He grabbed the soap and lathered up his body, flinching slightly as he encountered his rock-hard dick. He took it firmly in hand, using the soap as a lubricant that allowed an easy up and down motion. It wouldn’t take long for him to blow his load. Delilah had gotten him too wired. Just being around her, hell, just smelling her, made him walk on the brink.
It was probably wrong to jack off while thinking about her, but he couldn’t help himself. Closing his eyes, he pictured her sexy body in front of him. The hourglass figure complete with perfect sized breasts, not too large and not too small, a tiny waist, and hips that would cradle a man perfectly as he thrust inside her. In his mind, he undressed her, making sure to kiss every inch of mocha skin revealed. Christ, he needed to know what she tasted like. He’d sink to his knees and push her thighs apart as his tongue would lap up and down the wet, warm folds of her pussy.
His hand pumped faster, squeezing from base of his cock to the tip and back down again. He bet she’d taste rich, bold, all woman. Make her scream with pleasure until he couldn’t stand it anymore. He’d have to have her, have to sink into her heat, her wetness, riding her until he came. The image was so real, so potent, that he cried out as he came. Euphoria glazed over his brain, and he fell to his knees. The water washed away his release, but he couldn’t seem to get Delilah out of his head.
Chapter Four
“Leave me a message and I’ll return your call as soon as I can. Thank you.”
Caleb waited for the beep. “Good morning, Delilah. I dreamed of you last night. Please call me when you can.”
As he hit the end button, a beep came through the intercom, startling him. A visitor? His heart jumped a little. Delilah? He sat his coffee mug down and made his way to the security panel, hoping to see her face. But instead of the gorgeous girl from last night, Jake was there, smiling big and holding up a bag. He wore a floppy baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses dangled between his teeth.
Caleb buzzed him in and then opened the door, waiting. A second later, Jake walked up.
“Good morning, Jake.”
“Croissant?” Jake asked, jingling the bag. “They’re freshly baked this morning.”
“Sure, come on in.” He held the door open and stepped back to allow the other man in. Jake took one step inside and whistled.
“Wow. Have something against furniture?”
Caleb shrugged. “I got a bed and a lawn chair,” he said as he pointed toward the dining room area. “What more does a man need?”
“I don’t know. A couch? A television?”
“I told you I just got a Kindle.”
Jake laughed. “So you did. Hey, download some of my movies.”
Caleb raised an eyebrow. “I did look you up on the Internet. Saw some parts of you I didn’t really need to see.”
“Just having a good time before my five minutes of fame are up.”
“That sounds cynical.”
Jake shrugged. “Hollywood is a fickle mistress. One good movie and you’re riding high, the darling of tinsel town, but one bomb and you’re back to begging for a chance to audition.”
“And you enjoy this?”
“Hell yeah. I get to do amazing things like go to the release party of a new album,” he said with a wink.
Caleb smiled. “Coffee?”
“I never say no to coffee.”
Caleb walked over to the cabinet next to the refrigerator and opened it, grabbing a cup. He turned and handed it out to Jake. “Help yourself. Sugar is next to the coffeemaker and cream is in the fridge.”
“So, tell me about the girl,” Jake ordered as he prepared his coffee.
“What girl?”
“Don’t be dense.”
“It was a great evening,” Caleb replied vaguely. For some reason, he didn’t want to discuss her with Jake. Maybe because they came from the same world. How could he compete with the bright lights of Hollywood?
“Uh huh. I have wondered if I was going to be bumping into her, but I guess she’s not here.”
“Why would she be here?”
“Um, sex?”
“Are you kidding? I just met her.”
Jake raised his brows as he took a sip of his drink. “Okay. Then how was your date?”
“It was…nice. Really, really nice. I haven’t really talked like that with a woman in a long time.”
“How long is long?”
Again, Caleb hesitated.
“Don’t be the macho forest ranger dude,” Jake ordered, although his twinkling eyes took the sting off his words. “Spill.”
“Well, my wife died three years ago,” Caleb replied.
“Uh-huh,” Jake urged but then blinked when Caleb didn’t say anything more. “Wait, do you mean talking or sex?”
“What’s up with the sex thing?” Caleb demanded.
“Um, everything? Do not tell me it’s been three years since you’ve been laid!”
“How did we get on this conversation?”
“Holy fuck! Three years? I can’t imagine three days without pussy.”
“Adopt a cat.”
Jake laughed. “You are so funny, man.”
“So you keep saying. But thanks for last night. Delilah is an amazing woman, and I never would have met her if you hadn’t invited me along.”
“Delilah, huh? Are you going to see her again?”
Caleb shrugged. “I hope. We’ll see. By the way, what was the breakfast bribe for?”
“I see you’ve figured out my ulterior motive in bringing the best croissants in Malibu.”
Caleb eyed the bag. “The best, huh?”
“Melts in your mouth. Much like previously said pus-”
“Spill, Jake,” Caleb interrupted. Did he think of nothing but sex? Then again, after Delilah last night sex wasn’t too far from his own mind.
