Breaths came in short gasps as the intensity of my focus left me trembling. I fought the urge to sob from the effort of holding this position. Pain spiked up from my knees, needles stabbing me over and over with every slight twitch of my muscles. Then his scent overwhelmed me as his palm rested on the crown of my head. “Quiet your mind,a stor.You are tense and fighting your own thoughts.”
On instinct, I opened my eyes and locked gazes with deep sapphire blue pools. He was close. So close I could have kissed him if I’d wanted to. “How do you know what I’m doing? You’re not in here with me.”
A rumble rolled through the room, coming from his throat, but he didn’t look away. “Fall into my gaze and let me in.”
“No.”
“You’ll do as I say, Miss Fallon. If you know what’s good for you.”
“Maybe I don’t.”
“You’re reckless. A petulant child, just like your grandfather said you’d be.”
Anger burst through me, a fireball escaping from the depths of my chest. “Fucking right. Petulant. A disappointment. A waste of space. You name it, he’s hurled it at me.”
My gaze flicked away from his because I couldn’t take another second being a prisoner of his focus. But he gripped my face with both large palms and forced my attention back to him.
“Let go of me, Father.”
“Caleb,” he said, his voice rough. Those dark brows were furrowed, pulled together in a pained expression as confusion and conflict warred for control of his face. “Call me Caleb when my hands are on you.”
I swallowed hard, unsure of what exactly was happening here. “Caleb. Let me go.”
He did, his hands falling away as though I’d burned him. “Now. Close your eyes and take hold of all of that anger. Harness it. Open yourself.”
I did. I took a long, slow breath, and even though he wasn’t touching me anymore, my skin burned from where his fingers had pressed against my cheeks. In all the time we’d been working on this, he had resisted touching me, save for that first time when he’d forced me to the ground and held his hand over my mouth. Until tonight. The darkness that greeted me when my eyes were shut faded away and gradually lightened to a soft blue before fading further until it turned a brilliant white. I gasped.
“What are you doing to me, Caleb?”
He had to clear his throat before he answered. “It’s not me, Miss Fallon. This is you.”
“Can you see it?”
“No.”
The light behind my eyes flashed so bright I was afraid I’d go blind if I didn’t look away, but I couldn’t. There was no way to escape what was in my own mind. I whimpered and fell forward, Caleb catching me before I hit the hard stone floor.
Resting my forehead on his chest, I forced myself to control my breathing and stop the tremors racking my body before I finally backed away. “What did you do to me?”
“You’re opening to your wolf.” He stiffened and shot to standing faster than I could track. I reached for him, but he blurred across the room before I could close the distance between us.
“What?”
“You... your knees are bloodied.”
“That’s what happens when you force a girl to spend ninety minutes on her knees while wearing a skirt three nights in a row.”
He clenched his jaw and forced his gaze away from the blood. And then I understood. “Oh. You want to taste me. Is that what this is, Father?”
He was murmuring something softly, eyes closed, a deep line between his eyebrows, forged in concentration. Then he stopped and flicked his focus back to me. “That’ll be all for tonight, Miss Fallon. Tomorrow night we will resume.”
“But—”
“That’s enough! Leave me.”
His shout startled me. All this time, even when he’d been angry with me, he’d kept his tone measured and soft. This was a man on the edge.
“You know, you might be hot, but I’m not really a fan of being abused and treated like shit, so I think I’m done with these sessions, Padre. Have a nice eternity. See you never.”