All of Me

by Jennifer Bernard

  “How could anyone hurt you?” he whispered. “I just don’t understand.”

  “Because you’re not like him,” she said promptly. “You’re good.”

  It was fortunate that she couldn’t see his face. Good. Good didn’t describe him. It didn’t describe the wayward son of a convicted con artist. Good. The word started a slow boil inside him. “Don’t be so sure about that.”

  He pushed down the sleeves of her blouse, leaving her arms trapped inside, then snapped apart her bra. She strained toward him as he ran a finger between the two mounds of her breasts, where deep shadows lurked. He detoured for a quick fix, cupping her breasts so the hard tips rubbed against his palms. Then he ran his hands down her torso to her pants. She must have come straight from work, since she wore thin silky trousers that could be part of a suit. Didn’t matter. They were coming off. He unfastened them, ripped them off her body, then did the same to the scrap of underwear underneath.

  Feeling her tense, he knelt before her and put his hands on her upper thighs, caressing the soft skin under his thumbs. Quivers traveled through her, and slowly, with his insistent urging, her legs fell open.

  “You okay?” he whispered.

  She nodded and let out a soft gasp. He pushed her back on the bed, not gently, but not too rough. Her arms were pinned to the side by her blouse; that and the scarf around her eyes were the only things she wore. Lust pounded through him, blood pumping into his cock. He had to close his eyes for a second to get a grip on himself. She trusted him enough to put herself in this position.

  In return, he was going to make sure she had the best orgasm of her life.

  “I love touching you. Every inch.” He removed her blouse, turned her over on her stomach, and put his hands on the smooth skin of her back. Gently at first, testing how much pressure she liked, he massaged the sleek muscles of her back and shoulders. She sighed, her flesh turning pliant under his strokes. He made his way down her body . . . buttocks, thighs, calves, feet. Slow and steady, giving her all the time in the world, he worked the tension from her frame. When she was boneless with relaxation, he turned her onto her back. A smile parted her lips; she looked so beautiful his heart clenched.

  He brushed his thumb across the dainty patch of hair adorning her sex. Wetness glistened underneath. She was turned on; he could smell it, sense it, and her scent went straight to his head. He lowered his head between her thighs, feeling them tremble on either side of him. Her sex beckoned him like the most beautiful flower in the world, fleshy petals unfurling for his pleasure. He stroked the flat of his tongue across her slit, so silky and soft. The hardening knot of her clit welcomed the tip of his tongue as he licked, slowly at first, then faster, more friction, more pressure, until she thrashed from side to side.

  “Caleb,” she pleaded.

  “Yes, sweet,” he growled against her clit. The vibration of his lips on her sex tipped her over the edge into a screaming, writhing orgasm. He rode it out, his mouth on her, as if he was mainlining her heat and juice. His cock throbbed, and he took it into his hand, readying himself with a condom. When the pace of her convulsions slowed, he tossed her higher onto the bed and turned her over, so she lay on her stomach.

  She immediately took hold of the sheets on either side, her dark hair spilling across her back.

  “Want more?” he asked her roughly. She gave a quick nod, her head turned to one side, the scarf still tight around her eyes.

  “Tell me.”

  “Yes. Yes, I want more. I want you inside me.” Her voice shook.

  His Sadie.

  He spread her legs wide and plunged deep and hard. She pushed her ass back against him, as if the friction of the sheets on her sensitized private parts was too much for her. He dragged her higher in the air, mad with desire, needing to lose himself in her fist-tight heat. He dug his fingers into the flesh of her hips and slammed all the way to the hilt, his balls bumping against the soft backs of her thighs.

  “Caleb!” she screamed. “Oh sweet Lord.”

  Two thrusts, three, four, need thundering down his spine, building like a thunderbolt about to strike. And then it hit, picking him up like a frickin’ tornado and whirling him into Oz. He went blind with it, blind, deaf, and dumb. No words, no sounds, just endless, blessed release. The orgasm was so intense it could have been a house landing on him.

