Chapter 8
chapter
eight
Stella
D id I fall asleep on the mega-celebrities’ couch while they chitchatted about some old movie? Yes. Undoubtedly yes. I was tired, for one thing, and my head hurt enough that I firmly believed sleep was the only cure.
Strong, warm arms scooped me up, rousing me from my rest slightly and I groaned as the daggers through my brain lit up once more.
“Where’re you takin’ me?” I mumbled, not really putting up much of a fight because…brain daggers.
“Bed,” Gem responded, his deep voice like a soothing balm as he carried me. “But you can’t go to sleep, okay? You’ve definitely got a concussion so you need to stay awake.”
I scoffed lightly, not bothering to open my eyes. “Now I know for sure you don’t have a medical degree. That’s total bullshit, and it’s been proven that sleep is actually the best thing for the brain to heal.”
His soft laughter was like a warm blanket wrapping around my cold body. “Well, you’re not slurring your words so that has to be progress.”
My reply was just a huff as I snuggled my face into his chest. Fuck he was sexy. Why did I sneak out in the dead of the night again?
Gemini carried me up a flight of stairs, then gently laid me down in a huge bed that smelled strongly of cedarwood, clove, and patchouli. It smelled of Gem.
“Am I in your bed, Gemini Harrison?” I mumbled, trying to get comfy and regretting the waitress uniform I wore for the party.
He hummed a sound of confirmation as his hand stroked down the bare length of my leg. Just as I started to think he was instigating sex, he began unlacing my boot. Oh yeah. Shoes in bed wasn’t the best idea.
“You are in my bed, Slick. Is that a problem?”
No. But I was curious and wanted to tease him a bit. “Don’t you have guest rooms in this fancy mansion?”
Another of those low, soft chuckles that made my insides tighten. “We do, actually. Several guest rooms.”
“Mmhmm,” I murmured as he tugged my boot off, then moved to the other one. “Then why am I in your bed, Gem?”
He didn’t answer as he unlaced my second boot, then tugged it free. His long fingers wrapped around my foot and his thumb rubbed my arch in the most delicious way. “Because I want you to be, Slick.”
“Oh,” I replied, a little at a loss for what to say back to that. I wasn’t used to men being so… secure .
Gem rubbed my feet a moment, then got up with a sigh. “I’m going to grab you a T-shirt, all right? You can’t sleep in that.”
I snuggled my face deeper into his pillow, inhaling his scent. “I thought I wasn’t allowed to sleep?”
He laughed again. “I thought I wasn’t a doctor? Stay awake a little longer, though. I want to make sure you’re comfortable.”
I didn’t do as I was told, drifting back to sleep and needing Gem to wake me up in order to change out of my blouse and skirt and into the soft, oversized hockey jersey he’d picked out.
“Am I allowed to sleep now?” I grumbled once he’d tucked me in. “I feel like I got the crap beaten out of me tonight.”
He exhaled heavily, his lips brushing my wrist in the ghost of a kiss. “Yeah, you can sleep. I think once those painkillers kick in, you should be feeling a lot better.”
He started to stand up, but I grabbed his wrist to stop him from leaving just yet. “Thanks, Gem,” I whispered, my eyes just barely open to see him. “I owe you one. And probably owe Olivier at least two for saving my life.”
His brow furrowed a moment, then he kissed the inside of my wrist this time. The warmth of his lips left a brand behind. “No thanks necessary…though I would take your name if you’re willing to offer it.”
A startled laugh burst out of me, and I instantly groaned at how it hurt my head. But still… “You don’t remember my name? I’m so fucking insulted.” And yet I was struggling to contain my laughter.
“You never told me,” he responded with a touch of outrage.
I grinned, letting my eyes shut fully. “Oh well. G’night, Gemini.”
His frustrated sigh amused me to no end. “Sweet dreams, Slick.”
Despite the heaviness of my eyes, I didn’t expect to drop right into sleep. Yet the next time my eyes opened, time had definitely passed. My bladder protested, demanding attention.
Lifting my head, I found Gem sprawled next to me, sound asleep. While he was close enough for his heat to warm me, he wasn’t touching me. Hushed twilight draped the space. The blinds were closed, along with the curtains. A soft light shone from within the bathroom. The dim glow but a glow nonetheless.
The soft light was enough to let me make out the shapes in the room. Easing out of the bed, I made a beeline for the bathroom. The ache in my head had improved. I tested the knot on the back of my skull and grimaced. That still sucked and it hurt when I messed with it.
Right, don’t touch it, idiot . The mental castigation made me smile. After I peed, I washed my hands and then got a drink. My throat ached but it wasn’t too bad. At least my larynx wasn’t crushed. On quiet feet, I drifted back into Gem’s bedroom.
I debated searching for my clothes, then slipping out before he woke. I hadn’t wanted to leave with Olivier in the first place. I knew they were friends but I hadn’t expected them to be sharing a house.
Gem being here had been a blessing and a curse. Then he’d also been so damn gentle. His probe for my name and reaction to me teasing him had also been funny. Instead of getting dressed and leaving, I was staring down at Gem’s sleeping form and imagining all the ways I could wake him up.
Running my tongue over my lower lip, I closed my eyes. You should leave. Get your shit and go. Nothing good can come from waking him up.
I almost snorted at myself.
Okay, yes, I can definitely come and he’d make sure too. The man had a gift. Still a bad idea.
