Nice to see she remembers…
“I think it’s time you left. Luke’s in bed now, so there’s no reason for you to stay.”
“And I say there are too many to list. We need to talk, Renny.”
“Talk about what? Luke? I told you that you could see him. He knows you’re his father. What else do you want from me?”
“You.” The single word slipped from him, and he might as well have slapped her given how she recoiled.
“I can’t do this, Caleb. Not again.”
The utter pain in those words hurt worse than the scars on his body. He also couldn’t leave them hovering in the air between them unchallenged. In a flash, he was standing before her.
“Baby.” The soft word left his lips as his arms went around her. She held herself stiffly in his embrace at first. Then sighed.
“I promised myself I’d resist you,” she murmured.
He brushed his knuckles against the silky skin of her cheek. “I made the same promise to myself.”
She lifted her gaze to him. “You suck at keeping promises.”
He knew she meant it in jest, but it made him angry. Not angry at her for speaking the truth, but at himself. “I never meant to leave you.”
“Then why did you go? Why, Caleb?”
She asked him for an answer, and he wanted to tell her, wanted so desperately for her to understand it wasn’t her—it was him. More specifically the monster inside. The cold-blooded beast he couldn’t always control.
Since he couldn’t find words, none that would express what he felt, he let instinct guide him. Problem was the survival instinct didn’t lead him out the door like he would have expected, but had him dipping his head for a kiss.
She turned her head away, so his lips missed hers but hit the soft skin of her cheek. Undaunted, especially since she didn’t move away from his embrace, he let his mouth trail to her ear. She always did love it when he nibbled the lobe.
That hadn’t changed. So much hadn’t, such as how she made him feel…
A soft sigh escaped her as he tugged at her flesh. Her body softened, and she stepped closer to him, closing the small gap between them.
Coming home. The whispered thought echoed along with a sense of rightness.
Renny fit so perfectly in his arms, her lush body a complement to his hardness. The scent of her, the essence that never failed to enflame the fire simmering within. A fire that burned only for her.
With her melting response to his touch, her body pliant and lush in his arms, he moved his mouth back to hers, and this time, she didn’t turn away. Rather, she met him in a sensual embrace, a slow exploration that ignited every single one of his senses. Touch—so silky. Sound—a breathless inhalation. Her taste—more potent than ambrosia. How his entire spirit and soul rejoiced at the joining.
Mine.
And he didn’t mean in the owning sense but in the conviction that Renny was the only woman who could ever complete him body, mind, and soul.
The knowledge that she held so much power over him should have made him tremble. He’d been prisoner to a woman before and suffered, but Renny’s control wasn’t forced. She didn’t compel him to act. It wasn’t her fault that her mere presence seduced him and had him forgetting all his promises.
How could he even think to stop when he recollected, all too easily, the fiery nature of her passion? Anticipation kept him from pulling away. Desire had him craving more.
Somehow, he ended up sitting on the couch with her draped in his lap. A good thing, too, since a weakness pervaded his limbs, a fine trembling that permeated every fiber of his being as past and present collided in that moment, striking hard at not only his body, but also his heart.
How could I have ever left her?
Why had it taken him so long to find his way back?
He wrapped his fingers in the silken skein of her hair where it tumbled about her shoulders, pulling her head back that he might trace the fine line of her throat with his lips.
The rapid flutter of her pulse teased him, taunted the beast that wanted to bite, but he pushed back against this urge. He didn’t want to hurt Renny. In this, the man part of him would have its way.
The tip of his tongue traced patterns on her skin. His lips tugged soon after. However, he wasn’t content with just nibbling at her throat.
I have an urge for something juicier.
Ripe peaches were there for the cupping, and he did, palming the full weight of her breast in his hand while thumbing over the peak. Even through the fabric of her shirt and bra, her nipple reacted, tightening into a bud that protruded. A shudder went through her, and a quick peek at her face meant he caught her licking her lips. He rubbed his thumb lightly over a tip.
Another shiver struck her body, and a soft sigh slipped from her lips.
Enticing didn’t come close to describing her.
How could he resist?
Caleb dipped his head and teased the tip of her breast, closing his mouth over it and sucking, the fabric dampening as her breath shortened.
“Caleb.” She moaned his name.