Finding Home (Breaking Free Series Book 1) Read online

  I look up when the crowd starts screaming. A kick ass bass rift comes through the speakers, Muse’s Hysteria. Caleb is in full rock mode as he plays. My body temperature shot up twenty degrees the minute I saw him on stage. Instantly, I start taking some pictures, wanting to capture the moment. I don’t take my eyes off him. Caleb’s well-worn denim jeans ride low on his hips, and his tight black tank top exposes his muscles and tattoos. His stance is wide and low, his hat covers his eyes as his head bangs to the beat. My panties get wet looking at him up on stage. Josh covers my body with his to shield us from the crowd, which has started thrashing around us. Their music is loud, hard and fast. My body is so turned on, it feels lit up like the night sky.

  One song turns into another. Slither is amazing, and the guys are completely in their element on stage. I’m taking in each of them. Hunter is crazy up there playing the drums. Jeremy kicks ass on the guitar, working the crowd. Bentley is everything a lead singer should be, drawing in the audience, engaging us. Aly is watching every move he makes. We are jumping to the beat, getting into it with everyone else. I’m in love with every song they are playing. I recognize the guitar chords of Creed’s One. Only this time Caleb walks up to the microphone. When he starts singing the first words, I bite my lip in amazement. Holy shit, he can sing. Can this man get any hotter? His voice is sultry and raw. As I stare in awe, he looks down and winks at me. I think my panties melted off at that point. The thought of actually throwing them on stage crossed my mind. But I didn’t. Panties still in place.

  Aly looks at me, “You are one lucky bitch. He’s fucking hot up there.” I know, and he’s mine tonight.

  When Slither finishes playing, Josh grabs my hand, pulling me to where I can meet Caleb. I wave bye to Mike and say to Aly, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Aly.”

  Before Josh leads me away, she kisses my cheek. “Yeah, see you around eleven.” Heading behind the stage, I see Caleb and the boys making their way down the stairs. I have no self-control when I run towards Caleb. Seeing me coming his way, he struts towards me with a half grin on his face. Once I reach him, I jump up on his hips. He grabs my ass as I wrap my legs around his waist, slamming my lips to his. It’s hard, messy, and hot. “I need you in me now. I can’t wait any more. I’m going to burst.”

  Caleb looks at me, and I think he is trying to judge if I am serious or not. He scans the area, searching for anywhere we can go. He places me on my feet, pulling me to a darkened area under the stage that is covered by a curtain. Passersby won’t be able to see, but it’s still out in the open. We hear the next band start up as he walks me back to the make shift wall: a few poles that crisscross with a drape covering the stage. He runs his fingers under my panties. “Shit, baby, you weren’t kidding. You get excited watching the show? I know seeing you on stage did this to me.” He grabs my hand placing it to his hardness. As soon as I begin to stroke him through his jeans, his head falls back, and he begins to groan. I unbutton his pants, lower his zipper, and place my hand inside his boxer briefs. I lightly squeeze him before pulling out his erection. “Back pocket.” Reaching in his back pocket, I pull out a condom, tearing it open. As quickly as possible, I unroll it over his thickness. “Fuck Kat, wrap your legs around me.” Not hesitating, he lifts me as I wrap my legs around his waist. I begin to move, rubbing against his erection.

  “Please, Caleb, I want you in me, now.” I moan this by his ear. He moves my panties to the side, and in one quick thrust, he enters me. “Shit.” Not knowing if that was him, me, or both of us screaming. Above us, I can hear a country band playing. The music is sexy and rough. Caleb is pumping his hips in time with the music. I grind on him every time he is deep inside me. “Harder, please Caleb.” I can already feel my orgasm building.

  “Fuck, baby girl, you close? You feel so good riding me like this.” He lowers one hand to my clit, rubbing it in just the right spot.

  “Yes, Caleb. Don’t stop. I’m so close.” He thrusts one more time causing me to go off like the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks. As I begin to scream, Caleb crashes his mouth down on mine to muffle the sound. He pumps hard once more, grunting in my mouth before I feel him pulsing inside me.

