And then he groaned, his eyes closing, and she felt him pound into her as the orgasm hit him and he released, more warmth filling her as he came. She knew she wouldn’t, not this time; despite her reassurances that he wasn’t hurting her, she was a little sore. Just enough. But that didn’t matter, since he’d already made her come twice before now, and she was sure he would again.
He went still then, and ever so gently pulled out of her so he could ease himself onto his side. Dark eyes scanned her face, hesitant, somewhat worried. “Was that — was that okay?”
Caitlin leaned over and kissed him, tasted herself on his lips, and a new spasm of desire went through her, even though she knew she needed to give herself some time to recover before they tried this again. “Way more than okay,” she said. “It was perfect.”
Some of the tension seemed to leave his body then, and he smiled at her. “I’m glad. And — I’m glad I could be your first.”
Truthfully, she couldn’t imagine having done this with anyone else. In fact, the very thought made a shiver go through her. “I’m glad, too.” She paused, then said, “Although I think I’d better go get myself cleaned up.”
He nodded, and she gave him another quick kiss before getting out of bed and going to the bathroom, where she washed up as best she could. That did feel a little better. Odd that when she gazed at herself in the mirror, she didn’t think she looked all that different. Her hair was mussed and her eyes shining, but otherwise, she seemed to be the same old Caitlin.
Only she knew she wasn’t.
She went back out to the main part of the hotel room and slipped under the covers next to Alex. It felt bold to be sleeping next to him like this, wearing only her panties. But she was tired now and didn’t feel like rooting through her suitcase to find the tank top she slept in. Besides, this was better, in case they woke up in the night and wanted to make love once more.
Without hesitating, he reached over and pulled her against him, kissing her, but gently, as if he knew she needed to rest. Really, they both did — who knew what they’d be facing the next day when they went to meet with Simón Santiago?
“Comfortable?” Alex asked, and she nodded.
“Very.” She was, too; the bed seemed to cup every part of her that wasn’t nestled against Alex, and she thought she’d never felt so safe, so protected, so warm.
But as she drifted off to sleep, she couldn’t help wondering if she was a terrible person for feeling so happy when her friends were anything but safe or protected.
15
Waking up next to Caitlin like that — well, it was nothing short of miraculous. All right, so she’d slept in his bed that one night after the first horrible vision she’d suffered, but this morning was about as different from that one as he could have imagined. For one thing, when he shifted and opened his eyes, squinting at the clock, she had snuggled closer to him, her bare breasts pressing into his chest. That had been enough to distract him from realizing it was already past eight o’clock and that they really should get moving.
They got moving, all right…into one another, her hands on him, urgent, wrapping around his shaft and stroking him, his fingers slipping into her, feeling how ready she was for him. He’d pulled off her panties so quickly, he was surprised he hadn’t torn them right off her body. Then they were locked together once again, a quick, urgent joining that was very unlike the gentle but intense lovemaking they’d shared the night before. Afterward, it seemed the most sensible thing to do was take a shower together to save time, although that might have been a slight miscalculation, considering the way they ended up clinging to one another yet again, her riding him while he sat on the floor of the bathtub and the hot water sluiced down over the two of them.
Eventually, though, they got out of the shower and finished the rest of their morning prep. As Caitlin was giving her hair one last flick with the brush, she asked, “Are we checking out before we leave?” Now that they were fully dressed and looking more or less like civilized human beings, Alex could tell she was a little diffident, not quite sure of how they should be interacting.
Well, that first “morning after” was always a little awkward, but he’d decided earlier that the best thing to do was act casual and hope she wouldn’t misinterpret his off-hand manner to mean that last night hadn’t been a big deal. It had been a huge deal…for him, anyway, and while he didn’t claim to be an expert on women, he thought it had been incredibly important to Caitlin, too.
As far as the room went, he’d also been wondering what to do about that. “I’m not sure,” he replied. “If we get the information we need out of Simón, then yeah, there isn’t much point coming back here, since we’ll need to get on the road back to Tucson as soon as possible. But if he’s not there, or he won’t talk to us, or whatever, it seems as if it would be kind of stupid to give up on the room and have to go someplace else if we end up being stuck in Pasadena for another day.”