McKenna

Later that night, with the sunrise a few hours away, and with the busy night crowd in the pub now gone home to bed, I enter through O’Keefe’s back door using my passcode, which is the very code that made Gabe believe that I’d been behind selling him out. Now I have a singular focus as I move through the clean kitchen, nothing but silence around me, but Gabe’s here. He always restocks the bar before calling it a night, and the pub has only been closed for a half hour now. I know that for a fact, as much as I know that the reason that brings me is the best decision I’ve ever made.

When I enter the main part of the pub, I find Gabe coming out of the storage room holding a case of beer. He’s looking down, unaware that I’m here. “Gabe,” I say softly.

His head snaps up, intense eyes narrow on me.

I tense at the coldness between us. It’s an empty distance that I’m not used to in Gabe’s presence. Uncertainty circles around us, and it’s uncertainty that I know I caused, and that I need to fix.

“Evan told me how much you had to pay to Marcus,” I tell him, taking a step forward. “No matter how long it takes, I’ll pay you back.”

“Do you honestly believe I care about the money?” He’s unmoving, so still that I can’t tell if he’s angry or what he’s feeling.

I take another step closer, trying to get a read on him. “There are things to say.” I fight against the tears in my eyes.

“Then say them,” is all he says.

I swallow against the tightness in my throat. “Everything that you’ve done for me . . . from helping me find Evan to paying his debt . . . it’s just all so much.” I take another step closer, nearly there now, and my voice cracks. “You’re an amazing man, Gabe.” But that’s not enough; I bare it all. “My brother failed me. My mother failed me. Yet you give me hope that people can be good, trustworthy, and loyal.” Tears leak from my eyes, as I add, “You’re the most incredible man I’ve ever known.”

Before my eyes, his cold barrier between us drops and emotion rages in his eyes. He places the case of beer onto the pool table next to him, and then he closes the distance between us with two of his long strides. “I have things to say, too.” He stops in close, only an inch between us now. “Since this all began, I have been outed as Afterglow’s owner. I’ve been accused of having a sex slave, abusing a woman, and I’ve looked the Devil in the eye and paid him two hundred thousand dollars. And do you know what?”

“What?” I whisper.

He slides his hands across my face. “I would do it all over again, McKenna, because it forced us to cross that line we’d been fighting against.”

“I should have gone with you to the hospital.” Tears well in my eyes and spill over. “I should have known that you would’ve been patient with Evan. I should have known that you would never hurt him, because that would be hurting me, and you’d never do that. I shouldn’t have protected him.” I pause, staring him right in the eye, placing my hands over top of his on my face. “Now I pick you, Gabe. I wanted you in the first place, more than anyone or anything else, and I’m sorry that in the moment that it mattered I was blinded by doing what I always do . . . bailing Evan out. Now because of your kindness, Evan is leaving. And I think that is good for us all.”

His thumbs freeze mid-stroke on my face. “Evan’s going to the treatment facility?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug, unable to move, only able to stare at him, feeling every single hair on my body rise under that intense stare. “I didn’t ask Evan what his plans are.”

Gabe pauses. Then frowns. “I’m sorry, Kenna, but I’m not following.”

One hand slides down my shoulder to rest across the small of my back as I place my hands on his chest and explain, “I didn’t ask if Evan was getting help because I’ve asked that question before, so many times, and it’s never once helped. What I told Evan is that it was time for him to move somewhere else. I told him to take the plane ticket you gave him, provided him with some cash, and I told him to move to Arizona and not come back.” Gabe’s brow furrows, warmth exuding in his gaze, when I add, “I told Evan that it’s my turn now. That I deserve a life without fear and worry. I told him that I deserve a life with you.”

I see the way Gabe’s trembling, how badly he wants to take me, taste me, make me his, and I want him, too. “I don’t know how to repay you for all you’ve done for me.”

“Be mine, McKenna,” he murmurs, cupping my nape, pressing his hard and warm body against mine. “That’s what I want, and all I ask.”

“I’ve always been yours,” is what he deserves to hear.

