The same boy—the only one—who had shown me what it was to desire. To want to be touched, be kissed, be savored, and to make him feel the same.
The same boy who had shown me how it was to love and be loved in return.
It was like having a secret I’d held in my fist for so long, but now I wanted to let it go. I wanted to reveal it, but only to him. Only to him.
All of the things that I had gone through—all the suffering and heartbreak—had led me here. To him. To my Caleb. To this moment.
I stepped forward.
I felt the heat of his gaze on my skin as he watched me close the distance between us. I stopped a few inches from him.
“Close enough?” I croaked.
A triumphant smile spread on his full lips before his hands banded around my waist, dragging down to cup my ass as he turned us around and lifted me onto the counter.
“Yeah, and you know what?” he purred, spreading my legs.
I parted them willingly, and he stepped in between them. My head fell back, and I flattened my palms against the counter to keep my balance—and give him better access.
Caleb pressed his lips to that sensitive part below my ear, licking and sucking, sending goose bumps dancing along my arms and legs. His hands slid down my thighs, up and down, up and down, fingers digging into my skin. He pulled me closer, fitting snugly between my legs.
“I’m really, really hungry. In fact,” he growled, “I’m starving.”
I swallowed a moan and unconsciously arched my hips up against him. The tone of his voice, so low and deep, made me feel a hot longing in my stomach.
“There are so many things I want to do to you.” He hooked my legs around his waist and ground his hips against me, pressing his arousal against that part of my body where every sensation seemed to be magnified a hundredfold.
This time, a moan of pleasure escaped my lips. Feeling bold, I asked, “Like what?”
He pulled back a little, and I could tell he hadn’t expected me to ask that. But he recovered quickly, smiling in a way that said Challenge accepted.
He touched the tip of his tongue to his top lip before he leaned closer and murmured in my ear, “I want to bury my face between your legs.”
I gasped loudly.
Hot. I felt hot. All over.
“Does that scare you?” he asked.
I swallowed. Hard. Suddenly, I wanted to close my legs, wanting to rub them together. The way his green eyes lit up made me think he knew exactly what I was feeling.
Something very warm was sliding through my veins, making my skin feel tight. I had this unexplainable urge to be closer to him—closer than this. I wanted to feel him skin on skin. I shook my head.
He chuckled, low and deep. “I’ve been without you for so long. So long. I barely sleep without you, Red. So I think about you instead. I think about you all the time.”
His lips grazed my ear, and an involuntary shiver raced up my spine. “Do you know what I think about?” he asked.
His big, warm hands moved down to caress my thighs, squeezing them possessively.
“Tell me,” I gasped, unable to stop myself from arching into his touch.
“I think of your taste…in my mouth,” he rasped. “I think about what you’ll look like when I suck you. Lick you. Eat you up.”
His words drove me wild. If this was madness, I would blindly jump into it if it meant I could keep listening to his words, feeling his touch, tasting his kiss.
“Would you let me?” His eyes searched my face. “Red?”
Instead of answering, I looked into his green eyes and flattened my palms on his chest, startled by the static between us. The warmth of him under his shirt made me yearn to touch his bare skin. Gingerly, I reached for the hem of his shirt and slowly lifted it, revealing his defined stomach. His eyes widened a fraction as he understood what I wanted.