  Our eyes connect when he places his forehead to mine, trying to slow our breathing. Once we calm slightly, he lowers me to the ground, kissing me gently. “That was unexpected and fucking hot. I need to bring you to every show Slither plays from now on.” He pulls off the condom tying it in a knot, tossing it in the nearby garbage. We fix our clothes, trying our best to look like we didn’t just have sex behind the stage. But, I’m pretty sure the band is going to know what we went to do. I fix my just-had-sex hair as we walk back to the front of the stage.

  We make it to where the rest of the guys are standing. They look at us and give us a wolf whistle. Oh yeah, they know. Jeremy fist bumps Caleb, and the other guys follow suit. All I can do is curtsy, and give my most innocent smile. Caleb pulls my back to his front, placing his hands under my tank top, running slow circles on my stomach. He kisses my neck softly, “You alright?” I squeeze and pat his arm, letting him know I was fine. We sway to the music. The way his body feels against mine has me wanting him again.

  Katerina

  WE ALL WATCH ANOTHER band on stage, friends of Slither. When they finish, he squeezes my hip. “I got to go help pack up, then we can get out of here. Do want to stay and watch more, or come with us?”

  “I’ll go with you. That way I can watch you pick up heavy objects, and stare at your ass again.”

  He smacks my ass, “You can check out my ass anytime you want. Just remember I’ll be tapping your ass later.”

  I lean against the side of the truck and watch as they load the van. Suddenly, a chill runs down my spine. Once again, here comes Travis walking toward the truck. I so do not want to do this now. “Do you have a minute to talk? I have some important things to tell you.”

  I look at him, “I guess so. But I only have a minute. We are getting ready to leave.” Caleb looks towards me concerned. I point my finger to let him know I’ll only be a minute. Travis follows me to the back of the truck, and I lean against the tailgate. I want to make sure Caleb can keep me in his sight line. He stays where he is, but glances at us every few seconds to check on me.

  “Spit it out Travis. I don’t have time for this.” I say, annoyed that he is cutting into my Caleb ass staring time.

  “I don’t know where to start, Kat’s Meow. My life has been totally fucked up since we split. I can’t stop thinking about you, how I should have done things differently the night I left.” He huffs, “More to the point I should have never left. I should have been there more for you, not out at the bar all night.”

  I take a deep breath, holding it in. My blood is beginning to boil, and I’m about to blow. I let loose, telling him everything I should have said a long time ago. “But you did leave. You checked out of our relationship way before that night. You took me for granted. You were never there. Everything was about you. We did whatever you wanted. Fuck, Travis, you never even took me to the movies! We went to the same skank bar, every goddamn week. I never knew if you were going to call, or if I’d just be sitting around all night waiting for you to call. Then when you moved in, it showed me, truly, how wrong we were for each other. I’ve moved on. I’m happy now.” I’m seething. When I look over, I see Caleb is now staring at us, standing with his arms crossed, legs wide apart. He heard me, and he doesn’t look happy watching us.

  “God, Katerina. Was it all that bad? You act like I never cared for you. You were . . . NO, YOU ARE the only one for me.” I just look at him not knowing how to respond to what he says. Travis continues on, “I fucked up. I never lived with a woman before, and it scared me. I lived so long doing whatever, I was afraid of doing something wrong. I was afraid I was crowding you too much, or I wasn’t around enough. I had no idea how to act.” He grips his head with a look of defeat. “I was fucked up then. It’s not who I am anymore. I’ve changed this time. I want to try again. Whate
ver pace you want to go, I’ll do it. I want all of you. I’m in for the long haul! I’m lost without you. I want to go all the way. Marriage, kids, everything. Don’t give up on us. That guy is just a phase.” He points to Caleb as he says this. “I can get over whatever you’ve been doing with him. He’s not for you. He will never want you as much as I do. No guy will ever want you that much. Please give me another chance. I need you.”

  Travis does a douche move . . . grabbing my cheeks, pulling me to his lips, and kisses me. I push hard on his chest to get away. I wipe my mouth with the back of my hands. “Fuck you, Travis.”