“The tree may have been hauled away but my squashed garage is a mess.” He batted his puppy dog brown eyes.
Caleb folded his arms and raised a brow. “You do know I don’t bat for that team, right?”
“Dude, I don’t either but I’m desperate for your help.”
“Aren’t you rich? There are lots of contractors who-”
Jake shook his head and Caleb stopped talking waiting. Jake sighed. “I do have a contractor coming but it’s my house, dude. My first house I ever bought. I want to make sure everything is, you know, copasetic.”
Caleb sighed. “All right. The only plans I had today had been for the beach and to call the girl of my dreams but I suppose I can schlep it with you.”
“Girl of your dreams? Really?” Jake asked with a touch of disbelief ringing through.
Caleb only shrugged. He wasn’t about to tell Jake about his very explicit dreams last night or spill his inner thoughts to him, not when he didn’t fully understand them himself.
“Wait here,” he said instead. “Let me get my boots on.”
“I bet they’re Timberlands.”
“With a metatarsal guard on them.”
Jake grinned. “I have no idea what that means but it goes to prove you are perfect for this job.”
“You’ll be helping me, buddy. Make no mistake about that.”
****
They worked through the morning, or at least Caleb worked helping the contractor demolish the rest of the garage, taking care to preserve as much of the house as was possible. Jake mostly stood around nodding a lot, pointing out unnecessary things, and providing a bottle of water whenever Caleb called for one.
As the day progressed, Caleb stripped down to just his jeans. Again, he hadn’t expected to work on vacation but damned if he didn’t feel good to stretch and work his muscles. Doing it shirtless was a new experience for him. Back home the average temperature in July was around forty-five degrees, not exactly weather to strip down.
He heard a couple of strange clicking noises and at first, he dismissed them, but when they persisted he stopped and looked around. Jake threw some debris into a large construction dumpster, wearing
a pair of coveralls and a backwards baseball hat. Caleb walked up to him, wiping his hands on the back of his jeans.
“We might need to shut off the electricity again,” Caleb told him.
Jake handed him another bottle of water. Caleb broke the seal and drank half of it down in one gulp.
“Fuck, what is it this time?”
“I keep hearing a clicking sound,” Caleb said as he recapped his bottle and tossed it back to Jake. Jake put it back in the cooler. “Might be a circuit breaker.”
“Clicking, eh?” Jake mumbled as he turned and looked at the trees.
Caleb followed his stare. “Are you searching for power lines? You think it could be that?”
Jake shook his head and then pointed. “No, I think your clicking sound is a camera. There. Paparazzi.”
Caleb spotted the man in the tree about a hundred feet away. “That’s a very long lens.”
“Dude, you have no idea.” Jake pulled out his phone and placed a call. “I’m calling the police. It’s the only way to deal with these people. You know this is going to be splashed all over the gossip rags tomorrow.”
Caleb eyed him in confusion. “What is? You fixing your house?”
Jake laughed. “Dude. You’re shirtless and I’m almost shirtless. We’re two hot, hunky guys standing next to each other, sweating it out. You’re fixing my house. This is gonna be all over the place.”
Caleb scowled. “You don’t sound upset.”
“Why would I be upset? This is gonna rock my image.”
“Seriously? What about my image?”
Jake waved his hand. “You’ll be going back to Alaska soon.”
“Not the point.”
“Sorry,” Jake said. “Listen, this town is a game and I take every advantage that I can get to stay on top.”
“Even being someone you’re not?”
Jake shrugged. “I’m an actor.”
His phone rang and Jake pulled it out of his pocket. He turned away to speak to someone on the other end of the line. Caleb turned back to the work. He would never, ever, understand actors.
****
That night, Caleb lay on top of the covers on the bed. He was used to cool to cold weather. Los Angeles, even with the ocean breeze, was too warm for him. For the first time since he’d gotten to Malibu, restlessness gripped him. He couldn’t get Delilah off his mind. All day he’d been acutely conscious of the phone in his pocket, waiting for it to vibrate with a text or to ring with a call. It had done neither.
Why had this woman, one he’d just met, linger with him? Was it because for the first time in years he was sexually attracted to a woman? Guilt hit him low in his gut. When Claire had died, she had taken a piece of him with her. He’d hurt and some days he hadn’t been able to get out of bed. Her ghost had remained with him, in the kitchen where she baked, in the living room where she read, and especially in the bed, where they’d planned a family.
When he’d met Panthea Snow, he’d been a wreck of a man. He’d lost direction, lost focus, and he’d been desperate to dig himself out of the hole that Claire’s passing had created. But Thea had said she wanted a family, and suddenly he hadn’t been able to breathe. No matter that his brain kept pushing him to bury his wife, his heart hadn’t been ready to heal. So he’d let Thea go and he’d concentrated on mending his own broken heart. At first, it’d been easy to go on a date, after all, his emotions weren’t vested in anyone. And after three years he’d thought he had slayed all the dragons preventing him from finding love again, from finding someone to share his life with.
