“And that is?”
“Well, to be completely honest, right now I’m afraid you’re going to leave the farm to become leader of the slammers. I’m afraid you’re attracted to that little bit of fluff in there.” McBride pointed to Ollie’s house. “And I’m convinced my stupid ear is never going to stop bleeding.”
The most curious feeling swept over Caleb in that moment. He was unable to figure out what it was, exactly.
“You’re smiling.”
“I am?”
“Yeah.” McBride tilted his head almost like Alden did when he wasn’t too certain he’d read something right. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been truly happy.”
“Me being concerned and jealous makes you happy?”
“No.” Caleb stepped close. “You telling me straight-up how you’re feeling does.”
“Great.” McBride held his position. “Any chance of you reciprocating? Or am I going to be standing alone with my naked honesty dangling?”
“And you think you don’t have a way with a phrase?” Caleb laughed. “To be clear, I am most definitely not interested in that thrall. Like I told you what seems a lifetime ago, I like my men big, hairy, and hung.”
A slow smile spread across McBride’s face.
“And I know exactly how to stop your ear from bleeding.” Caleb turned away, marched over to the little house, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. Angel was sitting on the couch in the living room. He shot to his feet. “I brought you this to eat until I can show you how to work the cookbot.”
“You’re not going to use me?”
“No. Eat, clean up, and go to bed. I’ll be back in the morning.” He then exited the house, locking the door behind him. McBride was still standing right where he’d left him with that curious little smile still lighting his face. Caleb walked up to him, embraced him, and then kissed his neck. “Come with me to my house.”
McBride almost pointed out that Caleb hadn’t answered all his questions, but when he teased his tongue against the blood along his neck, McBride discovered his intellect took a backseat to his longing. Was he finally, after all the pain and strife, going to have his dangerously wicked Caleb? Reluctant to believe that’s what was coming his way, McBride nonetheless followed Caleb over to his little house. Once they were inside, McBride looked back at the big house. “We should tell someone where we are.”
“Why?”
“I can’t communicate with them now.” Not that his device was working properly before, but at least the butler always knew where to find him. “What if the slammers come back?”
“They won’t. Not tonight.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Gage gave me forty-eight hours to decide.”
“How can you be certain they’ll hold to that offer of forty-eight hours?”
“I can’t. Not completely. But the valet is still up there watching. If anything bigger than a vole comes down that drive, he’s going to alert everyone.”
McBride knew that, but somehow being out of instantaneous communication worried him more than he wanted to admit.
“Can’t you please let it go for just one night?” Caleb’s expression was almost desperate.
McBride found himself eager to simply let things go, if only for a few hours. “Fine.”
“Good. Wait here.”
While McBride stood in the front room near the small table Caleb ate at, he looked around and noticed how clean everything was. Unlike most of his brothers, Caleb didn’t have anything that revealed his interests on display. There wasn’t a gamer, books, nothing at all that indicated what he liked to spend his spare time doing. Out of curiosity, McBride had looked over Caleb’s account to see what he spent his money on, but all he saw were supplies from the general store. The receipts didn’t say what those supplies were. Since he’d pried about as much as his conscience would let him, he dropped it at that point, but he’d always wondered.
As he looked back the direction Caleb had gone, he realized that curious flicker was back. He’d always wondered what it was. He supposed it was a candle, but he’d always wanted to see for himself. Or maybe he really wanted to have an excuse to go back into Caleb’s bedroom.
“Okay. You can come in now.”
Unsure what he’d find, McBride was utterly flabbergasted when he stepped into Caleb’s bedroom. There was a lone white candle flickering by the bedside, but that wasn’t what was so astonishing. Melted wax from dozens—possibly hundreds—of white candles covered the surface of the table all the way down to the floor.
“I had to actually scrape some off the top so that I could put more candles on it.” Caleb was sitting on the edge of his bed. He was nude against the hunter-green covering, which showed off his tan and the stunning sage green of his eyes.
“I’ve never seen anything so surprisingly beautiful.” It was only white wax, which wasn’t all that magnificent, but it was made up from thousands of drips, like a monument built from tears. He couldn’t explain why it touched his soul, but it did. It also explained that a lot of the supplies Caleb bought on his account were undoubtedly white candles.
“Every night I would light a white candle, hoping that you would come to me. Each night it would drip along the table, building up like my longing, until it ultimately extinguished itself.” Caleb’s voice was very soft, almost as slight as the lone flickering flame. “I tried to stop, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. Somehow, that light and the resulting shapes kept me hopeful that someday you’d come to me. And here you are.”
McBride honestly didn’t know what to say. He’d never been so touched by someone else’s action, but this managed to film his eyes with tears. “Why white?”
“If you dig down to the very bottom of the table, you’ll find there is some black and red wax. One candle for each. I bought three candles and put them away because I wanted to do the ritual with you. As time went on, I realized that was never going to happen. Then Devon, from one of his books, talked about the very ancient idea of witchcraft.”
“Casting spells and such?” McBride vaguely remembered reading something about it at the academy.
“As crazy as it sounds, that’s exactly it.” Caleb grimaced, rolling his eyes at his own folly. “I burned the black candle, thinking intently about having your body.” He gave McBride a lingering perusal that practically had the power to strip him bare. “Then I burned the red candle as I thought about your blood.” He licked his lips, reminding McBride that he’d tasted him three times this evening. Not a lot, but clearly enough to whet his appetite for more. “But then when I burned the white candle and considered your soul…”
McBride considered the waxfall again then turned from the candle to look at Caleb.
“I discovered that was what I truly wanted. Bringing our bodies together would give both of us tremendous pleasure, as would mixing our blood, but binding our souls would be the ultimate expression of how much I honestly love you.”
