* * *
He nuzzled at her and kissed the beat of her pulse before raising his head. When their gazes met, she saw such joy that she was stunned. Smiling, she leaned forward and rubbed her nose against his in a silly affectionate gesture. He chuckled, his hands sliding to hold the backs of her thighs.
"You have—" she glanced at the hall clock "—twelve minutes left to shower and eat." She couldn't stop stroking his body, his face. He was so dear to her and at last he was treating her like his wife, his woman, one who could take everything he had to give.
All this time she'd concentrated on the pain that would come if she ventured outside her protective walls. Today she'd been shown the flip side—endless pleasure and the most incredible happiness.
He groaned and started to pull out, releasing her legs as he did so. When they were finally extricated, he kissed her and said, "Shower?"
Her eyes went wide. "I'll make you late." But she put her hand in his and let him lead her to the bathroom off their bedroom.
Once there, he tugged off her sweater and unclipped her bra while she worked feverishly to pull off his tie and undo the buttons on his shirt. It took them maybe a minute to get naked and under the shower, the cool spray a crisp relief to their overheated bodies.
"Eleven minutes." Caleb picked up the soap.
Before he could touch her with it, she took it from him. "You're the one who needs to hurry." She lathered up her hands and returned the soap. "I'll do your back." She forced herself not to linger over her self-appointed task, though she wanted to luxuriate. This was not how she'd thought her fantasy would play out but it worked for her. "Done."
Instead of turning off the water, Caleb looked at the waterproof watch strapped to his wrist. "Eight minutes. I have time." And then he started to torture her.
She wondered how she could possibly want him again after the heat that had singed her in the hallway. His hands, soapy and slick, were everywhere. When they slipped between her thighs to bring her effortlessly to her second orgasm in under twenty minutes, she felt her legs turn to jelly.
"Done," he rasped as she collapsed in his arms, the water pounding at them. "Six minutes."
She made herself turn off the shower with sheer strength of will and got out. Rubbing herself haphazardly with a towel, she grabbed the robe at the back of the door. "I'm going to warm up something for you to eat."
He tried to catch her as she whipped out but she laughed and escaped him. The last thing she saw as she ran from the room was the sight of his glorious body shiny with clear droplets of water, his hair tangled and wet.
Three minutes later, he walked into the kitchen dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and blue tie almost identical to what he'd been wearing earlier. His grin was wicked. "If I return to the office looking too different, people might wonder what I've been up to."
She felt her cheeks heat up. "Eat. It's nothing special but it'll fill you up."
He came around the counter and stood beside her, eating quickly as she found an insulated travel mug and filled it with hot coffee, screwing the lid closed. "For the road." She put it in his hand as he finished the meal in record time.
They were at the door five seconds after the twenty minutes had passed. Unable to resist, she reached up, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed the life out of him. When she drew back, red streaked his cheekbones and there was a spark in his eyes she'd never before seen. Her Caleb was starting to come home to her in more ways than one.
"Hold that thought," he whispered, backing out the door.
"I'll be waiting." She watched him until he'd pulled out of the driveway. A huge grin creased her face as she closed the door. She couldn't believe what she'd just done. Not only had she had the fastest, most furious sex with her husband, she'd showered with him. Two fantasies taken care of in twenty minutes. Not bad. Not bad at all.
* * *
She was waiting for Caleb to pick her up for the ride to Ada's when he called. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I've got to stay at the office."
Disappointment deflated the lingering joy from their lovemaking. "I'll go alone, then."
"No, you won't. I keep my promises." His voice was caressing. "I got us off the hook. We're not due at Ada's until Sunday, now. Together."
A slow smile whispered across her face. "How did you manage that?"
"By lying creatively," he said, unrepentant. "I'll try to be home by nine."
"See you then." She hung up the phone feeling very good about her marriage. Not only was Caleb learning to let go of work a little, he was starting to learn her. She hadn't missed the fact that he was working late once again. But he'd taken off Monday to be with her, so he was probably playing catch-up.
She understood what his work demanded of him at times. That was part of the reason she wanted something of her own. Aside from giving her a sense of pride, it would provide her with something to hold on to when Caleb's devotion to his work pushed her aside.
And if, deep down, there was a niggling voice worrying that maybe her husband wasn't busy with work at all but something, someone, else, she buried it under so many layers of denial that she managed to convince herself it had ceased to exist.
* * *
On Friday night, Vicki accepted that she'd made a colossal mistake. It was 3:00 a.m. and she'd just heard the sound of Caleb's car through the autumn rain. He'd worked late every single day since their wild lovemaking in the hallway, apparently taking her calm acceptance of that first late night as a free pass to go back to his workaholic ways.
She'd finished several memos for Heart during the time that she'd waited up for him. Now, she walked into the kitchen, poured coffee into two cups and carried it into the living room. The location was a deliberate choice on her part. Their new and vibrant sensual connection had had an unexpected side effect. Caleb was a very sexual man and she'd been starving for him for too long to ever deny him. As a result, too many of their problems were being buried under the blazing fire of their lovemaking.
"Vicki?" he called out as he walked through the back door, obviously having seen the light.
"In here." Shifting several magazines to the side of the coffee table, she wondered how she was going to broach the subject without creating a huge fight. Sounding like a nag was the last thing she wanted to do but this was important, both for her and for their child. As she'd told Caleb, she refused to have their baby feel like an unwelcome obligation.
However, her priorities changed the second he walked in. She knew something was terribly wrong. It wasn't because his suit was wet from the rain or that his hair looked wildly tumbled as if he'd been running his fingers through it. It was the bleak look in his eyes. The only time she'd seen him look that way was the night he'd inadvertently revealed his pain at the way she'd kicked him out of their home.
"What's happened?" She walked over to help him with his coat.
He let her hang it up before collapsing on the couch. She sat down next to him, worried. "Caleb, honey?"
"I'm just tired." He stared at the wall opposite the sofa but she knew he wasn't seeing the painting hanging there.
"No," she said, cupping his jaw with one hand and turning him to face her. "You don't get to do that anymore."
"Do what?" He raised his hand to hers but didn't pull her away.
"Keep secrets that cause you pain." She shook her head in reproval.
"You don't need to be stressed right now. I don't want anything to hurt you."
His tenderness broke her heart. How could she not keep sinking deeper in her feelings for him? "You know what hurts me the most? Being shut out of your life. Don't do that to me, Caleb. Not again." Her voice trembled with the intensity of her emotions.
Looking at her with eyes clouded by unknown demons, he opened his arms. She tucked her body against his and held him. Would he speak to her? Would he take the next step in this new relationship they were building? A relationship of equals, where she took as much responsibility for him as he'd always taken for her.
"Two days ago," he began to explain, "a huge deal we've been working on for almost a year started to come apart at the seams."
"What happened?"
"Maxwell is our client. Horrocks the buyer. We were almost to the signing stage when Horrocks discovered a major discrepancy in the financial reports provided by Maxwell during due diligence."
She'd read enough business journals to appreciate the scale of the problem. "Horrocks is refusing to sign?"
"More than that, they're accusing Maxwell of deliberate subterfuge."
Vicki knew that Caleb was an absolute perfectionist in his work. He would never do anything underhanded. "Did someone on the Maxwell side let you down?"