Caleb by Sarah McCarty Page A

together like this. Which was crazy. It had
to be. She couldn’t have slept through the first time she’d had sex in the last
two years.
    Was
she dreaming? A dream would explain everything. The blankness in her memory,
the surreal feel to the encounter, that overwhelming sense that something
important hovered just out of her conscious reach. Those were all classic
symptoms of a dream state. She dug her nails into Caleb’s skin. He felt darned
real for a figment of her imagination, all tough muscle stretched over hard
bone. And warm. Blessedly warm.
    Vampire. The warning whispered in her head. Images of fangs
and blood sprinted across her mind in an indistinct blur, followed quickly by a
flash of pain and betrayal. Her breath caught as she chased the illusion. Or
reality. She couldn’t tell.
    The
heavy darkness shifted as Caleb pulled her completely beneath him, the heat
from his body settling over her like an electric blanket, alerting her to the
fact that she was getting cold. In the dark. Naked. With a man she was in lust
with but didn’t really know. Allie braced her hands against his chest, taking
in his warmth even as she attempted to hold him at bay. This was weird. Too
weird. Figment of her imagination weird. “Are you real?”
    “Don’t
I feel real?”
    Lord
help her, even her figments were contrary. She slapped at the fingers stroking
her arm. “If I could tell that, I wouldn’t be asking.”
    “I’m
as real as you can take.”
    “Uh-huh.”
Like that told her anything. Allie wished she could see Caleb’s face, but no
matter how hard she squinted, she met that wall of darkness and the absolute
certainty that she must be dreaming. Vampires didn’t exist. And even if they
did, they came with huge honking fangs, decaying flesh, and an accent that
sounded more like Hungary in winter than Texas in the heat of summer. She felt
with her leg over the side of the bed. Her toe didn’t meet the pile of her
clothes that she searched for. It didn’t even meet the floor. She scooted over
a little more, stretching farther.
    “You’re
gonna fall off the bed.”
    “No
I’m not.” Dream or not, instinct said this was a good time to be making an
exit.
    Failing
to touch the floor with her foot, she wiggled some more and let gravity aid her
cause. Her curse followed in her wake as she dropped. Except the floor wasn’t
where she thought it should be. It was a good bit lower and landing on it hurt
her butt almost as much as it hurt her insides.
    “Shit!”
    There
was a rustle and a disturbance in the air around her. Caleb settled beside her
with what could only be described as a long-suffering sigh.
    “You
don’t listen well, do you?”
    “I
listen fine when people say something I want to hear.”
    She
felt around the floor. There had to be clothes somewhere. Her hand caught on
the trailing end of the sheet. She grabbed it and yanked it toward her. “You
just haven’t been saying what I want to hear.”
    The
sheet only came so far. Had he nailed the thing to the bed? She used the
resistance to pull herself more vertical. She got halfway there before blinding
pain in her head dropped her back to the floor. Strong arms came around her. It
was disgusting, the ease with which Caleb pulled her against him. Almost as
disgusting as her natural relaxation into the hard planes of his chest. She was
an independent woman, for heaven’s sake! “As grateful as I am for your sparing
my butt, I really need you to let me go.”
    “If I
let you go, you’ll fall.”
    She
tightened her grip on the sheet. “Let’s just give it a spin and see how I do.”
    From
the little dots streaking behind her eyes, she didn’t think she was going to do
that well, but she had to try. Her gut said so. Caleb muttered something under
his breath. She was reasonably sure it was another curse. Allie scooted to the
side. His hand dropped, brushing her hip. She gave the sheet a big yank.
    The
damn thing gave as if it hadn’t stood solid as a