Sweet the Sin (14 page)

He should probably get back to work, since he’d had to reschedule his whole afternoon, but a headache was pounding at his temples, and he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He didn’t want to work. He wanted to see Kelly.

He called Breah to tell her he was coming home early, and he was surprised and displeased when she told him that Kelly wasn’t there. She’d evidently gone shopping this afternoon.

So he called up Pete, who was the man he’d assigned to her, and was told they were at an upscale mall.

It was on his way home, so Caleb headed over there. At least it would be a distraction. Make him forget what the hospital had smelled like, the memories it had brought with it.

It took a while to get there, and then more time to get parked, call Pete, and then find the dress store he’d indicated. But finally Caleb entered the boutique and saw Pete standing next to what was obviously the dressing room door.

“She’s trying shit on,” Pete said, straightening up when Caleb approached.

Caleb rubbed a hand through his hair, wondering what he was even doing here. He could have gone back to work. Or gone back home. He didn’t need to rush here to just wait around while Kelly shopped.

He wanted to see her.

“How long has she been in there?” he asked.

Pete shrugged. “A while. Twenty minutes.”

“How long does it take to try on clothes?” Feeling frustrated by the whole day, Caleb pushed through the door. There obviously weren’t separate men’s and women’s dressing areas in this shop, so it wasn’t like he wasn’t allowed.

He stopped short as soon as he entered.

His eyes had landed unerringly on Kelly, who was standing behind the partly opened door of the farthest cubicle.

She was talking to a man.

The man was around forty, with a strong build and a slightly rumpled appearance. He was smiling down at Kelly in a way that made Caleb stiffen.

What the hell was she doing in here with this guy?

He paced toward them, a surge of possessive resentment coursing through him. They weren’t touching, but Kelly was smiling back at him and it felt private, secretive somehow.

The man noticed him first, his expression changing as he processed Caleb’s appearance.

Kelly turned, jerking visibly in obvious surprise.

Or guilt. Maybe guilt.

Caleb was bristling with irrational jealousy as he reached them.

“I guess this means you’re already taken,” the man said, giving Kelly another smile. “Too bad.”

“Nice try,” Kelly said, smiling distractedly and giving the stranger a little wave. She turned to Caleb. “What are you doing here?”

“Who was that?” he demanded.

“Just some guy. What are you doing here?”

“What were you doing in here with him?” He looked over his shoulder, but the other man had already left the dressing room.

“He was just flirting with me.” Kelly was frowning now, and her shoulders were stiff. “What did you think? We’d come in here for a quick fuck?”

“You didn’t know him?” Caleb was starting to wonder if he’d overreacted, but there had been a vibe earlier that he couldn’t quite pin down, something that roused his suspicions.

“Of course I didn’t know him. He was in here looking for a shirt to wear to a wedding, and I talked him out of buying a really ugly one. He was just coming on to me. It happens, sometimes, you know.”

That squared with what the guy had said as he left, but still. Caleb stood tensely, studying her face, wondering why he still wanted to clobber someone.

“I didn’t peg you for the jealous type,” Kelly said, turning away to get her purse and a blue dress out of the cubicle. “And I’ve got to say, all this alpha male possessiveness is really not appealing. I’m allowed to talk to other men, you know.”

Of course she was allowed. He didn’t normally overreact this way. He had no idea what was wrong with him. Only he hated the idea of Kelly with another man.

He
hated
it.

“As long as talking is all you do,” he muttered, an edge to his tone that surprised him.

It evidently surprised her too. She stared at him for a minute, her hair slipping out of her long braid the way it always did. “If I’m supposed to curb my extracurricular activities, then the same better apply to you.”

Did she really think he was fucking other women? Did she really think he even wanted to?

He stepped forward, walking her backward and holding her in place by bracing a hand on the wall. “I don’t share.”

Her cheeks were flushed now, and she arched slightly, visibly turned on. But her voice was controlled as she replied, “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

“I’m serious. If something is mine, then it’s mine only.”

