Chapter 16
‡
Adriana’s eyes fixed on the jewel-toned red liquid splashing from the thin neck of the wine bottle down into her glass. It was beautiful in the dim light, and so much more pleasant to focus on than the complicated feelings and thoughts that raced through her.
She didn’t know what the future held. Of course, she had never known what the future held, but that’d been so much easier to accept before her emotions started blooming out of control.
Now, just being in the same house with Gabe—let alone in the same room—was almost too much to handle. It sent lightheadedness spiraling all through her. Which she guessed would make it light-everything-ness.
When he touched her or looked at her the way he looked at her. That put her over the edge. There was no thinking straight in those circumstances.
She felt his fingers brush against her hips, and she sensed him standing behind her so close that she could feel the heat from his breath on her neck.
“Gabe, this isn’t a good idea,” she cautioned.
“It’s the best idea,” he whispered, and when those words and his hot breath hit her ear, she melted. Good judgment, common sense—all of that flew right out the window.
She didn’t live in reality anymore. She lived in the bubble that formed every time she and Gabe were near each other. It was a hell of a lot nicer place to be.
“My mom and the kids are sleeping upstairs. There’s no way we can fool around when any of them could walk in at any moment,” she gasped. Even to herself, though, her voice lacked conviction. She knew her argument was weak. Not the content—the logic was sound. It was her commitment to it that wasn’t so strong.
He solidified her uncertainty by brushing her hair off the back of her neck, giving her a sensation that drove her absolutely insane with desire, and then following that up by planting tiny, tickling kisses all the way down the back of her neck.
Between each shivering brush of his lips, he said one word, and then another, and then another. Each word was like a brick, slowly but surely coming together to form a wall to convince her.
By the time all of those words had added up to a sentence, she really couldn’t argue with him.
“I. Can. Fix. That.”
Without hesitation, she turned around and placed her hand into his outstretched one. She wasn’t proud of it, but when he made her feel like this, she would follow him blindly. Anywhere. She knew it.
Luckily, where he was leading her wasn’t to the ends of the earth (although she probably would’ve trotted along right behind him if that were the case). Rather, it was just her bedroom, which happened to be the only one on the first floor.
A shiver of arousal slammed through her from head to toe that was so powerful she almost lost the ability to stay on her feet. Luckily, it hit her only a short second before they entered the room where Gabe quietly closed the door and pressed her up against it so tightly that she didn’t need to worry about holding herself up. He and the door were doing all the work for her.
“We have to be so quiet,” she reminded him in the softest of whispers. Mainly she was telling herself, since he tended to bring out the more vocal side of her.
He gave her a cocky, sexy grin that caused an eruption of throbbing tingles between her legs. “I don’t think I’m the one you need to worry about,” he whispered back, and without waiting for her response, he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her passionately.
The minute his delicious lips touched hers, she was entirely lost in him.
She was seized with a sudden image of herself as a machine when she was around him. Completely predictable. She had an on switch and an off switch.
She had only one operator, and that was Gabe. Come to think of it, there wasn’t much he did that didn’t flip her on switch. She was pretty much running at a constant low hum any time he was around.
This was different though. Now he’d pushed her into overdrive. He had her firing on all cylinders, power running through her as if she were the perfect conduit. There was no corner of her body that didn’t feel totally consumed by the electricity he sent through her, fully charged by the combustion they inspired in each other every time they touched.
Even though he wasn’t inside her yet, she still felt him everywhere. He’d entered her soul already.
She struggled to keep the sounds that wanted to escape so badly trapped deep inside her chest. She knew if she let them rise as far as her throat, she was a goner. There was no way she would be capable of clamping down her vocal cords with enough power to strangle those powerful cries.
She was only human, after all. And it was just so hard not to let go entirely.
At the same time, staying quiet did amp up the hot level. Having to be silent made what they were doing feel forbidden. It was like she was a teenager again, making out in the back of a car, hoping that a knock wouldn’t come on the window at any moment from a police officer making his rounds.
