Wicked Dreams (Fallen Royals, #1)(59)
My eyes snap open, focusing on Caleb.
His eyebrows are creased.
I try to remember what I was dreaming about. It seems impossible that I fell asleep, but the clock tells me an hour has passed.
“You were crying for your mom,” he murmurs.
The scene zooms back to the forefront of my mind.
I lunge up and throw my arms around him, bursting into tears.
“I-I-I can’t remember what I did to make her hate me,” I hiccup. “Why did she leave me?”
I know the answer. She loved drugs more than her daughter. She was declared unfit to parent—that’s what Angela told me. I don’t remember much of the hearing with the judge, except that Mom never showed.
Dad was already gone at that point.
There was no one left to take care of me… so into the foster system I went.
Caleb rubs my back. “It’s okay.”
It isn’t. It won’t be until I find the answers I need.
I don’t know which questions to ask, though. I don’t know where to begin to look for Amberly Wolfe.
“Will you help me?” I sniff. “You…” To say he was there would be a lie. After Dad was arrested, I didn’t see Caleb for seven years. He wouldn’t know where my mother is, and he sure as hell wouldn’t care.
“No.”
His answer stings, but I get it.
I ask, “What are you doing here?”
“I told you I’d see you tonight.”
I squint at him through my unshed tears. “Did you get them the reservation?”
He smiles. “I might’ve been planning it for us, but you’re still grounded. So… yeah, I offered it up to get them out of the house.”
“Devious,” I mutter. “And arrogant.”
“And ruthless,” he adds, kissing my cheek.
“And wicked.” I turn my head slightly, catching his lips on mine.
“What are you going to do about it?” he asks.
“I’ll beg you to make me forget about it.” I kiss him again, harder.
Losing my virginity to Caleb is confusing. My body likes him—almost too much, I think—and I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t know what to make of him. They say that you forge connections when you lose that piece of yourself.
I didn’t believe it. I still don’t, to a certain extent. Caleb and I have been connected by an invisible string forever. The sex just made it better. Or worse. Any chance of escaping him has gone out the window, because now I don’t want to run.
He said only he was allowed to be cruel to me.
The sick part is, I’m looking forward to it.
His fingers on the waistband of my shorts brings me back to the present. I raise my hips for him to tug the fabric down.
I unbutton his pants, freeing his erection. He pauses undressing me only long enough to toss a condom on my stomach. I tear it open and roll it on him carefully, half remembering past health class lessons. He groans into my neck.
My shirt is gone, and he stares down at me for a second before dropping more weight on me. I feel him at my entrance as he kisses my collarbone.
“This is going to hurt,” he warns me. He rocks his hips forward, pushing into me.
I didn’t realize how sore I was from Monday until right this instant.
I tense, and he freezes.
“Relax, Margo.” His tongue flicks out against the shell of my ear.
I loosen my muscles, one at a time, and he slides in deeper. I lift my hips to meet his thrusts, marveling at the feel of him hitting a deep spot inside me. I’m more sensitive than I could’ve imagined.
He nips my earlobe, following it with his tongue. Who knew ears could be so… hot?
I dig my nails into his back, hugging him closer.
This feels different.
And then the front door opens. It’s easy to hear—the hinges squeal.
We both freeze. “Um, Caleb? Did you invite—”
“Margo, we’re home!” Lenora calls. “Want to watch a movie?”
Her footsteps pound on the stairs.
“Caleb,” I whisper. “You need to move.”
He pulls out of me, grimacing, and hops up. “Where?”
“Um…”
“Margo?” Lenora calls. “You awake?”
“Closet!” I jump up, grabbing my shorts and yanking them back into place. I manage to get my shirt on and I push him toward my walk-in at the same time, closing the door behind him just as Lenora cracks my door open.
“Oh, you’re awake!”
I spin toward her. “Sorry, Lenora! I called back but I don’t think I was loud enough.”
She smiles.
I lean against my closet door, crossing my arms. “You’re home early.”
“Well, the restaurant was lovely. Service was a little too fast.” She shrugs. “We’re naturally homebodies, Robert and I. Decided we could go out to see a movie… or come home and snuggle on the couch.”
I force a laugh. Sweat is trickling down my spine—and I don’t think it’s from the sex that she just interrupted. “Well, makes sense.”
She grins. “I’m going to change. Come down and join us if you’d like. Robert is making popcorn!”
“Sounds good.”