“I know you’re not talking about me as your possession.”

Of course she was his. Her gold hair, her creamy skin, her lush curves, her long legs, her supple mouth. Her knowing, intelligent eyes. All of it felt like his, and he still bristled at the idea of anyone else laying a hand on her.

“Okay,” Kelly said, reaching up to stroke his jaw. “If you’re going to go all caveman on me, then you’ll have to wait until we get home. I’m not getting fucked in the dressing room.”

“It doesn’t have to be now, but you’re definitely getting fucked.”

She was smiling as she pushed him out of the dressing room, and he stood beside her as she paid for her dress. She didn’t say anything, but she kept slanting little looks up at him, as if trying to figure out what was going on with him.

When they left the mall, she got in the passenger seat of Caleb’s car instead of riding back with Pete.

She was studying him so closely now that it was making him self-conscious.

He said, “I know you’re hot for me, but we agreed we’d wait until we got home before you get fucked.”

She gave a little laugh, but he hadn’t distracted her from her questions. “What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“Yeah.” He’d turned on the car, but he hadn’t shifted into drive yet.

“I know you didn’t blow your whole schedule to go shopping with me, so what’s going on?”

There was no good reason to tell her. But he heard himself saying, “I had to…do a favor for a friend, and then just didn’t go back into work.”

“What favor?” Her voice was soft, as if she were afraid of spooking him.

He let out a long exhale and closed his eyes. “I had to take a friend’s mother to the hospital for a blood transfusion.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, clearly surprised. “Why you?”

Naturally, she would be surprised. He wasn’t the sort of man to go out of his way for someone else. “Because she knows me. She’s not doing well, and the only people she remembers are from way back. My friend didn’t have anyone else to ask.”

“Well”—she paused—“that was really nice of you.”

He opened his eyes and gave her a narrow-eyed look. “
Nice
isn’t the word I’d use to describe me.”

“I know. But still.” She looked strange, like she was rattled for some reason. Her eyes kept darting from his face to her hands in her lap. “I’m sure your friend appreciated it. Was it…”

“Was it what?”

“Was it hard? You seem kind of—I don’t know—
stretched
or something this afternoon.”

He closed his eyes again.

“Yeah,” he said, then decided the conversation had gone on long enough. He straightened up and backed the car out of the parking place.

She didn’t pursue her earlier questions. She sat with her arms hugging her stomach, looking strangely fragile and confused.

After about ten minutes of silence, he looked at her and asked, “You okay?”

She smiled, but he could tell it was forced. “Of course. I’m waiting to get fucked at home.”

He could tell she didn’t mean that either.

It was a few minutes before he spoke again, and when he did, it wasn’t what he’d intended to say. “I don’t like hospitals.”

He’d surprised her again. Her big blue eyes gazed up at him questioningly.

He gave a little shake of his head. “I don’t.”

“You run a pharmaceutical company,” she said slowly. “I’d think you would have gotten used to them by now.”

“I haven’t.”

She said, “Too many people to save.”

She understood completely. He stared out the windshield at the traffic on the highway, murmuring, “And no way to save them.”

The next night, Kelly asked him to tie her up.

He’d brought her to his room at bedtime, and they’d been kissing and caressing under the covers. Nothing wild or creative, but it had felt intense. He was tired after a long week and was mostly in the mood for something quiet.

He certainly hadn’t planned on anything like this.

Kelly said she just wanted to try something new.

He agreed. There was no reason not to. She wanted it, and it might be exciting.

He picked up some silk cords he had from some previous, nearly forgotten affair.

She was lying naked on his bed, her eyes huge and very blue as they focused on him. He gazed at her for a minute, trying to read the expression in her eyes. Caleb had never seen that particular look there before. Her expression was deep, and conflicted, and significant, but he couldn’t figure out how to interpret it.

He started to tie her right hand, winding the cord around her delicate wrist and around the post of his headboard. He intentionally kept it loose. She was as tired as he was, and he was afraid anything too intense would be too much for tonight.