Viewed in the right way, the possibility of getting caught was a real aphrodisiac. As long as they didn’t really get caught.
Gabe ran his hands up and down her body and the pressure from his strong grip made her feel tiny in his arms.
There were so many things that she loved about being with him, but if she had to narrow it down to one—just the one most important thing that resided at the top of the “What I Love About Being with Gabe” pyramid—it would be how taken care of she felt when she was with him. She could just relax and let go.
He pulled her shirt up over her head. She felt the hem of the fabric trail along the sensitive skin of her torso as it made its slow but inexorable way north.
Every bit of her skin felt hypersensitive, like she could narrow down and identify thousands of discrete sensations, all of which combined to create one giant feeling of utter bliss.
Then a realization hit her that threw her for a loop. All of the warm and lovely feelings that Gabe’s caresses had filled her with were drowned out by the cold bucket of water that this new revelation dumped right over the top of her head.
Forgetting about the ban on sound for just a moment, she gasped audibly. Her eyes flew open wide. She couldn’t believe that this was the first she’d thought about this.
Gabe drew back, his worried eyes searching hers. “What? What’s wrong, baby?”
She shook her head. “Gabe, we can’t do this in here,” she rasped.
Confusion clouded his features. “Why not? We’re behind closed doors. And we already said we’d be quiet.”
A flush rose and covered her cheeks that had nothing to do with arousal. Nope, this one was all about embarrassment, pure and simple.
“There’s no lock on the door,” she hissed. “Anyone could just walk right in. The girls, Jonah, sometimes they have nightmares and…”
A panicked feeling washed over her as she choked out the words, as thick as if that unthinkable scenario had come to pass in reality and not just in her imagination.
Gabe just smiled, though.
Now it was her turn to feel confusion. “I don’t think you understand what I just said. We can’t do this. This room isn’t secure.”
The expression of self-satisfied amusement never left his face as he whispered back, “Sure we can. We just need to secure it ourselves.”
He leaned forward, pressing her entire body firmly against the wooden door. “And be very, very quiet,” he whispered against her neck.
Just like that, all of the heat that had fled her body flooded right back into her veins. Her heart pounded a million miles an hour again, and her breath was rapid, like she’d just run a marathon.
Gabe moved down to plant kisses across her collarbone, but she had a different idea.
As much as she absolutely loved him always taking care of things and making her feel so treasured and cherished, she thought that maybe it was his turn to be on the receiving end of a little care.
A sudden need to make him feel as good as he always made her feel seized her. It wasn’t just that though. If she were honest with herself, this impulse was just the tiniest bit selfish. She wanted to take his stiff erection in her mouth and devour him.
She placed her hands firmly on his shoulders and pushed, ignoring the look of puzzlement that drew his brows together. He would understand her plan soon enough.
Then, she spun them around so that his back was now the one against the door. She let her hands trail down the muscular landscape of his chest and abs as she dropped to her knees in front of him.
She was looking directly into his eyes when the realization of what she was doing dawned on him. She saw the instant that it happened. The spark of recognition and then pure animal hunger. Her core squeezed with anticipation. There was no more powerful aphrodisiac than being desired, and when Gabe looked at her like that, there was no question how much he desired her.
Her fingers were steady and nimble as she unfastened his jeans. That surprised her—she hadn’t done this in a while and she would’ve expected to be more nervous. Yet with Gabe, she wasn’t. She felt confident and self-assured.
With unrushed ease, she pulled him free from his jeans and boxer briefs, pushing them down over his thighs to give her plenty of room to play. She was tempted to take his straining flesh immediately into her eager mouth, but she resisted and took just a moment to admire it. During their first night together, he’d explored her body thoroughly, but she hadn’t returned the favor. She remedied that imbalance now.
She ran her fingertips lightly up and down the sides of his shaft, admiring the way that his thick member jumped under her touch. It was almost like a separate entity from him, as if it had a mind of its own. Like it existed solely to respond to the erotic stimuli that she heaped on it.
