“Okay.”
“My story—now that you’ve heard it, do you still want to be with me?”
I held her a little closer and kissed the top of her head. “Yes, Brooke, I want to be with you more than you can imagine.” I want to be the one to make you forget him. I want to be the one who loves you how you should have been loved in the first place. To make you feel safe, adored, cherished. “The harrowing story you’ve just told me changes nothing about what I think or feel. If anything, I am in awe of you. You are brave. Very, very brave, Brooke Casterley.”
“You are a wonderful man with a generous heart, Caleb Blackstone, and don’t let anyone ever make you feel otherwise.” Then she sighed deeply and detached herself from me with a small, sexy moan.
Fuck! She was going to leave my room and go back to her bed now. I didn’t want her to go because I wanted to sleep with her in my arms for the rest of the night. Hell, I needed it after the terrifying tale she’d just told me.
Her second question surprised me. “Would you mind if I used your shower? I just need to clear my head and I think the hot water will help.”
“Please do whatever will make you feel better,” I said, mentally castrating myself in advance for all of the filthy dirty thoughts I was going to have about her once she was wet and naked in my shower. My cock would suffer, but it would survive being denied.
“Thank you,” she said softly as she left my bed and padded toward the bathroom.
The light came on and then a few seconds later, the water. It took a moment for me to realize she’d left the door wide open. I could see everything as she stood in front of the bathroom mirror, completely still and staring back out at me using the mirror’s reflection.
Holy. Fucking. Hell. She wanted me to see her. Me. Her. No one had ever so gently and yet confidently offered themselves to me. She wasn’t using me. She wanted me. She wanted me to want her. I would never forget this for as long as I lived. It was all for me. For me.
I knew why she did it, too.
Brooke did it to let me know she wanted me the same way I wanted her. Fuck. Me.
If I am so lucky to live a long life, I will always remember how absolutely fucking beautiful she was when she stripped in my doorway—backlit in soft white light—just so I could watch every graceful movement . . . as her clothes fell away to reveal the most perfect vision in the world. Her. Naked. Mine.
Brooke
Caleb could help me forget. Even if just for this one night, it would be a gift I would treasure forever because he was the first to make it possible for me after Marcus. I might never have had sex again in my life if I hadn’t met Caleb.
So, when I made my decision to be with him, it was for the hope of healing that last part of me still broken.
Caleb was unique and I realized it right away. He had the magic combination I needed in order to take this step with someone. There was the desire for me that I recognized, and my attraction for him, of course—but, it was the way in which he was so patient and careful in showing me he wanted me which allowed me to trust him. I’d never felt as cherished as when he pulled me into his arms and brought me to his bedroom.
Somehow, I knew I could trust Caleb with my body. He would make me forget the horrible nightmare of Marcus. He would give me pleasure. He could make me whole again, and he’d do it all without trying to trap me, or control me, or hurt me. I didn’t want to think about anything more than just this night—my first with a man who made me feel like a desirable woman instead of a whore to fuck.
And I wanted him.
As he’d held me close in his huge bed, stroking over my hair and touching me with tenderness I’d never really known from anyone before, I knew what I wanted to do.
I waited until I was sure he was watching me in the doorway of his bathroom before I started getting naked.
Socks were the first to go. I peeled them off and dropped them to the marble floor, first one and then the other.
I put my hands on the hem of the soft black shirt and drew it up and over my head. My breasts were dragged upward from the friction of the fabric pulling on them before their weight brought them back down with a bounce. I imagined Caleb seeing my naked breasts and shivered. I felt my nipples harden into tight, aching knots at the thought of him watching me from his bed in the darkness.
My fingers shook as I dug them into the waistband of my flannel pajama bottoms and shimmied out of them. I kicked them aside with my foot and took a deep breath. I could feel his eyes on me, but the darkness beyond the light kept me blinded to him as I finished the final act of my strip show.