Chapter 47
chapter forty-seven
gabe
Cesar
Congratulations on your office, Gabriel! We all are proud of you
Gabe
Thanks, Pai. Send my regards to everyone.
Cesar
Call me later? With Luna
Gabe
Don’t act like you don’t just want to talk to her.
Cesar
Oops.
I looked up from my phone and said to the woman I loved, “My father has a crush on you.”
Tearing her eyes away from the display wall she’d been arranging over the last hour, Luna smiled wryly. “At least your dad likes me. I’m not sure mine likes me very much.”
“Your dad loves you, Luna. I think he just doesn’t know how to express it.”
He’d texted her a simple “Sorry, Luna. I’ll do better,” a week after that fateful call. The following week, I listened in the background as they had another family catchup, though her dad had been quieter than before. When I spoke with Tala, she told me how their dad had been feeling low and had asked her for advice on how to fix things with Luna.
Over the last two months, he texted Luna weekly. The messages were brief, but they were consistent. He didn’t say a lot, but he was trying.
Luna sighed. “I’d rather talk about your dad.”
“I suppose he has good taste.”
“You had to inherit it from someone, right?” She rounded my desk and leaned against the edge of it, facing me.
“Don’t start.”
“I mean, you got your looks from him too.”
I groaned. “Never tell him that. His ego is big enough already.”
“Now that I think about it, you do take after him a lot.” Her words ended on a squeal as I aimed for the spot near the center of her ribs where she was most ticklish. “Just for that, I am telling your dad.”
I’d introduced the two of them via video call last month, and it came as no surprise that Luna charmed him right away. My father was already sold on her from knowing she had encouraged me to visit him, but after she complimented his tattoos, he was enamored—so much that he’d begun talking about visiting.
“Maybe I shouldn’t let him come over,” I joked.
“Oh, c’mon. You know I still like you best.” Leaning over, Luna used the lapels of my jacket to tug me to her mouth.
“Now that’s something you should definitely tell my father,” I murmured as I obliged her for a kiss. Soon, her breathy moans filled my ears, her fingers tangling in my hair while my hands moved up her thighs.
Giggling, she pulled away from me. “Stop distracting me. We need to finish setting up.”
Me distracting her? I could hardly focus on anything else when she was in a room with me. “Everything already looks great.” I applauded myself for managing to tear my eyes away from her so I could study my office. “You did an amazing job, Luna.”
“I just helped with the decorations.”
“Which is good because that’s far from my field of expertise.” I chuckled. She’d even found another wind chime for the corner of my office because I didn’t want to remove the one she’d gifted me from its spot in my bedroom.
“It was a team effort.” Moving to stand beside me, she linked her arm through mine. “Can you believe it’s done?”
“No. It happened so fast.”
A month after I returned from Rio, Luna and I found this first-story office space for rent while she was practicing driving around a quiet area of town. The mixed-use building was within walking distance from my apartment and, best of all, it only needed a few minor renovations. We were officially opening tomorrow, just a week after Luna started her senior year.
“How does it feel to finally have your own office?”
“Surreal.” I turned my head to gaze at her. “But not as much as it is to have you here with me.”
She smiled. “Same here.”
Moving so we stood face to face, I wrapped my arms around her waist. “Do you think it’s too soon to celebrate?”
She circled my neck with her arms. “Definitely not.”
luna
“Are you sure, Luna?”
I paused in the middle of pulling Gabe to my room and glared at him. “I’ve waited for you for what feels like forever. If you ask me to wait any longer?—”
“I guess that’s a yes.” He tugged me to his chest and shut me up with his mouth.
I kissed him back, and he palmed my butt, settling me firmly against his erection.
Our mouths met in a heady rush of pressure and breath. No space separated our bodies, yet I still couldn’t get close enough.
He eased back just enough to whisper, “Any time you want to stop, let me know.”
“I will. Now take me to my bed, Gabe.”
By the time he opened my bedroom door, I had his shirt off and his free hand roamed under my own. He stroked my nipple through my bra, and the pressure applied through the lace drove me insane. Frantic, I grabbed the hem of my top, ready to whip it off, but he stilled my hands.
“Let me,” he said as he slipped my shirt off. “I want to savor every second of this.”
He proceeded to undress me carefully, touching me with a reverence that eased my insecurities. He kissed his way across my body, lingering on the parts where my breath caught at his touch. With every stroke of his fingers, every brush of his lips, he worshipped my body.
Skimming one hand down my side, he stared into my eyes. “Luna. You make me feel like the luckiest man in the world.”
I smiled as every inch of me seemed to vibrate with joy. “Likewise.”
Before I could undress him, he carried me to my bed and laid me among my collection of pillows. I pulled him on top of me and instantly realized that we would barely fit on my double-sized mattress.
“Maybe we should have done this at your place.” I giggled as he bracketed me with his arms, knocking a pillow to the floor.
Reaching for the pillow, he plopped it behind me. “Next time. For now, we’ll just have to stay very close together.”
“Sounds good to me.” More like perfect. “I call dibs on the right side of the bed.”
“Anything you want.”
My laughter turned into a moan as he kissed down my neck to the tip of one breast. He teased it into a tight, aching peak and paid the same attention to the other before drifting down to my belly button. The swirl of his tongue made my back arch, the balls of my feet pressing into the mattress.
Moving down, he settled between my thighs. My breath stopped as he looked up at me with a half-tilted smile.
