Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
HALLIE
All the oxygen in my lungs is sucked out with Gabe’s words.
“You want to argue? I’ll bite,” he says. “Let’s start with how I fucking hated seeing you with Deacon.”
Gabe wears his anger well. He doesn’t often let it get the best of him. Now, though, his expression is wild. Unrestrained. I can see everything in his eyes—he isn’t holding anything back.
My heart throbs. It’s all too much, yet… Yet it’s not enough. I’m terrified of what I’ll say if I open my mouth, so I don’t.
“If I thought for one single second that he was a decent guy, I would have kept my mouth shut,” he continues.
“I would’ve watched him touch you. Would’ve forced myself to be alright with him taking you home.
But a man like that doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as you, let alone have you in his bed.
And you don’t deserve to be treated the way he treated you. ”
“I think I know what I deserve,” I say weakly.
In my head, I’m chanting, You were right, you were right. I was so wrong, and you were right .
From the moment he walked up to me, Deacon gave me this slippery kind of feeling. I didn’t realize I was in too deep until he was winding his body around me, constricting like a boa. But Gabe knew, and I shouldn’t have been so stubborn.
Gabe shakes his head. “If you did, you’d see what’s right in front of you.
” His arm tightens around my waist, and when he speaks, his voice is low.
“If you want someone to buy you a drink, let it be me. Someone to flirt with? I can do that, too. And, baby, if you want someone to fuck you…” His eyes blaze. “All you have to do is ask.”
His words stun me for half a second. I swallow, clearing my throat before speaking. “You’re…jealous?”
He almost laughs, but it lacks any kind of humour. “Of course I am, Foster. Some asshole had his hands all over my fiancée tonight.”
My fiancée .
It isn’t the first time Gabe has let that slip. Mostly, he makes a joke of it. But this is the first time that he’s called me his fiancée where it feels like it means something. Something more than just playing a part.
My teeth snag my bottom lip. Gabe’s attention is instantly drawn there.
Words lodge in my throat. Being honest means being vulnerable, and I’m not very good at that. But Gabe was right about everything. I don’t yell, I don’t fight. Except with him… With him, it feels like something worth fighting for.
“When he touched me,” I say, watching as his eyes darken, “I wished it was your hands on me instead.”
He groans. “Killing me, Foster.”
My lips twitch with a slight smile. “Sorry.”
Gabe takes his hand off the door beside my head.
It trembles slightly as it curves along my jaw, slipping through strands of golden hair before cupping the back of my head.
He looks pained, like holding himself back truly is akin to the greatest torture, but still, he takes his time. Like he’s savouring this. Us. Me .
“Tell me you want me, Hallie, because I want you so fucking bad, I can hardly think. Tell me you want this, too.”
The plea in his voice—the pure yearning —breaks me and then stitches me back together. It’s a lifetime of stop and go, push and pull, all culminating in this beautiful moment.
“Yes,” I breathe. “I want you.”
I’ve never stopped .
He searches my eyes. “You want me?”
I nod. “This is me asking, Gabe.”
His hand on my hip squeezes, drawing me closer. His eyes trace my face slowly, memorizing it, before landing on my lips again. They part involuntarily, and he takes this as his invitation. As his face lowers to mine, I push up onto the tips of my toes, meeting him halfway.
I always thought my first kiss would belong to Gabe. I hoped for it—dreamt of it. Life, it turned out, had other plans, but I wouldn’t change things. Not when this moment right here is so perfect, I could cry.
The kiss is gentle at first. Tentative, like when he kissed me at the wedding.
It’s everything I both wanted and needed, and my body sings in pleasure.
His mouth moves against mine in a practiced rhythm, as if we’ve been doing this all our lives.
As if this is where we were destined to end up. Maybe it is.
Quickly, though, everything shifts. We aren’t at the wedding anymore—there are no prying eyes, and we’re over pretending. So when Gabe deepens the kiss, when his tongue slides against mine, I let him take it all.
My heart has always belonged to him, so he might as well have my body, too.
Clinging to him, I’m desperate to be closer. I need to be closer. All the layers between us are too much. But I don’t know how to verbalize what I want, what I think I might die without.
Woman up, Hallie . Tell him .
Before I can properly begin to spiral, Gabe pulls back slightly. “ Hallie ,” he groans against my mouth. “Baby. Can I take you upstairs now?”
Upstairs. To his bedroom. To his bed . This time, for a lot more than sleep.
I nod, not caring if I seem overeager. “Please, yes. Please.”