Despite already being on the losing side of that debate, I ticked off a few more reasons to not wake him up. None of them competed with the one pressing reason coiling tighter and tighter inside of me.
I wanted to wake him up.
I wanted him .
That night at the club had had nothing to do with work and everything to do with him. Did I sell those pictures? Yes. Did I plan them? No. Right now, I didn’t have a single camera on me. I wasn’t even sure where my phone was…
Gripping the hem of the hockey jersey he’d dressed me in, I whipped it off. I shed the bra and panties right behind it before I slid back beneath the covers.
The sheets were silky soft, and it was warmer closer to him not that I’d noticed the chill. As I eased over to him, he let out a little sound in his sleep and shifted. I went still as he turned toward me and wrapped an arm around me.
I waited to see if the skin-on-skin contact would wake him, but his low, slow breaths didn’t shift. He was well and truly out. As much as I wished it were brighter in here so I could study him more, I savored the intimacy of being wrapped up close under the blankets and surrounded by our own bubble of darkness.
Just us. No one else. Not the fans, the tabloids, or even just the public to come between us. I traced my fingers over his pec. If I recalled, there was a tattoo just beneath his fourth or fifth rib, with a line of dialogue or a quote scrawled there in text.
I hadn’t gotten a chance to read it. Frankly, I’d been too busy feeling him to be looking at him. With a series of gentle kisses, I worked my way down his chest to his abdomen. The waistband of soft shorts. They’d dragged lower on his hips and left me his adonis belt to explore with my fingers.
The peak of his erection was right there as I nudged the waistband lower. It wasn’t quite fully hard yet, but the semi stiffened as I wrapped my fingers around him. One stroke from root to tip and back again.
He was every bit as thick and heavily veined as I recalled. A low sound vibrated in his throat as he stretched under my light touch. The heat of his leg against my breasts was a light tease but not like the way his scent filled my nostrils.
There was a muskiness but also a clean, almost woodsy scent to him. Maybe it was the room or the sheets or like when he brought me in here and the combination reminded me of him —it was just Gem.
The languidness in his muscles only lasted until I wrapped my mouth around the tip of his cock. The slow dip and shallow thrusting motion stiffened him gradually. The weight of him on my tongue accompanied by the low sounds he released fueled my motions.
With a stroke of my hands over his thighs, I nudged them wider and slid over so I was more firmly between them. The angle worked better. The chiseled strength of his muscles were a delight to explore even as he pressed deeper into my throat.
I checked the motion with care, not wanting to gag or hurt my throat. Thankfully, swallowing around him was more of a delight than a pain. Oral sex wasn’t for everyone, but I enjoyed it—with the right partner.
Gem was very much that partner. He’d gone down on me more than once. It was nice to savor the corded muscle in his body as tension began to radiate through him. A harsh inhale almost made me smile.
“Slick?” The sleepy voice vibrated with a kind of husky need. It had me rubbing my own thighs together. The man had a voice that was sex on a stick, and right now, I very much wanted to ride that stick.
That said, I wanted to do this too. At the question in his words, I rolled my tongue around the tip before stroking it along the underside of his cock and taking him deeper.
“Holy fuck,” he groaned. “Slick…if this is a dream, don’t wake me up.”
A laugh shook me at the demand and plea rolled into one. His breathing came in sharper, little puffs. I could almost imagine the surprise on his face. He did like it when I shocked him, right?
Delight curved through me when he threaded his fingers into my hair. He fisted it but not to pull or jerk. Instead he just held on and let me set the pace. I caressed his hips and when he thrust upward, I stroked my thumbs in circles.
“Fuck,” he swore, but I pressed my face all the way to his abdomen, settling my nose to his skin and then pulling all the way back. Relaxing my mouth, I held just there with his tip on my tongue.
Light teasing strokes of my nails raised goose bumps along his skin. His hand flexed in my hair and then he gave a tug toward him as he thrust, and I took him all the way to the throat again.
His next words came out a garbled groan. Pleasure flushed through me as I focused on rolling my tongue around his head, then stroking the hot, velvety skin at the base with my fingers.
Each teasing lick or firm caress earned me more groans until it became an entire litany of them. His muscles tensed and his feet were flat against the bed even as he seemed in a fight to keep his thighs open. Despite his hand in my hair, he didn’t hurry me along, only tugged me back whenever I lingered overlong on the tip of his cock.
Was I doing that to tease him mercilessly?
Maybe a little.
I indulged myself again and again. There was just something so decadent about exploring his every reaction and a man who wasn’t remotely opposed to revealing them. I slid my hand under to his balls as he began to shake, massaging them lightly. The harsh, little explosions of breath and the trembling in his thighs and abdomen told me everything I hadn’t realized I needed to know.
Ceasing playtime, I went in avid pursuit of his pleasure by increasing the pace and the pressure while still stroking his balls. His strangled “Slick” was the only warning received as he released the first spurt of cum. I swallowed around him again and took him deep as more spurts joined the first.
The bitter and salty taste was heavy on my tongue, and the rich scent of him filled my nostrils. His hand flexed in my hair as he gave an involuntary jerk with his hips. I stuck with him, breathing through my nostrils as I swallowed every drop, then added more teasing strokes as I licked him clean.
Smugness filled me as I released him with a little pop. There was something altogether heady about his reactions. Then he hauled me upward, abandoning any pretense of my control. His mouth fused with mine as he tumbled me onto my back.