Chapter Thirteen
Lianna greedily licked the scoop before depositing it into the sink. She gazed at her big bowl of cookie dough ice cream with chocolate sauce and pretzels crumbled on top, like she had birthed it herself. Balancing it along with a glass of water and the remote, she shuffled her oversized reading socks to the couch. She missed her best friend’s company already.
Isabela had spent the remainder of the day making Lianna laugh. It was a much-needed reprieve from her daily dose of gloom. With her friend’s encouragement, she told Barb and Charles about the recent events plaguing her. Then she gratefully accepted their invitation to host the children one more night. Lianna could really use the extra time to decompress.
Understandably, they were alarmed at the prospect of someone targeting her and possibly the children. But when they offered for Lianna to stay at their home until the perpetrator was caught, she refused. With the upgrades to her security system and Gabe only a block away, she felt safe enough. If this sick individual forced her to flee her own home, then they had won. Lianna hadn’t run yet, and she refused to now.
Isabela had finally pulled out of her driveway twenty minutes ago. As Lianna stood in the doorway waving, part of her longed to drop to her knees and beg Izzy to stay. She knew her bestie had work to get back to, but it felt so nice having someone she trusted by her side.
Now, cuddled up on her sofa with just the right pillow to blanket ratio, Lianna started scrolling through the recordings on her PVR. Rom Coms were out for obvious reasons. Cops was always good for a laugh. Then again, it would just remind her of Gabe. So, a Halloween baking competition was the winner by default.
Lianna pointed her spoon at the contestants who were just told to create ‘severed body part’ inspired desserts. No way any of that actually tastes good . She was a handful of heavenly bites into her own dessert creation when the doorbell chimed.
Hand halfway to her mouth, she froze. No one casually stopped by on a Saturday night. Maybe Isabela had forgotten something, although she would have called first. As Lianna sat there motionless, she began to hope whoever was on the other side had gone away.
A hard knock sounded through the thick wooden door, sending Lianna’s heart rate through the roof. Placing her bowl of ice cream on the ottoman, she was going to sneak upstairs and peer out a window when a text message chimed.
Open the door.
Oh, God, it was Gabe.
I’m not home. She quickly typed back, her fingers shaking slightly with her adrenaline rush.
Then I’ll be on the front porch waiting when you get here.
He responded within seconds.
Ah, hell. Lianna had zero appetite for drama right now. Marching towards the entry way, she was resolved to send Gabe packing. She reached the door, swung it open and took a calming breath.
“Wow, you got home fast.”
“What is it, Gabe?”
“Hi, Lianna, how are you?” When she narrowed her eyes, he cut the crap and continued. “We need to talk. Can I come in please?”
Instead of responding, Lianna stepped to the side and let Gabe waltz inside. She was too exhausted to argue. As he breezed past her, she scolded herself for being so affected by his scent. Instead of continuing into the living room, Gabe quickly rounded on her.
“You weren’t going to call, were you?”
“I don’t remember you asking me to.”
Gabe sighed, looking just as tired as she felt. “How long did you think you could ignore me?”
She detected a note of hurt in his voice.
“I didn’t think you’d want me to call,” she replied sheepishly.
“Bullshit.”
“I didn’t know what to say to you. Okay? I made a fool out of myself, and I wasn’t interested in trying to explain something, I, myself, don’t understand. I don’t do these things, so I don’t know how they work.”
“What things?” he said raising a brow.
Instead of responding she just made a face and used her hand to make a rolling motion.
“You never made out with anyone before?”
“Of course, I have.” She rolled her eyes. “I just haven’t…” She tried the hand rolling gesture again, as if he were supposed to know what she was alluding to. When he just stared at her she gave in.
“Jesus! I never did the one-night stand thing, so I didn’t know what to expect afterwards. I thought when you got up that was my cue to leave. I got nervous.”
Gabe was looking at her like she was wearing a tinfoil cap.
