and tossed it back in the bag.
She swallowed her bite. “That’s a loaded question.”
He smiled. “True. I meant tonight. Stay here. With me. Explore my house. Sleep in my bed. Shower in my bathroom. Please.” He wasn’t sure what he would do if she said no. Plan B would be to go back to her aunt’s with her and spend the night there. There was no Plan C. He wouldn’t be able to sleep at all if she wanted to separate from him.
“Are we going to have sex?” she asked, matter-of-factly.
“No.” He drew in a breath. “I won’t do that to either of us.”
“And you think what we did earlier didn’t count as sex?” She dropped her foot to the floor and leaned on her elbows.
He sighed. “Like you said earlier, semantics.”
“Hmm. I’m sort of perplexed by this desire of yours to keep your erection out of me.”
He reached for her hand and wrapped it in his again. “Humor me. I want your body in my bed because it belongs there, and I’ll never be able to rest if I have to do so alone.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
He blew out a long breath. Thank God.
“You think I should call Layla? She might be worried.”
He tipped his head to one side. “Worried? You’re a grown woman.”
“Not one who sneaks off with a strange man and doesn’t return.”
He couldn’t keep from chuckling. “Well, I hope I’m less strange now that you’ve spent the day with me. And trust me, if Layla grows concerned, Hunter will soothe her.”
She nodded. “You’re right.”
Caleb stood and reached out a hand. The moment she set her palm in his, their connection took over once again.
“That’s so weird,” she whispered. “I don’t think I could ever get used to the strange zing I get when you touch me. It’s like I stop being just me and become part of something else.”
He pulled her into his embrace. He would never get used to it either, but he hoped to God she wouldn’t take it away from him. “It’s normal.”
She lifted a brow. “There’s nothing normal about anything that has happened to me in the last thirty hours.” She flinched. “In fact, that sounds like such an incredibly short amount of time now that I say it out loud. It seems like I’ve known you for far longer. You’ve already made me come several times, and you’ve seen me naked.” She tucked her top lip between her lips and bit into it adorably, her face flushing as if it embarrassed her to have said that out loud.
He cupped her face, his fingers threading in her hair at the sides of her head. “For shifters, this timeframe is perfectly normal. Well, that’s not true. If we both had a full understanding of how Fate worked, we would have had sex about a dozen times by now.” Hopefully that wouldn’t freak her out.
She smirked. “If I recall, even though I’m not familiar with your weird luring abilities, I’ve made it clear on more than one occasion today that I would not hesitate to have sex with you. I’m not the one putting up walls.”
He groaned. “Don’t remind me.” Damn, she was far more ready to seal their relationship than he’d expected by the end of this day. But there were still some obstacles. For one, he needed a commitment from her. That was non-negotiable. For two, he needed to fill in a few holes in her understanding. To claim her body before both of those things occurred would be unfair and possibly detrimental.
Elena deserved to know everything. And he would tell her. Tomorrow. Not tonight. Today had been a long day. Especially for her. She needed sleep, and he was greedy enough to want to hold her body in his bed all night. What if this was the only night he ever got to spend with her?
He shook the distressful thought from his mind as he slid his hands down to hers and led her from the room, ignoring her reminder that her human brain was fully on board with having sex with him. “Come on. I’ll show you around.”
He led her through his living room, moving slow enough that she could soak in his space.
“Nice,” she murmured as she let her gaze wander around the room. He was a bachelor, and that was super obvious to him as he followed her line of sight. Brown leather couch and matching ottoman. Standard entertainment center. Book shelves flanking the television. It all looked kind