But Delilah had completely ripped apart the comfortable platform he had built for himself. She made him feel things, things that he’d never recognized as missing. Like hot, groin-tightening lust. Holy Christ, did he lust. He was mature enough to know that his restlessness was a direct side effect from that burning need. Sure, he’d dated, had even gone to Anchorage a time or two to meet women, but none of them had held a candle to the salacious longing running through his blood.
He picked up his phone and before he could rethink anything, he quickly typed out a message and hit send.
“Missed you today.”
He waited. One minute went by and then two, and then five. He blew out the air from his lungs in a forceful sigh of regret and wondered what the hell he could do to exhaust himself because at this rate he’d be up all-night prowling like a damn alley cat.
Then his phone vibrated.
“I was at the library. I take advantage of the one in Santa Monica for the Sunday hours.”
She’d been so close! For the first time since he’d come on vacation, he wished he’d rented a car.
“Can I see you tomorrow?”
“I have to work.”
Oh, right. He remembered. “Night right? What about day?”
“I’m a night owl. Which means I need my beauty sleep.”
“Don’t you know you’re already beautiful?”
“What a line!’
“I’m not trying to pick you up. I did that already with my lethal charm last night.”
“Snort.”
“Did you really just text me the word snort?”
“I had to convey my expression.”
He grinned. “Why don’t I see you tomorrow day and you can show me your expressions in person?”
“Perhaps you would want to spend the rest of your vacation with a girl who doesn’t work.”
He frowned. “What the hell does that mean?”
“I’m sure you’re looking for more than what I can give.”
“How do you know what I’m looking for? Right now I’m looking to spend more time with you.”
“When do you leave?”
“I fly back to Alaska a week from Tuesday.”
“So eight days. An eight day fling?”
Seriously? “Why do you think this is about sex?”
“Everything is about sex.”
Well, according to her and Jake it is. Did he miss the memo? He was tired of the texting, so he pushed the button to call her. As soon as she picked up, he started talking, not even bothering to say hello.
“If I wanted some tawdry vacation sex, I’m sure there are plenty around. But I didn’t, Delilah. I was drawn to you.”
She sighed. “Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Not hardly. I haven’t felt this alive in three years so please, throw me a bone. Let me see you tomorrow.”
She was silent. Too silent. “What about after my shift?”
The question was asked thinking he would refuse. He could hear it in her voice that she expected him to say no. Or worse, she expected him to come watch her dance.
“What time do you get off?”
“Two in the morning.”
“Then I’ll see you at two. I told you once I’m not much for the Gentlemen’s Club.”
“Caleb,” she began. “Why haven’t you felt like this in three years? Surely there’ve been women since your wife.”
Now it was his turn to hesitate. How much should he reveal? He didn’t want her pity. “I live in the Far North Territory. Why do you think I sent for a mail order bride?”
She gave a little chuckle. It washed over him, and he closed his eyes against the tightening of his body. “This is crazy, Caleb. We’re from different worlds.”
“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “I know.”
“I don’t know if I can do…meaningless.”
“Do you think I’m really that shallow?”
“Caleb, my whole life has been about shallow. I can’t think of you any other way.”
What the hell had happened to her? He didn’t think he wanted to know the answer to that question just yet. “Then you’ve known the wrong type of men. And tomorrow night I’ll prove it to you.”
“Oh yeah? I live here. There’s nothing you can show me at two in the morning that’ll be any different.”
“I have to warn you, challenges are my specialty.”
“Then bring it on, Ra
nger.”
He grinned and something eased inside his chest. The restless unwound. “Good night, Delilah. Dream of me.”
Before she rebut, he hit the end button and then flopped back on the bed. Hot damn.
Hot damn!
Chapter Five
The next afternoon Delilah sat at her small dinette table surrounded by her workbooks, chewing on the end of her pencil, and thinking about Caleb Tasker. The conversation played over and over in her mind, like a broken record. She’d even dreamed of him and that was a little disconcerting since she’d never, ever, dreamed of a man before.
Shaking her head, she refocused on the page in front of her, rereading the question she’d already read several times.
“The very first successful colony to be created in the future Thirteen Colonies was blank and was founded by blank,” she read out.
Her mind raced trying to sort out the answer from all the knowledge she’d crammed into it yesterday. Today she was working in her American history workbook. Two other completed workbooks rested near her right hand on top of an old high school text book. Out of all the subjects she studied, she liked history the best. There weren’t any abstract formulas to memorize or sentence structure breakdowns to figure out. History was cold, hard facts put together in a linear timeline that led up to the present, and Delilah found that the easiest thing to memorize.
She looked down at the question again and thought back to yesterday, at the library. She’d been reading about the early American colonization knowing she’d be testing herself today. She smiled and filled in her answer.
“Why that first blank would-be Virginia and the second blank is London Company, thank you very much,” she said out loud. “Next question. In 1609, Lord De La Ware's deputy governor Thomas Gates was involved in a shipwreck near Bermuda on his way to fortifying the colony. The wreck of his ship, the Sea Venture, and the subsequent adventures of his crew became the inspiration for which famous play?”
Once Upon a Love Story Page 4