McBride was so stunned by what Caleb had said he staggered back half a step. Love. He’d said love. Not falling or getting there or maybe someday. No. Caleb said he was in love.
“Caleb.” McBride didn’t know what else to say other than his name. As soon as he did, McBride knew it was woefully inadequate. In his honor, Caleb had built a shrine to him that embodied everything pure when McBride had thought it was only raw lust. Worse, he had nothing to offer in exchange. “I had no idea.”
“I know.” Caleb looked up from where he was sitting on the bed. “I work overtime at making everyone think I’m a heartless, brutal monster.”
“You’re not.”
“I know that. And you know that.” Caleb sighed as he looked toward where the big house sat beyond the walls of his little house. “But my brothers and their mates…”
“They’re just scared.”
“If you had done all the things I have done in the last few hours, they would have trusted you completely.”
“I trust you.”
“Do you?” Caleb tilted his head, his voice challenging. “Then what made you think for even a second that I wanted that skinny, hairless, and utterly uninteresting thrall?”
“Because I’m an insecure moron.”
Caleb laughed.
“What ate at me was the way you checked him over so thoroughly.” Even when he didn’t want to admit the truth, McBride clung to his honesty. He owed Caleb that after what he’d given him in exchange. “What really got me was how you tested his firmness with your finger.”
“That’s standard.”
“I know. But to my insecure eyes you seemed to plant your finger there and linger.” Again that visual flashed in McBride’s mind. He couldn’t believe that even now, knowing Caleb loved him, didn’t take the sting of that moment away.
“Wait. How did you know that I did that? This is the second time you’ve mentioned it when you were supposed to be in the house, in the parlor, tending to your injured ear.” Up went Caleb’s brows. “Explain, Sheriff, how you managed to see what was going on when there’s no window in that room that faces the long drive.”
“Okay, fine. You got me. I was watching you out that little window on that side of the house.”
Caleb grinned. “Isn’t that an old bathroom?”
“Yes. Can we move on?” McBride didn’t feel proud of what he’d done at all. Rather than wait for Caleb to say anything, McBride stepped close so that Caleb had to strain his head back to maintain eye contact. “I don’t want to talk about that when I’ve just been shown the most romantic gesture in the world.”
“Really?”
“Really.” McBride stroked his hand over Caleb’s head, luxuriating in the feel of his beautiful black hair. “Quintus asked me if I was bloodbonded to you, and I told him it was much stronger than that. I told Quintus that I was soul bonded to you. I think that was far more true than I ever thought.”
“So my spell worked.”
When McBride didn’t answer, Caleb went on in teasing tones about reeling him in with magic.
“Don’t make light of this.” McBride pressed a finger to Caleb’s beautiful mouth then moved closer until their bodies touched. “You’ve astonished me.”
“You didn’t think I had it in me?” Since Caleb’s throat was pressed against McBride’s cock, he was able to feel and hear his words.
“I had no idea you were romantic at all.” McBride leaned over as Caleb lifted up. “But it’s the best discovery I’ve ever made in my life.”
Their lips met, and hunger was tempered by a soft kind of exploration. Always, their encounters had the pressure of time and shame, but not now. They had all the time they needed, and there was no shame attached to either one of them. This was right. In fact, in his entire life, he’d never felt more certain of anything. McBride wanted to know Caleb more intimately than he knew himself.
Caleb eased back and worked the fasteners of McBride’s trousers apart. “I’ve got to catch you up to me.”
McBride took off his dress shirt and tossed it aside. “My boots.”
Caleb didn’t seem to hear him, because suddenly his mouth was on McBride’s cock.
The shock of wet heat made McBride gasp. He’d imagined his prick between Caleb’s slick lips so many times, but that fantasy didn’t come close to this reality. After all his begging attempts to get McBride to let him please him this way, Caleb went after him with so much eager passion McBride had to widen his stance, or he would have fallen.
Hungrily, Caleb sucked at the tip then worked his way down the shaft until he’d swallowed the entire length. Caleb’s nose pressed against McBride’s abdomen then eased back.
“I won’t last.” McBride barely managed to utter the words.
“Good.” Caleb offered him a quick smirk, and then he was back, intent on making McBride lose his mind right along with his release.
McBride struggled to tame his breathing but failed. When he buried his hand in Caleb’s hair and felt his arm rocking back and forth along with Caleb’s head, his ability to resist was completely lost. Caleb’s intensity and his stunning expertise caused McBride to tense every muscle, but there wasn’t any hope. The orgasm ripped through him, turning him into a growling animal who flicked his hips against his will. But Caleb was ready for him. He met his ramming prick with gusto, opening his mouth and throat wider until McBride reached the peak. As if he’d sensed his shifting need, Caleb clamped down tightly on him, drawing one last powerful suck, compelling one more spurt, and then he let go.
McBride didn’t even let him catch his breath before he bent over and kissed Caleb, loving the way his pleasure blended with Caleb’s unique flavor. He remembered thinking of how much he enjoyed tasting his pleasure on his lover’s lips and how long it had been since he’d done so. His adolescent playmate had been good, but he was nothing compared to Caleb. Compelled to give back in the same way, McBride broke their kiss and then worked his way down Caleb’s chest. He quickly found himself on his knees, pushing Caleb’s legs apart as he encouraged him to sit right on the very edge of the mattress.
As hungry as he was to taste Caleb’s pleasure, McBride took a moment to enjoy the sheer beauty of his form. Just below Caleb’s belly button, soft black hair started and then trailed down, thickening around his cock. The dark body hair grew lighter and even softer as it covered his legs. Once, Caleb had stood before McBride utterly nude, and McBride had longed to touch his entire form to feel his hair against his palms. Now that he had the chance, he made the most of it. McBride stroked him everywhere, loving the feel of the man he so longed to claim as his mate.