  They crawled under the sheets afterward, like two survivors of a natural disaster. He took the blindfold off Sadie and snuggled her against him. He must have drifted off to sleep, into a warm, happy void where no worries could touch him. A thread of a whisper pulled him back to consciousness.

  Sadie was stirring in his arms. He pulled her back against him, with the loopy idea that nothing could hurt him while they were joined together.

  “So that was your big plan?” she was saying in an amused murmur. “Blindfold me so I could tell my mother I’m not seeing anyone?”

  “I guess it sounds stupid, now that you put it that way. Also, I figured you wouldn’t have any worry about cameras if we kept the lights off.”

  She put a hand on his chest, conforming her palm to the slope of his muscles. “I trust you, Caleb. I don’t worry with you. I’m too busy losing my mind.” She fell quiet while he stroked long strands of hair off her damp forehead. “I really didn’t know sex could be like this.”

  Now that was guaranteed to stoke a guy’s ego. Except that . . . “I didn’t either,” he admitted. “I mean, I’ve always liked sex. But this . . .” He shook his head. “It’s different with you, Sadie.”

  Her soft breath warmed his skin in little puffs.

  “Have you been with a lot of people? I only ask because . . . well, Hamilton used to cheat on me all the time. Then he’d accuse me of cheating, but I never did. Every time he threw one of his accusations at me, I knew he’d been with someone else.”

  Caleb’s gut tightened. “I hate that guy.”

  “Yeah, well, stay away from him. You don’t mess around with the Wade family.” She gave a soft, bitter laugh. “If I’d known, I would have joined a convent before dating Hamilton. I don’t even know what he saw in me. Every girl wanted to date him.”

  “Maybe he saw what I see. A beautiful, smart, fiery girl worth all kinds of risks.”

  She raised herself on one elbow, her hair falling like a silk curtain over her shoulder. “Risks? Do you mean the risk of Hamilton finding out?”

  He traced the path of moonlight across her skin, down to the soft nipple, which responded immediately to his touch. “No. That’s not what I mean.”

  What he meant . . . what he couldn’t yet say . . . was that he meant the risk of falling in love. But something told him it might already be too late.

  Sadie already knew that Caleb wasn’t the spoiled athlete she’d assumed. For one thing, he worked his ass off. Show up early, stay late, was his motto. If you respect the game of baseball, it will give respect back to you. He worked out like a fiend, threw extra bullpens to refine his pitching motion, even mentored some of the raw newcomers to the team.

  “You have no idea how much help I got when I first came up,” he told her. “You have to believe in yourself, but you need other people to believe in you too. Especially as a pitcher, it’s such a mind game. It’s one on one, pitcher against batter, and if you let yourself get psyched out, the batter wins. You have to stay focused.”

  “How do you do that?”

  “Stay away from girls.” He winked at her. She was spending her lunch break with him at the ballpark. They sat in the stands watching batting practice. She picked at a roast beef sandwich, while he downed a power smoothie.

  “Oops.” She pulled a mock-sorry face.

  “Actually, my ERA has improved since we met.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Despite her sassy tone, he narrowed his eyes at her. “You sound down. Is everything okay?”

  Caleb could be frighteningly perceptive. One might even say “sensitive,” if he weren’t such a tough, rugged ath
lete.

  “Fine.” She mustered a smile, hoping to throw him off the scent. The truth was, this new thing with Caleb made her nervous. Every night, she went to sleep hugging the thought of him close, like a pillow. Every morning, she woke up with sort of incredulous joy. Am I really going to see him today? Does he really think about me the way I think about him? Then the wary part of her, the part that had been so brutally crushed by Hamilton’s behavior, would kick in.

  She couldn’t shake the sneaky feeling that disaster lurked around the corner. Possibly in the form of Hamilton Wade, but possibly something else.

  Enjoy this while it lasts, Sadie.

  She snapped out of her reverie to see that Caleb was talking on his cell phone. “Okay. I’ll tell Bill to transfer the money. How’s he feeling?”

