by Ewing, A. B.
“I know I might be crossing a line here but he does love you, Neela. I know you guys got a lot going on but maybe you can give him a hearing. If it was me, I would want a hearing.” Okay, so she wasn’t expecting that.
“Garvin, it’s a lot more complicated than that.”
“You mean with that Lori chick thing? Hey, I know it must be hard to hear that your guy has a baby with another woman but things happen. He’s a man, Neela, with normal urges. I mean I doubt I can last a month without sex, much less for five years. The way I see it, he screwed up but he is trying to make things better.” God, why couldn’t he be like a normal guy and just try to get her in bed? Instead he was here telling her to forgive her husband. What a man!
“Now with that said, I think we should give that husband of yours a little something to stew about.” Before she could answer, Garvin gathered her up into his arms and kissed her thoroughly.
Oh, he was no Caleb but God the man could kiss. He coaxed her mouth open with the tip of his tongue and she opened her mouth to accept and groaned when his hand cupped her butt.
The toe curling kiss was interrupted when the front door flew open. Caleb stood on the other side, breathing labored with a murderous look in his eyes.
****
He had promised himself he was not going to do this. He was not going to act the part of a jealous husband, even though that is exactly what he was.
He was jealous as hell. It took a lot of courage and strength to stand by and watch your wife being pawed by another man. That was strength and courage Caleb did not have.
Rage enveloped him causing him to tighten his hand on the glass he was holding until it shattered. Neela was his wife and that fool had no right to be touching her and kissing her like that.
Stomping to the front door he yanked it open. Fuming at the two, he silently demanded an answer.
She didn’t even try to look guilty. She just stood there looking as if she wanted to be made love to. Battling the jealous rage that was on the verge of erupting he said through tight lips, “Garvin, thank you for seeing my wife home. Neela!” He insinuated by holding the door open for her to come inside. Not once did he look at the other man because he knew with the way he was feeling right about now, he was likely to commit murder. In the past hi temper had caused him to physically hurt his wife. That was something he would never repeat. He had learned to curb his anger over the last five years but right now, he wasn’t to sure what he would do to Garvin if he slipped.
Throwing him the evil eyes, Neela waved Garvin goodbye before she came in. Caleb hit the switch after he closed the door, flooding the whole living room with light.
****
In an effort to avoid confrontation, Neela attempted to hightail it out of the room but Caleb’s angry voice stopped her.
“So is this your way of getting back at me?”
Spinning around, she looked at him a long while before she answered.
“Is that what you feel this is? My way of getting back at you? Caleb, in order for me to do that, I would have to care about what you think and frankly I don’t,” she huffed folding her arms across her chest. Oh, she hated lying but right then she was mad as hell - mad because despite all this jerk had done to her she still loved him. There he was looking like a lost sheep and all she wanted to do was comfort him. She should not be the one feeling guilty.
She stayed rooted to the spot but he moved. He came closer, slowly. God, he was sexy even when he walked. The plain white T-shirt fitted firm against his broad chest reminding Neela of just how good he felt beneath it. Simple black pajama pants fell all the way to his bare feet. This man was extraordinary.
This is what she didn’t want to feel. When he was this close, she seemed to forget all the wrongs he had done. All she could see is Caleb, the man she fell in love with, the man she still loved. God, it was frustrating.
He stood so close to her now, she could smell him. Sex - that’s how he smelt.
“Are you trying to tell me you don’t love me anymore, Neela? Can you honestly tell me that you don’t desire me?” Yeah, he was drilling it in and she wasn’t going to allow him to do that to her.
Straightening up she raised her head high to look at him.
“What I am saying Caleb, is that I may still love you but I can never forgive you. You just don’t seem to get it, do you?” Needing space she moved away from him but she didn’t back down.
“You think you just have to say you’re sorry or that you love me and we can just go back to the way we used to be but I can’t.” Inhaling deeply she continued.
“When you slept with Lori that first time, it crushed me. You will never understand what it did to me to know that you went to her.” That had an effect on him because the expression on his face changed to guilt, maybe shame, but he stayed quiet.
“Then when all this happened I really thought that this was another chance for us. And I think I was honestly ready to forgive you. But then you tell me you have a child with Lori. I think if that child was a product of what happened between you two five years ago, it might have been easier. Knowing that you continued to sleep with that woman after everything she did to us, is the highest form of betrayal, Caleb.” Neela suddenly felt extremely exhausted. Sitting at the foot of the stair she let her purse drop to the carpeted floor.
Caleb moved silently across the floor to stoop in front of her. She just wanted to stop fighting. Maybe it was time to let go. Maybe it was time to forgive him and try to move forward.
“Are you sleeping with that bastard Neela?”
Her head snapped up at his question. He didn’t just ask that. He didn’t have the audacity to ask her that question. But he did. Erupting into a standing position, she yelled “You know what, Caleb? Screw you!” and turned to leave.
But Caleb was ready for that because he grabbed her around the waist, yanking her against his hard chest.
