"Alex didn't know that. Why didn't you say anything to her?"
"Because they couldn't see that and would wonder how I could," Cale pointed out dryly.
"Ah." Bricker nodded in understanding. "It was that dark?"
Cale nodded. "Whoever attacked her probably did it so she wouldn't recognize him if she got a look."
"Which suggests Pierre/Peter is our guy," Bricker said grimly, his gaze on Cale's meal. "I'll go have a meeting of minds with him. I think I'll hit a fast-food joint on the way. The smell of that has made me hungry."
"Thanks for bringing the blood ... and for the help with heating up dinner," Cale said, standing up to walkhim out when Bricker picked up the cooler and headed for the door.
"No problem. Give me a shout if you need anything else. If I can't get away, I can always have one of the other guys swing by."
"Thanks," Cale repeated as the younger immortal opened the front door.
Bricker nodded and paused to glance back. "Good luck with dreaming. Hopefully her headache is gone now and you'll be able to experience the shared-dreams business."
"I'm not counting on it. She took a pretty hard knock. Even if she doesn't have a headache, she might not be up to something like that."
"You weren't counting on her being your life mate either," Bricker pointed out with a grin as he continued out the door. "Good night."
"Good night." Cale watched him walk to an SUV parked in the driveway, get in, and start the engine. He closed the front door and locked it as the SUV began to back out of the drive.
Cale returned to his meal then, savoring every bite of the tasty dish. Once it was finished, he dumped all the meals he'd ruined with his microwaving efforts and cleaned the dishes before heading back up to check on Alex again. Finding her sleeping peacefully, he went downstairs to the living room, and then just stood there for a minute, unsure what to do. It had taken them a lot of time at the hospital, and it was now after three. Cale had been keeping normal hours and should have been tired, but felt wide-awake.
His gaze landed on the television, and he shrugged and grabbed the remote off the coffee table, then settled on the couch and turned on the TV. Cale didn't have a television at home, but he'd taken Bricker's advice and watched some TV at the hotel before dropping off to sleep and knew how to work the remote, which was a bonus. He flicked through the channels until he found something that looked interesting, and then settled in to watch.
Alex woke up thirsty. Shifting sleepily, she sat up and peered around the room in the dim light creeping from the partially closed door of the bathroom. Cale had left the light on and the door slightly open in case she woke in the night, and she now appreciated his thoughtfulness, as she slid from the bed. She considered donning her robe for this trek down to the kitchen in search of water, but then decided her overlarge flannels were more than decent.
A light was on in the living room as she came down the stairs. Alex glanced toward it curiously but headed into the kitchen for the water. After gulping down two glasses, she ran herself a third, and then headed toward the living room, curious to see what Cale was doing.
She found him sleeping on the sofa seated upright, his chin on his chest. Alex grimaced at the thought of the crick he was sure to have in his neck after sleeping like that and moved closer to the couch. She considered waking him, but he looked so peaceful, so she took one of the decorative pillows from the end of the couch, and then moved in front of him. After a hesitation, shestepped between his legs, moving forward until her knees pressed against the couch. She then leaned forward to set the pillow on the sofa back behind him and tried to ease his head to rest on it.
Alex was just about to straighten and head up to her room when his eyes suddenly opened. She froze at once as if caught doing something she shouldn't, and then smiled wryly at her own reaction, and explained, "I was afraid you'd get a crick in your neck from sleeping like tha-"
Her explanation died on a small gasp of surprise as he suddenly reached up and caught her by the back of her head. Before she could do more than blink, he'd tugged her head down over his and pressed his lips to hers. It was so unexpected, Alex didn't react as she should have and pull away. By the time she recalled that she was trying to avoid getting involved with him and that she shouldn't allow this, it was too late. His tongue had slid between her slightly parted lips and into her mouth, stirring up an immediate maelstrom of responses within her. Rather than push him away, Alex found herself opening her mouth wider for him and bracing her hands on the back of the couch on either side of his head.
Cale immediately deepened the kiss, his hands coming up to run along her arms. A shiver of desire slid through her at the simple caress, and then she moaned as his hands slid to clasp her br**sts through the flannel of her pajama top. Alex leaned into the caress, giving him some of her weight as he kissed her most thoroughly. When he began to urge her upright,she went with some confusion, and then glanced down with surprise as she felt a cool breeze brush across her chest. Her eyes widened when she saw that the buttons of her flannel top were now undone, leaving it gaping open, her br**sts on display.