“Sweetheart,” he spoke slowly, “that wasn’t a one-night stand.”
She chose to ignore the smirk that had formed on his tempting mouth.
“Well, we aren’t in a relationship, and we were intimate ,” she whispered the word. “I don’t think it matters that we didn’t sleep together. Then you made an excuse to stop, so I assumed it was over.”
Lianna’s explanation sounded lame even to her own ears, but self-preservation forced her to at least mount this weak argument. She ran out because she was scared and was almost certain Gabe knew that already.
“It was over because you left.” His voice was soft but still laced with annoyance.
Gabe’s eye contact challenged her. When she dared to meet those narrowed brown eyes, the force of her feelings was impossible to hide. Hugging her body self-consciously, she allowed herself a reprieve.
Looking down, she took in her appearance. A thick pair of gray sweatpants were combined with an oversized silk nightshirt. Technically it was a maternity sleep shirt she bought when pregnant with Annie, but if she called it oversized it made her feel better about wearing it four years later. It was a pink button down with white stripes ending mid-thigh. She cringed inside.
Thick spirals of unruly hair bracketed her face. When she allowed it to dry naturally, it could rival the best Jheri curls from the decade she was born. Growing self-conscious, she attempted to tuck a few strands behind her ears, but they just bounced back whichever way they pleased.
The silence stretched on for several long seconds until she heard Gabe’s footfalls as he approached. She felt heavy under the weight of his stare but refused to look up until he was alarmingly close. Gentle fingers went directly to her hair, as if he were reading her mind. Grabbing a curly strand, he took his time examining it.
“I like it this way.” Gabe released her hair but took another step towards her, his big body herding her from the entry way towards the living area.
“And I wasn’t done yet.”
“Huh?” Lianna couldn’t get her brain to function when he was stalking her like this.
“I wasn’t done last night, or the time before that either.” His eyes held a predatory gleam.
On cue, he reached out and hooked one strong arm around her waist, pulling her tight against him. His hungry gaze traveled down her silk shirt like he had a pin-up model in his arms. Lianna’s breathing faltered.
She should probably be slowing things down, or at least trying to gain some space to think. But he smelled so good, the peppermint from his breath mixing with the usual soap and musk she had come to identify as his scent. Coarse jeans brushed against her cotton clad legs, sending tingles up her spine. It was sensory overload. Instinctively her hands came up to rest on the muscles hidden beneath a fitted t-shirt. This one was sky blue, and Lianna confirmed it was, in fact, her favorite color on him.
Leaning down, Gabe bypassed her mouth to press a kiss on the exposed area where her top shirt button was undone. She felt that kiss in every nerve ending. Then he moved up to her collar bone, forcing her chin up, kissing her again. He kept going up her neck, pressing soft kisses until he reached her jaw.
Nuzzling just under her ear, she could feel Gabe smile before he whispered, “Do you want me to show you what usually happens during a one-night stand?”
Lianna pulled back only to find humor in his eyes, but she was so off balance that her mouth couldn’t form words. Gabe didn’t wait for a verbal answer, erasing the space she had just put between them with a kiss. This time on the lips and it was so sweet, so soft, her heart leapt.
“By next weekend I could show you how a fling works.”
Gabe was whispering the words across her lips in between kisses, his warm breath tickling her face. This certainly threw her for a loop. She was expecting him to be angry or annoyed but not this. If she wasn’t so turned on, she would be thoroughly confused.
Pushing lightly against his chest, she took a tiny step back again and looked up at him. “Why did you change your mind?”
Stepping right back into her, he rubbed his hands up and down her back, seeming to revel in the feel of the silk shirt she wore.
“Hum?” He snuggled her cheek with his beard.
Since Gabe had re-established himself in her life a few weeks ago, Lianna had been racking her brain as to why. After drawing the proverbial line in the sand, why was he suddenly so forward regarding their physical relationship? He didn’t need to sleep with her to keep her safe from whoever was stalking her.
