Chapter 25 #4
I close my eyes against the promise of what he’s dangling in front of me. I want it so badly, but I can’t hope anymore, can I?
“I don’t know.”
“What do you want, Adrienne?”
“I want you.”
“Then you’ll have me,” he replies as he steps into my space. He scoops me up into his arms like a bride and carries me carefully up the stairs and down the hall to my bedroom.
Something is different here; I don’t know if it’s the brush with death or the sadness that seems to cover him like a blanket. All I know is the attraction we share is still present, now more than ever.
He sets me down on my feet and pulls the covers back on the bed.
I step out of my sneakers and pull my tank over my head.
He undresses while watching me, and then he lays me down on the bed and covers me with his body.
Slowly, gently, he brushes his hands all over my body.
Before, he would push me to ignite the fire quickly but here, now, Gabe unhurriedly builds the passion between us.
When I can barely take it anymore, he nudges my legs open with his knee and settles between them. I feel the very tip of him at my center, and then he leisurely slides inside. I arch my neck and gasp. Gabe’s mouth hovers over mine, and we breathe each other in.
I draw my legs up along his sides as he begins to move, connecting our bodies in a way as old as time. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and hold on as he glides in and out, driving our desire higher and higher.
One at a time, he gently pulls at my arms so he can hold my hands in each of his, entwining them on either side of my head. Gabe moves faster, more deliberately. We don’t speak a word as we come together. With one final thrust, he plants himself deep, and we fall over the edge together.
Afterward, he rolls to his side, taking me with him in his arms. We lie in bed, face to face, curled up and clinging to one another as we drift off to sleep. My final thoughts before sleep claims me is that it’s a shame he won’t be here when I wake up in the morning.
I wake with a start, gasping for breath as the last trailing fingers of my nightmare let me go. The sounds of the explosion still echo in my ears, and the sight of Eli, unconscious and bleeding haunt me.
But he’s not dead.
That explosion was not my fault but that of a psychopath.
I feel incredibly cold and turn to find the covers.
Maybe if I hide underneath them, the world can’t find me.
But instead of the blankets, I find Gabe asleep beside me.
I could let this moment go. I could grab the covers from the foot of the bed and go back to sleep, or I can act.
I can take what I want and revel in the victory of not only falling asleep beside the man who has come to mean so much to me but also waking up beside him to make love all over again.
He sleeps flat on his back. His strong legs are spread, and his cock is hard and heavy, resting up against his taut belly.
I carefully crawl down the bed between his legs and trace my fingertips up and down his long length before I wrap my hand around him.
I dip down and touch my tongue to the tip of his cock.
I take him deep into my mouth and bob up and down, sliding him in and out of my mouth.
His hips shift, and I hear him groan. I look up and can’t help but smile around him as he settles back against the pillows with his arms folded behind his head, watching me work him with a smile playing on his full lips.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asks, but I don’t answer. I just lick and kiss and tease him. When his breathing hitches, I let go and sit up between his thighs to watch him. “So you’re done then?”
I just smile and shake my head.
“I didn’t think so,” he says with a smile just before he knifes up and lunges at me.
Gabe takes me in his arms and rolls me to my back, covering me with his body and settling between my thighs. He presses his mouth to mine, and I open underneath him, welcoming him, and then he plunges deep inside.
He leisurely drives in and out as he makes love to me.
The first whisps of early morning light flicker through the curtains as we come together.
I will never regret reaching for what I wanted last night, and again this morning, when it was Gabe.
This moment is everything I could have hoped for, and last night was everything I needed.
“Gabe,” I gasp into his mouth as I come, and he plants himself deep.
He groans as he follows me over the edge.
Gabe rolls us again, and I cling to him as he pulls the blankets up to keep me warm.
“Tell me about how you met Manny and Eli,” I murmur minutes later when we catch our breath, the room still mostly dark.
“Manny and I grew up together,” he says. “Went to high school together, joined the marines together.”
“And Eli?”
“Eli was in the army,” he explains. “Our units crossed paths on an op, and he saved my life.”
“Gabe—”
“It’s not dramatic or anything like that, fresa. We bonded. When he got out, I offered him a job.”
I drift back to sleep, safely ensconced in his strong arms, and when I wake up in the morning, I’m all alone again.
Gabe is gone.