He hadn’t thought either of them was really in that mood.

“It’s not tight enough,” Kelly whispered, her full lips soft but unwavering.

Caleb looked at her face silently, again trying to figure out what was going on. He was used to being in control, used to being competent, used to knowing exactly what to do.

He wasn’t used to feeling like this.

“What’s the point of this if I can pull my hand out? I want to do this, Caleb. You said I could try anything with you, and I wanted to try this. If you are going to do it with me, at least get it right.” She sounded more like herself, and there was a glint of clever impatience in her eyes as she slanted them up at him.

Caleb stopped worrying, wondering, and retied the cord, more tightly this time. Finally, he let himself look at her for real, let his body enjoy the sight.

Kelly wasn’t wild and playful right now, the way she’d been when she’d gotten him to spank her. She wasn’t full of that vivid, taunting sexual provocation he was used to from her. She felt deep, like there were layers to her he’d not even come close to exposing.

He wanted to expose them, expose
her
. He wanted to know her for real.

His cock was hardening quickly as he moved over her body to tie up her other arm. Her skin was cool and fair, a stark contrast to the dark cord. As he tightened the knot, her fingers wrapped themselves into a fist.

When her hands were both tied, he backed up slightly. Her arms were spread out toward the posts of the headboard, and her full breasts were stretched across her chest. Her nipples were already hard, although he hadn’t touched them yet and it wasn’t cold in the room.

He felt his body react even more intensely to the sight of her fair, naked skin and soft curves. He leaned in to kiss her deeply.

She responded, her tongue darting into his mouth, dueling with his own. There was something about her kissing that was intoxicating—somehow both passionate and more than that, like a current ran beneath the passion he couldn’t quite name.

Those elusive layers he could never reach.

Eventually, he pulled away from her mouth and trailed kisses down to her neck. She was arching up into his mouth, into his touch, and her obvious need for him reached a tight ball of conflicted need in his own soul.

“Caleb,” she breathed. “Not yet. You haven’t tied my ankles yet.”

He raised his head to meet her eyes, but hers were closed. Her cheeks were flushed, and her head was tossing slightly, as if resisting a desire too compelling to fight.

He thought about what she’d said—about how she never wanted to feel dependent, about how she couldn’t trust anyone enough to give up control.

But she was doing so now. With him.

Submitting completely.

A feeling pulsed in his chest as powerfully as it pulsed in his cock.

He moved to the bottom of the bed.

He lifted up one of her small feet. He kissed the toes and the sensitive skin on the curve of the arch. Her breath hitched audibly when he licked her instep with a flick of his tongue.

He returned her foot to the mattress and stretched the cord around her ankle, and then around the post of the footboard. Silently, he finished with her other foot, completely securing her to the bed.

Now she was spread-eagled on his expensive sheets. Naked, vulnerable, entirely open to him.

He had to close his eyes against the image of her strong, beautiful body in this helpless position, or he would lose the control he had remaining. His excitement must be obvious to her, since he was wearing nothing but his underwear.

“What do you want me to do?” Caleb asked hoarsely, not yet touching her. For no good reason, his heart was pounding so violently that he was sure she could hear it.

He had no idea how they’d even gotten here, when they’d been having quiet sex under the covers.

Kelly looked at him with those wide, unfathomable eyes, her hair spread out around her face like some kind of damaged halo.

“Take me,” she whispered.

He moved over her, covering her supple body with his. “Tell me what to do,” he murmured, his lips hovering over her face. She seemed on the edge of something, and he was suddenly afraid of what would happen if she fell over it.

“No. That’s not how this works. You get to do whatever you want to me.”

It was an act of trust—or should have been. She was offering her body to him, allowing him total control, complete power. But it didn’t feel like trust to Caleb.

It was something else entirely.

And Caleb still didn’t know what that was.

But he was fully erect, his arousal like a throbbing, aching presence on his body. And Kelly was the woman he’d been having sex with for two weeks now. She was asking him to take her.