Chapter 29 #2
His eyes heat, slow, deliberate, claiming. “Wear what you did that night,” he says, stepping closer, his voice dropping to something that vibrates through me. “I know where to take you.”
A spark ignites low in my stomach. His certainty. His tone. The promise in his eyes.
I can’t help the slow smile that tugs at my lips. “Well,” I say, feeling my pulse climb, “this already sounds fun.”
And his answering smirk? It tells me ‘fun’ isn’t remotely the word for what he has planned.
Dressed and with a bright smile on my face, I enter our living room, where Gabriel is waiting. “Matching looks. I never thought of that.” I chuckle. Gabriel looks dashing in his black jeans and black shirt under his leather jacket. And those biker boots are just perfect.
“Ready?”
I nod and smile. Gabriel takes my hand and leads me toward the elevator. I lean against the elevator wall, ignoring Gabriel’s sidelong glances, and watch the numbers descend until we’re in the underground garage.
I follow Gabriel between the cars until we reach where my bike is parked. I smile. “Are we taking bikes?”
He smirks and reaches for my helmet before placing it over my head. “No, I’m taking my bike.” He motions to his black custom-made Ninja Kawasaki. My eyes widen, and my mouth opens. “And I’m taking you on a drive.”
I walk to the bike, my eyes inspecting it. “Oh my God, yes. I’ve wanted to get on that baby for a long time.”
He chuckles, passing me a helmet, and hops on the bike, revving it.
The engine growls beneath us, a deep, hungry sound that vibrates up through my legs and settles in my chest like a second heartbeat.
Gabriel leans forward, gripping the handlebars.
My hands slide around his torso, and his heat seeps into my palms, steady and grounding.
I press closer, fitting my body to his. This feels perfect, like we were made for this.
Gabriel speeds through the city, wind whips against my face, and I barely appreciate the sights we pass as we ride in the warmth of the early night. With every curve he turns, my stomach flips with anticipation that I’m going to tell him the extent of my engagement with Mario, and it hits me.
Freedom.
This is what it feels like. Free from secrets, from holding back.
No more suffocating walls, just an opening for new beginnings.
His hand drops briefly to my thigh, steady and sure, a wordless reminder that I’m not alone on this ride as we ride up somewhere near the mountains and the Hudson River.
This is ours. This road, this moment, this reckless, beautiful leap toward our future.
A new adventure.
A new beginning.
Gabriel parks the bike near a small restaurant with a view of the river.
Somewhere in the middle of our meal, I glance at Gabriel and open my heart to him.
“I was a bargaining chip to my father. Well, me and my sister.” He glances at me over his drink.
“Mario’s father is one of the five influential families my father had support from.
With a rise in the newer generation who wanted changes, he needed to secure his power and position.
” I take a sip of my drink before I continue.
I lower my eyes to my plate and play with my food.
“So, my father agreed to sell me to the highest bidder. The irony is that my father knew very well what kind of man Mario is, and he still agreed.”
Gabriel’s low and sharp voice cuts the silence as I search for the words to continue the story. “What has he done?”
I raise my eyes to meet his. “Mario is a sadist.” I inhale sharply.
“On the day of our engagement, he made sure I played by his rules, or he would hurt Chiara. So, I played by the rules.” My gaze slips back to my plate.
The only thing saving me was that he didn’t have time for me other than when we needed to be seen together.
” I look to my side where the sun is setting.
“There is nothing worse than being slapped and almost choked to death on your engagement night, other than knowing your future father-in-law is a creep who touched you when you were twelve and was going to share you with his son as if you were a piece of meat.”
A low, lethal growl rumbles out of Gabriel. “That son of the bitch.” I turn toward him; the way his jaw clenches could break bone. “I swear, if I could drag him back from the grave, I’d kill him again… slower. I’d make him choke on every second he ever made you suffer.”
Heat curls through me at the violence in his voice.
“I was plotting against them for a long time,” I admit, a dark smile slipping onto my lips.
“I played the long game. A year of pretending. A year of collecting proof piece by piece.” My eyes lock onto his, matching his fury with my own.
“When I leaked everything to the media, it was over. Cops were useless; they owned half of them. But the press?” I smirk.
“Uncontrollable. Corrupt men like him can’t survive daylight. ”
Gabriel’s chest rises, slow and dangerous. “And you did all of that alone.”
“I did what I had to do,” I say, lifting my glass, my pulse steady. “Running wasn’t an option. Revenge is slow and precise, and I made sure they felt every second of it. Now, they’re locked away, and they’re not stepping foot outside those bars again.”
His brows draw together, fury simmering under the surface. “Now I know what they’ve done, I wish I could punish them myself. Prison is a luxury for scum like them.” Something in his expression shifts, rage sharpening into something deeper, darker. His eyes hold mine. “So, it all started with you?”
I shrug like it’s nothing, even though my blood hums at the pride in his voice. “Who else was going to end them? Certainly not the men too scared to touch them.”
His eyes blaze. Controlled. Dominant. Possessive.
“You’re extraordinary,” he says, low and certain.
“And now I know what they did to you…” He leans in, his warmth eclipsing everything else.
“I can’t erase those memories, but I sure as hell can burn new ones over them.
Ones filled with power, loyalty… love. You and me building something no one can ever touch.
” His voice drops even lower, tipping into a threat.