“Oh no, you don’t. You don’t get to walk away that easy,” he growled in her ears as she struggled in his arms. She tried to pry his arms loose but Caleb’s grip was like steel.
“Put me down, Caleb, or I swear I’ll scream,” Neela warned.
“Scream all you like I’m not letting you go until you tell me if you are sleeping with that jerk.”
“If I tell you will you promise to put me down?” But she didn’t want him to. It felt so good to be held this close to him. She could feel his heart drumming against her back, his breath on her neck. Slowly she was being pulled into that abyss of desire, where only she and Caleb existed.
Her body bucked when his tongue flickered out to trace a part along her earlobe.
“Tell me, Neela. Are you sleeping with him?” Caleb demanded.
Breathing heavily, she licked her dry lips but she didn’t answer. She slid slowly to her feet when he loosened his grip a little.
Circling, she looked up at him, so handsome. Caleb needed no invitation. He lowered his lips to fuse with hers.
This was passion. Just a kiss and she was like jelly in his arms.
Groaning, Caleb hoisted her up, her long legs wrapped around him willingly.
His lips mated with hers, his tongue dancing in the recesses of her mouth.
Caleb backed her up against the closest wall, his hard body straining against hers. His lips left her mouth to burn a part across her jaw and down her neck. Neela whimpered when his teeth nipped at the tender skin.
Freeing one hand he cupped her breast through the fabric of her top, her nipple instantly puckered.
“Neela, please let me make love to you,” Caleb pleaded but he shouldn’t have.
An image of him doing the same thing to Lori popped into her mind and immediately she went cold. She stiffened in his arms.
Caleb felt it because he drew away a little to look at her.
“Neela…?”
“Put me down, Caleb,” she demanded.
“I don’t understand…”
“Well, let me help you. I may want sex, Caleb, but
I don’t want you.”
That did it. He dropped her like a sack of hot potatoes.
Caleb stood there, looking at her as if this was the first time he was seeing her. Neela hammered the nail further into the coffin.
“I can’t believe that you are willing to have sex with me when you come from her bed every day.”
When her words sank in he looked as if he had just been clobbered over the head.
“You think I’m sleeping with Lori?”
“Well, you were with her just a couple of months ago. So why should I think any different now?”
His eyes clouded over, concealing whatever he was thinking.
Neela got angrier when she didn’t get the reaction she wanted. It was so much easier being angry. So she pushed.
“You know what you are, Caleb. You are a serial cheater. You are one of those guys that just can’t keep it in your pants.”
“Stop calling me that, Neela. I am not a serial cheater,” he shouted.
That was the reaction she was hoping for. She pushed harder.
“Yes you are! You slept with Lori when we were married and then you continued to sleep with her when I left. That’s still cheating. Now you want to be with me but you still can’t help going to her. You are a serial cheater and you will always be one.” She was prepared to push further but Caleb’s next words almost made her swallow her tongue.
“You think you know me, Neela. Well, here’s something you don’t know about me,” he raged. “I’ve never had sex with anyone since you left me five years ago.”
What could she say to top that?
****
Chapter 16
“You must think I’m really stupid if you expect me to believe that you have been celibate for the last five years?” Neela spat at her husband.
“I don’t expect you to believe anything I say Neela, but it is the truth,” he replied somberly.
“Well, then I guess Graig or Craig or whatever his name was conceived through Immaculate Conception.” Sarcasm drenched her voice. “I know you, Caleb. I know there is no possible way you can stay celibate for five years. It’s highly impossible.”
“For some it may be impossible but not for me. Not when I love you as much as I do.” His tone coupled with his words, was doing something weird to her inside. Anger was slowly seeping away to be replaced by a deeper, stronger emotion but she still needed answers.
“The next thing you’re going to tell me is that you didn’t sleep with Lori five years ago, that those pictures were doctored to make you look guilty. Right?” Her hand sliced through the air, her tone daring him to deny her words.
“No. As much it kills me to admit it, those pictures were real. Nothing I do can change that. I did sleep with Lori that night but I never touched her or any other woman since then.” A part of her was really hoping he would deny that but now Neela felt that familiar sense of hurt and jealousy.
“I guess in the back of my mind I always believed that you would come back. I believed here,” he touched the skin above his heart, “that you would forgive me.” Pausing, his eyes searched out hers. “I hurt you once, Neela, and I will regret that for the rest of my life. I made a promise to myself after that. I promised that as long as I wore this ring, as long as my heart belonged to you, I would never hurt you like that again.” He raised his left hand, pointing at the single gold band she had placed there almost six years ago.
He was making it so hard not to believe him. What if it was true? What if he had kept his promise? What was stopping her from forgiving him?
“Okay, so let’s say I believe you. Then that would mean that Lori’s baby is not yours.” Please say it’s not.
“Biologically, no. But as far as the world knows, Craig is my son and it has to stay that way.” That is not what she wanted to hear.
“Wait! I don’t understand that. You are not that child’s father but you want everyone to believe you are. Have you lost your mind?” she was yelling again, but she couldn’t help it.