She had considered that perhaps he felt sorry for her, but the man was in law enforcement, not acting. He certainly seemed to be just as turned on by her as she was by him. Maybe he sensed she was particularly vulnerable, but deep down she trusted Gabe not to mistreat her that way.
As he teasingly nipped her ear before pressing a kiss just under it, she decided it didn’t matter right this second. She had another chance with Gabe. The man she craved since the first time she met him, was offering to fulfill some of those cravings. She would do her best not to ruin it … again. She deserved this one pleasure. Even if it was a fling on his end, she could pretend it was that way for her too.
Gabe’s husky voice broke into her thoughts. “Let’s go upstairs.”
“Didn’t you want to talk,” she stammered out.
“I think we should go upstairs now, or we can do it right here,” he kindly clarified. Deciding that Gabe wasn’t a man that shied away from a challenge, she took his hand and led him up the stairs to her bedroom.
****
The moment they entered the dark bedroom Gabe felt like a predator. Like the big bad wolf who, God willing, was going to gobble this sweet woman up. Last night Lianna had been the aggressor. Tonight, however, she was timid, more reserved. It was driving him crazy. Suddenly the need to show her how much he wanted her was overwhelming. How had he ever kept his distance from her?
Neither of them said a word as he released her hand and pulled her body against his. He thrust his tongue into her mouth with all the urgency he felt. Lianna met him stroke for stroke reassuring him that she was on board for this. Even with both hands locked on her waist, he didn’t feel close enough. Gabe wanted this for so long, holding back was unthinkable.
Making quick work of the buttons on her shirt, he slid it down her toned shoulders. A groan escaped when his fingertips brushed the skin of her bare back. It was quite possibly as soft and smooth as the silk nightshirt now lying crumpled on the floor.
Wiggling out of her adorably oversized sweatpants, Lianna stood naked in his arms except for panties. She looked so exposed in contrast to his fully clothed self. Gabe felt a twinge of guilt at how excited her vulnerability made him. As if she could hear his thoughts, she tugged at his shirt, trying to create enough space between their bodies to lift it off.
Instead of complying, he pushed her down onto the bed behind them. When she tried to scoot away towards the top, he caught her ankle and dragged her down so that her bottom was just on the edge. Grabbing the waist band of her underwear, he pulled them off her long legs. Then he stood there in awe and drank in the image he had so frequently fantasized about.
She was perfect, lying below him, hands covering her breasts bashfully. Long, lean legs gave way to round hips and a soft stomach. He salivated at the undersides of her breasts escaping her grasp. Wild curls the color of midnight framed her gorgeous face, providing a stark contrast to the white comforter. Combined with the coy look in her eyes, his breathing faltered. She was a wet dream on speed.
Gabe had planned on spending hours exploring her body, making her mindless with pleasure. But with her lying before him like an offering, his only objective was to be inside of her. Hoping there would be time for all the kissing and pleasing later, he reached back and pulled his shirt up and over his head.
Not wanting to break eye contact, he fumbled with the buttons on his jeans. Eventually managing to undo the garments, he lost both the jeans and boxers in one fell swoop.
Defying the impossible, Gabe’s arousal grew at the look in Lianna’s eyes. She was staring, open mouthed, at his naked form. When she squirmed away again, up towards the headboard, he let her get halfway there.
After she made adequate room for him, he grabbed her calf muscle, stopping her retreat. The mattress dipped as Gabe pressed a knee down between her legs.
Desperate to bury himself in her, his vision tunneled as he pushed her knees apart with his thighs. Lianna put her hands in front of her body, stopping him from getting any closer. Irritated at being halted, Gabe looked up into her eyes. The fear in them hit Gabe like a sledgehammer. He was immediately sobered.
The objective was not to scare her, and he certainly didn’t want to hurt her. He wanted to love her. Love her so good, so thoroughly, that she kept coming back to him for more.
