Sheer Bliss (7 page)

He wasn’t kidding. Caleb
stiffened like a board under her and, with a guttural roar that
implied how strongly he held back his inner panther, pulsed hot
seed into her. Calla arched back, pushing her filled pussy into his
hand to cajole her orgasm, which teetered close to the edge. When
she fell, her channel contracted and tightened around his cock,
milking him to spent softness.

Her feet slid from under
her and she fell against his chest, heaving along with him as they
embraced and kissed with parched lips. She listened to Caleb’s
heart, a rapid tattoo that rivaled the loudest bass
drum.

“
I think,” Caleb said
slowly, sliding his hand up the inside of Calla’s blouse, “you
should close the salon early.”

“
Yes,” said Calla, still
leaning on him. “I think so, too.”

Chapter Seven

Calla taped a handwritten
sign to the glass door, explaining how a “family emergency” forced
the early closure of Shear Bliss. Whether or not anybody bought the
mysterious excuse didn’t bother her, but she saw easily that her
post-work plans disappointed Caleb.

“
Why won’t you let me come
home with you?” he asked after she locked the door. “I was
half-joking when I suggested this, but when you flipped over the
Closed sign—”

“
I know, Caleb,” she broke
in, “and believe me, there’s nothing I’d like more than to jump
into some hot and heavy marathon sex.” She looked around the busy
sidewalks quickly to make sure no passersby had overhead her, then
checked her blouse for the umpteenth time to see it rightly
secured. She hadn’t, though, bothered to smooth the tousles from
her hair—nice way to advertise herself as a stylist.

Caleb drew closer and
slipped an arm around her waist. “I’m not done making love to you,
Calla,” he said, low, in her ear. “We’ve got a lot of catching up
to do, and we’ve wasted enough time denying our
feelings.”

“
I know.” She glanced at
her watch—seven hours until the ball. She really hoped nobody
thought to come over for a last-minute ’do for the big event. “It’s
just…” she pulled away and beckoned him to follow. “Trisha left you
high and dry, at least let me drive you home.”

Calla watched him
contemplate the offer. No way in hell would he shift in broad
daylight to charge home. Eventually he agreed with a silent shrug
and walked with her around the building to where all shop employees
on the block parked their cars.

Inside her two-door
compact sedan, Caleb idly thumbed through the CDs in the center
console. “Haven’t made the jump to satellite radio yet?”

Calla caught his sideways
grin. “Satellite radio is worth more than this car,” she shot back,
“and I’ll thank you not to distract me. I’m driving you to
your
home then leaving.”

“
Calla.” Caleb sank back
into his seat and tapped against the head rest. “Please don’t deny
your feelings. What happened back there in your salon? If it didn’t
feel right to either of us, I’d say yes, let’s just cut our losses
and part with a decent memory. There’s more we have to explore
here.”

“
I’m only driving you
home, I’m not leaving town.” Calla idled at the edge of the small
lot and checked for approaching cars before pulling out onto the
main road. “I never said this would be a one-time thing, either,
but I don’t want to rush back into something and risk getting hurt
again.”

“
I promise, I won’t hurt
you anymore.” Caleb sounded exhausted by the
implication.

Calla briefly reached over
to squeeze his thigh. “Maybe that didn’t sound right. Caleb, the
sex was amazing. I don’t regret it at all, but I don’t want to live
the rest of my life thinking that I’m either serving as a
substitute for Teresa, or that you only thought about me the whole
time you were married to her. I told the truth earlier, I liked
her. As much as I loved you, I didn’t want to be a home
wrecker.”

He said nothing in
response. After two lengthy stoplights he drew in a heavy breath
and exhaled, as though mustering courage to speak.

“
I never compared the two
of you,” he said finally. Through her peripheral vision, Calla
caught his sad smile. “If anything, I considered you and Teresa my
two greatest loves, each coming at different, crucial stages in my
life.”

She returned full focus to
the road in time to make the turn onto the road leading to the
Houlihan home. She relaxed a bit, content that Caleb at least
hadn’t spent his marriage stacking Teresa up against her in the
lovemaking department all these years.

His question, though, sent
her foot to the floor and the car to a grinding halt.

“
Are you
bisexual?”

The sedan screeched to a
stop in the middle of the street, and an angry horn blared from
behind them. Calla sat numb and unmoved by the middle fingers
thrust out from all windows of the pickup truck that swerved around
them.

Slowly she maneuvered the
car over to the curb. “What makes you think that?”

“
Well…people talk. You
know how it is in a small town. Blind items are easy to
see.”

“
Yes.” Calla wouldn’t have
doubted Maya contributed a few gems to the local grapevine. She bit
her lip and mulled a way to dance around this sensitive subject,
but saw no reason to close any doors. Caleb might learn the truth
elsewhere, anyway.

“
No, but I
have…experimented,” she said finally. “I guess it didn’t take.” She
checked his face for a reaction—jealousy, interest, anger—but the
man just nodded and gave a small smile she couldn’t quite
decipher.

“
Just curious,” he said.
“If you were, and wanted to further your exploration—”

“
Thanks, I’ve seen
plenty.” Calla shifted back into drive and didn’t say another word
until they pulled onto the Houlihan’s carport. Should she take his
remark to mean he didn’t want an exclusive relationship?

Or, did he hint at wanting
to participate in Calla’s “exploration”?

Ugh
. Definitely,
she couldn’t jump back into bed with him again, not right now. She
had so much to sort out mentally.

She turned to him with a
benign grin. “Out you go,” she said. “Tell Sheila and Trisha I said
hi.”

“
I won’t have to,” he
said, getting out of the car and nodding toward the front of the
house. Calla followed his gaze to where Sheila peered from living
room window with a smile to rival that of Alice’s loony
Cheshire.

