"Why?"
"You know why, Caulter," I say. "We're...going to be related."
"We're not related," he says. "You're being ridiculous. We're barely even step-siblings."
I bristle at the way he brushes off my concerns as if they're nothing. "People won't care about what's true, Caulter," I insist. I'm angry that he's dismissing me, the same way my father dismisses me. "They thrive on scandal. They'll latch onto it and run with it. It'll ruin his campaign and his public image."
Caulter traces a finger down the front of my chest, and I smack it away, but not before it gets a physical reaction from me, goose bumps dotting my skin. Damn him. "Why do you even give a shit about it?" he asks.
"Because he's my father."
Caulter laughs, the sound bitter. "Yeah, he seems like a great father."