37. Alexis
Alexis
Peyton takes the stairs two at a time, still a bit too energized after visiting Pepper. By the time I join her in her bedroom, she’s already in her pajamas.
I try to run through a mental list of everything Gabriel takes care of in the evenings. “Have you brushed your teeth yet?”
She flashes a cheesy grin in response, showing me her teeth, then flops into her bed.
“So you’re all ready for bed?” I marvel. “Wow, you did that all by yourself. Look at you!”
“I’m practicing for taking care of Pepper,” she says solemnly.
“Well, that’s good. You’re going to be an amazing kitten mom,” I say with a smile, sitting on the edge of her bed.
Peyton shifts to get comfortable in her blankets, her curls bouncing. I take a few minutes to carefully braid her hair the way I’ve seen Gabriel do it. Two simple French braids, just to stop those ringlets from getting tangled while she sleeps.
“Are you going to read me a bedtime story?” she asks. She twists her head to look at me, her eyes pleading.
I smile as I finish the second braid. “Of course. Do you have a story in mind already?”
She points over at the bookshelf, pushed into one corner of her room. “Ollie’s Hidden Garden!”
I crouch in front of the shelves, perusing the titles.
It only takes a few seconds to find the well-loved copy of Ollie’s Hidden Garden.
On the cover, there’s a stylized illustration of a little gray cat with blue eyes, sitting on a garden wall.
The cat’s tail is curled into the vines that crawl between the stones.
“This one?” I show it to Peyton, and she beams, nodding.
I tuck her into bed and settle beside her, flipping open the book. The artwork is rendered in bright pastels. It fills the pages, bright and whimsical.
Peyton snuggles into her pillows as I read the story to her. I make sure to linger on each page so that she has time to look at the artwork, although I can tell from her expression that she’s heard this story dozens of times before.
It’s a simple tale. Ollie the kitten lives in a cozy seaside village with his human, a woman named Miss Hazel. He goes on an adventure one morning, gets lost, and discovers a secret garden filled with fairies, who help him find his way back home. It’s cute, and Peyton loves it.
By the time the story wraps up, with Miss Hazel scooping Ollie into her arms and giving him a kiss on the forehead, Peyton is half asleep. I turn off the lamp on her bedside table and quietly stand, careful not to disturb her as I return the book to the shelf.
Before I can turn to leave the room, Peyton whispers, “Alexis?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think Pepper will ever go on an adventure like Ollie?”
I smile at her. “Pepper is already on an adventure. She’s got this whole house to explore.”
“Are we going to let her out of the bathroom tomorrow?”
“We’ll have to see,” I say. “Maybe we’ll let her take a look around the basement.”
“Okay.” Peyton yawns and snuggles deeper into her blankets, her voice growing softer. “I think she’s gonna be really brave… like Ollie.”
“I think so too,” I whisper. “Goodnight, Pey.”
“Goodnight.”
My heart feels warmed by Peyton’s soft, sleepy words and undiminished enthusiasm. And she wanted me to put her to bed tonight. It’s an unexpected honor.
I turn toward the door and stop in my tracks when I see Gabriel leaning against the doorframe. How long has he been there?
I tiptoe across the room to join him, stepping out into the hall and closing the door as quietly as I can manage. He places a hand on my jaw, running his thumb across my cheek. There’s a fond smile on his face.
“So,” I murmur, “did I do a good job?”
He chuckles, almost under his breath, and his hand falls from my face. “Yeah. I’d say so.”
“It was sweet of you to get her a kitten,” I say. “She’s over the moon.”
“I know.” He shrugs one shoulder. “I just figured it was time. We’re a family. We need a pet.”
My heart skips a beat. The way that hit my ears, it sounded like he was including me in the word family. I glance up at him, momentarily breathless, and he meets my gaze steadily. Something passes between us. Something unspoken, indescribable, but significant.
“Let’s get to bed.”
I nod, my throat tight, unable to find the right words. Gabriel steps back and gestures for me to lead the way down the hall.
In the bedroom, I change into my pajamas and slip into bed. The book I’ve been working my way through sits on the nightstand, and I reach for it out of habit, getting lost in the story even as my mind keeps drifting back to the warmth in Gabriel’s voice when he said family.
The bed dips as he sits on the edge, pulling off his watch and setting it down. He stretches out beside me, leaning back against the pillows, then opens his laptop on his knees.