She swallowed when Cale sat forward on the couch and reached to caress the revealed bounty. Her gaze slid to his face, and she watched his expression through drooping eyelids as he squeezed and kneaded the round orbs. When he then caught her ni**les between thumbs and fingers and tweaked them gently, she moaned and covered his hands with her own, her eyes closing briefly as pleasure rolled through her.
"Open your eyes," he whispered, and Alex forced them open in time to see him shift forward to the edge of the couch and close his mouth over one now-hard nipple. She watched with fascination as he alternately suckled, nipped, and flicked the hard tip with his tongue even as he continued to caress her other breast with one hand. Her body was humming with sensation, and she was hardly aware of his other hand's moving until it slid between her legs, rubbing the cloth against her there.
Alex gasped then, and reached for his shoulders, to help her stay upright as he caressed her, sending wave after wave of pleasure sliding through her. She couldn't bear the onslaught for long, however, and soon clasped the hair at the back of his head and pulled it away from her breast so that she could bend to kiss him again. He answered the silent request, mouth rising to hers and tongue sweeping out to plunge into hers, but he continued to move his hand between her legs, the action faster now and more insistent.
Alex groaned into his mouth, and then began to suck on his tongue, her fingers scraping across his scalp with demand. She groaned again, this time in protest, when his hand slid from between her legs. But it was back quickly, slipping between the waistband of her pajamas and her hot skin to touch her again, this time without the cloth between them. The explosion of need within her then was so all-consuming, she was hardly aware of his tugging her pajama bottoms down to pool around her ankles. She only became aware of losing them when he stopped caressing her again to catch her by the waist, lift her out of them, and then set her down to straddle his lap.
The rough material of his jeans brushed against her bare thighs as Alex settled on him, and then he pushed the top off of her shoulders so it could join the bottoms on the floor. Cale broke their kiss and leaned back slightly to peer at her through sleepy eyes, and Alex found herself staring at them with fascination. They seemed more silver than gray now, the silver molten and growing in his eyes as his hand slid between her legs once more. She bit her lip and dug her nails into his shoulders as his fingers danced lightly along her flesh, then Alex moaned and tipped her head back, eyes closing as his fingers dipped in to find the core of her.
"Look at me," he ordered quietly, and she forced herself to lift her head. His eyes appeared almost to be on fire now, and she stared into them as he worked her flesh, her breath coming in small pants that grew moreshallow as her excitement mounted. When he slid one finger into her while still caressing her, she couldn't help it, Alex's eyes squeezed closed, her mouth opening on a gasped "Oh" that turned into a moan as it withdrew, only to plunge back in again.
Alex was sure an orgasm was about to rip through her when he suddenly stopped. Opening her eyes, she blinked down at him with confusion, and then gasped in surprise when he caught her at the waist again and lifted her off him. She turned to peer at him, and then saw that he'd stood to remove his own clothes. She rose at once to help, but got distracted by his chest as he lifted his shirt off over his head. Alex couldn't resist running her hands over the wide expanse, but then let them drop to the button and zipper of his jeans, undoing each in quick time.
Despite being tight, his jeans fell away like butter sliding off a roasting turkey, and his erection spilled out, swollen and wanting. Alex instinctively reached for it, but Cale caught her and turned her away from him so her back was to his chest. He then wrapped his arms around her from behind, his mouth pressing to the side of her neck as one of his hands began to caress her br**sts and the other slid between her legs again. This time he cupped her, using the hold to press her back against his erection so that her bottom rubbed against him as he then continued his earlier caresses.
"Cale, please," Alex moaned, pushing back into him almost roughly. She was positive she couldn't take much more of this and wanted to feel him inside her, wanted him filling her and driving her to the apex theywere headed for. Much to her relief, he heeded her plea. But he didn't draw her down to straddle him on the couch again as she'd expected. Instead, he urged her to kneel on the couch and lean forward so that she could brace herself on the back of it.
Alex cried out as he thrust into her, her nails digging desperately into the back of the couch as her legs trembled. Cale paused then and pressed a kiss to the side of her neck, then withdrew slightly and pressed back into her again. She felt his teeth scrape across the tender flesh of her throat, and Alex turned her head to kiss him with all the passion he was stirring in her; but that made him stop, so she bit down into the back of her couch as he began to pound into her in earnest. When he reached around with his hand to caress her again, she couldn't bear it anymore and cried out as her pleasure exploded around him.