He nips at my lower lip. “I’ll be so good to you, baby. Show you exactly what you deserve.”
I don’t even have time to swoon or melt into a puddle because then he’s tugging me toward the stairs.
He gestures for me to go up first, but when I’m too slow, he slaps me playfully on the ass.
I let out a sound of surprise, looking at him over my shoulder.
He only grins, and God , it’s a pretty sight.
I stomp on the nervous butterflies that try to take flight as I walk toward Gabe’s room. I can feel his body heat, confirming he’s not far behind me.
We’re really doing this. I’m really about to have sex with my best friend’s brother .
As soon as the thought hits, I curse myself. Like the butterflies, I shove Clara firmly out of my mind. Now is definitely not the time for me to be picturing her face.
With the bedroom door shut, Gabe tugs his jacket off.
I follow suit, tossing mine onto the chair in the corner.
When I face Gabe again, he slips his fingers through my belt loops and guides me closer.
Against my stomach, through the denim of his pants, I can feel that he’s turned on. A dull throb settles between my legs.
His hands slide over my hips, then to my ass, cupping me there. “These jeans. Fuck , Hallie, these jeans,” he groans. “They’ve been testing me since the minute you walked into my house for the first time.”
“Sorry,” I say with a sheepish smile.
He shakes his head. “Don’t be sorry, baby. I’ve loved every minute. But now you need to take them off.”
“Off?” I squeak.
Logically, I knew this would require me to take off my clothes. But standing here in front of him, having him tell me to do it, makes it seem so real .
Gabriel Bowman wants me to take my pants off. Oh my God .
“Strip, Hallie,” he commands.
And I am powerless to resist.
I unbutton my pants and slowly peel them off my legs.
Removing skinny jeans seems like the least sexy thing one could do, especially when they get caught on my ankles and turn inside out, but Gabe’s eyes flash as he watches me.
The next thing to go is my top. And then I’m standing there in nothing but my bra and underwear.
I can feel my face heating—my entire body, really. I’m not used to being observed like this. It’s been a while since I last had sex, and we left the lights off. But in the warm lamplight, Gabe’s eyes are roving over me like I’m painted in vivid colour.
The urge to cover myself up is hard to resist, but something tells me Gabe would take issue with that. Still, I wring my hands together in front of my stomach.
“You are a fucking masterpiece, Hallie Foster,” he says. “A masterpiece made just for me.”
His words twist around my heart, giving it a painful squeeze.
“Can you—? Would you—?” I inhale a deep breath. “Take your shirt off?” I finish quietly.
He obliges, then draws me back into his arms. “I can tell you’re nervous, but you have the control here. We won’t do anything you’re not comfortable with. And if you want something, you can ask for it. Chances are, I’ll want it, too.”
I peer shyly up at him. “I don’t really…want control.” For once, I’d love nothing more than to shut my brain off .
His eyes sweep over my face. “Trust me?”
“I trust you, Gabe.”
He starts with kissing me on the mouth. Then he nips at my jaw, trails his lips over my neck. Soon, he’s sucking on the swell of one breast, and I wonder briefly if it’ll leave a mark. I hope it does.
Slowly, I melt against him. My bra comes off, then my underwear. The air should feel cool against my naked skin, but all I feel is heat. Mind blissfully empty, I let Gabe guide me onto my back, let my head sink into the mattress.
The weight of him above me feels amazing, but when he rocks his hips against mine, I feel like I’m in heaven. His lower half is still clothed, and that won’t do. I reach out, fumbling with the button on his jeans.
He grabs my hands, holding them above my head. “We don’t have to rush, baby. We’ve got forever, and I intend to use every second.”
A kind of content sigh escapes me, followed quickly by a moan when he rocks his hips again. My back arches, pressing my breasts against his bare chest. My nipples tighten as they brush the hard planes.
Can’t he just put it inside me already?
He doesn’t. Instead, he releases my hands, then works his way steadily down my body. When he settles himself between my thighs, face extremely close to my aching core, I let out a gasp.
“Gabe,” I whine. My voice doesn’t even sound like my own. “Please.”
“I have been waiting for this day since I was eighteen fucking years old, Hallie. Let me admire the art before I devour it.”
“ Oh . You don’t have to—” I try to sit up, close my legs, but Gabe pins me with a look that makes me freeze. “I’ve never… No one has ever…done that to me before.”
Surprise etches itself in his expression, but it quickly gives way to satisfaction. That almost makes him…happy?