Darker the Release (13 page)

“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.”

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.

Because she was worried about a repeat of the day before, she told Caleb she was seeing a client who could only meet in the evening and so she wouldn’t have time to make it out to the house after work.

He told her he was going to stay at his apartment in the city that night, so she should just come over for an hour or two before she went to meet her client.

She hadn’t been expecting the offer, so she ended up agreeing to it.

She’d never been to his apartment downtown before. Security was tighter at his house, so they’d made a habit of always spending time there. She wasn’t quite sure why he’d never invited her over to his apartment, but she’d assumed maybe he thought about it as some kind of bachelor pad. He’d probably had all kinds of one-night stands there, and his relationship with Kelly was different, so he’d kept the spaces separate.

She followed the directions he gave her, and she showed up at his door a little after six. He must have just gotten there after work, since he was still dressed in a suit and hadn’t even loosened his tie when he opened the door.

“Hey,” she said with a smile, hiding the jump in her heart at the sight of him.

It was so completely wrong—to be so thrilled just to see him like this.

He smiled at her, but he looked tired, and he just stepped aside to let her in.

She didn’t like the apartment as much as she liked the house. It was sleek and modern and kind of cold—without the warmth and history of the house. It felt like the man Caleb had been before he’d started to soften with her.

“I don’t have very much time,” she said, remembering her vow not to melt into spinelessness again today.

“I know. I’ve got work to do this evening anyway.”

She looked around, noting the minimalistic furniture and blacks and grays of the apartment. “I was just wondering why I’ve never been over here before.”

Caleb glanced around a little distractedly. “I’ve barely been here myself for the last couple of months. It feels…”

“What?”

He gave a half-shrug. “It feels foreign. Like I don’t belong here anymore.”

Yes. That fit with her own thoughts from before—that the place represented a person that wasn’t really him now.

“Do you want something to eat?” he asked.

“I’m not really very hungry.”

“Something to drink? I just opened a bottle of wine.”

“Sure. Sounds good.”

He walked to the kitchen, taking off his suit jacket as he did and slinging it on a chair.

She stared at the jacket for a minute, feeling a weird heaviness in her gut. She didn’t know why. It was just a piece of clothing. He wore suits most of the time, and his taking off the jacket wasn’t unusual. She didn’t know why it felt so personal, intimate, domestic at the moment.

She didn’t like this apartment. She felt like a stranger here.

So did Caleb.

She walked over to the large windows on the far wall. There was no balcony, and the building was only four stories, so she could easily see the street from her vantage point.

It was just after six on a Wednesday in DC. The sidewalks were crowded with workers heading home and tourists. They weren’t very far from the Mall, and she watched a family with three blond girls trying to cross the street. Two of the girls were laughing, and the other was soberly holding her mother’s hand. The father was obviously checking street signs, trying to figure out where they were going.

Kelly tried to imagine what it would feel like. To be those girls. To be that mother.

She couldn’t even imagine having a family like that, going on a vacation, doing what so many other people did all the time.

“It’s strange, isn’t it?” Caleb’s voice came closer with each word, and before she could turn around to face him, he’d slipped an arm around her waist.

“What is?” she asked, still looking out the window since he seemed to be looking out too.

“To look at all those normal people, going along with their normal lives.”

He’d somehow managed to pinpoint what she was feeling exactly. She had no idea how he’d done it.

The knowledge caused that same knot of heavy feeling to tighten in her gut. She wished they weren’t so connected like this, but there was no way to deny it. She couldn’t help but lean back against him. “Maybe those people don’t think their lives are all that normal.”

“Maybe.” His mouth was now at her ear, and she shivered as she felt the vibrations from his voice against her skin. “But you and I both know there’s something different about us. Have you ever even thought about having a family like that?” He nodded down toward the family of the blond girls, who were now on the other side of the street, waiting as the father checked his phone, probably for directions.

“No,” she admitted. “It’s never even crossed my mind as a possibility.”

Caleb pulled her against him more firmly, pressing his chest and pelvis into her back. “Me either. You and I are different.” His breath gusted lightly, blowing a few strands of hair away from her neck. “You are like me.”

She felt her heart start to beat a little bit faster at the shift in his tone. She was beginning to recognize his bedroom voice—even if they weren’t actually in bed at the moment.

But she couldn’t let herself get caught up in it completely. She needed to not cave like yesterday. She needed to keep enough emotional distance to be able to finally bring this whole charade to a close.

So instead of doing the easy thing and melting into his arms, she kept looking out the window. “I am like you. But there’s a kind of arrogance to assuming that we’re different from everyone else. Who knows what is going on in that woman’s mind?” She was focused on the mother of the family, who was looking aggravated at both her husband and her three little girls.

“I guarantee it’s not what’s going on in your mind right now,” he said huskily, tilting his face down to skim his lips along the side of her neck.

The quality of his voice caused shudders to begin low in her spine. But at the same time something heavy settled in her gut—something felt just a little off about Caleb’s mood, or maybe about her own mood. She wasn’t even sure what it was.

Caleb was acting in his usual sexy way, but things didn’t feel quite like normal.

Since she wasn’t quite sure how to handle it, she stalled. “What makes you think you know what’s going on in my mind right now?”