  Caleb

  I AM STANDING, keeping a close eye on my girl. She’s angry. Who the fuck is this guy? I’ve seen his band playing at some of same gigs we played, so he looks familiar. There obviously is a story there. I was trying to respect her space, but I will keep an eye on this tool. I hear her talking loudly. I decide I need to keep a better eye on them, so I stop loading the equipment. When I see him lean over and kiss my girl, a lightning bolt flashed inside me. I feel my blood rush from my feet to my ears with a whoosh.

  In a few strides, I make it to them. Kat is struggling to get away. I grab his shirt, pulling him the fuck away from her. Kat runs behind me, burying her head in my back. Her arms grip around me like a vice. My breathing is far from being controlled. “What the fuck, man?” I look at the tool and warn him, “Stay away from my girl. She’s with me now. Next time I see you anywhere near her, we are going to have a problem. DO YOU HEAR ME MOTHERFUCKER?”

  He looks past me and directly at Kat. “Think about what I said. I can wait. I’ll still be here when you are done with this.” He says gesturing at me.

  “No Travis. It’s over. I’m done. We. Are. Done.” She says, punctuating the last three words to make her point.

  I grab Kat’s hand and walk up to Bentley. “Can you finish without me?”

  “Yeah man, get her out of here. I’ll keep an eye on him.” I lead Kat to my bike, handing her the extra helmet I brought. I straddle my bike, and reach out my hand to help her climb on behind me. She snuggles in close, wrapping her arms around my waist, and kisses my shoulder softly. Her hands reach under my t-shirt, stroking my stomach. The more she touches me, the calmer my breathing becomes. I wrap my hands around her arms, give them a squeeze, and start my bike.

  I need to ride for a while to cool off. I take the back roads home, riding so the Gulf is in view. The feel of the wind, along with the sounds of the water rolling, is what I need to calm the anger that was boiling in me. I wanted to pound that guys face in when I saw him kiss Kat. Her kisses are for me only.

  I’ve never wanted or needed to claim a woman before, but that’s what I did tonight. Claimed her as mine to the toolbag. I want to make sure she knows that I don’t share. She is mine and only mine. I have no clue where this is going, but I’m ready to be all in with Kat.

  We make the ride to a beach close to my house. It was enough to calm the boiling in my blood. I don’t want to take my anger out on her. There is just enough of a clearing for my bike to get through, where we can see the water. I need some answers before we go back to my place. I give her thighs a squeeze, take off my helmet, grab the helmet from her hands, and hang both on the handlebars.

  “Caleb, this place is beautiful. Where are we?” She looks out at the water with a smile on her perfect lips.

  “Close to my place. This is where I come to run in the morning. Not too many people come to this section of the beach.”

  I reach behind me, grabbing around her waist and position her body so she is straddling my thighs facing me. She looks beautiful like this. I run my hands over her cheeks, my thumb grazes her lips. Kat sucks my thumb in between her soft lips, licking it gently. My dick grows impatient. I groan and close my eyes.

  As much as I didn’t want her to stop, I pull my thumb away from her mouth, caressing her cheek instead. “We need to talk, baby. I need to know what that was back there.”

  She sighs, looking away from my eyes. “It was nothing.”

  “It looked like something to me. It was the same guy who pulled you up to sing with him. Then he kisses you in front of me. So there has to be some sort of history.”

  She closes her eyes, breathing in deep as she turns her head toward the water, avoiding my gaze. “He’s in the past. I don’t want to think of him anymore. That part of my life is done.”

  “I don’t think he sees it as over.” He made it clear tonight he wasn’t giving up.

  “I don’t know what to say. He’s not what I want anymore.”

  “Look at me, Kat. Tell me what happened.” I force her to look in my eyes. I can see the tears on her cheeks, so I wipe them away with my fingers.

  “Travis and I were together for a long time. I was young when we met. It was a one sided relationship that ended with me hating myself and hating him more.”

  “Did he ever hurt you?” If she said yes, I don’t know what I would do. I’d start by ripping his arms off, that way he couldn’t touch her again.

  “Not physically.”

  “He did hurt you though.”

  “Yes, but I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to forget. I lived with it for six years, it’s done now.”

  “What did he do, Kat?”

  She closes her eyes and looks away again. “I wasn’t what he wanted.”

  “What do you mean? Any man in their right mind would want you.” I saw it tonight when she was singing. The men checking her out, while the women wanted to be her.

