Page 61 of The Billionaire's Runaway Bride

I turn, kicking the door shut. She gapes at me as I reach back to lock it too. “You can.”

“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. I’ve known for years now where my place is.”

I grab her upper arms and haul her in close. “No!”

“He’ll never stop. My parents won’t change their minds. I’m supposed to stand with Jeremy, and I was stupid to think my life could be different.”

“But it is different.”

She firms her lips and shakes her head. The tears welling in her eyes break my heart.

“You’re here. With me.”

“For now.”

“And—” I swallow hard. I won’t admit she has a point there. I’m supposed to be lying low and hiding out here while the scandals fade to old news. Not falling in love. Not dreaming about staying and making a life with her in this area.

“It was just a fling.”

“Does it feel like a fling to you?” I shout.

“What else could it be?” she sasses back just as passionately.

I show her. I hug her to my chest that’s heaving with not enough breaths. I deprive myself of more air as I slam my lips to hers. She parts them, greedily easing her tongue into my mouth as we fight to steal a heated taste of each other.

“Caleb…” She pants at me when we part for air. The resignation in her voice stings, but I cling to the silver lining that she doesn’t push me away. If anything, she relents and leans into me, seeking my support.

“What I feel for you is much more than a shallow attraction.” I cup her face, stroking the softness of her high cheekbones.

Again, I kiss her until she whimpers and grips the front of my shirt. “I want you to the point it drives me mad.”

She furrows her brow, as though she’s angry, but it’s only frustration that I’m pausing to speak. This time, she loops her arm around my neck and pulls me close for a longer, wetter kiss that has me hard.

“This is not a fling, Lauren. I want you, all of you, and I’ll be damned if you think what we have isn’t worth fighting for.”

With a desperate sound, she nods and closes the distance again, reaching up on her tiptoes to seal her needy lips to mine. She lifts up, clinging to my neck. I cup her ass cheeks in my hands and pick her up. Spinning, I bring her to her bed, determined to prove to her again, how much we belong together.

No matter what anyone else in the world wants to claim.

Chapter 24

Lauren

I can no longer be alone with Caleb and not be carried away with this rabid need to have him. It feels like so long since I had his rough hands on me, gripping, stroking, and caressing me. He’s so strong with his touch, but gentle and tender at the same time. It’s been hours since I last felt his soft lips brushing over mine and sucking on my skin. His taste remains as addicting and potent as it was the first time he smashed his mouth to mine.

And grinding against his hard-on revs me up, increasing this insatiable hunger I have for him. Desire isn’t a latent force. It’s always burning, sparked within seconds of his powerful kisses.

After the fear of seeing Jeremy in this new life I’ve tried to shape for myself, I worried with a gut-wrenching terror that all those things that drive me wild about Caleb would soon just be memories. Things of the past as I prepare to run again, this time, back to the man who will never let me go.

Or should I stay?

I want to think it’s my choice to stay or go, but I’m not so easily duped. Two freeing weeks of being with Caleb haven’t erased twenty-five years of knowing my regretful place at home.

In his arms and against his rock-hard body, though, I dare to hope for the impossible.

If I stay, can Caleb weather the storm of Jeremy barging into my life?

If I choose Caleb, will he tire of my parents’ influence?

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