The side of his mouth curves in obvious masculine pride. He tucks his thumb under my chin, tilting my gaze to meet his. “Back when all this started, I touched you out of anger right here. So here is where I’ll now touch you out of love.” Staring deeply into my eyes, he murmurs, “And I love you, McKenna. Madly. Deeply.”

“I love you, too.” I whisper what my heart has always known.

Then it’s not anything we say bringing us closer, it’s his lips on mine in a way they’ve never been before. There’s always been something between us, something standing in our way. Some underlying feeling of why we shouldn’t be together. Now there’s nothing, but us and something so much more.

I follow every swipe of his tongue, grabbing his T-shirt, desperately trying to get closer.

He chuckles, seemingly understanding my urgency, and presses a soft kiss against my forehead. “Stay here a moment, will you?”

I give him a look. “That depends on what you’re up to.”

“Oh, I will always seek to surprise you,” he says with a grin. “Just to see that look again.”

I realize he hasn’t answered me when he moves to the windows at the front of the pub and closes the blinds, shutting out the world. He keeps his eyes fixed on me as he returns to me and passes by, stepping in behind the bar. I stand on my tiptoes as I lose sight of him when he reaches down for something. Though as he rises again, I lower down, watching him come toward me holding two pairs of handcuffs.

“Want to play?” he murmurs, arching a brow.

Heat floods me, pooling low in my body at the hot desire storming across his face. Kinky sex makes him hot, and seeing him hot makes me hot, too. “Do you always keep handcuffs handy, just in case?” I ask with a soft laugh.

His deeper chuckle now causes goosebumps to form across my flesh, as he moves closer. “I keep them here for rowdy customers, but I am a man who will use any situation to my advantage.” When he stops in front of me, he hangs the cuffs off one finger and asks permission, “May I?”

I don’t even have to think about it. Cuffed by him, I shiver in anticipation, because Gabe has it all. The looks, the charm . . . hell, even the passion. But he has something no other man has. My implicit trust. “Yes.”

“Very nice.” He reaches for my shirt in the same second I reach for his.

By the time I’m naked, so is he, and all I see—and need—is his beautiful cock that’s reaching up to his belly button, thick and hard, with veins protruding on the sides, speaking of his desire. He tosses a condom wrapper onto the bar, and my stomach clenches with desire, as he then presses his hard planes against me, his erection teasingly on my stomach. I want to touch him, tease him even, but I see in the strength of his eyes that tonight this game belongs to him, not me.

“Do you know how many times I wanted to take you right here,” he says, running his free hand over my bottom, squeezing tight. “How many times I thought about bending you over this bar and fucking you?”

I moan against his words, his touch, as he clips the first handcuff around my wrist then attaches it to the brass steel bar decorating the edge of the cherrywood bar. I catch his sexy smile as he takes my other wrist, locking the cuff into place and then attaching it to the bar. His cheeks flush, eyes appearing darker than ever as he slides the stools out of the way, leaving me standing there, nude, trapped, and wet and ready for him.

Though he doesn’t hurry this along. He waits, stepping back to examine me, and I’ve never felt so bared by any man. His eyes slowly give me a once-over, as if he’s memorizing every curve, every freckle. He cocks his head and gazes at my shoulder, then my puckered nipples, which garner a grin from him, and then his eyes flare with delicious heat as he examines my sex and licks his lips.

“You’re very beautiful like this. The wood all around you, the cuffs, the warmth of your skin. The desire I see in those pretty eyes.” His eyes slowly lift to mine again, and the way they burn causes a shiver to shoot up my spine as he adds, “You drive me fucking crazy, Kenna, you always have.”

I expect him to move to me then and take my mouth, but he surprises me again by moving in next to me and reaching over the bar to grab an ice cube. When his eyes connect with mine again, his smile is back, and I tremble with the promise I see in his gaze.

He brushes the ice cube along my lips and then he leans in and kisses me, replacing the cold with the heat of his mouth. I give him what he wants, opening my mouth wide, allowing him to take everything from me. I swirl my tongue with his, keeping up with him, and his low growl lets me know I’m pleasing him.

I moan, and he breaks the kiss, moving to my neck, where his breath tickles, and yet it’s a perfection I’ve never known. My sex clenches, wanting so much more, and wanting to give him everything.

