earthquake.
“What will you do if I don’t?”
His eyes flash with sparks, the heat so consuming that I melt at his feet and lose the ability to continue playing.
“Okay.”
I’m on my feet and pulling the key from a side table where we’d found it earlier today. My hands are shaking as I go up on my tiptoes, barely able to reach with my arms fully extended. Somehow I manage to unlock one, Gabriel’s hand slipping free.
He grabs the key from me and unlocks the other, his fingers fisting into my hair as soon as he’s free, his body leaning down and his mouth locking over mine as he kicks the pants from his feet.
Gabriel must have kicked them across the room a little too hard because a loud bagawk sounds, his mouth smiling against mine when he growls, “What is it with you and chickens?”
I’m laughing for only a second, the humor completely lost to maddening desire when his hands take aggressive possession of my hips and he lifts me up so I’ll wrap my legs around his waist.
Mouth crashing against mine, he bites down on my bottom lip as a punishment, his tongue flicking out a second later to slide against mine.
I hear fabric ripping as he walks me out the room, his shoulder colliding against one wall as he walks blindly, our tongues tangled and teeth grazing before I have to pull away to breathe.
He only steals the opportunity to slide his mouth down my throat, his teeth nipping at my pulse point, his tongue hot where it tastes my skin.
I worry briefly that Tanner or Ezra are still in the house and in view of Gabriel carrying me down the hall without pants on.
It must not matter to him, though.
Once in his room, he yanks at my dress again, and it falls to the floor as a flutter of scrap, my bare breasts pressed against his chest, the contact enough for both of us to release a deep sigh of relief.
Gabriel’s fingers fist my hair as he drags my head back and runs his teeth down the line of my neck to bite down on the soft spot at my shoulder.
When I think he’ll drop me on the bed, Gabriel stills, one hand palming my ass while the other tightens in my hair. It worries me that my weight is too much, but he doesn’t struggle to hold me up, his biceps tight beneath my palms as I slide them up his arms and over his shoulders.
His mouth becomes soft as it grazes up the line of my neck, his lips wet and warm when they press against my ear.
What he says surprises me, so much so that my eyes clench shut, the tips of my fingers playing through the loose waves in his hair.
“I’m sorry.”
I almost don’t answer, because what is there to say? What is there to apologize for? But I have to respond, have to acknowledge the utter vulnerability in the two words I’m not sure I’ve ever heard Gabriel say to anyone in his life.
Sure, I wasn’t around him constantly, he may have apologized to a million people before me, but somehow this feels...
“For what?”
His hand releases my hair to close around my chin in a tight grip that turns my face to his, our mouths brushing together, my eyes opening to witness the glimmer of liquid emerald shadowed by guilt.
“For hurting you. For not seeing you.”
He pauses, our breath dancing together, hot and fast.
“For lying my entire life that you haven’t always been mine.”
His fingers tighten on my chin, a flash of exquisite pain before he drops me on the bed without warning.
Fisting his cock in his hand, Gabriel stares down at me, his gaze molten, his body hard, his shoulders hidden beneath the white dress shirt and loose tie he still hasn’t peeled off.
Arrogance arches one of his brows and the slow pump of his hand draws my eyes down.
“But I know it now, don’t I?”
Raw, masculine possession edges those words. It drags my gaze up again, a tremor coursing through me when he finally peels his shirt away to drop it to the floor. His hands lock over my thighs, my legs forced apart, his stare running a line down my skin as if dedicating to memory every inch of the body he now owns.
Fuck...
I warned you in the beginning.
Warned everybody.
Gabriel isn’t just the friendly, beguiling smiles and easy charm he’ll have you believe.
He’s not the smooth words and the pretty