Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Seven
H e grinned and got to his feet, pursuing her down the hallway as she danced playfully just out of his reach. He’d barely cleared the doorway to the bedroom when she stopped running and launched herself into his arms, her mouth already seeking his and her arms locking around his neck.
He was tender as he stripped her down, his mouth barely leaving hers as his fingers worked to unhook her bathing suit and tug the fabric from her skin. “Are you …”
“Don’t you dare,” she said. “Don’t you dare ask me if I’m sure.”
“I don’t want you to regret being with me,” he said honestly, swallowing hard on the fear that he’d been trying so hard to ignore. “I’m going to do every single thing that I ever told you I would, I’m going to fuck you until you can’t breathe, and you forget your own name. But you have to be sure.”
“I’m sure,” she said, her voice breathy and trembling. “I want you … please .”
She didn’t wait for an answer, her fingers gliding over his chest, her touch still featherlight and uncertain as she pressed her mouth against his throat, her lips finding the erratic beat of his pulse and smiling against his skin. “Mine,” she breathed, quiet and awed.
“Yours,” he agreed. “Always.”
She faltered then, her determination suddenly wavering as she realized she didn’t know what to do next.
He felt the burden of responsibility settle over him, as she bit her lip and looked up at him with pleading eyes. He wanted to make it good for her, to be sure that she wouldn’t ever regret what they were about to do. There were enough bad memories haunting their bed already and he was determined that she would never be the one with nightmares disturbing her sleep.
“Please,” she said again. “Show me what to do.”
She was so eager to please and he was lost in her—in her eyes and in the sweetness of her smell and in the slight wobble of vulnerability in her voice. He wanted to drink it all down, get drunk on her and never recover.
He scooped her up, his arms snaking around her, one around her back and the other hooking under her knees to lift her up in his grasp. He carried her to her bed like a bride across the threshold, half naked in wet swimsuit bottoms. Someday he’d carry her into the home they made together. Someday he’d give her his last name and then carry her in his arms in a glittering white dress and lace veil. That day would be perfect, but right now, with her skin bare for him and her fingers tangled in his damp hair she was a vision that he knew he’d never forget. He laid her on the bed, her body settling against the innocent blue and yellow roses of her bedspread.
She was watching him, those sharp hazel eyes dark and wide with desire and she let her knees fall open, an invitation that he desperately wanted to take, but he wanted her to be ready, wanted to pull as much pleasure from her slender body as she could stand and leave her sated and drained.
“Not yet,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to her knee and nuzzling his face into her thigh.
“You keep saying that,” she protested.
“Almost,” he soothed. “I promise. I just need you to be ready for me.”
“I am ready,” she whined, shifting her hips toward him insistently.
“ Mia ,” he said, using the deep and firm tone that he knew she liked and waiting for her to be still before he spoke again. She needed to understand that he wanted to take things slowly and savor each inch of her skin.
“Your body isn’t ready,” he said when her hips had stopped wiggling, and he dropped a kiss to the mound where heat and wetness were already waiting for him. “But I’ll fix that, and I’ll make sure you like it.”
He skimmed his fingers down and over her thighs before he tugged her bottoms off, and her breath hitched in anticipation. He used his lips and his tongue to wring the first orgasm out of her, worshiping her with his mouth. All thought of convincing her to go slowly left his mind at the taste of her and he barely gave her time to come down before plunging his fingers into her, working her back into a frenzy as he stretched her, preparing her to take the rest of him until she was desperate and he clinging to his own self-control.
“Condoms?”
It was the last coherent thought he was capable of making as he settled himself between her thighs, the slick wet heat of her body so tantalizingly close, but he knew it mattered. She wasn’t on birth control yet and he was not going to ruin her, not going to risk it no matter how much he wanted to feel his bare skin slide against her cunt’s velvet grip.
Besides, it would probably help him last longer, anyway, and he didn’t want to disappoint her by ending things too soon. He was already teetering on the edge, his dick straining against the skin of her thigh.
A condom would help.
She tapped the drawer in the nightstand, and he leaned over to open it, propping himself up one elbow to peer down inside. The soft rumble of his laughter made her frown up at him and he kissed her forehead, unable to do anything else between the endless chuckles and the wave of love he felt for her.
She’d bought boxes of so many different sizes, colors, and flavors that the whole drawer was stacked full of them. Her skin was flushed pink all the way to the tops of her breasts, her face hot with embarrassment. “I didn’t know what kind to get.”
“You are perfect,” he told her, raining kisses across her face and then lingering over her mouth, nibbling softly on her swollen bottom lip. “You try so hard to always get everything right.”
“I wanted you,” she countered hotly. “I wasn’t going to risk not being able to do this because I bought the wrong one, so I bought one of each.”
“That poor cashier,” he said, his forehead resting on hers as he kissed her nose.
“Self-checkout,” she said primly.
“Right,” he said, shaking his head and kissing her again, hard and possessive, before digging back into the drawer to find something usable. He discarded the strawberry flavored and a box that looked as though its contents were meant to glow in the dark before finding the right thing. He tore it open, the gold packaging fluttering down to land on the floor as he rolled the condom on. She watched him carefully, studying his motions, and he suspected that she’d be asking to try it herself the next time.
He sucked in a deep breath when she reached her hand between them to slide her fingertips carefully over his length, experimentally testing the feel of the latex.