“And one thing I swear on my blood: your father and that bastard will regret every breath they wasted hurting you. I’ll make sure of that. ”
The promise in his tone is deadly.
And everything inside me answers it like a spark hitting gasoline.
“This is the second time tonight that you’ve avoided high places.” I turn toward Gabriel, who is referring to his failed attempt to get me to walk the walkway over the Hudson. “Is this why I never see you near a window? Why do you always avoid coming near them?”
“Well, I don’t have anything against high places per se. I just don’t like looking down and not seeing the ground.”
“It's the same thing.”
I purse my lips. I want to argue, but he has a point. “I’m going to change,” I say and escape.
I don’t want to think about other fears. I want to stay in Gabríel’s bubble, where everything is perfect. Where he understands me and assures me that I did the right thing.
I change into a sleep shirt before returning to the living room. I look around, but Gabriel is nowhere to be found.
I edge toward the end of the sofa, as I usually do.
I watch the light illuminating the sky, where I can see only the top of each skyscraper.
I’ve gotten used to the view, and as long as I don’t look down, I’m good.
I close my eyes and inhale and exhale when Gabriel sneaks up behind me and places a silk cover over my eyes.
“Shhh. Don’t,” he whispers in my ear as I reach for his hand. “I’m going to cover your eyes. I want you to feel something other than fear.”
I nod and bite my lip as he binds the silk over my eyes. He takes my hand and leads me forward, into the unknown. My bare feet tap on the floor, giving me security that there is ground under my feet. When we stop, his arms embrace me.
“How about we finish what we started? I didn’t have my dessert.” He kisses my neck, and his hand pulls off my shirt. With my shirt off, his hands wander over my body. My head falls onto his chest, and I surrender to his touch, to lust and want.
He turns me around, and his lips take mine in a deep kiss. I grab his neck and pull him toward me, molding my body to his. I let out a sound of disapproval as he pulls away, I fell him sinking onto his knees, and pulls down my panties before his tongue dives into my pussy.
My hands search for something to hold, and I grasp Gabriel’s head for support. He takes my leg and puts it over his shoulder as his tongue explores my pussy.
He licks and sucks, driving me to the edge, and my head falls back. My muscles press together, pending a release, a release that never comes because he pulls away. I exhale a huff just as he pushes two fingers inside me and slowly pulls them out, and I moan.
“Perfect,” he says. “Fucking delicious.” I hear the smacking of his lips as he pulls his fingers out of his mouth. “Your cunt tastes better than any dessert, and you didn’t even come for me.” Once again, he pushes his fingers inside me. I moan as he fucks me with his fingers, enjoying the torment.
“Do you want to come?”
“Yes,” I moan.
“What do you say?”
“Please, Daddy. Make me come.”
He grumbles and pushes me backward, my hands landing on cold glass, and my heart racing as his lips suck on my clit, and I gasp.
My head falls onto the glass as he sucks my clit while he fucks me with his fingers, and all I can think about is the sensation between my legs.
The tingling feeling overtakes my body, and I push on the glass until I lose all sense of where I am while I come all over his fingers and tongue.
He doesn’t let me recover because he’s already on his feet and I hear him unbuckling his pants. He wraps my legs around his waist and pushes inside me. “Fuck! So tight.”
I moan at the sensation, and my head tips back, hitting the glass behind me.
He pulls out and slams back in, fucking me brutally.
My back hits the glass, my head shifting, causing the blindfold to slip from my head.
Darkness gone, I can see light at my side, and I don’t even care anymore as I lose myself in the frenzy.
I moan and pull on his hair as his lips leave bruises on my neck and breasts.
Fear mixes with sensation, and my stomach dips.
I don’t even complain when he pulls out and flips me around before he slams into me from behind.
He takes my hands and places them over my head, pressing my upper body against the glass.
His lips kiss and lick my neck, and my head falls back. My muscles contract, and I can feel the urgency in his body as he fucks me. I feel the tension and tingling, and then he whispers in my ear, “Open your eyes, doll. Open them and see the beauty of being fucked in the sky.”
I obey, and the thought that there’s no ground now doesn’t seem as scary. Instead of fear, excitement overwhelms me as I take in the tilting city beneath me, where the streets seem both endless and dangerously close. I come as Gabriel pumps his release inside me.
For the first time, I watch the beauty of the skyline of the city that never sleeps.
The city stretches below in dizzying detail, streets carving the skyline into grids, cars no bigger than ants, their headlights flickering like restless fireflies.
Now that I’m here and looking down, it doesn’t seem that scary.
Maybe because the glass is keeping me from falling, but that’s something I plan to find out some other time.
Gabriel covers my body and embraces me from behind. “What are you thinking about?”
I smile. “I’m not sure if I’m in shock, delusion, or if I’m afraid to move from here. And the fact that anyone could see us should get me running from the window, yet I can’t move.”
“You can test that theory anytime you want. As for being seen, well, not many could have. Think of it as a little show, something to give you a thrill. Unless there is a voyeur out there with his binoculars, having the time of their life.”
I turn slightly and look at him with wide eyes.
“That is terrifying,” I say and turn my attention back to the velvet sky.
My chest expands with satisfaction. I’m proud that I’m still standing here.
How did I miss seeing all this beauty? I relax into his arms until my lids start to close, and I can feel myself falling into Gabriel.
“Come. Let’s go to bed. Tomorrow is a new day.”
I sleep in his arms with all the weight gone from our chests and a new day to look forward to.