15
SHAY WAS AWAKE when Caleb got up to shower and dress for his sunrise jump. They’d gone to bed shortly after Kent had left, and though she’d snuggled close to Caleb’s side and he had willingly, if not eagerly, held her, she’d felt the tension radiating off him. She wasn’t sure either of them had done more than fade in and out of sleep.
By the time he walked into the bedroom, clean-shaven, his sandy brown hair damp and a bit rumpled, she was sitting up, leaning against the wall, hugging the sheet to her naked body. Her body ached with the pure male appeal he held. But it was her heart that ached with the same tension that had been in bed with them, still thick and present.
“What are you doing awake?” he asked, his surprise evident in his tone.
Shay knew she had to do something to break the chilly ice forming between them, to ease the tension. Something daring and attention-grabbing. “The bed isn’t the same without you,” she said, and dropped the sheet. “Cancel the jump. Come back to bed with me.”
His gaze skimmed her naked body from the waist up and heat flashed in his gaze, but all too quickly banked. He sat down and tugged the sheet to her shoulders. “That’s the naughty behavior that’ll earn you that spanking.” His voice was soft, playful, no evidence of any of that tension. “You know I have customers waiting.”
“Stay,” she said, “and I’ll give you lots of reasons to spank me.” She grinned. “We both know you have a kinky spanking fantasy. You bring it up too much not to.”
“I have a long list of ‘Shay’ fantasies,” he said. “And it might surprise you to know, they don’t all involve sex. You have your ‘one hundred things to do’ list. I have my ‘one hundred things to do with, or to, Shay’ list. And that’s just in the next few months. After your flying lesson, we’ll go to that Mexican joint you like, catch that movie we wanted to see and then I’ll show you one or two of the more select picks on my list.”
She laughed, her heart feeling lighter already. “I’ll trade you one thing off my list for one thing off your list, each day for a hundred days.”
He wiggled an eyebrow. “That’s a deal I can’t refuse.”
“I’ll go first,” she offered. “Now. You want to know the first item on my to-do list?”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll bite. What’s the first item on your list?”
“I wanted to make love to you no matter where, how or when.” She touched his cheek, traced the strong line of his jaw. “I knew someday I’d finally know what it was like to be with you. And I was right. It was too good to miss.” Sincerity etched her words, softened her tone. “Good enough to want to repeat every day for the rest of my life.”
Caleb went still, his gaze searching her face an instant, before he yanked his shirt off and went down on the bed with her, tugging the sheet away. She laughed. “I thought you had to go to work?”
“Ryan’s helping out this morning,” he said, spreading her legs and settling between them. “He can handle the jump prep. I have better things to do.”
Shay laughed again, tightening her arms round his neck. The tension between them was gone and so was next week’s deadline for sharing their secret. They had at least a hundred days of bliss all to themselves.
***
AT MIDMORNING, with his jumps behind him for the day, Caleb sat on Kent’s brown leather couch, nerves on edge, ready for a fight, as he waited for him to pack. At any moment, he expected the bookie or his men pounding on the door, demanding his cash. Caleb could call the police, but the fight would be over by the time they got here. If the sharks were out, they’d come in if they wanted in, and Caleb would be forced to make sure they turned right back around and left.
The only plus was, Kent’s apartment was in the highly populated Arbor area not far from Shay’s house, which would discourage a daytime confrontation. Though it was an older apartment lacking a security gate. It ran Kent barely six hundred dollars a month. Caleb knew because he’d looked around for a short-term lease when he’d come back home, something to get him by until he bought a place. The six hundred wasn’t much rent, considering Kent made an easy six figures per year and should be investing in owning something.
The furniture was rental, cookie-cutter style, and there wasn’t much else to the place besides a few sports pictures and a family photo on the fireplace mantel from Shay’s college graduation. Caleb had come home for it, and he and Shay had set off fireworks. He’d barely escaped acting on their attraction. It had been his last trip home for years, afterward he’d shut out everyone, Kent included. Caleb couldn’t help but wonder again if he would have seen this coming had he kept in touch.