“Pascal,” she says affectionately, a slow smile creeping onto her lips. “You know you don’t have to woo me. I’m already wooed.”
“I don’t know about that. We got home, and you went straight to have a nap.”
“And you went straight to have a wank.”
“Because you were napping!”
She shrugs and looks down at her hands. “I just need time to figure some stuff out.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“It’s all moving so fast.”
My heart sinks as I say, “We can pull back if you want. We can go back to the way it was.”
She gives me a furtive glance. “Do you really believe that?”
“No,” I admit. “But I could try. For you, I would. Anything to make you comfortable, anything to make you happy.”
Gabrielle watches me for a moment and then places her hand on top of mine on the steering wheel. “Thank you for that. But when I’m with you, I am happy. Even if I don’t seem it, even if my brain is stuck on worrying about other things, I’m happy. Or it’s the closest thing to happiness I’ve felt.”
“You didn’t seem very happy when you jumped into the sea today.”
She sighs and gives my hand a squeeze. “Like I said, I’m figuring things out. Just be patient with me.”
“I am,” I assure her, and in that moment, I know that if she wanted to call it off, if she wanted to wait forever, I might just have to do the same. There’s truly no one else. Either she’s my future or it’s nothing at all. “Take all the time you need. I’ll be here.”
The subject in the car switches to lighter topics. Even though we’re not supposed to talk about work, I have been ignoring calls and emails from the company all day, so I work through some troubleshooting with her. She’s smart. Either that business school paid off for her, or she’s just that bright. By the time we reach the restaurant an hour later, I feel a million times lighter.
The sushi place is big and spacious and completely modern—you’d think you were in Japan, not an island off the coast of Spain. The hostess recognizes me, either because I’ve been here many times before or because of the Dumont brand, and we’re seated at a table at the back, facing the teppanyaki chefs in the middle and the rest of the restaurant.
I decide to sit on the other side of the table beside Gabrielle so we can both watch the chefs do their tricks together. She oohs and aahs in delight at everything they do, her pixie face alight with this joyous, buoyant enthusiasm as she watches them.
“I take it the sushi restaurant you went to didn’t have this entertainment?” I ask, murmuring into her ear. There’s no need to whisper, I just like to do it. Gives me a chance to smell her, too, that rich coconut scent. It’s almost as good as the way she smelled earlier, legs wide open, pussy in my face.
She shivers and turns her head to me slightly, gazing into my eyes. “No. Nothing like this.” Her gaze drops to my mouth, and I can feel the heat on my lips. Then she looks back to the chefs. “They’re amazing.”
“You’re amazing,” I tell her, sliding a hand down her thigh to the edge of her dress.
“You’re going to give me a big ego if you keep paying me compliments like that,” she says. For a moment I think she might bat my hand away, but instead she parts her legs a little more.
“Maybe you deserve it,” I say to her. “Maybe you deserve everything.”
I bring my hand up her thigh, slowly, slowly pushing up her dress and making my way up and up until my fingers graze the decadently soft skin of her pussy.
Fuck me. She’s not wearing underwear.
She wanted this to happen.
“You little tease,” I say into her ear, nipping the bottom of it. Needless to say, I’m turned on as fuck, and I was already turned on.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says primly and then clears her throat, eyes forward. I see the waitress approaching with our bottle of cold sake, but I don’t move my hand.
Instead I subtly slide my finger between her folds, finding her wet.
She tenses up, especially as the waitress does the grand display of showing us the bottle and then asking who wants to taste it.
“She wants to taste it,” I say, nodding at Gabrielle. “She’s the one with good taste.”