Chapter 22 Gabe
GABE
It’s my day off, which is good because I’m dragging ass today. I didn’t sleep.
Not after Drew and Adam disappeared last night when Santa’s village wrapped up.
Too many of the parents didn’t know it was him in that suit, but I did.
Thoughts of them together churned in my stomach all night, so I gave up around four this morning and let myself wallow in the misery of my own making.
A door slams outside, and I’m at the front window, peeping like some noisy neighbor—let’s face it, that’s exactly what I am—as Adam walks Drew up to her door.
It’s eight a.m., and she’s still in that flowy red blouse and black slacks from last night. Hair a messy bun on her head and makeup smeared around her eyes.
She still looks beautiful.
Adam must think so, too, because he leans her into her front door for a lingering kiss before he retreats back to his SUV, unable to take his eyes off her.
My blood boils. Heat spiking high as my hands clench into fists.
It takes every ounce of restraint I have not to go out there and throw one into his smug face. Instead, I pace around my first floor, through the living room and kitchen and back again.
Greyson is at the Lodge this morning, and I have no distractions.
He didn’t seem concerned last night, but I also know that he’s grown attached to her, too.
And I’m being left behind. I can’t let this happen again. Not after she left me behind the last time. Not after missing out on her life for six whole years.
Not after I’ve finally gotten her back.
The last ten days have been hell without her here. With her upset with me. With my foot fully lodged in my mouth. I couldn’t back track fast enough, and I can’t do this anymore.
I can’t be on the sidelines like this.
I make four laps before I lose the battle and march over to her front door and knock.
Daisy answers with a knowing smile. She’s got the same smartass smirk she had as a teenager, those dark eyes the same as Drew’s—full of feisty mirth. “She’s in her room.”
She points to the stairs and retreats into the kitchen where a steaming cup awaits her.
I nod and go up. Knocking has me greeted by a muffled, “Go away,” but I open her door anyway and freeze.
Drew is sprawled across her bed in these tiny shorts and a camisole. So much of her skin is bare.
She lifts enough to look at me and goes still.
“Gabe? What are you doing here?” She doesn’t even make a move to cover herself up. And fuck, she’s not wearing a bra. The tight camisole highlights the outline of her hard nipples. I have to drag my gaze away, and it takes an insurmountable degree of effort.
Heat rages through me.
I’m dying from desire. Unfreezing, I step in and close the door behind me, leaning against it. “You haven’t come over in a while.”
Drew sits up, blinking, and I can see so much of her. “No. I haven’t.”
“Because of me.” Because I wouldn’t sleep with her. Because I said something stupid that she didn’t deserve. “Drew, I’m sorry.”
She scoots to the edge of her bed, peering up at me like a damn vision.
“Please stop punishing me.”
A smile flashes over her face, and she pats the bed beside her.
Her bed is so small, and I’m finally able to look around her room.
It looks too young for her. Posters are still strewn up on the wall, embellishments and pictures from her in high school.
Her trophies from sports.
Very different from the only other time I’ve been in here, where pink and purple dominated the space and stuffed animals clogged up her bed—princess themed.
Neither of those versions fits her now as the adult she so clearly is.
My hands clench into fists again at the reminder.
It’s so hard not to touch her, especially since that’s all I’ve seemed to think about since she kissed me.
It’s not like we didn’t touch—cuddle and hold hands—before, but that kiss changed everything. For me at least.
Drew laughs softly beside me, but not at my turmoil. She peers around her room knowingly. “They left everything the way it was while I was gone. I haven’t changed anything because it feels like a decision I’m not ready to make yet.”
My heart seizes in my chest, readily dousing me with a pain I can’t protect myself from. “If you’re going to stay.”
She nods.
I take her hand, reminding me again of the last time I was here.
She leans into my shoulder like then, too. She was nine.
Her parents had a big fight, one that took them out to the lawn, throwing things and screaming.
Daisy had been away, and I snuck in to find Drew huddled on the floor beside her bed, crying.
Always so sensitive to her parents’ moods.
Her hand squeezes mine, bringing me back to the present and the warmth of her against my side. “I was mad at first, but I’m not anymore. More embarrassed.”
Taking a deep breath, I try this again. I’m not so great with words when it comes to emotions. “It’s not that I didn’t want to.”
Her face turns to look at me, and I feel that same heat.
The desire to kiss her, to tuck her under me, to feel all that smooth skin she has on display right now.
When she stands, my heart sinks a little, but then she’s standing between my knees, fingers tracing the tattoo down my throat.
It’s like she zaps life into me.
No other woman has ever made me react quite like this.
Physical attraction, sure.
A lack of indifference and maybe even enjoyment of their company.
Yeah.
But not this.
Not the all-consuming necessity to hold onto her and never let go. Knowing that without her, my life is bland. A ticking away of time without a real purpose.
So I finally touch her the way I’ve been dreaming of.
My fingertips find the hot skin behind her knees, feathering up her thighs, which fit within the span of my palm. I forget how small she is sometimes.
She’s always so strong. Resilient.
Drew tips my head back, and her kiss is like a slow detonation—heat building beneath my skin until I’m nothing but smoke and trembling hands, wrecked by the taste of her.
She crawls on top of me, and I hold on for dear life. I’m not letting her get away this time, not going to wreck it like I so easily did before.
She’s the best part of my life.
I hate that I had to lose her completely once to know that.
