Caleb Anderson: Berkley’s Bastards – Billionaire Romance (Berkley's Bastards Book 1)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “What’s going on here? Shouldn’t you be out looking for a job, Cain? I’m sure if you get those deals back for me and take a cut in pay that I’ll take you back.” Cain told him he was working. “At what? A furniture salesman? Get up off your ass, boy, and get back to work first thing in the morning. However, you’ll be working the office from now on. There won’t be any more commission checks coming your way, so I’ll have to take care that you have a roof over my daughter’s head. That’ll cost you.”

  “He told you he has a job.” Tabby stepped up to the older bully and asked him what he was doing there. “I’m reasonably sure you know that Caleb owns this place, along with a great many others. Shouldn’t you be in jail? Or did you have to have your little buddy, the banker come and bail you out? Why don’t you go home and behave yourself before you end up back in jail.”

  Elly came out of the house then with several empty boxes. Caleb had gone to help her, and Dick laughed. “Looks to me like my daughter has finally come to her senses about you, Cain. She’s found herself a real man.” No one said anything, but it was Tabby that started laughing first. “You jealous? I have news for you, that man ain’t worth spit. Neither of them are.”

  “You think so? Well, not that it matters, but Caleb asked me to marry him. He’s being a polite person and helping your daughter.” She looked between Elly and her dad. “She must take after her mother. Thankfully. She’s nothing at all like you are. I think her kids are going to be wonderful too. Like I’ve told you before, go home. I’m not in the mood to fuck with you today.”

  He left them there, laughing all the way to his car. The fucker was going to get his comeuppance even if she had to dish it out herself. But tonight, Cain and Elly Longshore were going to be home in their own bed.

  Cain said that Dick had come by their home earlier that morning and had demanded a raise in their rent, knowing full well that he’d lost his job. Tabby had an idea that she was using Cain all wrong. She needed to think on it a little, but she thought that Cain and his wife should be realtors. That would certainly put a pinch in the older man’s ass. The more she thought about it, the more she loved the idea.

  Of course, she was going to have to talk to Caleb about it, but the idea had merit. She could see the shingle hanging out on the building now. “Longshore Realtors.” It was going to be epic.

  Chapter 6

  Caleb thought he was enjoying himself too much. It was like they were thieves in the middle of the night or someone skipping out on their rent and having to move quickly. Cain had had to stifle his own laughter several times as he’d taken his suitcases out of the house and into the back yard, where people were loading them into the van that Caleb had rented just for this. Elly was having a wonderful time writing the note to her dad too.

  “I want him to know we no longer need his help, as we’re working for ourselves. I’m a little afraid about this, but I’m excited too. Cain always has had the biggest sales when it came to commission checks. Then my dad started taking half of that for wear and tear on the house we were paying too much rent for.” Caleb hadn’t been happy about that either. Knowing they were paying nearly two grand a month for a falling-down one-bedroom place was appalling. “He’ll be upset, but I frankly don’t care. Dad will have to get over it. Or not. I’m well past him dictating to me what I should and shouldn’t be doing.”

  By the time everyone was too exhausted to move, the couple was in their own home. As a housewarming gift, Tabby had found them a cook and someone to help clean the house. It was too big a home, she thought, for Elly to do it alone with a baby on the way. Since Caleb owned the house outright, he’d opted for them to rent to own. They were both very happy with that idea.

  He also liked the idea of the realtor business. Even if the two of them didn’t buy and sell around here much, he was sure he could use them on deals all over the world. He told Cain he would pay for him to get his international licenses, as well as Elly taking a few law classes so she could update her resume. She had been an attorney for a larger firm when her father had demanded that she be at home nightly for him to pop by for a meal when he wanted it. The man was a piece of work, Caleb thought. And he deserved whatever happened when he found out that his children, as he called them, had left the roost, so to speak.

