“Make love to you.”

“Yes. I do. Please.” She gasped as he gave a little thrust against her center. “Yes. Please.”

He pulled aside her panties, and she felt his hand nudge between her legs, parting the folds of her flesh and stroking a line along the hot skin.

She gasped. Then gasped again when he sank two fingers into her pussy.

“You’re so wet,” he murmured, raising his head up so he could watch her face. He pumped his fingers. “You really do want me. Even now.”

She felt tight around his fingers, and she rolled her hips against the penetration. “Of course I want you. I’ve never not wanted you. Please, Caleb. Let me show you how much.”

He lowered his face to the crook of her neck, fluttering his tongue against her throbbing pulse. Then he suddenly gave her a hard nip, and the sudden pain caused a jolt of intense pleasure that made her clench around his fingers inside her.

He lowered his mouth to her right breast again, flicking her nipple with his tongue and then sucking on it hard. She writhed beneath him, torn between the sensations from her breast and the sensations from his fingers inside her. Then his mouth moved slightly and he bit down again—this time on the flesh of her breast, just to the side of her nipple.

She cried out again and bucked against his hand, her pussy clamping down in instinctive pleasure around his fingers once more. “Caleb, please.”

His mouth trailed down over her belly and lingered on the curve of her hip. After readjusting his weight so he could use both hands, he spread her thighs apart even farther.

Using his free hand to hold her open, he pumped his fingers a few times, curling them up to push against her G-spot.

Kelly reached out and grasped at the grass. Her mouth fell open in silent cries of pleasure as he worked her over with instinctive skill. She could feel the heat of the sun on her skin and hear the sounds of birds and the moving water of the stream.

When he parted her folds and blew on her clit, she choked out a few sobs, her body starting to shake and shudder.

Then he bit down again, this time on the tender flesh just beside her pussy.

She came, the spasms overtaking her before she knew to expect them. She hadn’t believed it was possible to come without stimulation to her clit. But he hadn’t even touched her there.

And she was coming. Hard.

Before she’d ridden out the waves of pleasure, he pressed his face into her pussy and sucked on her clit. The new stimulation sustained and extended her contractions, causing her pleasure to surge forward anew. She jerked clumsily, spasming around his fingers and against his face. She let out a long, anguished moan.

“Fuck,” he rasped, raising his head. His mouth was wet with the moisture from her climax. “Fuck, Kelly, keep showing me.”

She wanted to show him. And the need caused her to find the energy to flip them over so that Caleb was on his back and she was straddling him again.

His cock was hard and already pulled out of his jeans and underwear. She rose up with her thighs and poised herself over him, holding it in position so she could align herself appropriately.

Then she lowered her body over his, sheathing his erection.

They both hissed in pleasure as he penetrated her. He felt incredibly full and tight inside her. So perfect.

She leaned forward, bracing herself with her hands on the ground near his shoulders. So she started to ride him with short, jerky pumps of her hips, angling her pelvis to get as much stimulation on her clit as she could.

Caleb’s eyes were open and staring at her hungrily. His pelvis rocked in time with her rhythm, but he let her have control.

She huffed as she rode him, her face flushing with heat and little whimpers of pleasure and effort escaping her lips.

“Yes,” Caleb hissed, his fingers startlingly strong on the flesh of her hips. “Yes. Show me. Show me.”

She was showing him as much as she could—how much she wanted, needed him. She rode him eagerly. Caleb’s hands moved as her pelvis jerked above him. He hooked his hands around the backs of her thighs and spread them farther apart. In this position his knuckles were at her pussy, almost brushing against his cock as it pumped in and out of her.

Kelly whimpered again, feeling exposed and splayed by his hands.

“Fuck,” he muttered, his fingers digging harder into her flesh. “Fuck, Kelly. Show me. Show me as you let go completely.”

“Yeah,” she huffed, her rhythm accelerating as she bounced over him as frantically as she could. “Let me show you.”

Then she did, crying out in pleasure and relief as the tightening pressure at her center released itself again. She froze, her spine arching dramatically and her head falling back as she groaned out the duration of her climax.

She heard herself crying out his name and “love you” and then muttering them over and over again as she slumped forward.

By this time, Caleb had fallen out of rhythm. His pelvis was pushing up against her and his grunts had become rough and animalistic.

Then Caleb was coming too, roaring out a cry of dominance and desperation both. His features were washed momentarily with a flood of helpless pleasure, and she felt the pulsing of his cock as he came in short spurts inside her.

The fresh air and sunshine surrounded her as she collapsed onto him afterward. His body felt hot and limp and relaxed, just like hers was, and she sighed in pleasure when he wrapped his arms around her.

After a minute, something started feeling a little strange or tense. She lifted her head to look at his face.

His expression was unreadable, although he gave her a little smile.

“What are you thinking?” she asked, wishing the last of the secrets, the barriers, could be destroyed between them, so there really would be nothing but the two of them.

He cleared his throat. “That was really good.”

It wasn’t what he’d been thinking. She could tell. “I know. But is something wrong? You look…I don’t know…”

“Nothing is wrong. Are you okay? After before, I mean.”

“Yeah.” She relaxed again and rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. It was racing in his chest, just like hers was. “It was…hard. But it means so much that you…you want me to get better.” She pressed a kiss against his shirt. “Thank you.”

She felt his body tense up briefly, but all he said was “You’re welcome.”

Chapter 8

The following day Kelly was still waiting to hear back from Jack. The file she’d given him was big, and it might take a while for them to get through it and then figure out what they had and what it all meant.

The silence didn’t mean there was nothing in it to be found. She had to keep reminding herself of this.

But her time was running out. Any day now, his suspicions might lead Wes to pry into her business and discover something about her real identity. Any day now, her mother might die and it would be too late to give her justice.

Any day now¸ Kelly might finally give in completely to her feelings and spill everything to Caleb.

She was out of sorts all day, though, and she was uncomfortable with how vulnerable she had made herself the day before. She’d never get through this if she didn’t stay a little stronger.

No matter what she felt for Caleb, she wasn’t totally spineless. She was going to see this through to the end—even if it ripped her heart out in the process.

She was in such a tangle now, there wasn’t any way to unravel herself. She was as trapped as a person could be in this—like Hamlet in the endless downward spiral—so all she could do was hold out until the end, when the events set in motion would finally come to fruition.