Caleb’s green eyes were like burning daggers as they glared at Damon. They turned hot and accusing as they shifted to me.
He looked beautiful and dangerous as he stalked toward us. His eyes never left mine as he grabbed my wrist, then turned and dragged me behind him.
I heard Damon move, and I looked back at him, giving him a shake of my head in warning. I let out a relieved breath when Damon stayed where he was.
Caleb’s legs were long. For every step he made, I had to take two.
In high heels.
“Caleb?”
He kept walking.
“Caleb, wait!”
“Don’t even—” he snapped.
He was so angry, he couldn’t finish his sentence.
As I stumbled after him, it all sunk in. He was mad? At me? What the hell for? Did he think I was doing something with Damon at the gazebo? The way he kept glaring over his shoulder told me he did. My temper soared viciously.
I tried to jerk my wrist from his hold, but he must have been expecting that. His grip tightened, and his steps quickened.
“Let go of me,” I warned.
Did he know what I’d just gone through with that mental case who was obsessed with him?
Did he know how much effort and patience it took for me to smile and talk to these people who looked at me like I was beneath them?
Did he know what kind of hell I’d gone through today to get to him?
“If you don’t let go of me right now, Caleb, I swear to God—”
“Shut up,” he growled.
For a moment, I wondered if I’d heard him correctly. Did he just tell me to shut up?
It shocked me that he could be like this. He was always playful, always gentle with me, even when he was angry. I wasn’t sure how to process the way he was acting now.
“What the hell did you just say to me? Who the hell do you think you—”
My words caught in my throat as he suddenly stopped and faced me, keeping hold of my wrist. His handsome face was a tight mask of fury as his eyes, hot and hurt, searched my face. Next thing I knew, he’d thrown me over his shoulder.
“Put me down. Now.”
He started walking faster. I could feel the strong muscles in his back and shoulders bunch as he carried me like I was weightless. I lifted my head and saw that he was heading for a small cottage on the property.
“Oh, is that what the princess wants?”
For the second time in the space of a few minutes, my mouth fell open.
Where does he get off talking to me like that?
Indignation boiled in my blood. It pulsed in my temple.
“You bastard! Put me down!”
I flailed furiously in his arms, hitting his back, his shoulders, his arms. Everything about him was rock hard, and my struggle didn’t seem to affect him. It only made me angrier.
“Now is not the time to argue with me, Red.”
I heard the loud bang of a door opening and hitting the wall with force. A few seconds later, I lost my breath as he dropped me unceremoniously on a bed.
“What the hell!” I fumed.
I fully expected him to grab me again, but when I sat up, he wasn’t anywhere near me. I watched, shocked, as he strode to the door.
Was he going to leave me here?
Livid, I scrambled off the bed.
“Who do you think you are!” I screamed. “Get back here!”
I caught him before he reached the door, snarling as I grabbed his jacket and yanked.
He turned around so fast that my breath caught, and I took a step back.
His face was beautiful even in anger, half in shadow. The unmistakable fury in his eyes reminded me of a wild panther.
His big hands clamped around my arms and jerked me to him so our faces were only inches apart. I could feel and smell his hot, minty breath, and his intense green eyes bored into mine.
“I’m trying so damn hard right now. Don’t test me,” he whispered.
Like a warning.
A threat.
A promise.
I felt my eye twitch.
I slammed his back against the wall and heard his surprised grunt at the impact. My eyes roamed his face, and I saw the hurt and naked vulnerability in his eyes.
I couldn’t believe this was all about Damon. Did Caleb really think I’d cheated on him? It hurt that after everything we’d gone through, he would think this of me.
He was breathing hard, his cheeks flushed. The beauty in his face and the strength in his body that he controlled so thoughtfully always affected me, but it was the way he let me see what no one else saw, the way he exposed his weakness and his real emotions to me that pulled at my heartstrings.
But since he’d seen me with Damon at the gazebo, he’d hidden himself from me, only allowing his anger to show. Until now. His green eyes had always been expressive, and they were looking at me with pain and sadness.
I was furious with him, taken aback by his whiplash anger and the uncharacteristic carelessness of his actions. But as I looked at him now, my anger subsided. We had been apart for only a couple of days but it felt like a long time. I had missed him, and after what happened today at the shop, the threat to life that suddenly shocked my system, it made me realize we were only on borrowed time. Caleb could be taken from me any moment.
Still, it hurt. I needed to know why he was acting this way. I knew he was hurting too, and I felt helpless and frustrated that we were both too stubborn and proud and angry to stop fighting.
“What’s wrong, Caleb?”
He remained silent, gritting his teeth. Suddenly, his eyes blazed with heat and accusation again, wiping away all vulnerability. He had closed up, and he wouldn’t allow me in. All the understanding and sympathy I felt a few seconds ago left me, and I knew there was no way my anger would subside now. It had to spill out.
