Chapter 47
Brodie
I knew the minute my head hit the pillow that I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
I lay on my side in the dark, wanting so badly to talk to Gabrielle.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think tonight was a good night, considering what had happened.
I knew the danger of Jeff raping her had to have been frightening, and she didn’t need me adding to the pile of emotions that must be swimming around in her head with my own brooding and feelings of rejection.
I’d learned a valuable lesson tonight. No matter how much I loved Gabrielle, or how much she acted like she loved me—or thought maybe she did—I’d never be good enough for her.
That revelation tore into my heart, breaking it completely in half.
Gabrielle came from money, and I was just an average guy with dreams no bigger than owning a well-run bar in a town where I got to play my bass a couple nights a week with a band that managed to obtain some nice gigs every once in a while.
A faint breeze tickled the hairs on my legs as Gabrielle lifted the sheet and slid in beside me.
I closed my eyes, glad that she’d decided to come to bed.
No matter how hurt I was, I didn’t want her sitting out in the living room all night thinking about Jeff.
She may be embarrassed by me and not love me the way I wanted, but I still loved her and cared about her.
The thought of not having Gabrielle in my life stole my breath away, as surely as if I’d fallen into the deepest, darkest part of the ocean without an oxygen tank.
“Brodie?”
I thought about staying quiet and letting her think I was asleep, but that was foolish. “Yeah?”
“Are you asleep?”
“No.”
Her arm gently and timidly found its way around my waist, and I melted. Unable to resist her, I turned around to face her.
“I’m so very sorry I hurt you.”
That statement was everything I’d wanted to hear, but upon hearing it, a lump formed in my throat and I could do nothing but stare into her tear-filled eyes.
“I never meant to hurt you.”
I finally found my voice. “I get it.”
“Do you? Because I don’t think you do. I know what you think.”
“How could you possibly know what I think?”
“The reason I didn’t introduce you as my boyfriend to my mother is because I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Okay.”
“Okay? Just okay?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, how’s this? How the hell would introducing me, the man you’ve been sleeping with for the past several weeks, the man who loves you and you think you love back, how would introducing me as your boyfriend to your mother hurt me?”
“I was sparing you from any odious comments she would have made toward you, directly or indirectly.”
“Sparing me? Honey, I don’t need you or anyone sparing me from anything.” Now Gabrielle was just making things worse.
“Up against my mother you do.”
“And what makes her so dangerous?”
Gabrielle sat up. “She’s evil.”
I propped my elbow up and rested my head on my hand so we’d be semi eye to eye. “Go on,” I prompted, almost laughing at the evil comment, but I was too angry to give in quite yet.
She sighed and twisted two of her fingers in her other hand. “She has this idea that I need to marry someone who…” she looked at the ceiling then back at me, “…runs in the same circles as she does.”
“You mean someone who is as wealthy as she is.”
She looked at me. “Yes.”
“And I don’t qualify.”
She nodded. “But it’s not just that. She would have been rude to you, and she wouldn’t have even given you a chance. I couldn’t have that. She would have cut you down with that silver tongue of hers without taking the time to find out who you really were, or caring.”
“And who am I?” I’d already forgiven her back when she’d first said she was sorry. I loved her too much to stay angry, but it was sort of fun listening to her grovel. Besides, I wanted to hear her tell me, in her words, just who she thought I was.
“You are the most wonderful, kind, sexy man that could ever walk this earth. And I don’t think I love you.”
My eyes snapped to hers and I stopped breathing.
“I know I love you. And I am so, so sorry.”
I pulled her to me and captured that sweet mouth of hers with mine.
Pulling my body up and over hers so that she lay under me.
The sudden need for her flooded me like a tsunami.
The way her body always responded to mine drove me crazy.
The way she kissed me, so passionately and urgent, I had trouble thinking about anything except her.
She felt so good. I cupped her breast in my hand before grazing my tongue down her neck, finding the nipple that begged to be sucked.
She bucked her hips under me at the sensation.
Slipping my fingers inside her panties, I pulled them down her silky legs and off.
I kissed my way down to her stomach. Teasing her nipples with my thumb and finger, kissing the silky skin of her thighs before tasting the sweet ambrosia she secreted.
She gasped out a long moan as her first orgasm flowed through her.
I loved the sweet sensual expression on her face as she came, so beautiful and sexy it overwhelmed me and took my breath away.
I’d already been naked, a habit I had acquired over the past couple of years, and I was hard as a rock and ached to be inside of her. Gabrielle wrapped her legs around me, urging me toward her. I slipped inside her silky folds and entered that realm of ecstasy. I loved this woman.
No one had ever taken me to such depths of passion before.
“I love you, Gabrielle.”
“I love you, Brodie.”
There was no sweeter music in the world than those words attached to my name, flowing like honey from Gabrielle’s sweet lips. The orgasm flowed from me and into her, filling her with my love as she quivered under me.
I lay half on top of her with my chest beside her, our legs tangled together, our chests heaving in unison, our hearts beating fast from the intensity.
She could have a ton of rude and awful relatives and I wouldn’t have cared.
When we caught our breaths, I moved to my back and she placed her head in the crook of my shoulder. “So, you’re not angry with me anymore?”
“No. As long as you realize that I won’t put up with whatever your mother thinks of me.”
“Good. Because after you left, I told my mother that I was in love with you, so now you’re stuck with me.”
I wrapped my arms protectively around her, enveloping her and pulling her into me so one of her legs needed to go over the top of one of mine. I lifted my other leg and placed it over her foot. Her body fit so perfectly with mine, and I never wanted to move again.
“I promise you, Gabrielle, you will never be sorry for allowing me to love you. I’d buy you the moon if it were for sale. I don’t have a lot of money, but I’d beg, borrow, and steal it if it made you happy.”