Her stomach erupted in frantic butterflies at the thought.
She extended her tongue out of her mouth, taking a few experimental swipes at his tip with it. She picked up a few drops of salty, tangy liquid with that exploratory trip of her tongue and realized with a jolt that he already had arousal leaking out of the end of his dick. That’s how turned on he was.
Slipping her mouth over his engorged head, she fastened her lips into a tight ring of suction and then swirled her tongue decisively around and around. She could tell by the way he clenched his ab muscles and tightened his fisted fingers in her hair that she was making him feel good. She was on the right track.
Not wanting to torture him any longer, she took the plunge. She slid her hands up the outside of his muscular legs and then grasped his lower torso firmly for leverage. She plunged her head downward as quickly and deeply as she could, taking as much of his enormous length and girth as she could manage into her mouth at one time. She didn’t stop until the head of his dick was pressed so tightly against the back of her throat that she couldn’t even breathe.
Then, when she was certain that she couldn’t go any further or take the pressure for one moment longer, she pulled her head back until her lips were just brushing the broad head of his sex again. She took a second to admire the way that his shaft shined with her saliva and then plunged her head back down again. She kept up that steady rhythm over and over again.
She wanted to show Gabe how she felt about him, even if she couldn’t tell him.
*
Gabe couldn’t tear his eyes from her. It felt amazing to have her hot, tight mouth pumping up and down on his hard dick, and it was even sexier to look down and see her head bobbing back and forth.
The little moonlight that was able to sneak in through the window treatments shone in her hair with every movement. There was just enough light for him to see that her eyes were angled upward to him. She was watching his face. Enjoying the visual evidence of the pleasure she gave him.
He locked his gaze with hers; he loved the connection he felt as they looked into each other’s eyes. There was something so visceral about the energy that flowed between them.
As her head moved up and down more and more frantically, and her lips squeezed him tighter as her speed increased, his balls tightened and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to last much longer. It was a simple matter of physiology.
As much as he hated to do it, he put his hands firmly underneath her arms and lifted her to her feet in one smooth movement. It happened so fast that surprise was still written on her face as he sat her firmly down on the floor.
Her eyes widened as he spun her around and pressed her back against the door.
He then dropped softly to his knees in front of her. She let out a whimper, and then slapped her hand over her mouth. He smiled. He liked that. He liked that he had that kind of power over her; that he could give her that level of pleasure.
He planned to wield that power as often as possible in the future.
Just as she had done to him, he unfastened her jeans and pushed her jeans and panties down over her hips, her thighs, and her ankles before taking them off entirely. He wanted her to be free to spread her legs wide as she leaned against the door so that he could cover her completely with his mouth. No restrictions.
She rested her hand on his shoulder for balance.
He placed his hands between her knees and pushed her thighs far apart, then placed one leg over his shoulder. He extended his tongue and touched it to the skin of her inner thigh, just above the knee.
Ever so slowly, he ran his tongue up the inside of her leg, reveling in her soft skin and loving the way that her muscles jumped under the tender, gentle attention of his tongue.
Halfway up her inner thigh, he got a tart surprise when he found that her juices were dripping down her leg. His cock jumped at the realization. She was so turned on that she was leaking juices down her thigh. She was so wet it couldn’t be contained.
His masculine, alpha instincts fired up with pride at that realization. She was his. He had claimed her with his touch, his kisses, and his words. He was the one that made her wet, and if he had anything to say about it, that would be true for the rest of their lives.
He traveled the rest of the way up her thigh with his tongue flat, licking her tender skin as if he were eating an ice cream cone. Her fingers were pressed to the back of his head, her fingers fisted in his hair as he pressed his head forward.
She was desperate for him. He could feel it in the energy coming off her body. If she were free to cry out, he knew that her head would be thrown back and she would be screaming.
