chapter 2: "Get in"

/Claire/

Had Maddie drunkenly sent me to her brother's room?

I leaned closer, pressing my ear against the door to hear better, and I heard another low growl coming from inside.

My eyes widened as I pulled away from the door, staring at it as if it had suddenly grown teeth.

I should have walked away right then, but curiosity got the better of me, and before I could talk myself out of it, I pushed the door open just enough to peek inside.

And, holy shit, I wished I hadn't.

Caleb was sitting inside the room, shirtless, with his eyes fixed on a picture of me while his right hand moved beneath his tented trousers. He was so lost in what he was doing that he didn't even notice the door opening, and for a few seconds, I could only stand there, staring at him in complete shock.

What the hell was I looking at?

That was my picture. The one Maddie had told me she'd enlarged because she wanted a picture of me in her room.

My mouth fell open, but no sound came out at first, and I could feel my face growing hot as my eyes moved from the picture to his bare chest and then to the obvious bulge in his trousers.

Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined walking in on something like this.

Then I gasped.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was enough to pull Caleb out of whatever fantasy he'd been lost in, and he turned his head towards the door, his eyes meeting mine.

For a moment, neither of us said anything.

I couldn't move, couldn't even pretend I hadn't seen what I'd just seen.

But the worst part wasn't even what he'd been doing; it was the fact that he didn't look embarrassed at all, and the irritation that settled on his face made me feel as though I was the one who'd done something wrong.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his brows drawing together as he looked at me.

I blinked, finally finding my voice, though it came out in a pathetic stammer. "I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

I couldn't even finish the sentence because what was I supposed to say? Sorry for walking in on you getting off to my picture? Sorry for seeing something I could never unsee?

"Sorry," I mumbled again before backing out and pulling the door shut with a hard slam.

I hurried down the hallway, my heels clicking against the floor as I tried to put as much distance as possible between myself and that room. But no matter how quickly I moved, the image of Caleb kept following me.

For fuck's sake, Claire, get a grip!

I reached the bottom of the stairs and gripped the railing, trying to calm myself. Still, I couldn't let myself get carried away just because I'd caught him doing something that made my knees weak.

What if it was nothing more than lust? What if he liked the thought of having me but had no interest in actually being with me?

Caleb had never been short of women, and the last thing I wanted was to discover I'd been nothing more than another fantasy to him.

I stopped beside a table crowded with bottles and glasses, trying to get my thoughts under control.

"Okay," I whispered, rubbing my palms against my dress. "Let's think about this like a normal person."

I grabbed a glass of alcohol and swallowed it in one go, wincing as it burned down my throat. At least it gave me something else to focus on for a few seconds.

Then I picked up another glass and searched the room for Maddie. I couldn't tell her that her brother had been getting off to my picture. That secret would be buried with me.

I just needed to find her and get my mind off him.

I looked around the bar, hoping to find Maddie, but the only thing I found was her phone lying beside a half-empty glass.

Typical Maddie. I thought as I picked it up. She was drunk, and when she got drunk, she could forget her own head if it wasn't attached to her body.

I sat down on one of the stools, turning her phone over in my hand as I tried to figure out where the hell she could have gone. I'd barely settled down when a message popped up on the screen.

It was from Caleb.

>You need to wrap up this party. It's disturbing my work.

My lips parted in disbelief. Disturbing his work? Was that what he called touching himself while staring at my picture?

I nearly laughed at the thought, but before I could put the phone down, another message appeared on the screen.

>Has Claire gone home yet?

A small, ridiculous smile tugged at my lips before I quickly pressed them together, reminding myself that asking about me didn't mean he wanted anything serious with me.

I stood up, deciding that the best thing I could do was find Maddie before my imagination ran completely wild. And with what I had just seen, how would I even face him about the job stuff?

After asking around, one of her friends told me she'd seen Maddie heading towards the pool with Mitch, so I walked outside.

I found them standing close enough that there was hardly any space between them, with Mitch's hands resting on Maddie's waist as they kissed.

I stopped a few feet away, watching them for a moment as the lights reflected off the water behind them. They looked engrossed that I couldn't bring myself to interrupt.

Besides, I didn't need to be the third wheel in somebody else's romantic moment when my own love life was already turning into a complete fucking mess.

I turned away before they noticed me and headed back towards the house, hoping I'd find a way to leave without running into anyone who might ask why I looked like I'd just witnessed a crime.

After searching for my bag and realizing that my feet were already hurting from wearing one broken heel, I finally gave up on waiting for Maddie and decided to head home.

I slipped off the shoes and carried it in my hand as I walked out of the house, the cool night air doing little to clear my head. The music grew fainter behind me with every step, but my thoughts were still a complete mess, jumping from Caleb's message to the way he'd looked at me when I'd caught him upstairs.

What the hell was I supposed to do with all that information?

I couldn't exactly march back into the house and ask him if he'd been fantasizing about me for years, could I?

"Fuck," I muttered, rubbing my forehead as I continued down the sidewalk.

I'd walked about two blocks when a sleek black car slowed beside me, its headlights sweeping across the pavement before it pulled up near the curb.

I frowned and glanced towards the driver's seat, wondering who would stop for me at this hour, and when the tinted window began to roll down, I wished I'd taken a different route home.

Caleb sat behind the wheel, one hand resting on the steering wheel as his gaze settled on me.

For a moment, I simply stared at him, my fingers tightening around the shoe I was carrying as every embarrassing thing that had happened that night came rushing back.

Then his eyes flicked towards my bare foot before returning to my face.

"Get in," he ordered.