Chapter 31
I’d been working from home for the last week—only doing video sessions with the clients I couldn’t push off. Rhea had texted me late that night to let me know Gavriel was safe and that they’d talked, and then she’d asked me to give him some time.
Patience.
I’d never been good at that.
My phone sounded with the Lounge’s alert.
I’d called and asked them to reschedule everyone for the next two weeks.
I was lucky that my clients had been understanding that I’d had an emergency I had to deal with.
There was no way I was going to be able to take care of them while my mind was so distracted.
Rhea had told me there had been another problem with a shipment, but luckily nothing had been compromised, and Gavriel and Harley had handled it.
His father hadn’t killed him, and Rhea had said he had taken some of his anger out in more “constructive ways” on their father’s orders. I tried not to think too far into that.
Over the last few days, in an effort to keep myself sane, every corner of my townhome had been scrubbed.
The living room was spotless, the kitchen was so clean, you could eat off any surface and not flinch, and the bathrooms had been bleached, scrubbed, and even I couldn’t believe how clean the grout was on the tile floor.
I was exhausted. Every time I’d just about fall sleep, my mind would start racing and think of the look on Gavriel’s face when I’d confirmed that I had been feeding the FBI bits of information. I still didn’t understand why he hadn’t pulled his gun and shot me immediately.
Because he loves you.
Rhea’s words kept flowing through my head. The kicker? I wanted to believe her.
A soft knock sounded at my door, and I shifted my laptop to the cushion next to me before getting up and answering it. Rhea had stopped by a few times to make sure I was okay, and I expected she was probably checking in again.
When I slowly cracked the door open, my breath caught in my throat.
Gavriel stood there, his eyes burning into mine with an intensity that made my skin prickle.
His jaw was clenched tight, a muscle twitching beneath the stubble that had grown thicker since I'd last seen him. The silence between us crackled.
Gavriel tried to sound strong, but I heard the weariness in his voice. “Can we talk?”
Nodding, I stepped back and let him come in. “I didn’t hear the bike.”
“Brought the car,” he mumbled as he sat down in my comfy, dark brown leather chair. I settled back on the couch as he leaned forward and took a deep breath. His voice broke as he asked, “Why?”
“What?”
“Harley and Rhea have been telling me all week, but I need to hear it from you. Why did you do it?”
I huffed out a strained laugh, surprised he was even asking. “You killed my father, Gavriel! He was your best friend, Rhea’s soulmate. And you killed him, all on your father’s orders.”
He turned his head to the side, and I could see him thinking. Could practically hear the gears grinding in his head. “I-I thought we were becoming something more than our dynamic. How could you betray me like this?”
Swallowing hard, I stood, took a step toward him.
“Look at me.” When he did, I continued, “We have been becoming something more. It’s why I stopped.
Even gave him false information a couple of times to keep you safe.
When there was safety and trust between us beyond the dynamic, I couldn’t do it anymore.
The day before you found out, he asked what I knew about the arms shipment, and I reiterated I wasn’t helping him anymore.
He found out without me. Anything in the last few months hasn’t been with my assistance. ”
As he stood, I saw the mistrust in his eyes, and I had earned that. I needed to live up to my responsibilities of being his domme, if he still wanted that.
“Columbia?”
“I didn’t know anything about it.” My heart was thumping hard in my chest.
“You promise me that you haven’t—”
“Gavriel, my pretty, Pretty Boy.” My voice was soft as I reached out and cupped his face and waited.
When he leaned into it, closing his eyes, I released a long breath.
“There is something between us. I don’t know what it is anymore .
. . or if I’ve ruined it. At first, everything I did was to get into your good graces to destroy your family.
Then there was that night you put me to bed in the office and stayed with me.
Something monumental changed between us then.
I couldn’t hate you anymore. I still loathe that you killed Dad, but what relationship doesn’t have its problems? ”
“Relationship? Is that what we have? Outside of the dynamic?”
I swallowed, and my heartbeat was a hard beat in my ears. “Do you want that? Do you want us to belong to each other outside of the dynamic?”
Shocking me to my core, Gavriel fell to his knees with a soft thud against the hardwood floor.
He was completely disheveled. You could tell that he had been running his fingers through his hair.
His shirt was wrinkled and half-untucked, and there was at least three days of stubble shadowing his jaw.
