ChapterSix
SUNDAY
Iwoke gasping for breath, heart racing, unease snaking across my spine, as I had every night since Alek went away. There was no escape from that awful moment when he stepped through the portal and left me. Not while I was awake, and certainly not in my dreams where I was forced to relive it over and over. The sharp ache in my chest came to life again every time the gateway between us snapped closed in my nightmares.
Sitting straight up in the massive bed, I reached for Kingston, desperate for his warm, comforting arms. Instead I found nothing but sheets and an empty pillow. After our shower, he’d tucked me into bed and held me until I went to sleep. Where was he now?
A vague memory flitted through my mind, Kingston leaving the comfort of our little nest, pressing a tender kiss to my temple and whispering, “I’ll be back by morning, baby. I’m going to run with Derek. My wolf needs to stretch his legs.”
I’d mumbled something in reply and fallen back into the deep sleep of someone who’d been well loved and well used. I was safe. He had me. So whatever had me clutching my sheet to my chest and sent adrenaline coursing through my veins had to be bad... right? I’d learned even when it seemed good, it probably wasn’t.
A soft rustling noise from the dark corner at the other end of my room had my pulse resuming its frantic pounding. I grabbed the nearest thing to me—Jake—and sent it flying in the direction of the disturbance.
“Fecking hell, Sunday. Do you regularly accost people with sex toys?”
“Caleb?”
“Well, it bloody isn’t Father Christmas now, is it?”
Startled laughter left my lips, though it took my heart several seconds to return to a normal tempo. “You definitely don’t have the right frame to be Santa. When you laugh, do you sayho, ho, ho?”
He was mostly in shadow, but I could just make out his mouth as it twitched in the ghost of a grin. “No, I do not.”
“That’s right. Because you don’t laugh. You scold and scowl.”
“I laugh.”
I quirked a brow. “Sure you do. When you’re torturing people in that dungeon of yours.”
“The only person I torture in mydungeonis me.”
Interesting. Was my priest a sadistanda masochist? As I mulled over the thought, quiet stretched between us, intruding on our playful banter and bringing reality back into harsh focus.
I shivered, my voice tight with the heartache I was trying to hide. “Why are you here, Caleb? You’ve been cold as ice. I figured you were done with whatever this toxic thing is between us.”
“It’s my nature to want things that are bad for me.”
“So Iambad for you.”
He sighed, the rustle of fabric reaching my ears as he moved. “You’re my responsibility. I wasn’t about to leave you unprotected while Kingston went running in the moonlight. Just because one threat has been dealt with doesn’t mean there aren’t others.”
I needed to see him better, try to read his expression. Reaching for the bedside lamp, I had only just touched the switch when he stopped me with a firm, “Don’t.”
“But I can’t see you.”
“I can see you just fine.”
I pouted and dropped the sheet, baring my breasts and provoking him.
He stood, his tall shadowed form closing the distance between the chair in the corner and the edge of my bed. It hurt a little to finally make out his heartbreakingly handsome face. Torment was written all over him as he sat on the far end of the bed. Of course he chose to be as far from me as he could.
I was still angry with him, but honestly, his reaction to my pregnancy was predictable. Maybe it wasn’t what I’d hoped for, but after some reflection and distance, it wasn’t exactly a surprise either. Caleb didn’t want to be with me because of his vows, his devotion to God. I couldn’t hold it against him. We were only together once, and that was due to my heat, not his undeniable need to be mine. He’d helped me through it, and I’d been stupid enough to fall in love. It wasn’t his fault.
Okay, maybe it was, just a little. But still, he hadn’t made me any promises, not like the others. If anyone was owed an apology here, it was probably him.
“Caleb... I’m—”
“You should go back to sleep. It’s late and you need rest.” His gaze dropped to my belly, brows furrowing and focus intense.