The Other Brother

by Janis Reams Hudson

  “Oh, Caleb,” she whispered.

  “You’re beautiful,” he told her.

  She shook her head. “I’m not, but you make me feel that way.”

  “You are. Beautiful to see, to touch.” He dipped his head down and teased one nipple with his tongue. “To taste.” He took the bud into his hot, wet mouth and suckled.

  A deep shudder tore through her and suddenly she was on fire, burning alive from the inside out, and only Caleb could save her. She arched toward him and felt the grass cushion her back as he took her down again to the ground.

  When he took his mouth away an involuntary cry of protest escaped her lips.

  But he didn’t leave, not really, for he kissed his way across her chest to the other nipple. It was torture of the most exquisite, most pleasurable kind.

  She went wild. She had to have him inside her. Now. This instant. But there were still too damn many clothes separating them. She tried to toe off her boots, but she knew better. It took two hands or a bootjack to free her feet.

  Caleb felt her struggle and chuckled against her breast. “Damn boots.”

  “Help me.”

  They rolled together, tugging and laughing and cursing the foibles of well-fitting boots. Leather flew this way and that, followed swiftly by socks. Melanie fumbled her belt buckle open and reached for her zipper.

  “Wait.” Caleb pressed his hand over hers. “Let me.” He pushed her gently back to the grass and took his time, tugging the zipper down slowly, one notch at a time, while watching her. He was stunned, humbled, that he could bring her as much pleasure as he saw on her face.

  He tugged her jeans down and off, and with them her white cotton panties. No frills for his Mel.

  He hadn’t known that plain, white cotton could make his heart pound like a hammer in his chest.

  She squirmed on the ground, reaching for his belt buckle, but he was too busy admiring the pale length of her long, long legs to be of any help.

  “So perfect,” he murmured.

  “Off.” She freed his buckle, lowered his zipper and thrust her hands inside the back of his jeans. Her fingers dug into his flesh. The small pricks of her fingernails shot fire straight to his loins.

  She was rushing him, and it was important that with her, for her, he did not rush. He knew this woman. She could face anything that came at her, except her own feelings. Hadn’t she just told him that she had outgrown her feelings for Sloan years before she’d been willing to admit it?

  If Caleb wanted her to have feelings for him, he was going to have to make her face them. She was going to have to face that there was more between them now than friendship. And she wouldn’t want to. He had his work cut out for him. But it started here and now, on the grass in an open pasture in the sunlight. No secrets. No more hiding.

  “Wait,” he said. “Let me look at you.”

  “You can look at me with your jeans off.”

  “I can.” He nipped at her lips. “But with my jeans off I’m more likely to do something else.”

  She grinned up at him. “That’s the idea.”

  He chuckled. “Don’t be in such a hurry.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “You wouldn’t start something you don’t intend to finish, would you?”

  “Not finish? Are you out of your mind?”

  She smiled again, but it was tinged with wry humor. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “Oh, that’ll cost you.” He buried his mouth against her neck and made growling noises.

  Melanie shrieked with laughter. She’d never laughed before while having sex. Of course, they weren’t exactly having sex yet, but they were getting to it. If she could just hurry Caleb along before things got too intense. She could already feel her emotions bubbling, fighting each other, trying to overtake her. Sex wasn’t supposed to be so complicated. At least, it never had been for her.

  This, with the laughter and the yearning in Caleb’s eyes, the tenderness in his touch, was something new, something scary.

  Her mind raced in a thousand directions, seeking a way to get them back on an even keel. The laughter was fine. Great in fact. But the yearning…that wouldn’t do. That way lay disaster.

  Then he cupped his hand between her legs and her mind blanked. What was he doing to her? Why should his touch, above any other she’d ever known, be the one to melt her bones?

  She reached to push down his jeans. Caleb helped her, and as soon as he was naked she rolled him to his back and straddled his hips. “Now.” She grinned down at him.