  “Not Travis. I was never good enough. At first, he was subtle, saying things like, ‘You look good, but maybe if you wear this you’d look better.’ Then he would suggest that maybe I should start working out to lose a few pounds.”

  “Why would you need to lose any weight? Your body is bangin.’” She grunts like she doesn’t believe me.

  “Thanks. After a while, nothing about me was right. He wanted me to dye my hair blonde because he liked blondes better. I said I would try it, but the upkeep was a bitch. He was always at the strip clubs. I thought if I dressed like those girls, he would be happy. He wanted my clothes tighter and shorter, but then he would get pissed if his friends looked at me. I starved myself to fit into those god-awful outfits. I think the first few years we dated I lived on coffee and an occasional cracker. She covers her face at the memory. “Finally, I realized no matter how thin I was, or how slutty I dressed, he would never be happy.”

  She laughs, “For my birthday, he gave me a gift card to a gym that offered stripper type workouts. Pole dancing, lap dancing, striptease 101. I yelled at him saying it was the worst gift ever. But, secretly, I went to the class and had the best time.”

  “Now that’s hot. I’d like to see those moves sometime.”

  “Maybe someday.” She smiles at me deviously.

  “My birthday is coming up, you know. Well, later this year.” That would be a fuckin’ awesome birthday present.

  “You wouldn’t have wanted to see me then. After him complaining about my body so much, I basically gave up. I would sit home not caring how I looked. He would come to my place after going to a strip club with his friends, expecting me to be ready for him. But gross, who would want to touch a man after some other women’s been grinding on him? Especially when they’ve been grinding on god knows who else. I would sit around, waiting for his calls or texts every weekend since I never knew for sure we would be going out. It got to the point I was ignoring my friends, just hiding. My self-esteem was gone. I hated how I was living, but he convinced me no other guy would want me.”

  “Kat, that’s fucked up. You know that, right? Why did you stay with him?”

  She shrugs her shoulders. “I was blind. When you are constantly told you aren’t good enough, you eventually start to believe it. Thankfully, my friends never gave up on me. They basically staged an intervention. I didn’t want to hear it though.”

  “What made you change your mind and see the asshole for who he was?”
r />   “That’s the sad part. I didn’t. He needed a place to live when his roommate had to move out, so I suggested he move in with me. God, I sound crazy, right?”

  “Not crazy, baby. Just lost.”

  “I thought if we lived together things would change. He would want to spend time with me. That wasn’t the case. He would come home smelling like some other woman, and then climb in my bed. I would go and sleep on the couch just to get away. One night, in the middle of the night, he had his bag packed. He walked out the door and that was it.”

  She finally gets a little smile on her face. She continues on. “He left and I could finally breathe. It was like a weight was lifted off me. I turned up the stereo and danced. The next day, I made an appointment and got my hair changed back to my color. I threw away all my clothes. Well, all but a few items. Aly came over and we went shopping. I got a makeover. I became me again. It was the best day I had in six years. Sad, but true.”

  “So this Travis guy, it’s done between you two? Because that kiss could say otherwise. It looked like there could still be something unfinished.”

  “It’s a hundred percent over! I didn’t want him to do that. I was with you tonight, Caleb. I had sex with you just thirty minutes before. What do you think I am?” Now she’s getting mad. “I never wanted to see him again. I didn’t want to sing with him. He dragged me up there. What could I do? Then he tells me he wants more, grabs me and kisses me. Trust me, I felt nothing but disgust. I want you. Not him. You make me feel again.”

  There’s my answer. “Kat, I don’t know what this is yet between us. This is all new to me. I’ve never done the relationship thing. I do know that when I saw his lips on yours, it gutted me. I can’t make promises, but I don’t want this to end yet. I want you and me, baby. No one else.”

  “I want that too.”

  I lean her back on my bike and kiss her. Her lips are soft and full. I suck on her bottom lip, biting it gently. She moans, opening for me. Her tongue touches mine. Now it is my turn to moan. I deepen the kiss, lifting her legs over my hips. I begin to grind against her pussy. My zipper is going to bust any minute. Kat begins to grind herself faster against my erection. Fuck, no woman has ever made me feel like this.