AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She grabbed for his shoulders as he straightened up and put on a condom. She wanted to see his face in the moonlight when he thrust inside her—to see if the reality was even better than her most lurid fantasies.
He leaned in and gently kissed her. “You want me?”
“Oh, yes please,” she said shakily. “Very much.”
His rare smile was a thing of beauty as he carefully pressed forward. She tried not to gasp at the size of him and tilted her hips to accept him even more deeply. He took his time, rocking back and forth until he was fully seated inside her.
At some point, Lucy forgot to look into his eyes because she was far too involved in the physical act of making love. If it was a dream—and her only chance of ever getting this close to Caleb—she’d give it everything she had. She held him in her arms as he shuddered through his climax and eased himself down to lie beside her, his chest still heaving.
“That was . . . awesome.”
Lucy smiled and cuddled up against his side. “Exactly.”
He sighed, put his arm around her, and instantly fell asleep. She was okay with that because it meant they didn’t need to have any awkward conversations about what had just happened between them. Knowing Caleb, any communication might be short, to the point, and not necessarily in her favor.
Lucy slowly opened her eyes. She couldn’t bear to wake up and see the dawning realization on his face that he’d had sex with his best friend’s little sister. What if he started to apologize? She waited a few moments to make sure he was truly asleep and then slipped out of the bed. She needed some space to make sure she was ready to deal with any reaction he might have in the cold light of day.
Chapter Three
Caleb woke up slowly and rolled onto his side expecting to see Lucy stretched out beside him. But the bed was empty and the sheets on her side were cold. Caleb frowned and sat up, his gaze moving to the window, where cracks of light showed through the drapes. He had no idea what time it was because the electricity was still off, and he’d left his cell phone in the kitchen.
Where had she gone? He’d expected her to stay with him, although he guessed he hadn’t put that thought into words before he’d fallen asleep. Maybe she’d assumed he wouldn’t want her to hang around? Caleb groaned and flopped back onto the pillows. Maybe she was regretting what had happened and gone AWOL? Or, even worse, something bad had happened in the night while he was snoring away, and he’d completely missed it.
He got up, ran into the bathroom, and stepped into the shower before he realized the water was only lukewarm. He ran out almost as fast as he’d gone in and toweled himself dry before dressing in his warmest clothes. The kitchen was warm because the old gas range was humming away. There was no power and no noise from the generator, which was worrying.
“Lucy?” He called her name, but she didn’t appear. The only creature around was the big old cat who barely bothered to raise his head before falling back to sleep again. Caleb put on his outdoor gear and opened the back door, almost recoiling from the ferocity of the gusting wind and the slap of ice-cold air. He turned his collar up and stomped through the snow to the rear of the property where the old outhouse held the mechanical machinery that ran the B&B.
He opened the door to find Lucy crouched in front of the generator as she read something off her cell phone.
“Hey,” he said. She jumped about a foot in the air as he kneeled beside her. “What are you trying to do?”
She pointed at the small yellow unit in front of her. “This is the backup for the backup generator. It’s powerful enough to run the freezers, a few lights, and my chargers. I think it’s out of gas. I can’t get it to work.”
Caleb glanced around the shed. “Most people keep a five-gallon tank of fuel on hand in case that happens.” He stood up. “I’ll take a look around.”
She stayed where she was and ran through a list of safety checks she’d obviously gotten from the internet or her handyman.
“I found the tank.” He held it up and shook it. “It’s empty.”
“Dammit!” Lucy bit her lip.
“We can get gas,” Caleb reminded her.
“From where, exactly? Everything is shut down. If the whole town’s power is out, the pumps at the gas station won’t be working either.”
“True.” Caleb frowned.
“Then we’re screwed. And when I say we, I mean me. If you call your uncle Chip, I’m sure he’ll come and get you.”
Chip was the foreman out at the ranch and was considered family. Caleb had known him all his life. He was pretty sure Lucy was right and that Chip would come and pick him up, no questions asked. He glanced over at her bowed head and made a few quick decisions.
“I know where I can get the gas.”
She still wouldn’t look at him.
“From my truck. I’ll siphon it out.” He pointed at the far wall. “There’s a tube there that would work, and I can use the empty tank.”
He didn’t wait to see if Lucy agreed with him. He grabbed the tank and the tubing and took off down the road. It was harder to find his truck than he’d anticipated, as it had disappeared under an anonymous bank of snow. After investigating all the possible lumps and bumps, he managed to get to the fuel tank and start the process of decanting the gasoline.