My eyes move across the pages, devouring my latest steamy read, but I can feel him watching me out of the corner of my eye. He’s got the laptop balanced on his legs, pretending to work, but I can tell he’s not paying it the slightest attention. He’s far more interested in me.
I’ve just hit a good scene, and that’s probably exactly why he’s watching me. Not that I have any intention of stopping. Not now that we’re getting to the best part.
“Another good one?”
I glance up at him, not bothering to hide my grin. “How can you tell?”
He chuckles and closes the laptop, sets it on the nightstand, and rolls over to face me, propping himself on one elbow. The look he gives me is hungry.
“I can always tell when you’re reading something dirty.”
“How?”
I turn the page, though every bit of my attention has slid sideways to him.
“You go very still.” His voice drops lower.
“Like you’re concentrating on holding perfectly steady.
But your breath gives you away. It goes shallow.
” He brings a hand up, brushing one fingertip along the side of my throat.
“And no matter how composed you’re trying to look, there’s a flush, right here, every time. ”
He’s right. That’s exactly what I do: go carefully blank, locking my face down.
It’s a habit I picked up at a young age, keeping my expression neutral whenever I read this stuff around other people.
Especially my parents, who definitely wouldn’t approve.
Dirty books about love conquering all are nowhere near refined enough for them.
His hand curves around the side of my neck, his thumb resting just under my jaw, and my pulse jumps against his palm.
“I like knowing what you read does this to you,” he murmurs. “And as much as I love those little signs, the ones no one else would catch, you don’t have to hide anything from me, sunshine.”
Heat blooms inside me, because I know exactly where this is going. I move to set the book on the nightstand, but he reaches out to stop me.
“No, wait.” A slow smile pulls at his mouth. “Read it to me.”
I lift a brow at him. “Out loud?”
“Out loud.” He nods at the book. “Go on.”
Before I can say anything else, he slips out from under the covers and moves over me on his hands and knees, then settles between my legs and nudges them apart. He’s close enough that I can feel the heat coming off him, and it does nothing to cool the arousal building inside me.
“I’m waiting.” His voice is rough and almost amused, and the low sound sends goosebumps prickling over my skin. I clear my throat and lift the book.
“Thoughts I can’t keep up with tear through my mind as his eyes rake over my body, drinking in every detail.
His hands slide up my bare thighs, his rough palms making me shudder as they graze against my flaming skin.
” Gabriel’s hands find my thighs and climb as I read, following the words, his thumbs pressing into the soft skin.
“And when he lowers his face, letting it hover between my legs, I feel myself catch fire.”
He hooks his fingers into the waistband of my sleep shorts and my panties, and I lift my hips so he can drag them down and off, letting them drop over the side of the bed.
Then he sits back on his heels and pulls my top up over my head, baring the rest of me, his gaze moving down my body like he can’t get enough of the sight.
He leans in and presses a kiss to the inside of my thigh, breathing me in.
“Keep going,” he says against my skin.
“His lips dance up the insides of my thighs, every kiss a shock to my system.” Gabriel kisses his way up just like the character in my book, but he doesn’t stop short or wait to hear what comes next in the story.
Instead, he reaches the top of my thigh and licks a line up my pussy in one slow stroke, and the book sinks against my chest as the pleasure of it snaps my spine straight.
“You’re losing your place.” There’s a grin in his voice. He shoots me a smug smirk, then nuzzles his mouth against me and gets to work, his tongue licking away the arousal seeping from me before he seals his lips around my clit.
I keep reading for as long as I can, the words blurring on the page as my eyes keep trying to roll back into my head. I honestly barely even know what I’m saying anymore, but I don’t care.
Gabriel’s wicked tongue circles my clit, and then he slides a finger into me to the knuckle, curling it just right, and every other thought empties out of my head.
“Oh my god!”
The book drops onto the mattress beside me, whatever page I was on long gone as my hands twist into the sheets.
My knees draw up toward my chest on their own, and he takes the clear invitation, hooking his arms under my thighs and lifting them over his shoulders so he can bury his face even deeper in my pussy.
There’s nothing careful or restrained about it—he devours me like he’s been thinking about this the whole time I read to Peyton, his tongue working my clit before stiffening to press deep inside me.
“Fuck, that’s good,” I gasp. My legs shake on his shoulders, and I’m already climbing fast, barreling toward a breath-stealing climax. However good the scenes in my books are, none of them come close to this.