He loosened his tie, narrowing his eyes at me. The muscles in his arms strained against his dinner jacket. His jaw was hard, which made him appear more masculine, more alluring. It made me more furious that I still wanted him even now.
Lust and anger sang in my blood as I grabbed his jacket and pulled it off him, tossing it carelessly to the floor. I moved in to him, grabbing the back of his neck and pulling him down for a punishing kiss.
It was like being swallowed by a tornado. If his hunger didn’t match mine, it would have scared me in its intensity.
My breath caught in my throat as he spun me around and shoved me against the wall. My palms slapped against it as he pressed his solid body against my back. I felt his hardness pushing against me.
Without warning, he gathered my hair in his fist, coiling it around his hand like a rope as he pulled it to the side.
“You drive me fucking crazy,” he murmured dangerously in my ear.
His lips hovered near my mouth, a silent demand for a kiss thickening the air.
He shut his eyes for a moment, almost as if he was in pain. When he opened them, they were filled with an impatient hunger.
“You do this to me, Red. Every fucking time. I’m losing my mind because of you. You have no idea…”
He gripped my hair tightly as he ran his other hand down to caress my neck and shoulders, and then further down to squeeze my breast.
“I won’t be gentle with you tonight,” he said before he crushed his mouth against mine.
He bunched the material of my dress that hindered him from touching what was underneath.
And ripped.
“Oh God,” I panted.
I was so unbelievably turned on as his fingers tweaked and teased. I strained against him, needing him to give me more.
“Stop me now if you don’t want this, Red. Otherwise”—he breathed heavily, using his other hand to remove his belt and open his zipper—“I’ll take you right here.”
“No.”
I felt him stiffen, and I smiled in victory as his hard hold slackened.
“No, I don’t want you to be gentle,” I told him.
I whipped around, reached for his tie, and yanked him down to me, fusing his mouth to mine.
Need was a furious demand in my stomach as we sank to the floor. I straddled him, biting his bottom lip. He let out a low moan before I felt his tongue slip inside my mouth.
He raised his hips, shoving his pants and boxers down. I grabbed his shirt and pulled. Buttons snapped and flew. That only urged me to take more.
He clutched at my dress and pushed it up to my waist. He stroked his fingers in my center until I was gasping for breath.
I bit my lip to keep from making a sound as he gripped my hips and pulled me right where he was rock hard between his legs. It felt so good.
I had to place my palms on his naked chest to steady myself. His skin was burning hot and lightly covered with sweat. It shocked me that I wanted to lick it.
I was breathing hard. My skin felt tight and sensitive everywhere.
“Lift your hips for me, Red.”
I was still so angry, and I wanted to punish him for what he said to me earlier—for his stupid assumptions about Damon, and for everything else that happened tonight. So I ignored him, continuing to rub myself against him instead.
“Red…” he moaned. “I need you.”
His strong hands slid over my hips to cup me from behind, squeezing and increasing the friction. My body suddenly flooded with hot need. I finally looked him in the eyes and raised my hips.
“Yes,” I gasped. “Yes, Caleb.”
His fingers found the tiny scrap of lace that covered me from him and pushed it aside.
I cried out as he slammed into me. He was so hard, so huge that I felt so full inside.
“Ride me, Red. Yeah, just like that.”
Biting my lip, I rocked my hips against him.
Up and down.
Back and forth.
Up and down.
“Put your arms up, hold your hair. Fuck, you’re so beautiful. Fuck, yeah. Like that.”
His hands gripped my hips as I let my head fall back, lifting my arms as I held my hair up for him.
And rode him.
The love and need and longing I felt for him overwhelmed me as I watched the haze of pleasure play over his handsome face. His eyes darkened as he watched me on top of him, his face a tight mask of control as he gritted his teeth.
Then his hands were cupping my breasts, squeezing, his thumbs circling.
My eyes shot to his.
Take me.
Suddenly, I wanted him to come. Desperation pushed me to go faster. I could hear the slap of skin on skin, feel the slippery wet slide of our bodies, smell the intoxicating scent of his sweat.
His hands curled around my neck as he pulled me down for a desperate, rough kiss.
“Just like that, Red. Go slow. Fuuuuck.”
He pressed his lips to my ear and whispered dirty secrets about what he’d always wanted to do to me.
It drove me mad.
I pushed away from him, keeping my hands on his chest. My nails dug into his skin as he grabbed my hips and hammered into me.
Fast and shallow, slow and deep.
Faster.
Until my head was spinning and my lungs felt tight and everything around me exploded in a burst of light as I climaxed. I slumped on top of him, boneless.
“I’m not done with you yet,” he whispered in warning.
I gasped and swallowed hard as he shifted us until he was on top of me.
“Hold on to me,” he said before he drove me to the brink once again.
And again.
And again.