  Sitting at his desk at ten-thirty, Caleb was feeling less overwhelmed about the move and other things he had going on at the moment. Today had been the first time in as far back as he could remember that he’d slept later than six in the morning. It had been great that he’d been exhausted, not from stress, but from actual physical labor.

  Just as he was thinking about heading up to bed, Tabby came into the room wearing what he could only assume was one of his shirts. He had to swallow twice before he was able to ask her if she needed anything.

  “I do, as a matter of fact. I was wondering if sometime tomorrow afternoon, not too early, the two of us could go look for a ring. Unless you have one of your mother’s. I don’t want to take anything from her, but it would be a pleasure for me to wear one of hers. It would be like she’s with us all the time.” He asked her what the second thing was. “How did you know there was a second thing, Caleb?”

  She shimmied—not walked, but shimmied over to where he was sitting at the desk. Pulling his chair away from the large oak treasure, he waited for her to make the next move. Caleb didn’t have long to wait. Tabby sat up on the desk, her feet on either side of his thighs, and leaned back.

  “You are naked beneath that shirt.” Smiling, she told him she was so happy he noticed. “I notice a great many things about you. How your breasts make me want to suckle them. The way your ankles look when you’re wearing high heels. I don’t think women know or realize how much they can get from a man by simply wearing a pair of those.”

  “Or perhaps we do.” He nodded and lifted the shirt up off her breasts and stood up to take one of them into his mouth. “Yes, that’s what I need. You to make me come so hard I can’t see.”

  Her breast molded to his mouth. Suckling on the tip, he nipped at the large bud even as he pulled his belt from his pants. Toeing his shoes off, he nearly came when she rubbed her foot over his cock through his pants. Letting her have her way, Caleb pulled his shirt up and over his head. Then he undid his pants around her wandering feet as he watched her pussy get wetter and wetter for him.

  “I have a red pair too. They go with this little red dress I got some time back. I’ve not had much of an opportunity to wear it. Will you eat me, Caleb? I want to feel your mouth over me.”

  Naked himself, his boxers, which were down around his ankles, slipped off his feet as he sat down in his chair again. Caleb pulled her forward on his desk, so she was just on the very edge. Watching her, slowing moving toward her heat, he saw her eyes close over when he licked her from gate to clit.

  “Yes.”

  She came, flooding his mouth and desktop with her juices. Caleb lapped at her, catching as much as he could as she rode his mouth. When he slid his finger into her, she cried out again, making his own body react hard to the sounds she was making for him.

  He couldn’t get enough of her. Every time she begged him to stop, to give her a breath, he would slide another finger into her. Flick his tongue over her hard nub until she cried out again. Finally, when she pulled his hair, yanking him from her pussy, he thought that if he died right then, he’d be the most satisfied person in the world. She looked delicious.

  “Fuck me.” He nodded his head, his cock, hard with the need to come, moving near her. She told him again, her body humming with her need, “Come inside of me, Caleb. Make me scream with a climax that brings the house down. Please. I need to feel you.”

  Sliding into her slowly, he suckled at her breasts. Her throat and mouth. Each time he thought she couldn’t take any more of him, she would move, just enough so he would slide deeper, pull out longer. When he was buried as tightly as he could
be inside of her, Caleb gathered her into his arms and lifted her from the desk and sat down on the chair.

  “Yes, ride me.” She did, her rhythm off a little, but she soon got the hang of it. As he enjoyed her body, holding to her ass and feasting on her breasts, she came over and over. Picking her up again, he took her hard, relentlessly pounding her on the desk until she came several more times. His own pleasure nearly forgotten in watching hers. Caleb was caught so unawares when he did finally release that he was blinded for several seconds as his body emptied deeply into her body.

  When he woke, they were both seated in the chair again. Caleb vaguely remembered doing that, taking Tabby with him as they started to slide off the desk. Holding her in his arms now, he watched her sleep. Her naked body was bruised in several places. Her breasts were pinked up as well. While he watched her, gently taking the hair off her forehead, she looked up at him and smiled.