I let myself go, kissing her with every emotion I’ve kept pent up over the last six years, the ones that multiplied when she returned home.
The ones that morphed into this deep attraction after seeing her as the woman she’s become.
My hand sinks into her hair to tug her closer, and she moans into my mouth.
Fuck, I’m a goner. Aroused is too nice of a word for what I am. I ache for Drew.
And the hard-on trapped behind the zipper of my jeans is pulsing with the promise of what we almost did last time.
I cup her ass as she rocks herself against me, and I eat the tender little noises that slip between her lips.
Drew’s fingers ruffle through my hair, giving me a gentle tug as her teeth pinch my bottom lip.
Teasing. Testing.
Her mouth travels under my jaw, down my throat, kissing and scraping with her teeth.
She sucks on the spot just under my Adam’s apple, and I lose it.
“Oh fuck.”
My whisper is met by her giggle.
She tastes every inch of my exposed skin, and I’m shaking with the restraint to grab her and flip her under me on this small bed.
When she retreats to look at me, the dark glaze of her chocolate eyes reflects my own thoughts back at me.
Thankfully, I can read her as well now as I’ve always been able to, so I take the leap and trust my instincts, gathering her up and rolling us onto her comforter.
Drew’s smile blooms bright and wide, and mine surfaces without any further prompting.
Her touch brushes over me like it’s some kind of rare gem before my mouth is back on hers.
I’m not slowing down now that I’ve given myself permission to want this.
To want her this way.
Her knees squeeze my waist as she locks her legs around me.
The balance here is off, but that doesn’t stop Drew, her hands sliding under my leather jacket and burning me through my thin sweater.
And damn me if I’m not selfish, but I want more of her skin.
I’m nothing if not patient.
Especially with this woman.
I’ve waited for her for so long already.
There’s so little between us that she has to feel how hard I am for her. When she moans, my instincts go into overdrive. I cup her hips, sliding my palms up her waist under her shirt.
Drew’s moving faster than me, pushing at my jacket, forcing me back enough to strip it from me.
Her hands roam down my back and find bare skin. Her touch shocks me, and I know exactly what I want.
And that’s to give her control.
Tricky fingers peel my sweater up over my shoulders, tugging it off breaks our kiss, and I pause as her touch spreads down the front of me.
The desire in her gaze as she follows her fingers across the planes of my torso, I can see her cataloguing my tattoos.
More cover my skin than when she left.
It puts most people off.
Gives them the wrong idea about me.
Pair that with my tendency to be quiet.
Difficult. Surly.
She doesn’t see that when she looks at me.
I’ve never been more confident than with her.
This time, when her fingers tug at the waist of my jeans, I don’t stop her. I don’t want to.
The unsnapping of the button sends a shiver through me, and I moan when her hand closes around my cock.
Her gaze shoots up to mine, giving me two hard pumps before she’s pushing me backward. “On your back.”
The order is soft and decisive as she slides out from under me. I tip over, sighing with relief as she crawls between my thighs, hands tugging at my jeans until they’re trapped around my ankles.
Drew’s hand wraps back around my shaft and the closer she leans, the harder it is to breathe.
I’m pulsing under her attention and the promise she’s making me in this position.
And fuck, when her tongue presses against the underside of my tip, pleasure blitzes through me.
Is this reality?
I reach out for her, needing to ground myself, and sink my fingers in those loose silky strands of her hair.
It gives me the perfect view of her lips closing around me and sucking.
A dirty string of cursing grinds out between my teeth.
My free hand twists in her purple comforter as she works me down her throat.
I’m not going to last like this.
The pleasure is sharp, deep, a long time coming.
When she looks up at me from under her lashes, I’m a goner.
The suction of her retreat has my thighs shaking, my grip tightening, a groan vibrating in my chest.
Popping free from her lips, her tongue soothes the ache.
“Can you come more than once?”
I shake my head, but not in response to her question. I’m trying to catch up with her question. “Yeah.”
Smile curving wickedly, she descends again. “Good.”
And I’m sliding back down her throat in a come-to-Jesus moment.
I can barely get the words out to warn her before my cock pulses hard and prolonged as my climax spills over her tongue.
Her withdrawal is slow. She’s enjoying her victory.
Drew has destroyed me.
Once I can catch my breath, my determination renews, and I grab a hold of her. If she wants to play this game, I’m down.
With two efficient tugs, her shorts disappear, and I’m dragging her up my torso, chest, and splaying her knees over my shoulders until I have her pussy dangling above my mouth.
Squeaking and squealing, Drew grabs her headboard and looks down at me in bewilderment before I lift to press an open-mouth kiss against her folds.
She’s already so slick and ready and absolutely delicious. I lose myself in her taste, in the noises she makes that build and flourish until I have her grinding down against my face.
So fucking sweet. She’s so sweet.
It doesn’t take long for my cock to grow hard again, to ache for her.
Faster than it’s ever happened before, and when Drew’s back arches hard, I double down, gripping her thighs harder as she falls apart across my tongue.
I draw out every shake and tiny moan until she’s barely holding herself up against the headboard, swearing at me between her breaths.
Planting kisses along the inside of her thighs, I slip out from under her, grab her by the waist and plant her on her back in one smooth motion.
Her camisole is gone in seconds, and my mouth maps every inch of her skin until our bodies are pressed together, and her swollen heat is cupping mine. It’s absolutely perfect.
She’s absolutely perfect.