  He nodded quietly, looking much older than his nearly twenty-six years. Then he shot Sadie a glance, his face turning red. “Don’t say anything bad about me,” he said sternly into the phone, then handed it to Sadie. “My sister wants to say hi.”

  Sadie took the phone, surprised. “Hello,” she said tentatively.

  “Hi. This is Tessa. I suppose Caleb hasn’t said much about me.” From the snap in her voice, Tessa was young and on the sassy side.

  “Well, um . . .”

  “That’s our Caleb. He likes to do his talking on the mound. But that’s why I’m here, to fill in a few blanks. I just want you to know the kind of guy my brother is.”

  “I think I can figure that out.”

  “My brother,” Tessa rode right over her, “is the kind of guy who quit college to support us when our dad wasn’t around. He’s the kind of guy who has always been there for us. He’s never let us down. Not once. Did you know our mother abandoned us for some young Italian stud? Did you know he used to change Teddy and Frankie’s diapers? Do you know what he does in the off-season, besides train his ass off?”

  She knew that much, although the rest was new to her. “He’s a stay at home brother?”

  “Yes. He takes our bratty little brothers to school, he cooks dinner. Helps them with their homework. He lets me have a social life. That’s the kind of guy he is. Do you see where I’m coming from?”

  “You love your brother. I get it. He’s a great guy.”

  “No. I don’t just love him. I’d kill for my brother. If anyone hurt him, I’d be up there with a switchblade so fast, like supersonic.”

  At Sadie’s horrified expression, Caleb snatched the phone back. “What did you say, Tessa?”

  Sadie swallowed hard, imagining what it would be like to have someone as fierce as Tessa on her side. Maybe she should send her after Hamilton.

  “Sorry,” Caleb said after he’d hung up. “Tessa has the whole mother tiger thing down cold. It’s been us against the world for a long time.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? About your mother and quitting college and all that?”

  He shrugged. “Never really came up.”

  And that was another thing about Caleb. He possessed fearsome powers of compartmentalization. Baseball was baseball, family was family, Sadie was Sadie. He liked to keep things separate. But she wasn’t going to let him.

  “So tell me now. Tell me about your mother.”

  “Not much to tell.” He set his jaw, the planes of his face stark and vulnerable. “When I was ten she hooked up with some sports car driver and ran off to Europe. She left me and Tessa a letter telling us how much she loved us and explaining that she couldn’t afford a lawyer to fight for custody. We figured out later that she couldn’t risk any attention from the law. We just weren’t worth it.”

  “Oh, Caleb.”

  “Then there was our stepmother, Teddy and Frankie’s mom. She was great, except she kept cheating with younger men. She was killed in a car accident while giving her boy toy a blow job. We never told the twins the full story. Not exactly your typical family history.”

  She shook her head with a low laugh. “Sometimes I think there’s no such thing. My family’s just as weird as yours, in our own way. My mother goes to sleep at the first hint of a crisis. Watching her made me want to do something with my life. Anything but sleep it away.”

  He picked up her hand, stroking one finger at a time. “I know what you mean. When Bingo went to prison I made up my mind to be different from all that craziness. No con games, no cheating. I like things straight-up and real. Solid. Caleb in control.”

  Caleb definitely liked to be in control.

  She shivered, thinking of the hot scenes in the bedroom in which he completely took command. In bed, it totally worked.

  Out of bed, she wanted more. She wanted everything. But for now she’d take what she could get. Knowing that Caleb wanted her, that he needed her in some way, made her heart sing with joy. Her impulse was to give him everything she had.

  But she’d done that with Hamilton, and gotten decimated. Was it safe to give all her love to Caleb?

  Did she have any choice?

  Chapter 17

  DONNA FILLED SADIE in on everything that had happened at the party after she and Caleb left.

  “Three helicopters landed in the backyard. They were full of baseball players and the entire spring issue of Victoria’s Secret.”

  “No way.”

  “Yep. They landed on the lawn in the back. Oh, and then Justin Timberlake showed up with his whole entourage. He sang a song for Crush. I heard he posted a bunch of photos on Instagram. Imagine that! Kilby on JT’s Instagram!”

