Chapter 7
Tori
The book flopped onto my head after I released it, and I groaned in frustration.
Gabe was always reading books like that, telling me he liked to keep his focus on business even when he wasn’t at work.
It was one reason I didn’t mind that he often sat at his computer for hours reading articles and doing research.
At least that’s what I assumed he did since any time I checked on him when he was entrenched, there was always something business related on the screen.
“That bad?” he asked, taking the book from my face and checking out the source of my frustration. “Oh, bonds. Yup, those will get you every time.”
He dogeared the corner of my study guide, and I tried not to cringe at the mishandling of my book. Placing it on the coffee table, he added his own to the stack before looking at his watch.
“What do you say I take you out for dinner? Maybe the Italian place in the city?”
“Won’t it be busy?” I asked, stretching my arms out.
His hand smoothed over my stomach where my shirt rose, and goosebumps trailed it.
His touch was the death of me every time.
It had been a month since we first had sex, and every time was like the first, devastating and erotic.
But emotion clouded it the longer we dated, and there were times it was akin to making love, my heart and soul open for his taking.
“Nah. It’s a Sunday night and we’re past the dinner crowd.” He picked my legs up and scooted them off the couch, forcing my body into a sitting position. “Besides, your exam is in three days. You’ve taken every practice test and aced each one. I doubt bonds will cause you to fail.”
I rolled my eyes, but his look remained stern. “Fine, but I’m not dressed for a nice dinner.”
“Then we’ll stop at your place so you can change.
” He hopped up and headed to his room, pulling his T-shirt over his head.
I couldn’t help but ogle the muscles in his back.
He was just too sexy not to. He threw a look over his shoulder, giving me a smirk that told me he enjoyed busting me.
“Keep that up, Tori, and we won’t make it to dinner. ”
“Keep taking your clothes off and you won’t make it out of your room,” I yelled back after him. His chuckle was his only reply.
Standing, I stretched out my back and straightened my shirt.
Gabe returned a few minutes later, pulling on a green polo shirt that brought out the green hues in his hazel eyes.
He tucked his shirt into the pair of slacks he’d changed into before fixing his belt.
His thick auburn hair dusted his forehead, and I strolled over to him and swept it back as he lifted his eyes to mine.
Catching my hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed it.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, keeping it in his hold.
“How devastatingly handsome my boyfriend is. I’m not sure I want to share you with the world.”
His arm wrapped around my waist, and he brought me into his chest. “No sharing necessary. I’m all yours.”
He planted a kiss on my lips. Even now, a kiss from Gabe was never just a kiss. It was a time-stopping, earth-shattering moment, like something out of a romance novel. When he released me, I teetered, which only caused his grin to grow even more debilitating.
“Come on, before I decide I’m hungry for something else.”
Swooning had become the norm for me now, and I wasn’t sure I wanted it to go away. He strolled to the door, and I followed, about to walk out when he halted my steps. A nod to my feet had me looking down to see that my feet were still bare. That smirk was enough to break me.
“Helps to wear shoes,” he teased.
I tried to think of a witty comeback, but he had me too dazed, and after studying for the past two hours, my head was mush. Trudging back in, I grabbed my flip-flops and returned with a delayed response. “I thought you liked them bare.”
His body shook with his laughter. “That’s all you could think of? You’re off your game today, Tori.”
He held my purse out to me, something else I’d forgotten, and I snatched it from him, sticking my tongue out before walking past him. His laughter didn’t stop the entire way to the car.
I tried to pout on the way to my apartment, but it was too hard to be irritated with Gabe.
Within minutes he had me smiling again. By the time I’d run upstairs and changed, my cheeks hurt from the action.
He made me too happy to ever be mad at him.
Being with him was a constant state of bliss that I never wanted to fade.
When we pulled into a parking spot, he hopped out of the car, opened my door, and extended his hand. “We’re about thirty minutes early for our reservation,” he told me as he helped me from the car.
“I thought we didn’t need reservations?”
He shrugged. “I may have called while you were getting ready.”
The buzz of his phone distracted him, and he pulled it out of his pocket to look at it. A frown formed before he tucked the phone away.
“All good?” I asked.
It was strange for him not to answer a text.
His phone buzzed often, and a serious look would cast over his features while he read and replied.
He never talked about them, brushing them off as business, but I was growing curious about what kind of business meant texts on the weekend and at night.
If he hadn’t devoted his time entirely to me, I would have suspected another woman, but Gabe spent every waking free hour with me and, lately, his sleeping hours.
“Yeah, nothing important,” he answered, his brows knitted. “Let’s go down to the river while we wait.”
With a squeeze of my hand, his expression softened.
“That sounds good. Just like our first date.”
“And our first kiss,” he added, taking my mind back to that moment. My stomach somersaulted when I thought of how he’d told me he wanted to kiss me, then proceeded to leave me wrecked.
We walked in silence to the riverside, and I could see the text was still on his mind. The river was quiet, the lights reflecting in the calm water.
“Gabe,” I started, and he turned his gaze to me. “Is there something wrong? Something you’re not telling me?”
He stopped us and repositioned my body so I was facing him. Concern lined his eyes, and my fingers traced the creases it left.
His throat bobbed, and he took my hand in his. “There are things…things I haven’t told you. Some of which I can’t, not yet. But one day I will, I promise you.”
“I know you have secrets.” His cringe confirmed they were ones he would continue to hold on to. “And I’m okay with you keeping them if you must, but can you give me some hint? Some confirmation that you don’t have another family in Kansas you’re hiding from me?”
His head went back with a laugh that lasted until he took my face in his hands.
“I can promise you, there is no one but you, Tori. There isn’t room in my heart for anyone else because you take up every crevice.
” The air struggled to reach my lungs as he closed the remaining distance between us.