  “You ruined me. For anyone.” He said that had been his plan all along. “Good. You did it perfectly. If you’re not too tired, can you carry me up to bed and sleep with me?”

  “I don’t think that is even remotely possible. I can barely think about walking myself.” She giggled, and he smiled at her. “I do have something for you. But it’s all the way over there on my desk. Well, I guess all over the floor now. If I can convince you to stand up on your own, I’ll get it for you. Otherwise, we’re going to be found here in the morning, naked and sleeping like two people that made love all night.”

  She giggled again, and he thought he could get used to the sound. Even as she stood, Tabby swayed a little, and he held her steady as he stood himself. Christ, he felt like he’d been drained of every drop of blood, muscle, and bone in the last hour. Walking to the other side of his desk where everything had ended up, he picked up the box he’d had delivered to him while he’d been in town.

  “This was my mom’s, so you know. She told me that her great-grandma had left it to her when she turned sixteen. It’s wonderful that you had mentioned you’d like to wear one of hers.” He pulled the ring from the jeweler’s box and got down on one knee. “Pardon me for being naked, but since this is how I’d like to see you every day, I’m fine with proposing to you like this if you are. Tabitha Jane Tillman, will you marry me? Make this house a home with me? And will you have children with me? I know we didn’t discuss that part of it yet, but if you can see your way clear, I’d like to—”

  “Shut up, Caleb, so I can tell you yes.” He put the ring on her finger. “Oh, it’s perfect. And it fits. Yes, I’ll marry you. Oh, Caleb, yes. I love you.”

  He kissed her hand and looked at the ring on her finger. “She didn’t wear it much. I think she was afraid of losing it. It’s insured if you wish to wear it all the time. I would love for you to do that.” She asked him if he was going to ask her about having children. “Yes. I’d like as many as you would like to have.”

  “I’d love to have one soon. I mean, neither of us is getting any younger, you know.” He stood up then, hugging her. Holding her, he realized he’d just proposed to Tabby naked and that he was getting chilled. “How about something to eat? I mean, more than just snack foods. I could eat a steak as big as your head.”

  “You’re a romantic, Tabby. Anyone ever tell you that?” She shook her head. “I wonder why? You have such a way with words, you know.”

  They ended up taking a shower together. Making love was fun under the water. Also, when she scrubbed his back, some of the muscles that had been sore before started to loosen up. Doing the same for her, he told her about the building he was working on. And the issue he was having with the CEO’s suite of offices on the second floor.

  “Aren’t they normally on, like, the top floor? I mean so that the little peons below him have to be impressed with him.” He laughed and told her what he knew of the building owners. “Oh, so this is a not-for-profit kind of thing. I would think they’d be better off using some of the empty buildings around their town. That way, the money going for this project would be better spent.”

  “Yes, then I’d not be getting paid. However, I did bring that up to him. He told me that the people, I don’t know who he might have been talking about, want him to be in a better building. I suppose he’s right on that. The town voted for the building to be put in. There is one thing to remember in this. He will employ a great many people to work there. As well as the construction crew that I’ll be working with is all local men and woman.”

  “Still.” Caleb knew she was right. He’d been thinking the same thing since he’d been asked to design his first not-for-profit building. “All right. I’m ready. How about we decide what stuff has to be done today, and we work our meal around that? I have a meeting with Kylie at noon with the board of directors. She said they just want to meet me, and Sheppard would be there too. Do you realize when we’re married, he’ll be my grandfather-in-law?”

  Caleb stood in their bedroom for several minutes, just thinking on relationships. Tabby hadn’t meant anything by her words. He was sure of that. But it made it no less heart aching to know that his mom wasn’t there to meet his soon-to-be bride. He did wonder how she’d feel about his relationship with her parents. He thought it was high time that he spoke to both of them, just to see what they thought of him just being around. Perhaps, he thought again, he should have asked them before selling everything he owned and moving into their area.

