Enemies with Benefits

Chapter Thirty-Eight

- Rachel -

"What are we doing here?" I asked, curious as I stared up at the neon sign at Ernie's—the same bar I'd started shit with David in my own stupidity a meek few months prior.

"I have to run in and grab something from Ryan. Want to come in for a drink?" Caleb offered, but the shake in his voice had me worried a bit.

I was afraid his being here held bad memories now because of the shit I'd pulled. When he reached for his door and I saw his hand trembling even more so, I reached over and jerked him back to spin him for a kiss.

Clearly surprised, Caleb still kissed me back with an eagerness I hadn't been expecting from his visibly shaken state. But his hand curved around the back of my neck and deepened the kiss. And I still needed more.

I'd missed him. Fuck, I'd missed him. And I was done missing time and moments with him.

I pulled back with hateful reluctance. "Just one, but you have to hurry up. I want to go home."

Caleb's answering chuckle reverberated off my heated skin. "Don't tell me you've already forgotten what I said about the attitude, Ms. Hall."

"Whatever," I grumbled.

Pushing my door open, I got out and headed to his side. Caleb got out with an amused grin and a shake of his head. Always in charge, he seemed to be. So I decided to knock him down a peg.

"Hey, Caleb?" I asked and waited for him to look at me. "Even when you annoy me, even when you've got that domineering attitude, and even more now than ever before that we're really doing this the right way," I leaned across his door, kissing him softly and smiling innocently at his curious expression, "I love you. I love you so fucking much, and I just really needed to tell you that."

And then I turned and skipped away, proud of myself for the dumbfounded, awestruck face I left him with.

But as quickly as I'd turned away, my feet were lifted off the ground and I was hoisted up with my back to his chest. I squealed, clutching onto the large arm he'd wrapped around my torso.

I was spinning, and no longer did I care to try to make out the whizzing scene before me. Laughing, I let go. Free. Happy.

Loved.

He hadn't even said it back, yet I'd known it to be true. And not having that nagging voice in the back of my head, not second guessing everything I'd said or he hadn't, I felt tears of relief and utter joy plague my eyes. And then I let them reign free, too.

Caleb set me back on my feet and twisted me around to face him. Before I even saw his face, before I read his eyes, his lips were on mine again. But this kiss wasn't hungry. It wasn't demanding or seductive.

It was like me. It was free; it was love.

He rested his forehead against mine, breathing as though he'd just run a marathon.

"You really just said that to me and thought I'd let you run away?"

I simply shrugged, as though my own breaths weren't wreaking havoc on my lungs or depriving my brain of oxygen. "You were being sassy. I tried to beat you at your own game."

He took steps forward, effectively backing me up against the bricks of the building. "This is where you decided to do that?"

I shrugged again, desperate to not show how affected I still was so easily by him. Only him.

His inhales grew more fierce, his eyes dragging between mine and my lips, then back again.

"Fuck," he whispered, scrubbing a hand down his face. "We're leaving. We're going home, because I don't plan on letting every fucking person in this godforsaken city see how many ways I want to tell you how I feel."