However she wasn’t free to make a noise, and so this was his show. He smiled to himself. He was going to, if not torture her, then at least tease her for a little bit. The opportunity was just too good to pass up.
He dragged the stiff tip of his tongue slowly over her outer lips, up one and then down the other. She didn’t let out even so much as that high, soft whimper this time, but her breathing did get faster, and the pressure on the back of his head increased.
It was working.
He penetrated her slick seam with his tongue and dragged it slowly up, taking his time and enjoying every twitch of her muscles as he went.
God, she tasted so good.
When he saw that she had had enough of teasing, he opened his mouth wide and covered her with it completely, drawing a dramatic exhale from her. He flicked her pleasure center repeatedly with his tongue while he pushed two fingers inside of her and pumped them in and out.
She was so tight inside that it was hard to even work those two fingers into her, and it made him desire even more fiercely the moment that he would plunge his manhood into her, stretching out those tight walls yet again.
Yet another way he could claim her as his.
It didn’t take long for the movements of his tongue and his fingers to send the ultimate pleasure through her. Even though she couldn’t cry out, he knew from the way she painfully twisted her fingers into his hair when her inner walls clamped down tight on his fingers that she was gripped by a powerful orgasm.
He slid his hand up the taut muscles of her belly, and he loved the way that they squeezed and jumped as pleasure washed over her.
He loved being the man that had made her feel that good.
His fingertips grazed her nipples as she came, and she leaned forward and down to give him a better angle. When she did, he grasped her hard knob in between his thumb and forefinger and rolled it back and forth in the same rhythm that he was moving his tongue between her legs, while he pumped his fingers in and out of her.
He half-expected her to let out an involuntary scream, regardless of the consequences. She didn’t. Even as he felt her spasming under his tongue, she remained silent, save for the sandpaper rasp of her rapid breathing.
When he could tell that she had mostly come down from her climax, with the only evidence of what she had just gone through being the still rapid breaths escaping through her lips and the flush that spread across her chest and face, he rose to his feet and pulled a condom out of the back pocket of his jeans.
He grabbed it between his teeth, holding it firm as he shed all of his clothes as quickly as possible. It was a treasure. The one thing that he needed in order to go forward, and he wasn’t letting it out of his grasp. Not for one second.
He pushed his jeans the rest of the way down his legs and hopped out of them expertly, then ripped his shirt off and threw it across the room.
He impressed even himself. Zero to naked in just under five seconds.
He unrolled the latex tube of the condom onto his shaft, standing proud at attention. He pulled her to him, pressing his hand flat against the door so that he could hold her against his body while still making sure that the door was firmly secured. He just needed to feel her pressed against the length of him, her hot, naked skin touching his entire body while he kissed her. He needed that before he entered her, to center himself and remind himself to remain silent.
When the intensity had built to the point that he couldn’t draw it out even one moment longer, he pulled his lips out of the intoxicating kiss, and pushed her gently back against the door.
As he took a step forward, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hopped up into his arms. He groaned with pleasure, but kept the rumbling sound deep in his chest, willing himself not to let it escape.
He cupped her ass cheeks in his hands, holding her slight weight up as she wrapped her legs around his torso and clung to him. He positioned her entrance at the tip of his cock and lowered her down onto his length.
The sensation was so spectacular that it stole his breath. She stole his breath.
He moved forward again just slightly, just enough to brace her shoulders against the firm backstop of the door and give him leverage to draw his pelvis backward and then he thrust into her again. Then he drew himself back and thrust into her again. Over and over until he felt lost in the rhythm, as if it was a metronome that someone was using to hypnotize him.
As he felt the orgasm build inside of him, he was seized by an urge so visceral that he couldn’t help but follow it. He felt as if, on some level, he didn’t have a choice in the matter.
“I love you,” he spoke into her ear again and again as they came. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
She didn’t respond with words but each time he said it her body responded. It clenched tighter around him, her fingers, her inner walls, her arms. They all said the three words she didn’t say aloud.
It was enough. For now. It was enough.