“You don’t understand, Neela…”
“Well, help me, Caleb. Help me understand why this is so important to you. You say you love me and you want us to be together, then tell me why you are willing to claim Lori’s bastard.” Why was he doing this to them?
“Don’t, Neela. Don’t call him that. He’s not a bastard!” Tiredness seeped through his voice.
“Dammit, Caleb, tell me what’s going on.” She stomped her foot in frustration.
“I can’t,” he surrendered, wiping a hand down his weary face. “I can’t talk about this anymore.” Long strides took him quickly towards the stairs but Neela wasn’t accepting that. There was nothing keeping them from being together now except that little secret, and she was going to find out what is was.
Dashing across the floor passing him, she took the stairs two at a time. Stopping on the second-to-last step she spun around, spreading her legs and her arms in an attempt to cut him off.
Stopping in front of her Caleb said in a worn-out voice, “Neela, please move.”
“Oh no! You started this and we are going to finish it. You are going to tell me who you’re protecting.”
Her eyes level with his, she was able to see emotions flash across the blue pools - confusion, sadness, pain, tiredness. Her heart squeezed at it. Now she was actually seeing some of what he must be battling with.
“Neela…”
“No, Caleb. I’m not letting you pass until you tell me.”
She was only kidding herself if she really thought that she could stop him from passing.
When his large hands clamped around her slender waist and lifted her of the ground, she did the only thing she could think of. She threw her hands around his neck and wrapped her jeans clad legs around his waist, burying her face in his neck. God, he smelled so damn good!
Momentarily stunned by her actions, Caleb stood still with her wrapped around him. When she didn’t make any move to dismount him, he moved, taking the last two steps, his hands still on her tiny waist.
Neela could feel his muscles working as he moved steadily towards his room but what she was more aware of was his arousal pressing against her through the thin fabric of his pajama bottoms.
Outside his door, he stopped. Pressing her up against it, he pulled away a little, their lower bodies still locked together.
In the semi-darkness of the hallway she could barely see his face but in the silence she could hear his labored breathing. Against her breast she could feel the stuttering of his heart.
He pressed his head against her neck, inhaling deeply. Neela could sense that he was struggling for control. Burying her hand in his hair, she held him close to her, absorbing his strength, his weakness, his pain.
Five years this man had waited for her, not out of loyalty but out of love. To be loved like this was something so rare.
She wanted to hear him say it - to hear the words on his lips, to feel it on her skin while she was this close to him. Nudging his head away from her shoulder she lightly tugged on his hair.
Closing her eyes she rested her forehead against his and made a secret wish before she asked. “Caleb, do you love me?”
Groaning, he brought a hand up to cup her jaw.
“Neela, sometimes I believe what I feel for you cannot be called love. People survive after they’ve loved and lost. I don’t think I would be able to survive if I ever lost you and I think that’s one of the reasons I never gave up. I don’t think I would have survived otherwise.”
His genuine words tugged at her heart finally allowing her to surrender completely to the emotions tumbling inside her. Tomorrow they would deal with the issue of Lori and her child. Tonight was for her and Caleb.
Whispering his name, she touched her lips to his. He didn’t react right away but when her wet tongue came out to caress his firm lips, they opened on a growl that escaped from deep down. When her tongue slipped past his teeth she tasted heaven. She had forgotten how it felt to truly be kissed by this man
.
His tongue mated with hers, driving her nerves to a higher level. She whimpered when his teeth nibbled at her lips. He sucked, nipped, teased and caressed, slowly pushing her over the edge.
A large hand slid under her top, skimming over soft skin until it reached the firm mound of one breast. The buds tightened when his hand cupped her through the thin laced bra.
She had missed this feeling. The feeling of completeness. Caleb’s mouth released hers to cut across her jaw. His lips found the soft spot under her ear and Neela moaned when his tongue flickered out to touch her there. She pressed her body closer to his, silently begging for more. Tremors shot through her from head to toe when Caleb applied gentle pressure to her breast.
“Caleb…” she whimpered.
“God, Neela, I love you so damn much.” His tortured whisper brushed against her skin.
Reaching behind her for the doorknob, she turned it.
Invitation accepted, Caleb walked them through the opened door, Neela shutting it behind them.
Stopping short of the large king-sized bed, Caleb gently lowered her to her feet, her body sliding seductively against his.
Once on the ground, Neela looked up at her husband. This beautiful man standing in front of her was hurting, his strong features revealing a vulnerability she had never noticed before.
“Neela… Please tell me this is really happening. Tell me that you are not going to change your mind,” he begged, desperation weighing down each word.
Stepping back, she opened the space between them. Eyes fixed on his face, she tugged her top above her head, letting it fall at her feet. Caleb’s eyes darkened at the first view of her breast peeping through the red lace.
Unbuttoning the jeans, she shimmied out of them while kicking off her shoes.
Across the room she heard Caleb’s deep intake of breath as at the same time his eyes clouded over with passion. How long had it been since she witnessed this side of her husband?
Sinking onto the large king bed, she crawled backwards until she was resting on the pillows and waited.
****