“Don’t fool yourself,” he murmured, his voice still at her ear, since he was holding her against him so she couldn’t turn around. “I know what’s going on in your mind, no matter what you try to hide from me.”

Her whole body tightened, since the words came so close to her deepest fears. He didn’t know. So far she’d succeeded in hiding the most important thing from him.

But it wouldn’t last forever, and then both their hearts would be broken.

To hide her reaction, she smiled. “Well, it’s not very hard to know what’s going on in
your
mind, at least.”

He leaned over and mouthed the side of her throat. “I’m not trying to hide it from you.” He pushed into her from behind, and she felt that he was growing aroused.

So was she, although she was so conflicted it was hard to enjoy it.

He raised a hand to her breast, rubbing with his fingers until her nipple peaked under the fabric of the light, casual dress she’d put on because she was pretending to meet a client later this evening. She grabbed the heavy window frame with one hand as the stimulation on her nipple caused tingling pleasure to gather between her legs.

Caleb unzipped her dress, kissing her back as the zipper lowered. “If I was hiding something, you wouldn’t know about it.” He pushed the dress off over her shoulders, and it slid down her body to pool at her feet.

Kelly felt almost dizzy. She was becoming deeply aroused by Caleb’s attention, but her heart was torn in two, and she still had that off feeling that wouldn’t go away. “You might be surprised by what you can’t hide from me.”

“Nothing about you would surprise me.” He unhooked her bra and pulled the thin fabric away from her body.

Then both of his hands were on her breasts, and Kelly arched backward as the resulting sensations weakened her knees. “But—”

“But nothing,” Caleb said almost curtly, even as he was sliding a hand between her legs.

She opened her mouth to continue the conversation, or maybe just to moan with intensifying pleasure. Caleb’s finger was sliding into the wet heat of her body.

“You can’t hide anything from me.” He was tonguing the hollow of her neck.

Kelly had to reach out and grab the other side of the window frame as well. She wasn’t confident of her ability to stay on her feet. Something inside her was weeping at his words, at how he clearly believed them.

At how wrong he was.

“Everyone hides something.”

He didn’t answer. Just jerked her hips back against him so that she could feel the hard bulge of his erection.

“Well, you’re not hiding your intentions very well at the moment. Did you want to find a bed?” she asked, deciding changing the subject was the only reasonable response to the torrent of her feelings.

“No need for a bed.”

Kelly was still staring down at the street, standing naked except for her panties while Caleb was fully dressed in a dark suit behind her. She turned her neck to see him. But as soon as she did, he murmured, “Don’t turn around.”

Ignoring him, she finished the swivel of her neck, caught a glimpse of his damp, intense face before he reached up and turned her head back until it was facing forward, out the window. “Don’t turn around,” he instructed again. He slid her panties down until they fell into the pile with her dress on the floor.

A kind of wild thrill shook her as she held on to the window frame with both hands. All of those people down there, going on with their normal lives.

And she and Caleb were up here, doing this.

“Don’t move,” he said thickly. “I’ll be right back.”

She didn’t know what he was doing, but she waited until she could feel his presence behind her again.

“What were you doing?” she asked.

He didn’t answer with words. Instead she heard a soft, mechanical buzzing behind her.

She knew instinctively what it was, and her assumption was verified when he brought a slim blue vibrator around her body.

She sucked in a breath as he pressed it against her belly, sliding it up to tease her nipples.

Her arousal tightened, and she kept staring out the window as he very slowly trailed the vibrator back down her body.

She was aching with need when he finally reached her groin, and she clutched the window frame desperately as he slid it against her clit.

“Don’t close your eyes,” he said, when her eyelids fell shut automatically to process the intense sensations. “Keep looking out there, at all those people with their normal lives. People not like us.”

She almost sobbed as an orgasm spiraled up so quickly she couldn’t control it. He was rubbing the vibrator hard against her clit. She came before she could stop herself, and then kept coming as he continued to stimulate her with the device.

When he finally pulled it away, she felt limp and still strangely heavy.

She wanted to kiss him, hold him, and she automatically turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.

His eyes were closed when she saw him, his face tense and strained. Despite the situation, he looked exhausted—as if he’d been through too much in the last few days.

She knew he wouldn’t admit it, but he’d had a really hard week. It was just Monday that something terrible had happened at work. And her heart went out to him, even as her clit was throbbing in the aftermath.

Then he opened his eyes. “Don’t turn around,” he said for the third time, skimming his palm over her hard nipple.

She looked forward again, still excited but also a little sad. She didn’t just want an orgasm. She wanted to really be with him.

Although what she wanted for real would never be a possibility.

He turned the vibrator back on and this time he slid it against her clit just briefly before reangling it and sliding it inside her.

She cried out as it penetrated her, the vibrations intensifying the sensations.

He pumped it in and out, as if he were fucking her, and once again the orgasm hit her without any preparation or volition.

She clutched at the window frame as the sensations ripped through her. Her pussy clung to the vibrator, but Caleb didn’t stop moving it inside her. After a minute, she came again and then again before she’d fully come down.

She had no idea what was happening to her. Her body was completely out of control, somehow disconnected from her heart.

Everything was out of control. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.

She was making little grunting sounds, clenching her jaw as the exquisite pressure coiled up beneath her belly yet again. She started pushing her ass back against the vibrator, unable to keep herself still.