He was angry again now—but coolly so, totally in control. His eyes narrowed as he leaned into her. “What you do or don’t owe me is irrelevant. You’ve got to be crazy if you think I’m just going to let you walk out of here, especially if you’re in danger.”

“Well, you’re going to have to. Because I’m not willing to surrender everything to you yet.”

He leaned even closer, his eyes hot and cool at the same time, utterly mesmerizing. “What if I want you to surrender everything to me?”

“Then you can deal with disappointment.” This argument felt every bit as real as the previous one, even though they were both now more controlled than they’d been before. She was flashing with very real anger as she said, “I’m tired of it. I don’t want to surrender anything more to you.”

His eyes seemed to see all the way into her soul, far deeper than he could ever be allowed. He leaned into her. “I’m not sure that’s true.”

“What?” She was trembling again, for a different reason now.

“I think you want to surrender more to me. You’re just scared.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but the words stuck in her throat. Because he was right. He was brutally right.

“That’s what I thought,” he murmured thickly, stroking her hot cheek with his knuckles. “Tell me the truth.”

“I’m not going to tell you the truth.” But her defenses were already weakened.

He leaned down even more to claim her mouth, starting gently, as gently as his voice, but soon growing deep and urgent when she softened against him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

She couldn’t help it. She wanted him—all of him—so much.

Caleb tore his mouth away—stared at her hotly, tenderly. “I want all of you, Kelly, blossom. I want you to surrender it all.”

“I—can’t.”

His hand fisted in her loose hair. “Yes, you can. I won’t let you down.” He caught her mouth again, stroking and dipping deeply, claiming all of her.

Kelly sucked in air through her nose and tried to think, telling herself she needed to pull away now or she would completely betray herself. But she couldn’t. Erotic sensations shot down from the kiss as Caleb took her upper lip between his teeth—tugging, nibbling, caressing it with his tongue.

She whimpered against his lips.

As she tried to suck his tongue into her mouth, her hands fumbled up to his head, and she tangled her fingers into his thick hair. She felt his hard, urgent body pushing against hers, felt his hardening arousal against her middle.

He pulled away from her lips, just far enough to speak. “This is what you want, isn’t it?” His face was damp and sincere and as handsome as any man’s she’d ever seen.

“Yes,” she gasped, her body straining toward his, her heart straining toward his too. “I want it. I want you.”

“I want you too. You know how much. Why do you keep holding back?”

He grabbed her in his arms and tilted her backward a little, pressing a few kisses into her lips, and then mouthing his way down her neck. He settled on a spot just above her neckline. Sucked on it until she gasped.

It wasn’t just her body responding. Her heart wanted it too. It wanted him.

Then, as if prompted by her private thought, he gathered her up in his arms and carried her over to the bed. He laid her down and moved over her, his eyes searching her face. “Don’t hold back anymore,” he said. “Just tell me the truth.”

Kelly bit her lip as he lowered his face to her neck, terrified of what she might say if she were to let go as she wanted.

He reached her breast and teased the nipple through the fabric of her top. “Tell me, Kelly.”

“God,” she gasped, pressing her chest up toward his mouth, so overwhelmed with sensation and emotion she couldn’t lie still. “I want you so much.”

He gently pulled her top up over her head, and she raised her body to let him. “What else do you want?”

He was cupping her breasts, fondling her nipples with both thumbs, and she couldn’t seem to look away from his face. She forced her eyes to close, trying to hold on to who she was, who she’d always been, what she’d always believed about the world.

“Stop holding back,” he murmured, his voice like rough velvet against her heart. “Surrender, Kelly. I want you to surrender it all. What else do you want?”

She suddenly realized she was clutching his shoulders, gripping the strong, warm substance of who he was. “I want more,” she admitted, unable not to say it. “I want all of you.”

He made a low sound in his throat and moved down to kiss her breasts again, taking off her bra as he did. “Yes,” he murmured over her skin. “Say it again.”

He was all hot tension—something far deeper than lust. He felt real to her and needy and fully, completely here with her.

The bitterest kind of irony. That Caleb was trying to be human for the first time in years—with the woman who was supposed to destroy him.

She couldn’t think through that reality, though. All she could do was feel. “I want all of you,” she gasped, letting her heels drop to the floor as the ripples of pleasure spiraled out from his touch.

He released another low groan and slowly slid her skirt down over her hips and legs, until she was naked except for her underwear. His gaze devoured her, and she wanted it. She wanted the hot possession in his gaze, the awe, the tenderness—all mingled together in the way he looked at her now. “You don’t have to be afraid,” he murmured. “You can surrender it all to me.”

She couldn’t. And yet she couldn’t help it. She tangled her fingers in his hair as he kissed his way down her belly.

Adjusting his body lower on the bed, Caleb spread her legs open a little bit. “All of it,” he said again. He lifted one of her legs and started trailing kisses down the sensitive inside of one of her calves.

Making a choked sound, Kelly suddenly realized what he wanted to do. “Caleb?” Her heart started to pound erratically, even as her pussy tightened in excitement.

His eyes were focused on her face, as his head descended toward her thighs. When his mouth had passed her knees, the fear intensified, what it would mean if she let him follow through with the promise on his face. “Caleb, I don’t know.”

He raised his head to meet her eyes. “You can trust me, blossom. You can surrender. I’m not going to let you down. Let me prove it to you.”

She didn’t want him to prove it. She was so afraid of what would happen once he had. But she also desperately needed what he was offering her. And the impossible clash between the two feelings seemed to embody the whole of who she was.

“I’m more than the man you think I am,” Caleb said after a moment. “Let me show you.”

He wasn’t touching her now, wasn’t seducing her into changing her mind. If he had been, she could have resisted—in heart, if not in body. He was waiting for her, asking a real question, for the moment, completely vulnerable.

And it broke down the last of her defenses.

She nodded, tried to speak over the lump in her throat. “Show me.”

Caleb moved up to kiss her mouth—slowly and deeply—and his hand slid down between her thighs.

When he finally pulled out of the kiss, he met her eyes and said, “I don’t want you to hold anything of yourself back anymore.”

He kissed her again, and then moved down over her throat and to her breasts, flicked his tongue over her nipple.

Kelly exhaled deeply and tried to relax. He was slow and gentle—unusually so—and soon her body was reacting the way it always did when she let herself enjoy his touch.

He hadn’t tried to move lower than her belly button, so Kelly didn’t tense up when he mouthed her shuddering belly, his hands fondling her breasts as she arched up into his caress. She was deeply aroused, and overwhelmed by far more than the physical sensations.

Caleb’s lips trailed even lower, until they were brushing against the delicate skin just above the trimmed strip of hair between her thighs. He glanced up, giving her a questioning look.