Chapter 10
ABEL
“Fucking hell,” Peris mutters from beside me, head dropping back between his shoulders, and I can’t help the small chuckle that escapes.
“Gabriel,” I acknowledge him, face flushing when I realize I’m naked, apart from the fucking skirt still around my hips, with cum now leaking out of me and down my thighs. Oh, this is humiliating—and humbling. And probably many more things I don’t have the vocabulary for.
“What the hell is going on?” he demands, hands on his hips, and I smirk, despite everything. Same ol’ Gabe.
“Well, you see, when two people who like to fuc—” Peris reaches over and slaps his hand over my mouth with a loud clap, effectively cutting off my words. I puff my lips out in a pout—not that anyone can see it, but I can feel his skin against mine, and that’s more than good enough for me.
Peris hisses at the sensation, and I feel him tense, but he doesn’t move his hand.
In fact, he has stepped closer and is practically in front of me now, body twisted to keep touching me.
And like the brat I am, I flick my tongue out and swipe dried cum from him with a devious little grin that he can see in my eyes.
Peris inhales sharply through his nose and jerks his hand back. “Do you fucking mind?”
“No, actually. I quite like it.”
“Jesus, you’re still such a fucking brat,” he snaps, and I smirk, lips twisting.
“Would you expect anything different from me?”
“I would expect you to learn some fucking—”
“Can you please get dressed?” Gabe calls out—loudly. “I cannot listen to this while you’re both standing there naked as fuck, knowing you just fucked because I can see things,” he hisses, and when I catch his eyes, I notice his brown skin is flushed brightly, making my smirk widen.
“Why, Gabriel, are you blushing right now?” I muse, and Peris stiffens.
“Abel, shut the fuck up.”
“Now, why—” Fingers wrap around my throat, cutting me off with a small squeak, and I hear Gabriel gasp from behind us, but it’s all lost in a haze as Peris backs me against the bed until my knees hit the mattress and I fall on my ass.
He leans over me and brushes his nose against mine, our eyes millimeters apart.
“You never did learn to shut your pretty little mouth, did you, baby?”
“No,” I croak through his hold, which hasn’t loosened.
“Mmm. Didn’t think so.” He works his jaw, the muscles tensing and bunching rapidly.
His fingers splay over my neck, just under my necklace, spreading down toward my chest and along my collarbone in a possessive hold, before closing tightly together just under my jaw, which he tilts upward until my neck aches from the angle.
Peris drags his mouth over mine, but it’s not a kiss. In fact, it’s anything but, with the teeth and tongue he scrapes across my lips.
It’s something disgustingly possessive, and it makes my stomach churn in anticipation because what the fuck?
“Get dressed,” he hisses into me, squeezing for a moment before releasing me and shoving me toward the bathroom, clothes now in hand. I stumble on my way but follow the path and let the door close softly behind me.
Peris and Gabriel’s voices are a soft hum on the other side of the door, but I can’t focus on them because I’m stuck on my reflection in the mirror.
Abel Silver stares back at me, and for the first time in years, he looks alive. Marked and possessed and taken. And I know it won’t last. The bruises will fade—as will my time with Peris. I’ll go back to what I’ve been doing, and my life will go on as it has, but fuck, what a trip this has been.
It’s gone better than I ever could’ve imagined, seeing him again.
I didn’t think it would ever be a possibility…
and on the off-chance it ever did, I thought he’d hate me too much to ever—I cut the thought off with a shuddering breath, sucking it in with my hands on the edge of sink, head dropped between my shoulders.
I dig my nails into the smooth material of the countertop, relishing in the pressure of something so sturdy…
something unbreakable beneath my fingers.
I had to leave. I don’t know if he knows that, but I did. With Lucy pulling her shit and the way Adam was… I just couldn’t deal with it all anymore, and it was better to just get out than to try and fight something that was inevitable.
I didn’t see any other way, but I don’t know if he knows that. If he even cares to know that.
I should’ve said something, I know that. But… if I did, I wouldn’t have been able to leave him or Elise. They were good to me. Good for me. And leaving them was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I’ve always put myself first, and that has never changed.
I’m selfish down to my very core.
Shouting from the other side of the door yanks me out of my head, and I jerk away from the counter, face flushing.