“What’s wrong?” he rasped, feeling like he had just come back from some alternate reality where only his needs mattered.
“I just… It’s happening so fast. Can we slow down?”
Soft hands were still placed firmly against his chest, her rapid speech telling him just how uneasy she was. Gabe swore.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” He wanted to pummel himself for being so selfish. “I seem to have trouble slowing down with you,” he crooned as he loomed over her.
“Gabe, I haven’t done this in a really long time and—”
“Me, neither.”
She looked skeptical at that, which pissed him off more than it should have. Remembering she needed reassuring, Gabe transferred all his weight to one arm, using the other hand to push her hair from her face. Stroking her cheek, he willed her to trust him.
“I would never hurt you. I promise. Trust me, okay?”
She didn’t respond, just searched his eyes for confirmation of his words. He gently kissed her nose before asking again.
“Okay?”
“Okay,” she finally whispered as the hands that were pushed against him started to relax.
Gabe’s heart swelled as the skepticism in Lianna’s eyes turned to acceptance, maybe even faith. Ever so slowly, he let his weight down on top of her.
Taking her face in his hands, he slowly reclaimed her lips. He kissed her unhurriedly and thoroughly, savoring every taste. As his mouth traveled down her neck, his hands stroked every soft inch of her body until it was Lianna squirming beneath him.
“I can’t wait any longer and I need to protect you,” Gabe gasped.
“Oh,” she said thoughtfully. “I’m on birth control. Do we need anything else?”
Lowering himself back down on top of her lithe body a little too fast, he promised, “I’m safe.”
The gasp she made shot straight to his groin. Calm down, you’ve done this before. Focused solely on her satisfaction, Gabe catalogued every tantalizing face she made, every moan that left her lips. Pleasing her was the greatest pleasure he had ever experienced.
As Lianna continued to claw at him, she whispered his name and Gabe’s control slipped.
God, this woman did it for him. Ignoring his shaking arms, he buried his head into the side of her neck, his eyes squeezed closed against the pleasure. Gabe held on to his composure by a thread.
Lianna raised her legs, interlocking her ankles around his back. As she hugged him close with both her arms and legs now, Gabe felt oddly emotional. “Please,” her plea redirected his attention.
Obliging, he was able to give her exactly what she wanted … for about a minute. On the sixty-first second his composure rode away on her sex-laden voice, and he was flying apart.
****
Lianna was exploding, confident her body must be breaking into pieces. It was the best kind of agony. Had it ever felt like this before? The intensity of her emotions caught her off guard.
The pleas coming from her mouth were loud and explicit, but she hardly cared. Just when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore the detonation occurred. His name was on her lips as she rode the high.
Gabe’s big body collapsed on top of her, and she heard him struggling to take in air. Never had being crushed felt so wonderful. Her arms remained wrapped around him as she clung tightly.
The euphoria was setting in. She hoped he would never move and for a few long minutes he complied. Then to her disappointment he shifted, putting his body weight back on his forearms. Gabe rose, only to look down at her.
“You okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No, that was definitely all good.” She smiled up at him.
Seeming to relax then, he slowly looked around. Finding her underwear on the other side of the bed, he reached for them. He used the clothing to clean up after himself. She instantly felt empty, on more than one level. As if he was feeling the same, he lay on his side and took her into his arms. Not exactly as good, but a decent enough consolation.
Gabe flipped all the way on his back, pulling her half onto his body. One leg was thrown across his thigh, while her head was nestled between his arm and chest. Neither one of them said a word for a long time. Lianna was content just rubbing the coarse hair on his chest and listening to him breathe. She considered breaking the silence to ask him again why he suddenly stopped holding her at arm’s length and now held her in his arms. Her fear of the answer kept her mouth closed.
