Chapter 8
8
CELIA
W hen I woke the next morning, Gabriel lay beside me, though we were not touching. I studied him, feeling the warmth of his body and listening to his steady breaths. His features were relaxed, almost boyish in sleep, a stark contrast to his hardened, dangerous self.
Now that the intensity of last night had faded, my heart ached with a mix of emotions. Fear, confusion, and a strange yearning for something I couldn’t quite name.
He was undeniably handsome, the sharp angles of his face softened in sleep; he had lush, sensual lips, faintly parted now. Those lips held the same heated promise as they had last night…if only he would kiss me again as if he wanted me. Needed me.
God, he’d had a few moments where he had seemed…decent. What if that side of him could be real? He seemed to charm everyone else so easily. I remembered the tall, silent but fiercely competent young man he’d been when we were kids. I’d looked up to him in part because David thought Gabriel hung the moon. Had David been wrong?
For a moment, I let myself fantasize about a future where Gabriel kissed me like he needed me… because he did.
It was a foolish fantasy. Gabriel didn’t allow himself any weaknesses, and he would see love as a weakness…if he were even capable of such an emotion.
But I’d loved how his hands had felt on me the night before, and the way he had kissed me. I wondered if he had kissed me like that to teach me a lesson, to show me what I couldn’t have because he found me unworthy. Because even if I would remain wary of the man himself, his mouth had been delicious.
With a sigh, I slipped out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. The cool marble floor made me shiver as I turned on the shower, adjusting the water to a comforting warmth.
Steam filled the room as I stepped under the hot spray.
I washed myself in a daydream haze. I kept thinking about how it had felt to strip at his command, to see the desire light his eyes, to feel his hand slide down my hip. To be naked in his arms for those moments before he rejected me.
If he had kept going, if he had set me on the end of the bed and undressed for me himself, watching me as he revealed the hard, tanned body that I imagined…
If he had teased his cock against my clit, if he had slid inside me and bent my leg against his chest so he could rock deep inside…
My hand slipped down between my legs, seeking relief from last night’s unreleased tension, which felt even hotter and more intense in the cool morning light.
I closed my eyes, imagining Gabriel there with me, his strong hands replacing mine. The fantasy shifted, morphing into a scene where Dante and Luca were also present, all of us tangled together in a web of desire.
I leaned back against the cool tile as my fingers moved in rhythmic circles. My body ached with need. The tension built, coiling tighter and tighter deep within my core.
I felt a presence in the room with me. I opened my eyes to find Gabriel standing just outside the shower, watching me intently. He watched me as if he would devour me, his cock straining at the front of his gray pants, and I felt a rush of embarrassment mixed with excitement.
“Don’t stop,” he commanded, his voice low and husky.
I hesitated for a moment before continuing, feeling his eyes on me like a physical touch.
“What are you imagining?” he asked, stepping into the shower with me. Water soaked his hair and clothes, clinging to his muscular frame.
“I was thinking about you,” I murmured.
Gabriel’s hand bracketed my throat as he stepped behind me. He was still fully clothed, but he didn’t seem bothered by the spray hitting him as he dragged me back against his body. His hand settled against my pussy, drawing every inch of my body against his. I gasped, feeling the hard length of his erection pressing against me as he pulled me closer.
“Don’t lie to me,” he growled.
I bit my lip, feeling the truth burning on my tongue. “I was thinking about you,” I admitted. Then, for some reason, I confessed the whole truth. “And Dante and Luca.”
His grip on my throat tightened, sending a thrill of danger and desire through me. “Tell me what you were imagining.”
I hesitated for a moment before giving in. I spoke in hushed, embarrassed tones as I described the scene in my mind: Gabriel, Dante, and Luca pleasuring me, their mouths and hands and cocks overwhelming with sensation.
“You were imagining all of us touching you, pleasuring you?” Gabriel’s voice was rough with desire, and his hands began to move in sync with my words, his fingers circling my clit in lazy, tantalizing motions.
I nodded, gasping as sensation rushed through me.
His grip on my throat loosened slightly, but his touch between my legs intensified, driving me closer and closer to the edge. “Tell me more. Tell me how you want it to feel.”
I complied, my voice coming out breathless and needy. I described the way their hands felt on my body, the way they touched me with a mix of tenderness and hunger. The fantasy blended with reality, Gabriel’s skillful fingers and the pressure of his body keeping me on the edge.
“Please,” I begged, though I wasn’t sure what I was asking for. “I need…I need…”
“You need to come for me.” Gabriel pushed me further and further with each stroke of his fingers. “Come for me, Celia. I want to see you lose control.”
The tension within me exploded, sending waves of pleasure crashing through my body. I cried out, reaching up and gripping his shoulders for support as I rode out the orgasm. Gabriel held me steadily, his fingers never stopping as I begged and writhed against him until I finally found myself screaming his name.
When the waves finally subsided, I leaned against him, panting. He released his hold on my throat, his fingers stroking my skin gently. “You’re mine, Celia. Remember that.”
With that, he stepped out of the shower, leaving me standing there alone. His white t-shirt and gray sweatpants had been soaked to his muscular body by the spray, and he peeled off his shirt as he walked away. The movement revealed his rippling shoulders and powerful back muscles, and I felt an unexpected ache alongside my logical sense of disappointment.
How did I convince him to stay? He seemed to want me, and yet I didn’t have any power over him.
I shut off the water, shaking slightly as I stepped out onto the soft mat; aftershocks from my orgasm left my core tightening and my knees wobbly.
As I wrapped myself in a thick, warm bathrobe, a sense of unease settled over me. What did Gabriel truly want from me?
And while he had warned me that I only belonged to him…why had he welcomed me sharing my fantasy about all three of them? He had seemed amused, even pleased, by my fantasy.
As I dried off and dressed, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was standing at the precipice of something that could change everything. For better or for worse.
I desperately wanted to go see Luca and Dante, but going on a field trip today was dangerous. If I lost the little bit of softness Gabriel seemed to have for me now, I didn’t think I’d ever win him back.
It was best to play the obedient wife today…though I probably shouldn’t have confessed my secret desires. I hadn’t even realized how much I wanted all three of them until just then in the shower, when desire had loosened my tongue…dangerously so.
When I walked past, Gabriel was in his enormous walk-in closet dressing in an immaculate white shirt and a black suit.
“You look nice,” I said, leaning against the doorway. It was yet another understatement. Gabriel didn’t look nice; in that suit that fit his tall, muscular frame so well, he looked like sin made into a man.
He turned and raised an eyebrow at me. Small talk did seem a little odd after our earlier interaction. But it wasn’t as if we had any normal moments.
“So…no honeymoon?” I asked.
“You’re lucky I don’t chain you up in the dungeon.”
“Do you have a dungeon? Wasn’t this house built in the last few years?”
“It was built three years ago. With a dungeon.” He gave me a look that I could not read.
He was not a safe man at all. But sometimes, he intrigued me.
“What do you want me to do today?” I asked. “Before…”
Before the Obsidian.
I wanted him to offer to take me out on my motorcycle again, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask. I didn’t want to ask him for anything. I didn’t want to be rejected.
It was nicer to believe maybe he would say yes than to know how he would answer.
“I don’t mean to be rude, Celia, but I don’t really care. I’ll be out most of today. Your father and I are meeting here tomorrow to discuss the way he’s attempted to fuck your dowry and destroy the value of the arms dealing side of his business. You can go shopping—take one of my men—if you don’t want to be around him.”
The unexpected thoughtfulness of giving me an escape so I didn’t have to be around my father startled me…and then made me wonder if it was a trap.