I avoid my own gaze in the mirror as I pull my clothes back on—which happens to be my shirt and socks.
I do my best to clean the dried cum from my skin, but there’s not much I can do about what’s still leaking from inside of me and what’s staining my skirt, so with a shrug and a deep breath that doesn’t do shit to help me feel better, I yank open the door to find Peris dressed in a pair of basketball shorts slung low on his chiseled hips and Gabe sitting in a chair across from where he’s pacing back and forth.
“Abel, how interesting it is to see you here,” Gabriel says when I step into the main area, and I snort.
“Yeah, I’m sure it is, Gabriel.” I cross my arms over my chest, feeling defensive all of a sudden. My hair sticks to the back of my sweat-slick neck as they both stare at me without saying much of anything else. “What?” I snap.
“Your shirt is on inside out,” Gabe says after a moment, and I flush hotly.
“Oh. Thanks,” I mutter and yank it over my head and fix it before pulling it back on. When I straighten it back out, I find both of them staring at me, Peris glaring and Gabriel amused. “What?”
“Was that fucking necessary?” Peris snaps.
“Yes?” I drawl. “The fuck’s your problem?”
“Gabe doesn’t need to see you like that.”
And that’s when it hits me. The realization has a smirk tugging at my lips, and Gabe groans and drags a hand down his face.
“Leave me out of this.”
“Oh, no, you’re so involved in this. Peris doesn’t think you need to see me without my shirt, even though he has no fucking claim over me.”
“I didn’t fucking say that—”
“Yes, you did.”
“You kinda did, buddy, sorry.”
“Whose fucking side are you on, anyway?” Peris snaps, and I laugh loudly.
Gabriel throws his hands up. “Sorry! Sorry. I’m just saying.”
“You act like I’ve ever had a claim on you, Abel,” Peris says, startling me and, apparently, himself with the statement. We stare at each other, his mouth hanging open slightly and mine pinched tightly shut.
“That’s not fair.”
“No. What’s not fair is you leaving me.”
“Ohhh… kay… I’m gonna leave now,” Gabe blurts loudly and practically runs out of the room, the door clicking shut softly behind him.
Peris’s chest is heaving, and my own is tight, each breath constricted as the weight of his words settles upon us. We stare at one another, the weight of too many truths and even more lies wrapped like vices around us, asphyxiating.
My heartbeat is thunderous in my ears, washing out nearly everything else, but when he speaks, I hear him clear as day.
“What? Nothing to say to me?”
“Fuck you,” I rasp, none of my usual venom lacing my words. Peris laughs haughtily but quietly. Choking.
I hate it.
“Yeah. Fuck me, Abel,” he says softly and turns his back on me. He drags his fingers through his hair and yanks harshly. “Fuck me.”
My phone vibrating on the floor startles me, and my gaze darts down to it. I wonder how many times it’s gone off… how long it’s even been. It’s pitch black outside now. If we weren’t in the city, I bet I’d be able to see the stars. Maybe they’d even give me a reason, but no.
Not tonight.
“I should probably…”
“Yeah,” Peris laughs, and it’s dry. Humorless and hopeless. “You probably should.”
I swallow heavily as I walk toward my phone like it’s a bomb that could go off at any moment. Tick, tick, tick.
It’s two A.M., and there are only three missed calls from Harvey, but that’s more than enough to tell me I’ve fucked up. I probably just lost myself one of my best clients…
I swallow heavily as I stare at my screen before locking it and pressing it against my chest. Scrunching my eyes shut for a moment, I replay the night. Seeing Peris again, his hands on my body, touching me again, after all these years…
Yeah, I decide with a finality that won’t be swayed.
It was worth it—even if I never see him again.
He’ll always be worth every fuck up I make.
When I glance up through my lashes at him and catch the shadows in his eyes, I nearly break. Fuck, I hate him.
I don’t know what possesses me, but I walk to the little table beside the bed, where there’s a notepad, and I scribble my number on it and shove it away with an irritated huff, frustrated I just did what I did—and it’s not even the number I use for clients.
It’s my real phone number. You fucking idiot.
With that, I make my way toward the door without looking back. I can’t look at him because if I do, if I see the regret in his eyes, I’ll wanna kill myself, and I can’t feel like that… not tonight…
“Abel.”