“
Why does she look so damn
happy?” she wondered aloud.

“
She must like my new
shaven look.” Caleb rubbed his smooth chin. “Speaking of
shaving—”

“
Close the door,” Calla
said, weary. Caleb complied but didn’t back away.

“
See you tonight?” he
called through the closed window.

Calla nodded and put the
car in reverse, still deciding how much of her he would see
tonight.

Chapter Eight

Caleb entered the house
and appraised his grinning aunt, who was still standing by the
living room window, with an arched brow. “Should I expect any
concerned calls from our neighbors about missing canaries?” he
asked her, with no hint of amusement to his voice.

Sheila Houlihan mock
pouted and moved closer, taking care to exaggerate sniffing the air
between them. “Why the sullen mood, Caleb? Given your recent, ah,
activities, I’d think you’d go floating up the stairs, not caring
what’s on my mind.”

“
Right.” Caleb backed
away, though he knew damn well there was no use in lying about what
transpired with Calla. Her scent lingered on him, plain as day for
any shifter to detect—hell, even humans with good olfactory senses
could tell.

“
I’d like to get in a
shower before tonight,” he told her by way of a graceful departure.
If his younger cousins were still at home, they didn’t need to pick
up on this.

“
Don’t let me stop you. Is
Calla coming back to pick you up?”

“
No.” Caleb started up the
stairs.

Sheila paused at the foot
of the banister. “So you’re going over there.”

“
We aren’t going together,
Aunt Sheila.” Caleb didn’t turn back. Wrong move on both
counts—talking and walking. Soon heavy footfalls sounded behind him
and Sheila tailed him to his bedroom.

“
Why not?” she demanded.
“It’s obvious you two made some kind of connection. What did you
do?”

Caleb turned on her. “What
makes you think
I
did or said anything?” He truly hoped to
keep this tenuous relationship with Calla quiet. God forbid Sheila
should meddle. “Calla asked that we take things slowly.”

“
You don’t smell slow.”
Sheila smirked, folding her arms.

“
Calla and I have a
history, you know that,” he said, calm. He loved his aunt, but
damned if she didn’t get on his nerves. “There are parts of it
she’d rather not repeat.”

Sheila nodded. “I can
understand that, but you aren’t promised to anyone now. There’s
nothing standing in your way this time.” She moved closer to brace
Caleb’s shoulders. “That Calla carries a recessive shifter gene is
so fortuitous for us, Caleb. She’s still at an age where she can
bear young, and your feelings for her have obviously resurrected.
If she didn’t return them, I certainly wouldn’t detect her scent on
you! What’s the holdup?”

“
Aunt Sheila.” Caleb
gently shrugged free of her touch. “If it had been known when Calla
and I were dating that she carried this gene, would Uncle Jim have
released me of my arrangement with Teresa?”

The question caught the
older woman off guard, and her arms fell slack against her sides.
She looked thoughtful, then frowned. “I-I don’t know,” she began,
then with more resolve, “No. Teresa was full-blood. That trumps
all.” She looked at her nephew with a long sigh. “You know, you
never should have led Calla along in the first place.”

“
I loved her.”

“
She’s wonderful. I don’t
blame you for it, but you’d always known your destiny.”

Caleb nodded.

“
If it’s some comfort,
though I know you also loved Teresa in your own way, you have this
second chance. Not everybody gets one.”

“
What about you?” he asked
suddenly.

That caused Sheila to take
a step back, as though threatened. “What? I’d only ever loved Jim,
even before I knew we’d be mated.”

Caleb shook his head and
tugged at the hem of his t-shirt. “No, I mean do you believe
you
will marry again?”

“
What’s the point? My
childbearing days are over.”

“
Then marry for love,”
Caleb pressed. “Let your children marry for love. When they’ve left
the house maybe you won’t be alone because you’ll have
somebody.”

Sheila looked at him as
though he’d slapped her. He should have expected such a reaction
from his hard-line traditional aunt, but perhaps if he spent more
time bringing her into the new century she might bend, and
influence others in the pack to modernize as well.

“
I can’t believe you’d
suggest I help in our extinction,” she said, obviously
appalled.

“
Try to think of it more
as sharing the best of ourselves.” Caleb kicked off his shoes and
eyed his private bathroom, wanting a shower but still savoring the
memory of Calla on his skin. “If Calla is recessive for shifting,
other people are, too. Let Trisha, Dawn, and Robbie find one of
them and fall in love.”

Sheila scowled. “What if
they find people who
aren’t
?”

“
Let them be happy, and
live their lives.”

“
I need to get ready for
the ball.” With that, she turned on her heel and stormed away. “I
will worry about my children while you do well to court Calla
Savitch.”

“
If I pursue Calla it’s
because I love her. I couldn’t give a damn about her genetic
makeup!” Caleb called after her.

Sheila’s bedroom door
slammed in reply.

Chapter Nine

An hour before the ball,
Calla lingered in her shower. She’d just switched off the water and
now stood tall and contented, allowing the steam to evaporate off
her body. While the remaining water beaded on her skin, she reached
for a half-empty bottle of baby oil and squeezed a generous amount
in her cupped palm before splashing it across her opposite
shoulder. She repeated the process over the rest of her body and
took her time rubbing down her arms, legs, back and torso to silky
smoothness. Satisfied, she quickly toweled dry and padded into her
bedroom for an outfit to wear to the ball.

Pausing just inside her
walk-in closet, Calla let out a sad sigh and backed away. While the
Indian Summer Ball represented an engagement party of sorts for
select shifters of Bliss, local non-shifters attended as well to
revel in the joyous occasion. Calla hadn’t attended every party,
but when she did she knew not to expect anything to influence her
love life. Tonight posed a problem.