“I love you, Victoria Hent, and I never want to love another woman again. If you were to leave me today, I would continue to love you until the day my heart shrivels and dies.”
Tears pushed behind my eyes. He loved me. We had left the words unspoken. There had been moments and actions, a look in his eyes as he made love to me, but never had we spoken them.
A tear slid down my cheek, and he brushed it away. “Please don’t cry, luna mia. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
I sniffed and threw my arms around him. He held me close, his embrace warming my soul. “I love you, Gabe. From the moment you walked into that room with your flirty grin and sat next to me, I fell for you, and every day since, I’ve fallen deeper.”
Fingers in my hair, he brought my face to his. Hazel eyes left me breathless before his mouth crashed into mine with a kiss that seared a brand on my soul. Claiming me again and asserting ownership of the other half of it.
I clung to him, my emotions an erupting volcano I could no longer contain.
“Maybe we should skip dinner?” he asked, his lips seducing mine further.
No answer came. I was too caught up in the magic of the moment, the revelation of his confession, the strength of his hold. When I thought my body had gone too limp to stand, his lips drew away. Dragging his mouth over my forehead, he continued to hold me.
“Maybe we'll eat and save this for dessert,” I said, still panting.
His lips curved on my skin. “I like that idea, and I know exactly what I want to taste for my first dessert.”
Heat blossomed in my chest. “First?”
His kisses traced a path down my face. “Mm. First, I devour you. Second, I taste every inch of this tanned skin.” Fingers skimmed my arms, causing goosebumps to follow them. “And finally, I make love to you for the rest of the night.”
An exhale accompanied my shiver, and he smiled against my lips as he kissed me again.
He took my hands in his, resting his nose on mine. Amber eyes peered at me, and I could see his mind working.
“My sister,” he said.
Brows furrowed, I waited for more.
“That was the phone call. I told you we don’t get along.” He cleared his throat as he stepped from me, keeping my hand in his. “She’s on my case. Remember how I told you I invested most of the money from my trust fund?”
“Yeah.”
He tucked me into his side and started walking us back to the restaurant.
“Well, it was only a partial truth. We both invested the money in…” I could see him struggling to find the words and wondered why this was so hard for him.
His jaw clenched, that darkness that periodically surfaced overtook his eyes.
“…an investment to honor our mother. It causes friction sometimes, and she’s been on my case about it and other things. ”
I was trying to piece together why that would have been so hard to tell me, deciding he was still only giving me partial truths. There was more to it he wasn’t ready to divulge.
“Other things? Like me?” I wasn’t certain where the thought had come from, but his reaction confirmed it.
His head swiveled to me, his eyes so dark they almost looked chestnut.
They searched mine as his jaw ticked. He reminded me of one of those dark romance characters, and as out of character as it was, it fascinated me.
I wanted to know who that man was, the man he kept from me along with his secrets.
“Yes,” he admitted before looking away. “She doesn’t know about you. It’s better that way.”
“Why? What could possibly be so bad about me that you wouldn’t tell her about me?”
I pulled my hand from his and crossed my arms, stopping to await his answer.
An exasperated sigh came from him as he ran a hand through his hair. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he looked up at me, his eyes riven with pain, and my anger faded.
“Let me in, Gabe,” I said. “Please.”
He looked so torn that it was killing me. I wanted to take the burden from him, whatever that burden was that he didn’t think I could bear. Dropping my arms, I moved to him, tipping his chin up with my finger.
“I can’t. Not yet. Not until I figure this out.”
“What out?”
“Everything. My past isn’t as simple as yours, Tori. It’s…” He looked away, his brow pinched. “…complicated, and I’m not sure I can untangle it. But I’m trying.”
“These secrets you carry, are they dangerous?” I fought back my fear, praying I hadn’t fallen in love with a serial killer.
A tug at his lips told me I wasn’t even close to guessing. “No, nothing dangerous. Just personal and rife with…with lines. Some I drew, some others drew. And it's those lines that I have to untangle in order to keep you.”
My heart sputtered. “Keep me? Like you could lose me?”
“I…God, Tori, I can’t do this. We just confessed our love to each other. Let’s enjoy that and deal with this when I figure it out.”
“Gabe, you won’t lose me. Whatever you’re not telling me, I can handle it.”
He closed his eyes. “I know you can.” Opening them, he took my hand. “We’re going to lose our reservation.”
I studied him, seeing the resolve there. The conversation was over. He had shut it down, and he was asking me to let him. I did, even if it nudged at me the entire time we were at dinner.
As we lay in bed later that night, my head on his chest, his fingers stroking my hair, he murmured, “There’s a lot of pain in my past, Tori. My childhood wasn’t like yours.”
I picked my head up to look at him. He stared at the ceiling, his fingers continuing their pattern in my hair. Pain pinched his face, and guilt hammered me that I had pushed him too much.
Palming his cheek, I forced his eyes to mine. “I’m sorry I pushed,” I said. “I’m here when you’re ready, and I won’t love you any less if you’re not.”
The intensity of his gaze left me breathless as he pulled me in for a kiss.
It ignited a fire in me, and soon our kisses led to touches.
I climbed onto him, letting his hands work my body into a frenzy I couldn’t tame, and enveloped him.
The steel intensity of his gaze remained on me while he watched me fall apart.
Those hazel eyes were so full of adoration and love that I no longer cared that he held secrets from me.
All that mattered was Gabe and the way our bodies moved in tandem.
As he grew closer to release, he threaded his fingers into my hair, dragging my mouth to his.
My climax tore through me, eviscerating me just as he succumbed to his.
Filling me, he murmured, “Ti amo, luna mia.”
And I clung to those words and the emotion they held as I rode out the waves of my ecstasy and fell so far for him that I knew there was no going back, no matter what complications his secrets held.