Page 122 of Always Red (Chasing Red 2)

“What the hell!” I fumed.

I fully expected him to grab me again, but when I sat up, he wasn’t anywhere near me. I watched, shocked, as he strode to the door.

Was he going to leave me here?

Livid, I scrambled off the bed.

“Who do you think you are!” I screamed. “Get back here!”

I caught him before he reached the door, snarling as I grabbed his jacket and yanked.

He turned around so fast that my breath caught, and I took a step back.

His face was beautiful even in anger, half in shadow. The unmistakable fury in his eyes reminded me of a wild panther.

His big hands clamped around my arms and jerked me to him so our faces were only inches apart. I could feel and smell his hot, minty breath, and his intense green eyes bored into mine.

“I’m trying so damn hard right now. Don’t test me,” he whispered.

Like a warning.

A threat.

A promise.

I felt my eye twitch.

I slammed his back against the wall and heard his surprised grunt at the impact. My eyes roamed his face, and I saw the hurt and naked vulnerability in his eyes.

I couldn’t believe this was all about Damon. Did Caleb really think I’d cheated on him? It hurt that after everything we’d gone through, he would think this of me.

He was breathing hard, his cheeks flushed. The beauty in his face and the strength in his body that he controlled so thoughtfully always affected me, but it was the way he let me see what no one else saw, the way he exposed his weakness and his real emotions to me that pulled at my heartstrings.

But since he’d seen me with Damon at the gazebo, he’d hidden himself from me, only allowing his anger to show. Until now. His green eyes had always been expressive, and they were looking at me with pain and sadness.

I was furious with him, taken aback by his whiplash anger and the uncharacteristic carelessness of his actions. But as I looked at him now, my anger subsided. We had been apart for only a couple of days but it felt like a long time. I had missed him, and after what happened today at the shop, the threat to life that suddenly shocked my system, it made me realize we were only on borrowed time. Caleb could be taken from me any moment.

Still, it hurt. I needed to know why he was acting this way. I knew he was hurting too, and I felt helpless and frustrated that we were both too stubborn and proud and angry to stop fighting.

“What’s wrong, Caleb?”

He remained silent, gritting his teeth. Suddenly, his eyes blazed with heat and accusation again, wiping away all vulnerability. He had closed up, and he wouldn’t allow me in. All the understanding and sympathy I felt a few seconds ago left me, and I knew there was no way my anger would subside now. It had to spill out.

He loosened his tie, narrowing his eyes at me. The muscles in his arms strained against his dinner jacket. His jaw was hard, which made him appear more masculine, more alluring. It made me more furious that I still wanted him even now.

Lust and anger sang in my blood as I grabbed his jacket and pulled it off him, tossing it carelessly to the floor. I moved in to him, grabbing the back of his neck and pulling him down for a punishing kiss.

It was like being swallowed by a tornado. If his hunger didn’t match mine, it would have scared me in its intensity.

My breath caught in my throat as he spun me around and shoved me against the wall. My palms slapped against it as he pressed his solid body against my back. I felt his hardness pushing against me.

Without warning, he gathered my hair in his fist, coiling it around his hand like a rope as he pulled it to the side.

“You drive me fucking crazy,” he murmured dangerously in my ear.

His lips hovered near my mouth, a silent demand for a kiss thickening the air.

He shut his eyes for a moment, almost as if he was in pain. When he opened them, they were filled with an impatient hunger.

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