  Sadie debated—JT or Caleb—and decided she’d gotten the better deal. “Was he as sexy in person?”

  “More so,” Donna said reverently. “Word must have gotten out because cars from town started showing up. It seemed like half of Kilby was there, at least the younger half.”

  “Hamilton?”

  “I didn’t see him, but maybe. I saw a few of his friends. They were playing naked glow-in-the-dark paintball with the models. Word is that all the church ladies are upset.”

  “Yup. Mayor Trent’s been popping antacids all day. She always looks so calm, but I think it might be just a front. Uh-oh. I gotta go.”

  The infamous red button was flashing. Sadie hurried into the mayor’s office. She was on the phone, nodding patiently, and gave Sadie a signal to sit down. Sadie sat and waited, watching the rapid drum of her boss’s fingernails across the desk.

  Finally, the mayor hung up, slamming the receiver on the desk several times before replacing it in the cradle. “That damn man.”

  A curse and an act of violence against a phone. Not typical Mayor Trent behavior. “What happened?”

  “He had to go throw a party, didn’t he?” She unscrewed the cap of her bottle of antacids. “Not just any party, but a party that every wild young Kilby boy apparently crashed. All their mothers are calling me. And they’re calling the Ladies’ Auxiliary and they’re signing that petition and not a single one of them cares about the horn-toed slugs.” She chewed on a tablet, then downed a glass of water. “I wanted no controversy.”

  “We need to try harder. The cupcakes were such a hit. What about a calendar? All benefits would go to charity. Not just the slugs, but—I don’t know—the library or something. We could get Caleb Hart to pose with a book.”

  For a moment Sadie lost herself in an erotic fantasy of Caleb, stark naked except for a book covering his privates.

  “That’s another thing. Mrs. Parrish actually tried to tell me that you were at the party holding hands with Caleb Hart. I told her that wasn’t possible.”

  Stricken, Sadie stared at her boss. She couldn’t lie to her. That would be a complete betrayal. But disappointing her was going to feel worse than a trip to the dentist. “I was there. But I didn’t know it was going to be Crush Taylor’s party. And I left soon after I got there.”

  The mayor set down her antacid bottle with a sharp click. “You didn’t know it was going to be his party?”

  “I . . . I was with a friend. We ran into Mike Solo from the Catfish. He took us to th
e party, but it was kind of a . . . surprise.” In the retelling, it sounded incredibly lame.

  “So you went somewhere unknown with a member of the notorious Catfish? And then you held Caleb Hart’s hand?”

  She’d done so much more than that. Her face prickled with heat. “We’re . . . dating.”

  The mayor drew in a shocked breath. “Dating a Catfish player?”

  “I’m not happy about it either.” The deep masculine voice had them both swinging around. Crush Taylor, black sunglasses firmly in place, lounged in the doorway. Instead of the sophisticated linen pants he’d been wearing at the party, he was back to ragged jeans and a misbuttoned shirt.

  “Stop doing that,” the mayor ground out, tightening her fist around her antacids. Sadie wouldn’t have been surprised to see her wing the bottle at his head. “You’re not welcome here.”

  “I’m a resident of Kilby and you’re my mayor. I even voted for you.”

  The mayor gaped at him, as though stunned to hear that, and maybe not particularly happy about it.

  “Women make excellent political leaders.” Somehow, he made that statement sound patronizing. “And as far as I’m concerned, my star pitcher shouldn’t be distracting himself with a local girl. He’s got more important things to focus on. Like the fact that Ian Sullivan’s been complaining of elbow pain.”

  Caleb had told Sadie about Ian Sullivan. He held down the third spot in the Friars rotation. As a lefty, Caleb would be the logical choice to replace him in case of injury. Sadie’s heart slowly sank into her stomach. This was it. He’d be gone soon.

  “Why are you here, Mr. Taylor?”

  “I’m here, Mayor Trent, for two things. First, an apology. I usually manage to keep my parties private, but this one got out of hand. I know the ladies are upset, so I’d like to offer up some kind of gift to smooth things out.”