  “Not yet.” With a twist of his hips he had her on her back before she knew it. “Let me in, Melanie.”

  “Let you?” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “I’m about to beg you.”

  He traced a finger across her brow. “What are you afraid of?”

  “Nothing. I’m afraid of dying before I feel you inside me.”

  Her admission was enough to make his blood surge. “I want inside you. Here,” he said, cupping a hand between her legs. “And here.” He kissed her forehead. “And here.” He kissed between her breasts, over her heart. “I want it all. Let me in, Mel, let me in.”

  “Caleb.” She gave a frustrated groan and arched her hips against his hand.

  Caleb knew what she wanted. He wanted the same thing, wanted to bury himself deep inside her and stroke until they both flew apart, together. He nudged her legs apart and settled between her thighs.

  Melanie took in a breath and held it. To feel him there, between her legs, his weight covering her hips, was like nothing she’d ever known. Hot shivers raced over her skin and through her muscles. Every nerve ending in her body danced beneath her skin. But it wasn’t enough. She wanted more. She wanted him.

  And then he was there, easing inside her, stretching her, filling her with his hot, hard length in a way she had never before been filled. She raised her knees to take more of him.

  With a groan, Caleb pushed in to the hilt. She was so tight, so hot and wet, it was all he could do to keep from pulling out and pounding into her again and again until he lost his mind, until he made her scream with pleasure.

  He thought maybe he had already lost his mind, for he didn’t move. “Let me in, Melanie.”

  Breathless, she said, “Are you kidding?”

  “I don’t mean just here.” He nudged his hips forward. “I mean here.” He kissed her forehead, and between her breasts. “And here.”

  Melanie arched her hips. “Caleb, please.”

  “Let me in.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “It’s just sex,” she said.

  “It’s not, and you know it.” He trailed kisses across one cheek, then the other. “We mean more than that to each other. We deserve more than that from each other. Let me in.”

  “I don’t know how,” she cried in frustration, her eyes shut tight. If he didn’t move soon she was going to explode.

  “Just let go. Stop trying to think your way through this and just feel. Just feel, Mel.”

  “I can’t,” she cried, twisting her head away from his lips.

  Caleb kissed his way down her neck, her chest, to the tip of one breast. She was so soft there, but for the hard tip. And sweet, like dark honey. “Just let go.”

  And she did. Something inside her, a tight control she hadn’t been aware of, melted away under the heat of his mouth and in his eyes. Suddenly she was soaring.

  “Caleb,” she whispered in wonder.

  “Look at me,” he asked. “Let me see your eyes.”

  She opened her eyes and met his dark brown gaze.

  He saw there what he’d wanted to see. A new openness, mixed with deep emotion, something more than just heat. “Oh, yeah.” He took her mouth and devoured it, with lips and tongue and teeth. The need inside him burned, took over. His hands roamed everywhere, eager and greedy to feel every inch of her. His hips flexed, slowly at first, then faster and faster as sh
e moaned and urged him on.

  She took him higher than he’d ever been, meeting him thrust for thrust, gasping breath for gasping breath, pounding heartbeat for pounding heartbeat. Harder. Faster.

  Melanie felt the pleasure and the pressure and the fire build until she thought she couldn’t bear it, yet she never wanted it to end.

  But it did, with an explosion of sensation and emotions that started low and deep, where she and Caleb were joined, and radiated out in waves, taking her with it and flinging her off the edge of the earth. She screamed in sheer release.

  And then he was there with her, Caleb was with her, thrusting deep inside with a mighty groan, holding her close, keeping her safe. Sheltering her as they tumbled through space together.

  The warmth of the sun on his back tempted Caleb to lie there forever. Two things kept him from giving in and falling asleep. First was that he knew his weight must be crushing Melanie. Second was the dampness on his shoulder where she pressed her face.

  “Melanie?” He started to push himself up, but she clung to him with a quiet sob.

