slept with me, I slept through the night, and I forgot all of that uncertainty. Oh, how I loved it. I savored it. It was like wrapping cold hands around a warm mug, the sensation of warmth comforting as it radiated everywhere.
This morning, Gabriel was curled up behind me, spooning me in his embrace. His knees were hooked into the bend of mine, and his palm was splayed over my belly. I wiggled my bottom back just a smidge and discovered the hard length of his arousal. He was almost always aroused in the morning. He swore it was just the way he was.
I felt it the second he came awake, a little vibration of awareness skating through his body. His palm tensed slightly on my belly before he relaxed it and moved it upward in a soothing stroke to cup one of my breasts. My nipples perked up, eager for his knowing touch when he lightly teased one with his fingers. His hand shifted, smoothing up over my shoulder before he brushed my hair away from my neck. Then I felt a light, barely-there kiss right where my shoulder met my neck. A sweet, hot shock reverberated through my entire body as all of my cells fired to life.
I was so ridiculously turned on by this man. He turned me into a needy, needy girl.
“I have a confession,” he murmured, the motion of his lips on my skin sending jolts of sensation through me.
“I’m not your priest,” I teased, letting out a little gasp when his hand moved down again and teased my other nipple.
“That’s okay. I just wanted to tell you the truth.”
His hands were still teasing me, mapping my body, and it was hard to focus. I tried to clear the haze and pay attention.
“About what?”
“I don’t always wake up hard.”
He flexed his hips, and I felt the presence of his arousal nestling between the cheeks of my bottom—hard and hot.
“You don’t?” I gasped again when his teeth grazed my neck.
His hand moved down over the curve of my belly and dipped into the core of me. I was wet. It was entirely Gabriel’s fault.
“Only with you,” he murmured. “Only with you, Nora.”
He rolled away from me, and I let out a protesting whimper, instantly missing him. But then I heard him reaching into the drawer beside my bed and the crinkle of a condom wrapper. In a second, he was rolling back toward me as I felt him smoothing it on. He lifted one of my thighs and sank smoothly inside me.
We made sleepy love as dawn broke. A ray of sun crested on the horizon just as he sent me flying and shuddered against me with his own release.
I loved it. I loved waking up with him like this, and I loved that he told me he was only like this with me.
We showered and had coffee. And it was all so very good and so much of what I wanted.
Yet I struggled to hold on to faith in him, in me, in us. Well-worn paths of doubt blazed to life after he left. Because this was how good it felt before. How could I trust it?
Annoyed with myself, I spun around and grabbed my laptop, stuffing it into my backpack before I hustled up to the resort. Gabriel was headed out for some flights today, and I had some resort business to take care of. I handled all the scheduling and booking for flights as well as the resort. Daphne helped me with some of that, but the kitchen was her domain.
I told myself not to think too hard about Gabriel. I told myself all those silly things they recommended in self-help books. Believe in yourself. Hope for the best. Just let life unfold. Fuck.
I hated sayings like that because they annoyed the hell out of me.
I felt good this morning, though, good in a way I hadn’t in a long time. I thought maybe, just maybe, I could believe Gabriel loved me.
There was a pretty big “maybe” to that, though.
Chapter Seventeen
Nora
“We’re going to be late,” Cat announced from where she sat beside me in the truck.
“I’m going as fast as this little truck will go,” I countered, glancing sideways with a quick shrug.
“I don’t want to interrupt Gemma’s class after it started. It’s not respectful.”
I smiled. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate that. We’ve got five minutes. We should make it in the nick of time.”
We did, by a hair. Both Cat and I were