20. Gabriel
Chapter Twenty
GAbrIEL
Somehow, I ended up sitting at an angle across the table from Nora at dinner that night.
Her hair was still damp from the shower she must’ve taken after returning to the resort.
She was seated between two men, and I couldn’t help but recall the guy who’d told her she was a badass and hot. She absolutely was.
An unfamiliar feeling of jealousy turned sour inside my gut. On any given week, at least two-thirds of our guests at the resort were men.
I couldn’t recall if I’d ever even paid attention to how they looked. Surely, handsome guys had noticed Nora before. I’d never noticed anyone noticing her, not until this afternoon, and now again, tonight.
While I didn’t bat for that team, I knew the guy sitting beside her tonight was handsome. His name was Nick something or other. I couldn’t even hear what they were joking about because the table was full.
Cat happened to be sitting beside me and asked, “What’s wrong?” She peered up at me with her slate-blue eyes, so similar to Flynn’s and just as perceptive.
“Nothing,” I replied, annoyed with the internal flare of defensiveness that rose inside.
Cat took a bite of her food, her gaze shifting away from me. Meanwhile, I couldn’t resist glancing toward Nora again, only to see her laughing at something handsome Nick said.
Fuck this. It was hard enough to come to terms with my feelings for Nora. I did not appreciate, not one bit, the experience of jealousy.
“You’re jealous.” Cat’s voice reached me, sounding amused.
I slid my eyes sideways, incredulous she’d commented on that.
Her eyes twinkled. “Just saying.”
“I am not,” I lied, injecting firmness into my tone. The whole thing was ridiculous.
Cat snorted a laugh. “Yeah, right. You just keep telling yourself that.”
Fuck my life. I had a seventeen-year-old girl giving me shit about being jealous.
By the time dinner was over, I was strung tight with annoyance and a sense of possessiveness.
As fierce as my need for Nora ran, my feelings left me unsettled.
I slipped out the back while she was in the kitchen helping Daphne, Cat, and Flynn clean up.
The autumn air was crisp. A light breeze gusted, carrying the spruce scent and causing the damp earthy leaves to fall to the ground.
I walked into the trees behind the resort with quiet footfalls.
I took a gulp of air, letting it out slowly as I paused to look through a clearing in the trees.
It offered a view of a mountain ridge in the distance, the rising half-moon casting a silvery glow on the snowy peaks.
The upper elevations had gotten more snow recently, a clear signal that winter was coming.
After another few breaths, I felt more like myself again.
Turning, I kept walking, stuffing my hands in my pockets.
I paused and glanced around when I heard a subtle scuffing.
In a moment, my eyes found the source of the noise.
A porcupine waddled through the trees, the tips of its quills gilded from the moonlight.
I waited to move until it was a little farther away.
Not because I was nervous about getting quilled, but because porcupines were shy creatures and mostly harmless unless they felt genuinely threatened.
There was no need for me to frighten it.
It was likely making its way to wherever it planned to sleep for the evening.
The trees opened up a few minutes later after I resumed my walk.
I lifted my eyes to discover the staff house was dark.
It appeared most were lingering back at the resort or heading into town to the bars.
I’d lost all interest in going to town at night once I’d given in to my need for Nora.
I was so accustomed to the fire that burned for her that it felt a part of me, woven into my veins and bones.
As much as I wanted to see her, my frustration with feeling possessive and jealous clashed with that desire. Just as I was about to move in the direction of the staff house, the sound of footsteps reached me.
Turning, I recognized Nora’s silhouette through the trees instantly. I felt a tug in my heart, followed by that familiar jolt sizzling through me like fire.
She stopped at the edge of the trees, looking at me across the small clearing. After a beat, she approached me, stopping a few feet away. “I wondered where you went,” she said.
For a second, the urge to make a flippant comment was right there, hovering in the edge of my consciousness.
I didn’t because that guy, the one who relied on dismissive comments, was the guy who had hurt Nora before.
I felt thrown off my equilibrium, and I didn’t know how to catch my balance again.
I closed the distance between us with careful, deliberate strides.
When I paused in front of her, that sense of possessiveness flared. “I’m not sure where I was going either.”
Her dark eyes widened. We were illuminated solely by the pearly glow of the moon.
I took a breath, letting it out slowly as I stepped closer and freed one of my hands from a pocket to slide it through the ends of her silky hair. “You make me a little crazy, you know?”
She shook her head incrementally. “I didn’t know that. I don’t think of myself as the kind of girl who makes anyone crazy.”
A wry chuckle rustled in my throat. “No, you don’t. That guy was right.”
“What guy?”
“The guy who flew with you today.”
She looked up at me, and I wasn’t sure, but I sensed she flushed slightly. There wasn’t enough light for me to know.
“Let me make this clear. You make me crazy, and I know it’s not just me. You’re beautiful, you’re strong, and I want you. So, so much. Also, I was jealous twice today,” I said with a wry twist to my words.
“Twice?” Her tone had a hitch of surprise to it.
“Yes, Nora, twice. First, when I heard that guy by the plane and then tonight at dinner. Nick likes you. I think his name is Nick.”
She scoffed. “No, he doesn’t. How would you even know that? And yes, his name is Nick.”
“Because I’m a man, and he’s a man. Trust me, I know he likes you.”
She eyed me dubiously, pursing her lips as she shook her head slightly and waved a hand dismissively. “Whatever. I’m not interested in Nick or that guy at the plane.”
“No?” Finally, I asked the question that had been eating me up all afternoon and evening.
She shook her head firmly this time. “Just you. You make me a little crazy too.” Her lashes swept down, and I slid my hand into her hair, cupping the back of her head and pulling her close. I felt her shiver.
“Let’s go. You’re cold,” I murmured as I reluctantly eased back and reached for her hand.
She laced her fingers in mine, and we walked quickly through the trees to her place. Our breath misted in the air with every step along the way.
Moments later, the sound of the door slamming shut behind us as we stumbled into her house was another kick to the need already driving me fast. It was a pounding drumbeat through my body, the rhythm kicking faster and faster.
Unsettled as I was with the sense of possessiveness tangling inside my other emotions surrounding Nora, it created this feeling of intensity and exquisite intimacy.
I felt as if I were standing on the edge of something immense and about to topple over.
No one had ever mattered as much as her.
No one had ever elicited feelings like that.
I felt vulnerable, and my ability to protect myself from it was worn thin.
Nora was more important than my pride. With my heartbeat thundering in my ears, I kept her hand in mine, moving swiftly up the stairs and into her bedroom without pause after we kicked off our shoes and hung our jackets by the door.
“Gabriel—” she began as I set to unbuttoning her blouse.
“I need you,” I bit out, my voice serrated on the edges.
“Oh,” she whispered. “I’m right here.”
Our clothes came off in a rush, and then my palms were sliding up her thighs, pushing them apart, savoring the tattered sound of her breath as I trailed kisses along the sensitive skin. I moved up swiftly because I needed her mouth underneath mine.
When she sighed into our kiss, her tongue gliding against mine, a sense of relief washed through me. This was what had frightened me about us before. Everything felt so absolutely right with her.