  ~*~

  Dick was giving them time to beg him to come over and be with them. Wanting them to suffer a little, he’d not been by the house or spoken to them in three days now. Not since he’d caught them moving the upstart into his home. Also, to get back at them, he’d been firing off emails to them on how things were going to go from now on.

  He’d doubled their rent last night, sending the notification by email. Also, he decided that he was going to add onto the house they were in and make himself a room there. It would have to be larger than theirs. Also, he’d have a bathroom of his own.

  Elly wouldn’t have to bring his laundry back and forth from her home to his when she did it. Of course, they would have to go to the laundromat when there was washing to be done. He wouldn’t allow one of those things in any of his rentals, as they wasted water. Not that he paid for water. He just collected, not paid for shit. Also, he thought it wore out the electrical components faster, and he wasn’t going to be paying for new wiring in a house that he didn’t live in.

  The knock at his door brought him from his planning.

  “Mr. Douglas, Mr. Shimer is here to see you. He said it’s important.” Dick told his employee to send him in. “Yes, sir.”

  Dick didn’t learn their names until they had a huge sale come in. The only person whose name he had remembered was Cain’s, as it turned out. Cain was their top salesman every month. Not that he gave him anything for it. He was, after all, his son-in-law and his renter.

  “Did you know there is another bank going into town? I had to find out from one of the people working for me.” Dick told Slam he’d not heard that, but he didn’t see a problem with it. “No problem. Are you insane? It’s a huge fucking problem. How the hell do you think I’ll be able to fund our little outings if some of the people with loans at the bank go down the street? And you know they will when word gets out about how they’re getting a better interest rate from them.”

  “You don’t think whoever is coming here can be paid off? I do. Everyone has their price. Once they hire someone to run it, we’ll just go and have a little talk with him. Whoever it turns out to be, it’ll be someone else that we have in our pockets.” Slam sat down. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Cain or Elly out and about, have you? I had to have a little talk with them the other day, and I’m waiting for them to come to my terms on things. I’m still working on getting those purchases reversed that Cain sold. The little fucker not only sold him the land but the Bundy property too.”

  “I bet that was a nice p
ayoff for you.” Dick only shook his head. “You didn’t give it all to him, did you? That’s not like you at all, Dick. Are you getting soft now that you have a grandson coming along?”

  “That attorney for the kid that bought everything, he came in here with the bill of sales and demanded the check for the commissions for Cain. I haven’t any idea how he knew just how much Cain should have gotten. Cain isn’t stupid enough to tell anyone what the going rate is. Not without consequences. Anyway, I had to write him out a check for the entire amount before I got my check as his boss. Mother fucker. He’d better know I’m going to be getting that back from him too. No one plays me that way.”

  It had nearly reduced him to tears when he’d had to write out the check for Cain. Dick should have, as he’d always done, gotten half of it, even after his commission on being the realtor. But no, the guy had to make sure that Cain got his full amount. And the fucking attorney had made him get a cashier’s check too. There wasn’t any way he could cancel payment on it.

  “I’m thinking that when Cain does come back, and it’ll be any day now, I’m going to have to cut his wages a bit more. There isn’t any way he’s going to get by with thinking he made out on a deal that I told him not to do. Damn it.” Slam asked him how he was going to pay his rent if he took more money from him—not that he cared, he told him. “That will make him all the more beholden to me. I told Elly he was worthless and not to marry him. But they ran off like thieves in the night and did it. Now I’m having to make sure they have a roof over their heads, and they pay their rent on time.”

  “You’re a hard ass, Dick. I think that’s what I admire so much about you. How you have the balls to do just about anything you fucking want.” Slam snapped his fingers. “I just remembered something. Did you know that Shep is working a full-time job now? Christ, what is this world coming to when the richest kid in the state is laying bricks for a living? I bet his parents are so proud of him too.”