Lianna shivered and Gabe hugged her closer. He leaned down and pulled the throw blanket from the bottom of the bed up to cover them. What happened tonight didn’t feel like settling or like scratching an itch. In fact, it felt like they had forged a connection deeper and truer than she ever imagined possible.
Lianna had stopped sharing a bed with Scott before he passed, so it had been years since she had been with a man. Maybe that was why this felt so monumental for her. Or maybe they had tapped into something. A connection that only two people who cared deeply for each other could share. She wanted to believe that so desperately that she did, closing her eyes and letting his warm embrace be enough for now.
The night seemed to simultaneously go on for days and be over in minutes. Lianna woke up to Gabe’s warm body still asleep beside her, and a bladder that was going to quit at any second. Slipping out from his grasp, she heard him stir as she hustled into the bathroom. As she washed her hands, she looked at her reflection in the mirror and barely stifled a scream. Her hair was doing its best bride of Frankenstein impression. She hurriedly pulled it back into a scrunchie before brushing her teeth and slathering on some of her shea butter lotion.
Grabbing a bath towel, she wrapped the fluffy cotton around herself. While she may have felt mildly confident under the guise of dark last night, she felt like a droopy mess this morning. The tiger stripes under her butt were best kept hidden.
Opening the door as slowly and noiselessly as possible, she found him propped up on one elbow facing her. Her heart ceased beating. Lianna would bet money the organ froze in action. Never had she seen a more delicious sight in all her life than Gabe lying naked in her bed.
The sheets were down around his hips, stopping just below his muscled stomach. His dark hair was bed ruffled, his beard a little too shaggy. Brown sleepy eyes watched her lazily, but his smile had her coming undone. It was positively devilish, and she would have given him anything in the world had he asked at that very moment. You want me to rob a bank? Sure. Elope and raise the kids in Timbuktu? Okie dokey. Get your name tattooed across my forehead? Why not?
Instead of dropping her towel and pouncing on him like she wanted to, Lianna walked the few steps to her dresser and grabbed a t-shirt. Honing the skills she learned in her high school locker room, she quickly threw the shirt on without letting the towel drop. Then she shimmied into panties. When she was covered, she dropped the towel and turned to him. Still grinning at her, he patted the bed beside him. When she didn’t move, he verbally nudged her.
“Come here.”
With Gabe’s voice husky from sleep, the tone purely authoritative, she was defenseless. Lianna walked to the bed and perched at the very edge, balancing so she didn’t topple over the side. Moving in a blur, Gabe snagged her by the upper arm and reeled her in.
She laughed as he pulled her under him and started peppering her face with kisses. It felt like a scene out of a made-for-TV movie, and if she let herself, she could believe that they were carefree lovers, at least for a while.
Right on cue, Gabe went all in for the Emmy. Cradling her cheeks in both hands, he leaned down gently to kiss her on the lips. Turned out it wasn’t just a kiss, but a caress that went straight to her soul. He hadn’t kissed her like that before—no one had. The kiss was filled with so much passion, so much… love? If his kiss could speak, it would spout poetically about her being his Annabel Lee. At that moment, in his kiss, he was able to tell her more than his words ever could, and it shot panic straight to her core. Because regardless of his feelings and intentions, hers became glaringly clear.
She was in love with this man.
****
As Gabe lay there, Lianna sprawled over him, his body still inside hers, he had to forcefully clamp his jaw shut. For the second time in so many days, he feared that if he opened his mouth, he would regurgitate the words. Sure, he cared for Lianna, wanted to take care of her, but why his brain wanted to shout things he wasn’t even sure he felt was beyond him.
Getting laid had never turned him into some sort of heartsick Romeo in the past. Maybe he had been celibate too long. Gabe pushed away the knowledge that Lianna wasn’t just any woman, and this wasn’t just another instance of him getting laid.
