Page 24 of Finding Home

Chapter 9

Aubrey

Iwake up in a cold sweat, gasping for air and feeling like my heart is being scraped by a spiked, metal rake.

Claudia.

She was screaming in pain in my nightmare. Falling down a well. She cried out for me, desperately. Reached for me, her blue eyes wide and full of terror. But I couldn’t help her. On the contrary, I watched in horror as my best friend since fourth grade fell into a deep, dark abyss and, eventually, disappeared from sight.

I reach for Raine next to me, frantically, and whimper when she’s not there. But when my brain orients, I remember Raine is safe at my parents’ house. That Claudia is gone and at peace now, and I’m sitting in a dark bedroom in Caleb’s lake house. With a shudder, I bow my head, rest my forehead against arms on my knees, and sob like a baby.

I was so exhausted when I finally slid into bed in this cute little rustic bedroom, and honestly so excited to finally get to sleep without Raine’s warm body draped all over mine for a night—also, to get to sleep without ministering to Raine after a nightmare—I thought for sure I’d sleepblissfully till morning for the first time since Claudia’s death. But no such luck. Apparently, in the absence of Raine’s nightmares, my brain conjured one of its own to fill the void.

When my tears subside, I check the time on my phone. It’s just past three. Too early to get up for the day, so I get up to pee and get a quick drink of water from the faucet.

In the hallway, I tiptoe past Caleb’s closed bedroom door and head into the small bathroom. After doing my business in there, I creep back out into the dark hallway and immediately bump smack into something hard and totally unexpected: Caleb’s bare torso.

“Gah!” I blurt, as I bounce off his naked chest. “I didn’t see you!”

“I thought you were in your room,” he mutters, stepping backward and raising his large palms in a show of harmlessness.

Shit. I’m wearing nothing but panties and a tank top, due to the heat, and Caleb’s wearing nothing but briefs that make the large package behind them easily identifiable. It’s the first time I’m able to confirm the extent of his tattoos. They’re everywhere. Covering every inch of his body, other than a few small patches on his thighs.

Yum.

That’s my body’s involuntary reaction to the nearly naked, muscled and tattooed man standing mere inches from me. Obviously, my conscious brain doesn’t respect or like this selfish, entitled man-child. Also, I’ve never been attracted to inked bad boys with demons. That was always Claudia’s thing, not mine. But my body in this moment is having a primal, visceral reaction, whether it makes sense or not.

Caleb’s broad chest heaving, he turns sideways to letme pass in the narrow hallway, at which point I can plainly surmise he’s hard as a rock behind his briefs. Blushing as I pass, I wrench my gaze off his bulge, but when my eyes land on the lustful, greedy blaze in his green eyes, I quickly look down at my bare feet and blush.

“Well, goodnight,” I choke out, as I reach my bedroom door.

“Goodnight,” he replies smoothly, no hint of flustered distress in his tone. “Sweet dreams,babysitter.”

Damn. That boy’s got some serious swagger. Clearly, Caleb knows he’s a sight to see. A worldwide sex symbol. I wish that obvious, hard bulge didn’t affect me in the slightest; but it did.A lot.In fact, thanks to that brief encounter, I’m now short of breath and pulsing in my panties.

Inside my bedroom, I lay a hand on my chest and feel the fast drumbeat of my heart. I haven’t had sex since breaking up with Trent almost two years ago, and, suddenly, my body is feeling every minute of that drought.

With a long exhale, I turn on my side in bed and tell myself to calm down. To forget what I saw. But visions of Caleb in that hallway keep slamming into me, unbidden, making it impossible for me to fall asleep again.

Eventually, I give in, reach underneath the covers, and give myself a lovely orgasm. Normally, I’d need my trusty vibrator to reach the finish line. But I didn’t bring it with me, so I don’t have a choice. Although, even if I had it with me, there’s no way I’d use it and risk Caleb overhearing that tell-tale hum.

To my surprise, my fingers accomplish the task, pretty easily, for the first time in a very long time. And shortly after that small victory, I’m finally able to shut down my brain enough to driftoff to sleep.

Something awakens me. A low creak of a sound. I open my eyes to early morning sunlight peeking through my window.There it is again. Did someone take a step across a loose floorboard in the hallway? Was that Caleb . . . or someone else?Is Ralph Beaumont here?

My heart stampeding, I look around, feeling disoriented and panicky, and quickly decide I must have dreamed the sound.Except, no, there it is again, and I’m now wide awake. Shit. That wasn’t a floorboard creaking. That was definitely Caleb from across the hallway. Was he groaning or wincing in pain? Throwing up, maybe?

Fuck, fuck, fuck. I just realized I didn’t check Caleb’s backpack when I did my sweep last night, which means he could have smuggled in drugs or booze, without my knowledge; and now, for all I know, he’s overdosing and choking on his own vomit across the hallway.

In a frenzy, I lurch out of bed and barrel into the hallway, and when I hear the pained groan from Caleb again, I rap on his closed door and call out his name.

“Aubrey,” he chokes out in reply, his strained tone making it clear he’s in some kind of distress. Without hesitation, I swing open Caleb’s door and take two steps inside the room, worried I’m going to find him seizing and frothing at the mouth. But, instead, I get an eyeful of something totally unexpected: Caleb, fully naked on his bed, his extremely large, and very hard, dick in his extremely large hand.

“Aubrey,” Caleb groans out again, his eyes shut tight and his features contorted.

Quickly, I flee the room and carefully shut the door behind me, praying he was too distracted to notice mypresence in his doorway. Back in my room, I stuff in my earbuds, click play on my “favorites” playlist on my phone, and try to drown out the sounds of Caleb’s groans. Unfortunately, however, the second random song that comes up is “Shaynee” by Red Card Riot. Their smash-hit debut single. The song that first introduced Claudia to the band when we were in middle school, which then prompted her to introduce the band to me.

Crap. The sounds of Caleb’s crashing drums on the track makes me think of Caleb’s muscled body. His hard dick in his huge hand. The sound of my name lurching from his tortured, groaning lips.

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