  “No,” she said. “Don’t look at me.”

  “Mel…” He started to raise his hips, to pull out of her and relieve her of his weight.

  “No.” She tightened her legs around him. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me yet.”

  The words were so sweet to his ears, but for the tears in her voice. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

  This time she laughed. “Nothing’s wrong. Nothing.” Her arms squeezed more tightly around his neck. Half laughing, half crying, she gave a final squeeze then threw her arms over her head. “Nothing has ever been so right.”

  Caleb sagged with relief. “You had me scared. I thought… I don’t know what I thought.”

  Inside, Melanie was shaking. Everything within her had shifted somehow, opened, leaving her feeling vulnerable to him in a new and frightening way. She couldn’t let him see. She had to put some distance between them at once.

  Letting out a loud sigh, she scrubbed her face dry, then slapped him on the rear. “Let me up. I’ve got a lame horse to get home and tend to.”

  Caleb rolled to her side. “I never knew you had such a romantic streak.”

  She let out a snort, half laughter, half disgust, and rose onto her knees to start gathering her scattered clothes. “Romantic, hell. What’s the big deal? It was just sex.”

  “The hell it was.” He took her arm and pulled her around to face him. “It was more than that, and you know it.”

  Melanie shivered. There was more than anger in his eyes. Mere anger she could deal with. But hurt looked out at her from those brown depths. Hurt she had caused.

  She felt small and mean. After what the two of them had just shared, there should have been soft words and lingering glances. But the fear in her was bigger than her conscience or her need for reassurance from her lover. Or his need for something from her.

  “Okay,” she said, pulling her arm free and picking up her underwear from the grass. “It was really great sex.”

  He yanked her panties from her grasp. “What are you afraid of?”

  “Right now?” She grabbed up her jeans and tugged them on. “Sunburn. I said it was great sex. So great, in fact,” she added, picking up her bra and putting it on, “that after we get back and I take care of Jack, we can do it again, if you want.”

  Her casual crude remark left Caleb speechless, but not for long. “I don’t believe you.”

  “I’m sorry.” She whipped her shirt on, then sat down to put on her socks and boots, all the time refusing to meet his gaze. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I told you this was a bad idea.”

  Caleb didn’t trust himself to speak, for fear he would say something he wouldn’t be able to take back. His best friend, the woman he had just taken as his lover, was lying through her pearly-white teeth. She must be badly shaken to be pulling a stunt like this.

  Tight-lipped, he gathered up his own clothes. “If you’re in a hurry, don’t wait on me. I can walk back.”

  “Don’t be silly. It was my horse that went lame. I’ll walk. It’ll only take about ten minutes.”

  “Oh, yeah, right.” He put on his socks first, then tugged on his jeans while she put on her boots. “Like I’m gonna ride off and leave you afoot.”

  “I don’t know why not.” She stood up and stomped her feet more firmly into her boots. “I would you.”

  “We’ve already covered what a lousy liar you are, more than once lately, so give it a rest, will you?”

  “Jack and I are walking back,” she said. “If you and Blazer want to walk with us, that’s fine.”

  Melanie had been accurate about it taking only ten minutes to walk back to the house, out of sight until they topped the rise. Back at the barn, Caleb tied Blazer’s reins to the corral fence.

  “You want me to saddle you another horse? We’ve still got time to bring the herd up here before dark.”

  Melanie squinted up at the sun to judge the time for herself. It was nearly noon. She shook her head. “I’m hungry. I’ll decide after lunch. Go ahead and turn Blazer out in the corral for now.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Melanie eyed him carefully. Dammit, she’d known if they took their kissing any further they would gum up the works. Yes, ma’am, she mimicked silently. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing.” He untied Blazer’s reins and led him toward the barn to unsaddle him. “Nothing at all. You’re the one calling all the shots.”

  “That’s right,” she said. “I am.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He took his horse into the barn.

