Secrets in the Marriage Bed

"Not until you're with me."

Before she could say anything to that, he dipped his head to her nipple. The hard suction of his mouth sent sensation rocketing through every inch of her body. When he began to move his head away, she knew what she had to do. Caleb had taught her the rules of their very private game, given her the tools with which to fight her fear of doing something wrong.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she held him to her. He returned to his task with such obvious enjoyment it succeeded in destroying what little mind she had left. When he moved to her other breast, she felt her body buck upward. He pushed in another inch. And stopped.

Wanting to scream with the need to have him inside her, thick and hard, she ran the nails of her hands down his back. He jerked and raised his head, a red flush along his cheekbones. "You're not with me yet."

She wanted to beg for mercy but had a feeling Caleb wasn't going to give her any tonight. For the first time in almost five years, she had her wild lover back in bed with her, the one who'd always driven her half insane with need.

In the past, her own hunger had frightened her into silence, leading Caleb to leash his wild sexuality. But tonight the leash had been thrown aside and if she wanted to survive the ride, she had to let go and trust him to lead her over the edge.

When fear beckoned, she reminded herself of her decision—no more pretense, no more self-protection. Running her hand down one of his arms, she found his hand and brought it between their bodies to show him what she wanted. It was one of the hardest things she'd ever done but the payoff was the most exquisite pleasure. She felt the last thread of her control snap, throwing her into the dark hunger of their combined passion.

As her back arched under the circling strokes of Caleb's hand, he began to push into her at last. After two months of deprivation, her body was tight, her flesh hungry. She felt every inch of him, hot, hard and finally, hers. When he began to move, his rhythm was fast and deep, shocking another scream out of her as she surrendered to the inescapable glory of the heat between them.

At that moment, he kissed her. Starved, she reacted like wildfire, giving herself up utterly to his loving. His spine went taut under her hands, his thighs locked and even as the flames licked at her, she felt him dive into the fire.

* * *

Vicki was smiling when she woke the next morning, her body deliciously sore but just as deliciously content. Snuggling into Caleb's arms, she'd started to drift back to sleep when her eyes registered the time. She sat straight up. "Caleb! Wake up, it's nine o'clock!" He absolutely hated being late.

Caleb pulled her back down and mumbled, "It's Saturday. Whole weekend off." She felt his body slip back into sleep.

Saturday? Yes, it was, she realized. Not that that had ever made much of a difference. Caleb always seemed to be at the office. She tried to think of the last time he'd taken off an entire weekend. She thought it might have been as far back as the four days they'd spent on Great Barrier two years ago.

A grin spread across her face. This meant Caleb was hers for two whole days! And she was free, too. The fund-raising documents had arrived last night and she'd read them over. Ideas were bubbling inside her but she didn't officially start till Monday.

Unwilling to move out from under her husband's possessive embrace, she lay there and let her brain think up all sorts of things they could do together. The most attractive involved staying in this house, maybe even in this bed, for the two days. She wanted to laugh at her own giddy excitement, feeling like a child let loose in a candy store.

Having Caleb to herself for any length of time was one of her secret dreams, something she'd never asked for because she knew how busy he was—just because she had too much time on her hands, didn't mean she had the right to demand he keep her entertained.

But how she'd missed him, especially on the weekends when she'd gone out and seen couples strolling along the streets. She wondered if Caleb had heard more than what she'd said at dinner. Maybe, just maybe, her steamroller of a husband had heard the whispers of her heart.

* * *

Caleb roused to find Vicki's side of the bed empty. From the smell of coffee wafting into the bedroom, he guessed where she was. Smiling, he got out of bed feeling better than he had in years. Patience, he decided, was definitely a virtue. Look at what he'd been rewarded with last night.

Because he knew his wife's love of keeping all the windows open, he pulled on a pair of sweatpants before wandering out. Victoria was putting away a dish when he entered. The second she saw him, her eyes went huge.

"What?" He yawned, lifting his arms above his head in a lazy stretch.

Vicki stared at him, her lips parted. His sleepy brain finally figured out the matter with her. Apparently, his wife liked the sight of him sleep-mussed and drowsy. Maybe he should stop getting ready in the mornings before he came out for breakfast. With that thought, he bridged the gap between them and put his hands on her hips. "Good morning."

"It's almost noon." Her voice was breathy, her hands playing through the hair on his chest.

"Perfect time for almost-noon sex, don't you think?" After over two months of celibacy, his body had had a taste of paradise and wanted more. A lot more.

However, in spite of his sensual happiness, he wasn't blind to the fact that their marriage remained on shaky ground. Vicki had been right when she'd said they couldn't solve all their problems in bed.

What she hadn't said, what she probably couldn't see, was that if he was bad at sharing his darkest secrets, she was even worse. Though he'd never told her the ultimate shame of his birth, he'd tried to show her the reality of where he came from and how it had shaped him, scarred him.

But every time he tried to raise the same issues with her, she pretended she didn't know what he was talking about, pretended that her parents leaving her with Ada had had no impact. She might have confessed to him about her fears regarding intimacy but she wasn't even willing to call her relationship with Danica and Gregory a problem.

He didn't know how to make her see that those wounds needed to be lanced. It hurt her so much whenever he brought up the topic that he had no heart to force her to confront it. All he could hope for was that if he loved her body enough, she'd slowly start to trust him with her soul and her memories, too.

With that thought in mind, he dropped a hand down to curve over her pert bottom, covered by the soft fabric of her knee-length sundress—with the sun streaming brightly through the kitchen skylight, it was more than warm enough. "We don't want to lose our momentum."

She swallowed and he realized that he hadn't made love to her in the middle of the day for years. That was about to change. His erection was fierce and demanding. He wanted to be inside her, feeling her squeeze him as he moved slow and deep. Maybe he could get her to speak to him as she had last night—with her hands and the sensually explicit movements of her body. Or maybe she'd finally trust him enough to talk about far darker things.

As if she could read the images in his mind, those eyes got even bigger. "You look like you want to devour me."

"I do." He glanced past her shoulder to the window above the sink, which looked out over their small side yard and into their neighbor's property, a scandalous idea coming to him. It would shock Vicki's socks off but he was starting to understand that she'd always been far more gutsy than he'd given her credit for.

It was time to stop backing off and start showing her who he really was, start demanding things from her that he needed, sexually and emotionally. Before she could begin to suspect anything, he misdirected her attention by the simple expedient of kissing her.

"Mmm." She purred into his mouth, giving her all to the kiss as she always did.

Squeezing her bottom, he let her play with him, let her kiss him the way she wanted. He loved Vicki's kisses, especially the way she put her soul into every brush of lips and tongue. When she broke the kiss to caress his jaw with her lips, he made his move.

Kissing her neck, he turned her until she faced the window. Then he pushed her just a little. She instinctively braced herself against the edge of the counter, her gaze looking through the window above the sink and into the yard. He stroked her bottom, kissed her nape and grinned.

"Caleb," she whispered. "I need you." It was her way of telling him to get them out of the kitchen and into the privacy of their bedroom. But Caleb wanted to play.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw their neighbor's back door open and someone step onto the patio. Before he could be spotted, he knelt down behind Vicki and slipped his hands under her dress to pull down her panties.

Startled, she almost turned but her attention was caught by Bill, their middle-aged neighbor.

She waved in greeting before hissing, "What are you doing? Bill—"

"Can't see me," he completed. "Pretend you're doing the dishes."

"While you do what?" She stepped out of her lace panties even while she protested.