Lianna snuggled closer, pressing a kiss into his neck and he clenched harder. Starting to panic, he knew he had to get out of there. Not necessarily because words he had never used with anyone else kept coming to mind, but because his body felt the need to release that information. Gabe wasn’t sure what loving her meant, having never been in love before.
The fact that he had no idea what she would say in return to such a declaration didn’t help. Gabe needed to think and that was very hard to do with the half-naked woman lying on his chest.
“I hate to tell you this, but I have to go into the office.”
Lianna stiffened and he already hated himself.
“Oh, okay.”
Pulling herself free of him, she shifted off his chest and over to the corner of the bed. He regretted her absence and more importantly how lame his work excuse sounded. And on a Sunday? She pulled her shirt down to cover herself, her gaze refusing to meet his.
Gabe attempted to put a Band-Aid on the gunshot wound he had just inflicted.
“There was a homicide over the weekend that is an all-hands-on deck situation. I need to go in and follow up. I’ll be done by early afternoon. Think we can have dinner with the kids like we used to?”
Telling himself that he was only suggesting dinner to salvage her emotions, not because he was already desperate to see her again. She glanced up, looking surprised at his words.
“Sure, I’ll be cooking anyway so if you’re done come over. If it doesn’t work out, don’t worry about it.” Lianna’s face was achingly hopeful, devastatingly vulnerable, so he let things be.
When Gabe motioned for her to come closer, she looked at him skeptically.
“If you have to get to work, I don’t think I should come over there.”
Knowing she was right, he smiled.
Just then her phone chirped. She turned from him to reach over and grab it from the nightstand. She groaned and he instantly became alert.
“What is it?” he demanded, knowing he needed to tone down the whole guard dog reaction around her.
“It’s my sister-in-law, Nicki. I was supposed to check in with her when I got home the other night. She knew I was upset. But I got sidetracked.”
Lianna’s cheeks turned the prettiest shade of pink. It took everything he had to stop himself from reaching out for her. Instead, he forced himself to get up.
As Gabe looked around for his clothing, he tested the waters on the controversial theory he had been cooking up since Friday night.
“Do you think your brother-in-law could be behind any of this?”
Finding his pants under a heap of blankets by the bottom of the bed, he grabbed them. Lianna still hadn’t answered his question, so he looked up to see that her attention was focused elsewhere. She was staring directly at his package and somehow, he felt the blood start to rush down to that needy organ again.
Lianna met his gaze. “I mean, my God, is there anything about you that isn’t perfect.”
Thoroughly embarrassed by the complement, Gabe was at a loss for words. He hadn’t the slightest idea how to respond to her overly generous assessment of him.
He forced a laugh, very thankful for his beard to hide the blush now spreading across his face. Although he desperately wanted Lianna to see him that way, he knew the more she got to know the real him, the less she would feel that way.
Gabe managed to get his pants on, then gravitated over to her side of the bed. She rose up onto her knees and slung her arms around his neck. Leaning into him, she nuzzled just under his ear before finally answering his original question.
“And no, I don’t think Darren could be behind this. It isn’t his style. If he wanted to torture me, he’d come right out and do it, believe me.”
“I don’t like him,” Gabe grumbled.
“He wouldn’t like you either,” Lianna teased. He growled and she kissed his lips softly.
“What are you going to do all day?” He tested his control by kissing her neck.
“I think I’ll go for a jog, then grab the kids. I promised them Halloween movies and lots of treats.”
A cheek aching smile covered his face. Gabe wasn’t sure he had smiled this much in his entire life. Lianna touched something deep in his chest. To him, she was everything a mother and partner should be. He wanted her to be his, and not just for a night or a weekend. It was time to go.
Claiming her lips one last time, Gabe kissed her longer than he should have. When he retreated, he was panting, his lower half ready for another round. He reached down to adjust himself, not caring that she saw, hoping she knew what she did to him.
“I’ll see you tonight.” Then Gabe got out of there as fast as possible without running or confessing things he wasn’t sure he felt.