  Melanie followed with Jack and they unsaddled their mounts. Caleb rubbed down his horse while Melanie got the liniment from the tack room and spent nearly ten minutes rubbing it into Jack’s fetlock. Then she led him outside where she turned on the hose and ran cold water over the injury for another ten minutes.

  “There, Jack, that will help, I promise. And we’ll do it again in a little while.” She would repeat the process three or four times a day for as long as three days if need be. If he wasn’t recovered by then she would have to talk to the vet about anti-inflammatory drugs.

  Meanwhile, to help things along she went to the house and filled a large Ziploc bag with crushed ice. She took this out to the barn and tied it around Jack’s ankle. He probably wouldn’t leave it in place very long, but every minute it stayed on would help.

  With the ice pack firmly in place, she gave him a rubdown and a handful of sweet feed.

  By the time she and Caleb both finished, they had shared fewer than a dozen words, and each of them only out of necessity. And each one bitten off tersely.

  When they finished, she turned toward the big barn doors. “If you want to eat, come to the house.”

  Caleb would have told her to take her offer of food and shove it, but the cell phone clipped to his belt chose that moment to chirp.

  One of them had just been saved, he thought, by the bell.

  He unclipped the phone and answered. It was Justin.

  “You coming home anytime soon?” Justin demanded. “Work’s piling up around here.”

  “Work’s always piling up,” Caleb said easily. “What’s new since last night when Sloan told me everything was fine?”

  “Cal just called. He’ll be here in an hour.”

  Cal was their cousin from Georgia. “With the mare?”

  “You got it. You coming?”

  Caleb watched Melanie march stiff-backed toward the house. Stomped was more like it. A little more distance between the two of them seemed like a good idea just then. Besides, Cal was bringing in the new mare Sloan had been wanting. Big brother didn’t know it yet, but Caleb and Justin had gone together and bought her for him as a wedding present. They’d hoped to have her home in time to present her to Sloan and Emily at the party last Saturday, but that hadn’t been possible. Now that she was finally coming, Caleb had to be on hand.

  “Yeah,” he told
Justin. “I’ll be there in twenty.”

  He ended the call, reclipped the phone onto his belt and caught up with Melanie in the kitchen.

  “I’ve got to run home for a couple of hours,” he said.

  “Fine. You don’t need to come back. I’m sure Daddy will be home this evening.”

  Caleb ground his teeth together. “Are you deliberately trying to hack me off, or does it just come naturally?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Caleb stared at her and shook his head slowly. “We’re not finished with this.”

  “Oh, I think we are.”

  “Not by a long shot, pal. I’ll be back. Count on it. Meanwhile, do us both a favor and stick close to the house in case you get any more unwanted visitors.”

  She smirked. “Are you kidding? I’m about to get rid of one.”

  “Look.” He jabbed a finger toward her face. “I don’t know what’s eating you, but we’re going to have this out when I get back.”

  He didn’t give her a chance to answer. He grabbed his wallet and keys from the counter, then spun on his heel and strode swiftly outside to his pickup. When he climbed into the seat he tossed his wallet down beside him.

  His wallet. Where he kept his driver’s license, credit card, voter’s registration. And the condom he always carried, just in case.

  Well, hell.

  Chapter Six

  The minute Caleb drove across the cattle guard at the end of the PR drive—and Melanie knew when that minute came because she rushed to the front door and watched him drive away—she went to the kitchen sink to scrub away the stink of horse liniment. By the time she finished, her skin was raw. But the smell of liniment was gone.

  The smell of Caleb, however, was another matter. He was on her skin, on her clothes, in her hair.

  Oh, God, what had she done?

  The tears came from nowhere, shocking her with their intensity. She hated crying, and here she was, for the second time in one day, sobbing her eyes out. Dammit.

  But she couldn’t seem to stop. She wrapped her arms around her middle, for comfort, she supposed, and leaned over the sink, her tears so thick they blocked her vision.