Chapter 33 Gabriel #2
“Ahh. It was a nice thought.” Totally didn’t work. She’d terrified me, regardless. “You should be proud of your team. Not only did your minions not tell me where you were, they wouldn’t let me in when I found you.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think to tell them to.”
For a moment, she looks almost like a stranger, her bones still more prominent than they used to be. Once she was all curves and muscle. She shares her vulnerability now when, before she was taken, she was pure bravado and sass. We both were, and the need to maintain that mask was exhausting.
She’s filling out and gaining strength and muscle every day. I’ve grown used to the changes in her. But every once in a while, the contrast between the woman who once threatened to burn my world to the ground and the one who did just that when I lost her to Markov becomes too stark to ignore.
She’s not the same. Neither of us is.
Then she takes a breath and straightens her spine.
And there she is—a woman of strength and dignity and kindness.
The woman who survives, but never by stepping on someone else to do it.
“I’m almost sure I betrayed you. I can hear a woman’s voice in my head reminding me.
Telling me you’ll never forgive me. It’s a memory.
A woman and a man. The drugs had worn off. ”
“Can you describe her?”
She shakes her head. “I only know what she said. They both told me I betrayed you.”
“They tried to alter your perception of reality.”
“What if their version is the real one, and I forgot out of guilt?”
I take her hands into mine. “You once blackmailed me with a promise to go to the FBI with a story about me if I didn’t get my shit together. I have a damn high threshold for forgiveness when it comes to you.”
She gapes at me. “I did that?”
There’s no point hiding my smile. She’ll see it in my eyes.
“I deserved it. I’m telling you now so you know how serious I am.
” I lower my head, pressing my forehead to her knuckles before looking up into her eyes.
“Do you remember the movie Titanic and how angry you were that Jack didn’t climb onto the door with Rose? ”
She nods.
“The door is big enough for both of us, Sydney. We’re not letting one of us drown so the other can freeze. We’re keeping each other warm until we’re on solid ground.”
She pulls one of her hands from mine to run her fingers through my hair. “You’re saying we’re stronger together.”
I press into her touch. “Always.”
“I . . . I—” She grits her teeth and gives me a light push.
I rock back on my heels then stand stock-still as she walks to the hotel desk in the corner.
She picks up a pen and the small paper tablet with the hotel logo on it.
She returns to stand in front of me and holds up the pad, then presses it against my chest, directly over my heart.
She watches her own words as she inks them onto the paper, one methodical letter at a time: I love you.
“I’m sorry I c-can’t say it out l-loud yet. I f-feel it, but my mouth.” She shrugs helplessly.
Voice thick, I say, “Don’t apologize. Now I have it forever.”
I remove the paper from her hand and rip the sheet off, tossing the tablet to the dresser afterward. I press her words to my lips, then back against my chest as I cup her jaw with one hand. “I love you, Sydney.”
She nods, her eyes glassy. “I know.”
I fold her note and place it safely inside my wallet.
Then I pluck the pen from her fingers and toss it behind me. “Girl, you should know I’m about to dick you down until you see stars.”
She laughs and uses my belt to yank me against her.
Our kiss stays teasing for all of one second, then, like a lit fuse, all the stress, relief, worry, and love explode into a sexual frenzy.
I shove her against the wall, my left hand cupping the back of her skull so my knuckles take the brunt of the contact.
My right forearm lands flat beside her head, and I smile down into those gorgeous brown eyes.
She watches me, her breasts heaving under her silky button-down blouse. Sydney may not recognize the do-over, but this is the energy we were always meant to have.
Under her deft touch, my belt buckle loosens, and my cock twitches in anticipation.
I straighten and bring my hands to the front of her blouse.
With one quick jerk of both fists at the plackets, I tear her shirt apart, revealing those gorgeous tits cupped in ebony lace.
She gasps as tiny pearl buttons scatter and ping in every direction, then she melts, her eyelids lowering, and her lips parting as her breaths grow shallow.
“Oh.” She squirms to get closer. “Do you rip my clothes off like a caveman often?”
My lips quirk. “Only when you need it . . . and the material is thin enough that I can pull it off in one go and still look manly.”
Eyes gleaming with mischief, she says, “I don’t know. I think a little grunting with exertion is extremely manly.”
She finishes what she started with my belt, then shoves both hands into my briefs and pushes them down. I groan as her hot touch lands exactly where I need it.
Speaking against her ear, I flick open the button on her pants and drag her zipper down. “Do you remember, wife? All the ways we made each other come?”
She shakes her head.
Under my guiding hands, her dark trousers and panties slide down her legs in a liquid fall to pool at her ankles.
I suck on her earlobe, then work my way down her neck and across her collarbone. “Then I get to watch you discover them all over again.”