It’s a reaction he apparently senses, as he slowly, with his eyes on me, lowers to one knee. I gasp as he slides the ice cube against my throbbing clit, but then his tongue is lapping up the water there, and heat blasts intense desire across me. I moan, tossing my head back, and pull against the cuffs digging into my flesh. But just that, a little bit of pain mixed with the pleasure, and somehow I only want more.

After he gets a few eager moans from me, he moves away and drags the ice up my body, over a nipple, and then to the other side until he’s between my legs again, stroking the ice over my clit, gently. Somehow the sensation becomes perfect and painful, and I grind against his mouth, fighting against the cuffs, wanting to grab his head, hold him there as he gives me what I want.

Another low chuckle, and then his finger is inside me, another one joining right behind. Eyes on me, he keeps his face near my sex, and I watch him as his fingers move rapidly inside me, demanding I go where he sends me . . . right out of my mind. But as I reach there, he refuses the high, and I grunt in frustration.

“Aw, baby, you want to come?” he asks, voice soft.

I want to respond, but I can’t, not yet. He’s risen again and he reaches for the condom and applies it in haste. I stare at him, this incredible man with a strong body, full of delicious muscles and even that sexy V, but it’s his soul that’s sexier. “I want you,” I tell him, “every goddamn inch of you.”

The side of his mouth arches sensually as he steps in front of me, roughly taking hold of me, gripping my hips. “Spread your legs.”

I do as I’m told, and then he enters me right to the hilt. Our moans echo each other and my head falls back, the cuffs digging into my hands, reminding me I’m trapped to his desires. His cock moves in and out, setting a steady rhythm. I’m blinded by the pleasure as every stroke seems to somehow take me higher, make me feel more of him, more connected, more lost to each other.

His brow furrows, expression grows serious, and he’s thrusting hard and slow, showing me who’s in charge. It’s all so perfect, and all that I need. And with each powerful thrust, I fall deeper under his spell, staring into his eyes, watching him take my soul in a way no one has ever requested it. There’s nothing between us anymore. Nothing to fear. Nothing to worry over. Gabe has me, in all the ways that I need to be loved.

Somewhere in between moans, and on a gasp, I say again, “I love you.”

He freezes, buried deep inside me. He grabs my face, stares at me intently. “Christ, I love the way that sounds from that pretty mouth.” He steps back, withdrawing, and a coldness washes over me.

He grabs the handcuff key off the bar and removes the metal loops from the bar, then he takes off the right handcuff completely, only keeping one set on my left wrist. “Come here, sweetheart,” he says, turning me around, gathering my wrists behind my back and cuffing them together. “Let me show you what my love feels like,” he finishes.

I don’t get any hint of what he means until he threads my hair in his fingers, angles my head back, and then bends me over the bar in a way I can tell he’s dreamed about doing. He reenters me, one hand on the cuffs, one on my hips, and pounds into me from behind.

“You’re mine now, McKenna,” he growls in my ear. “Tell me.”

“Yes, yours,” I scream, my eyes pinching shut against the rising pleasure, as his rock-hard cock hits that perfect spot inside, over and over again. “God, yes!”

He grunts, a primal sound that weakens my knees as he takes me from behind. Over and over again, skin smacks against skin, and the scent of our sex trickles into the air, our moans turning into a single sound. All of that isn’t what tips me over the edge, sending me crashing into his euphoria, it’s the strength of his body at my back, his teeth pressing into my shoulder, somehow mingling pleasure and pain into one blissful sensation.

“Gabe!” I scream, beginning to tremble, quivering with an orgasm I can’t control.

“Yeah, baby, I like that, too,” he growls, then he’s pounding against me.

I can’t think, let alone speak, as he’s shifting his hips in a rhythm to get us both off. The strength of his presence, the way he touches me, takes me . . . reality fades away and I free-fall, screaming and shuddering while he’s bucking and jerking, roaring out his pleasure.

We fight the end, holding the climax until our very last strength is used up. Only then does the high fade, and then the only thing left is sweaty, satisfied bodies . . . and the best thing of all . . . us.

“I love you,” I whisper again.

“And I’ll love you forever,” Gabe says again in my ear, breathless.