Those piercing eyes, normally so calculating, now looked up at me with naked vulnerability, red-rimmed and desperate.
His hands, those lethal instruments that had ended countless lives, trembled slightly as they reached for mine, enveloping them with surprising gentleness, his thumbs brushing over my knuckles in an unconscious plea.
“Yes. More than anything.”
My voice was barely audible, even to me.
“Despite what I did to you?” My fingers trembled against his as I forced myself to meet his gaze, terrified of what I might find there.
The question hung between us like a fragile thread that might snap under the weight of everything we hadn’t said, everything I’d risked losing forever.
“Despite knowing I could have gotten you killed?”
A smile lifted his lips. “Yes. But if you betray me again—”
“I won’t. You want us as more than Goddess and Pretty Boy? I need you to say it. We can’t make assumptions about anything. Clear, honest, full communication. Understood?”
He brought my hands to his lips, kissed them, and then leaned his forehead on the backs of them. After a moment, he slowly looked back up to me. “You are my Goddess, and I will always be your Pretty Boy. But I am also your Gavriel. I am yours to wield.”
Shock widened my eyes as I stared at his that were wide and open. Here he was, one of the most dangerous men in the city, and he was saying he was mine.
Just how far would that extend? “What of your father?”
“He will not stand between us.” He stood and wrapped my neck in both of his hands. “We will figure this out. Together.”
“Together.”
We stared at each other, and I reveled in the way his eyes drank me in to my very soul. This simple touch and the affection in his eyes sent shivers down my spine.
“I need you, Elin Perkins.”
Reaching up on my toes, I ghosted my lips against his, and everything else melted away.
His tongue twisted hot and wild against my own in a rhythm that felt like sparks.
Those hands of his slid down my spine, every inch traveled leaving goose bumps and fevered skin.
I moaned into his mouth, desperate and needy, especially when he nipped my bottom lip just hard enough to sting, then soothed it with a stroke of his tongue.
His grip tightened on my ass, holding me right against him, and oh my gods, I could feel his hard cock pressed between us.
“You are so fucking beautiful. Every inch the Goddess,” he growled, lips brushing my ear, every word sending shivers down my body.
“I need you now, Gavriel. I need you to fuck me. Carry me to the bedroom.” I whimpered, arching into him, showing him just how much I needed it, needed him.
My nails dug into his shoulders, my way of grounding myself against the dizzying heat of him.
Then he swept me up, arms strong and sure, moving quickly through the house and tossing me onto the bed like I weighed nothing at all.
I stripped from my lounge pants and T-shirt, his eyes flashing as he noted I had no underwear or bra on.
His mouth was on me again, hungrier this time, kissing me deep and rough.
His right hand fisted my hair, pulling just tight enough to pull any tension out of my body, while his other hand slid between us.
A shred of self-control, then his pants and boxers were gone and his cock was positioned just at my entrance, thick and ready.
“Are you ready for me, Elin?” His voice was all ragged hunger. I could only nod, wild for it, and then he drove into me in one hard, perfect thrust. I gasped, my body stretching to take him as he filled me so full, there wasn’t room for anything else.
A groan ripped out of him, his eyes half-closed as he started to move, long, deep strokes that dragged against every nerve. My hands hit his chest and I rolled him over, and I straddled him, rocking against his cock. His eyes flashed, dark with need, with the control I had taken back.
“You are mine.” My voice was a low command, full of heat and every ounce of ownership I felt for him. He belonged to me. To love, to keep.
“Yes,” he breathed, fucking up into me with rough, claiming thrusts, “I’m yours.” Each slam hit my sweet spot, and my body tightened. Faster and harder, I rode him, chasing the edge. “Yes, my Gavriel. Fuck me.”
His voice was rough and almost hissed as he said, “So gorgeous fucking me. Wrapped around my cock. Squeezing the pleasure from me.”
His hands reached up and pinched my nipples as they bounced with each connection of our hips. The pain only enhanced how good and right he felt under me.
“Elin . . .”
My orgasm didn’t come with a slow ache, but instead was built fast and sharp, the tingling spreading out from my core until I was gasping, unable to warn him other than a broken, “I’m going to cum.
” Instantly, he slammed harder, deeper, and with a final, shattering thrust, we broke together, coming so hard I thought I might fall apart around him, every inch of me shuddering with release.