“It doesn’t hurt? Or bother you?”
“No,” he said, his hips bucking against her hand, seeking her touch.
“Okay,” she breathed, leaning up to kiss him, her lips lingering on his for a long moment. “Gabriel?”
“Now,” he agreed, already knowing what she was going to ask and realizing that there was nothing to stop him anymore from sinking into her.
“Finally,” she said, arching eagerly up to meet him as he pushed forward slowly. He’d done his best to prepare her, but he was bigger than anything she’d ever experienced before, and he was afraid of hurting her if he went too quickly.
He kissed her deeply as he rocked into her, each little thrust of his hips earning him a breathy moan from low in her throat and another inch of precious space inside her. She was ready enough that it surprised him how easily she took him in, how encouraging and pleased her little noises were.
He wanted to be soft, but she had no patience, her legs were twined around his waist and holding him close as she begged him for more and harder and deeper and he gave it to her because how could he not? He’d do anything for her with her face so gloriously flushed and her hair all sweaty and perfect little pink lips moaning his name.
There was nothing fake or polished about her, she was unashamed and greedy, and her perfect little tits bounced just right as he fucked into her, and he couldn’t believe that this was his life. That after everything he’d done and everything he’d seen, after he’d lived through Richard and Seth and that hellhole of a prison for thirteen years … that now he was here, and he was with her, and he was buried balls-deep in the hottest and most welcoming pussy he’d ever seen.
He didn’t think he’d ever understand how it was possible that this perfect woman loved him, that she wanted him, that she’d given him her heart with the same eager fervor as she was now giving him her body.
He could feel her getting closer as he drove into her, each snap of his hips pushing her nearer. She was clenching around him, her hands scrambling for something to hold onto as she dug her nails into his back.
“You’re so fucking pretty,” he said, watching her face as the words broke over. “So good. It’s so good that you can take all of me like this. Did you know that?”
She tossed her head back and forth on the pillows, a silent denial.
“I love you and I love this pretty little pussy and how good it feels,” he insisted, and she clenched around him, her body getting hotter and wetter with each bit of praise. He worked himself inside her, discovering the angles that made her arch and moan. He found all of her sensitive places and the perfect speed, grinding into her so that each thrust pushed him in as deeply as she could take him.
“Come for me,” he urged. He wanted it, wanted to feel her as she lost control, but more than that he knew that she wanted it. He could feel how close she was, how desperate.
She was tensing as she reached for it, trying to cross that final distance, and when he reached a hand between them to find the sensitive bud of her clit with his fingers, she came apart almost instantly.
The tight and rapid flutter of her body and the sound of her screaming his name as she came around him was enough to push him over the edge with her, his thrusts becoming erratic as he buried his face in the side of her neck and then drove in deep to spill himself inside her.
He held her there, both of them trembling and content as he pressed a line of kisses across her cheek and down her neck, until he began to soften inside her.
“Sorry,” he said, kissing her softly as he pulled out of her. “I have to take care of this.”
The confusion cleared from her face when she watched him roll out of bed and take the condom off.
“I’ll be back,” he promised, heading out into the hallway to dispose of it in the trash can as she waited for him, her chin propped up in her hand. There was a happy smile on her face and she hadn’t moved at all when he came back.
He flopped back in bed beside her and gave her a little smack on the ass. “Go pee,” he instructed, stopping her in the act of trying to curl back up against him.
“What? Why?”
“You just have to,” he explained. “It keeps you from getting UTI’s or whatever. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?”
She shook her head, shrugging as she got to her feet. “All we ever got was the abstinence talk, you know?”
“They really didn’t teach you shit about anything, did they?”
She shook her head ruefully. “But now I have you, so thank you for being so patient with me.”
“Mia.” He grabbed her hand as she walked by, not letting go until she stopped to look down at him. “There is nothing that I wouldn’t do for you. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me and I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she said, grinning down at him and kissing him quickly before disappearing into the bathroom.
He watched her go, admiring the curve of her naked ass as she went. She hadn’t been gone long when he heard the shower turn on and he leaned back against the pillows to wait for her.
He’d nearly dozed off, his body relaxed and his mind lost in a pleasant hum of love and post sex glow, when her phone on the nightstand began to buzz. He glanced at it—DAD—and thought about answering it. He couldn’t avoid the man forever, but the timing couldn’t possibly have been worse. Would her father be able to tell what he’d just been doing to her? Would he be able to detect the subtle signs of pure masculine satisfaction in his voice? Better not to risk it, he decided, setting the phone back down as he waited for Mia.
She would have to call him back, Gabriel knew. Call him back and reassure him that she was fine, that she hadn’t been hurt. She’d have to go back to school, maybe work if she still wanted to. She’d want to go back to church, and he didn’t know how to feel about that.
Everything in their little apartment was perfect but the real world was out there, and it wouldn’t wait for them forever, wouldn’t wait for Mia forever and she wouldn’t want it to. He’d been in prison where all he had was her, but she’d been out here living a full and happy life. She had friends, family, a faith that was important to her and he wasn’t sure suddenly how he would fit into that life, where there would be room for him beside all the other people that she loved.
She came back with a towel draped around her body and her wet hair brushed back away from her face. She looked happy and there was still a soft smile lingering at the corners of her mouth but he felt a hard knot of dread settle into the pit of his stomach.