Somehow, even though I was completely bare to someone else and in such a vulnerable position, I felt no nerves. Only anticipation.
Gabe lowered his mouth to the part of me that throbbed for him, and my hips instinctively launched up.
He sucked, and I groaned, grinding myself against his lips. The texture of his beard against my skin amped up the sensations. My hands found purchase in his thick hair, and it seemed to spur him on harder. He made love to me with his mouth, and when his tongue slipped inside me, my eyes went blind.
Garbled words and breathy sounds left my throat as acute pleasure sang through my body. One finger replaced his tongue, then he carefully worked a second one in, easing the ache with his lips and tongue on my clit. Soon, I was chasing my release, meeting the thrusts of his fingers with my hips.
“Breathtaking,” Gabe murmured as I came.
He crawled up and lay sideways next to me, catching his breath too. I traced the moon over his heart and wondered how it was possible to be so completely myself, so entirely at home with another person like this. I couldn’t imagine feeling this peace with anyone else but Gabe.
“Are you tired?” he asked, caressing his thumb across my cheek.
“Seriously? No way.” I slipped my hand into his waistband and confirmed that he wasn’t tired either.
I unbuttoned his pants, and he helped me work them off together with his boxer briefs. His thick erection pointed straight at me, and I took him in my hand, marveling at his hardness.
I looked him in the eye as I stroked his length. “Condom?”
He sucked in a breath and leaned away from me, opening his bedside drawer. When he faced me again, he had a square packet and a bottle in his hand. I raised my eyebrows at him, to which he responded, “Lube.”
My eyes widened.
“I just want to make it easier for you.” He opened the condom, rolled it on, and rubbed some of the clear gel over his erection. I never thought watching a man stroke himself would do it for me, and yet my thighs pressed together as that ache bloomed in my core again.
He settled on top of me, his knees braced on either side of my hips.
Thumbing my clit, he slowly slipped two fingers inside me.
My mouth fell open on a soundless moan.
“Wider,” he whispered, and my legs dropped to my sides, my hips churning.
“More. I want you inside me.”
His fingers left me and were replaced by the head of his erection. “Remember. Anytime you need to stop.”
“Uh huh.”
Then he notched himself at my opening and slowly pushed in. It was a tight fit, and my eyes widened as a twinge of pain went through me.
He stilled. “Luna?” The tendons in his neck strained with the force of his control.
“Keep going.”
“You’re in pain.” He started to ease out of me, but I closed my legs around his hips, the motion driving him deeper inside me. “Fuck.”
I felt stretched, but the ache dulled, and all I wanted was more. Testing the waters, I thrust against him and was rewarded with a string of dirty words that had me instinctively clenching around him.
He groaned. “Hold on.” Pressing his lips to mine, he moved his hips tentatively against me. “Is this okay?”
“Mm hmm.” A slight pain lingered, but it was overpowered by the satisfaction I felt at having him inside me.
“You feel so good.” A groan tore through him as I experimented with squeezing my inner muscles. In response, he captured my nipple in his mouth as he ground the base of his erection against my clit.
I worked my hips, enjoying the weight of him on top of me. Around me.
His hand slipped between our bodies, stroking. I clenched, relishing how his entire body seemed to vibrate with the force of his control.
“I can’t—fuck.”
“Let go, Gabe.”
“You first.” He tilted my hips just so, hitting a spot that made my toes curl. He went faster, deeper, all the while watching me with eyes that seemed more gray than blue. “Come for me, Lua.”
Hearing those words amplified the sensations swelling up inside me. On his next thrust, my body bowed back as pleasure rippled through me in waves that had my thighs quaking.
Like he’d been waiting for that sign, Gabe strained toward me and released a groan. He remained frozen as he came inside me. Then he collapsed, breathing heavily into my neck.
I stroked his shuddering back, feeling it ease bit by bit. “Lua?” I asked when his breaths had quieted.
“Portuguese for moon.” He kissed a path up my neck to my chin and hovered right above my lips.
Placing my hand on my favorite spot around his nape, I smiled at him. “I like it.”
“Good. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He kissed me sweetly. It was like another version of his declaration, one he spoke without words and echoed with his entire being. I felt enveloped in it, and then I felt him stirring where we were still joined.
Drawing my head back, I looked him in the eye. “I thought the recovery time for guys goes up the older you get?”
“I’m thirty, not ancient.”
“Glad to hear it from you. But that is a no-go zone for the next twenty-four hours. You’re not exactly beginner sized, Professor.”
Gabe looked torn between pride and concern. “Do you want to go to my place so I can fix you a bubble bath?”
Of course he had some fancy tub. “Next time.”
Leaning over me, he kissed me until I was breathless again. Then he pulled himself up and out of bed. “I’ll be right back.”
Later, after we’d gotten ourselves cleaned up, he settled in bed behind me—both of us on our sides to keep from falling off. Something pressed against my back, and I shook my head. “No way, Gabe.”
“Relax. You know I can control myself.”
“Yeah, well, if you hadn’t controlled yourself for so long, we could be pros at this by now.”
“How romantic.” He tickled my waist, making me yelp.
“Sheesh, such a grump. You’re lucky I find you hot.”
“I am lucky. I have you, don’t I?”
Turning to smile at him, I said, “Good answer.”
Then I learned I didn’t need much recovery time after all.