I stop in my tracks, my name on his tongue the best thing I’ve heard in years. I cock my head to the side to let him know I’m listening, but I keep my lips firmly sealed, lest I say something stupid.
“You should’ve stayed gone.”
His words pierce through the thick muscle of my heart, and I inhale sharply through my nose, eyes stinging instantly. I keep my eyes wide as I stare straight ahead at my escape, just mere feet away, but the heat of his body, so close behind me, keeps me in place.
Choking on the truth, I rasp, “I’ve always been here, you know. You just couldn’t see me.” And with that, I step out into the hallway to make my way to Harvey’s room, each step weighed down by a new kind of pain I can’t name.
“Where on Earth have you been? I was worried—Oh.”
“I’m sorry,” I blurt, face heating with shame. I know I look a mess. You can tell what I’ve been doing. What’s been done to me just by looking at me.
“You got fucked,” Harvey says bluntly as I let the door close softly behind me. I flush from head to toe as I stand before him. I shift back and forth on my feet but stop almost immediately because I can feel the dried cum between my ass cheeks and well…
“Yes,” I tell him because what’s the point in lying now?
“Why?” he asks, walking into the suite and pouring himself a drink. He offers one to me, and I take it with a grateful, if unsure, smile.
“Um…” I trail off, staring at the wall behind his head.
“Honesty, please, Oliver,” he says softly before taking a long drink from his glass. I watch him swallow, his salt-and-pepper-dusted throat bobbing. I take a drink myself, wincing at the burn.
“Saw an ex,” I grit. “Didn’t end well between us, and we got caught up in something messy tonight.”
Harvey’s eyebrows raise, and he nods. “Ah. That is understandable.”
“Is it?” I blurt, unsure what the hell is going on.
“Sure it is. You’re young… young love and all of that. I can only imagine the hormones raging through that lovely little body of yours right now…” he drawls, looking me up and down pointedly, and I’m no fucking saint, but I blush profusely.
“Yes…”
“Was it to your satisfaction?” he asks, a coy smirk playing on his lips.
“What?” I splutter on my drink, coughing as my blush spreads throughout my body. Or maybe it’s the alcohol, who knows.
“Did he satisfy you?”
“He always does,” I retort without thinking and then wince, thinking that maybe I should’ve lied…
“Good. As he should.” Harvey downs the rest of his drink and sets the glass down with a soft clink before turning his back on me and untucking his shirt from his pants.
“Wait… I’m confused.”
“About what, darling?”
“Aren’t you going to, I don’t know, kick me out? Send me home?” I ask, arms crossed in defense. The cum is itchy, and I want to shower, but I can’t let my guard down.
“Do you wish to go home?”
“Well…” My brows furrow. “Not really, but I thought since…”
“Since I paid you to be here and you fucked someone else that I would be mad?”
Well, when you put it like that… “Yes.”
“Darling… I’m not possessive. I know what you do for work. I’m glad you are satisfied, and you look… well. You look well fucked, if I’m being blunt. And that makes me happy.”
“But I took your time away from you,” I say, even more confused. Who even is this guy?
“Be that as it may, there’s nothing that can be done about it now.
How about you make it up to me in the shower?
” he suggests, lifting a graying brow, and I watch him for a moment, eyes trailing over every inch of his face, checking for any insecurity, any lie, any false promise.
But I don’t find anything but genuine truth.
“What a strange man,” I muse quietly to myself, not having realized I’ve been heard until he responds.
“Why, thank you, darling.”
I flush hotly as I follow Harvey into the bathroom. “I am so sorry…”
“Don’t be.” He chuckles deeply, and I shudder as he starts the shower to warm the water, both of us dropping our clothes to the floor in soft piles.
“I wasn’t trying to be rude.”
“I know.”
“I just don’t understand…” I mutter as I step into the hot spray and move aside for him to join me.
“There’s nothing to understand, baby. Let’s just shower and get some rest. I’d like to hold you as I sleep. How does that sound?”
I smile up at him, blinking rapidly as little bits of water jump across my face. “That sounds really nice. Thank you.”
Harvey smiles softly back and lathers soap in his hands and begins washing my back. “You’re welcome.”
A night with Peris ending with Harvey’s arms wrapped around me…
What an absolute mind fuck.