“It’s cold out here. Get in the truck.” Gabe looked like he hated to let her go, but he untangled them and went to open the passenger side of his vehicle.
Before Gabe could lift her up, Chloe grasped the handle along the doorframe and hopped into the seat, using the running board. She needed a few minutes in the dark to compose herself, get her emotions under control.
He closed the door carefully once she was seated. He went to her truck and gathered the things on the seat, including her cell phone, and locked the vehicle, and then pocketed the keys.
Just being with Gabe made her feel safe, and she smiled at him as he got into the truck and handed her the phone and her bag.
“You should have worn a jacket,” he grumbled, closing his door and plunging the interior into darkness.
After he started the truck and put it into motion, Chloe said softly, “Thank you. Not having a spare was dumb.”
“I’d want you to call me anyway,” Gabe answered as he started his truck and maneuvered it onto the highway. “Those tires are too damn big for you to be handling alone. I’ll take care of your truck in the morning.”
Chloe’s heart wrenched as she heard the protective note in his voice. Truth was, she had handled her last flat tire alone. She hadn’t even thought about calling James. It had been a struggle, but she’d managed.
“You’re amazing. You know that, right?” she told him quietly.
“Sweetheart, changing a tire for a lady isn’t exactly a big deal.”
It’s a big deal to me. It’s a big deal that you care about my safety, and that you don’t want me to struggle. It’s a really big deal that you give a damn.
“Little things mean a lot,” she answered sincerely, knowing just how much they really did count.
“If you think so, I’m not going to argue with you. Anything that makes you like me more,” Gabe said jokingly.
Chloe smiled into the darkness, amazed at just how quickly Gabe could make everything right again.
She tried not to think about James and the look of pure evil in his eyes. What would have happened if she had married him? He wanted her for the material things she could bring to the table. All of her brothers had been haranguing her about getting a prenuptial agreement, but she had refused because James didn’t want it. He’d told her it was a sign that she didn’t trust him. Now, she knew she should have listened to them. By the time she had changed her mind and thought it might be a good idea to have an agreement in place, she’d already known she was never going to go through with the wedding.
Chloe’s eyes were wide open now, and she didn’t doubt that he might have arranged to have her disposed of after she’d said her wedding vows. Judging by the look in his eyes, he might have done it himself just to have complete control of her money.
God, I hate those thoughts, but I know it’s possible.
She wasn’t going to lie to herself anymore. James was an opportunist who had preyed on her naiveté, and then he’d systematically undermined her confidence because she already had hang-ups about her weight. Every word, every criticism, no matter how subtle, had been an attempt to make her self-esteem sink lower and lower. Lately, his remarks had been downright cruel, and he’d dug the knife in as deep as it could get, making her feel that no other man would ever love her—not that he did.
She understood everything so rationally…now. Natalie had told her that she thought James was a dangerous sociopath after Chloe had talked about some of the really dark incidents that she hadn’t shared with anyone else.
After seeing James tonight, Chloe knew Natalie was right.
“Hey, why so quiet?” Gabe queried in a husky voice.
“I was just thinking,” she replied honestly.
“About?”
“How lucky I am to have you as a teacher,” she answered in a teasing voice. It was getting more and more difficult to think of Gabe as just a learning experience or an affair as they’d agreed to do.
“Are you ready to graduate?” He sounded worried.
Chloe didn’t ever want to leave Gabe. She already knew that. She’d been lucky enough to find him, and she didn’t ever want to let go. Unfortunately, she’d made the arrangement to help her heal, and it had helped. Now, she was stuck with the consequences. “Not at all. I think I’m still a fledgling, and I still have so much to learn. But maybe you could advance me a grade or two.” She kept her voice intentionally low and sultry. If her intimate relationship with Gabe was going to eventually end, she wanted to experience all of him.
“Baby, if I teach you much more, I won’t live through it. You’re already perfect, to tell you the truth. You always were.” His voice sounded husky and vulnerable.
Chloe reached over and put a hand on his thigh, needing to touch him. “I thought you liked to be the boss in the bedroom.”
So far, he’d been demanding, but she had been too afraid to completely trust him, to completely let go and follow. She knew he’d never completely relinquished control either. He was still careful, and it wasn’t necessary anymore.
“Sweetheart, I can’t—”
“That’s too bad,” she interrupted him thoughtfully. “I was thinking that could be pretty hot.”
“You do?” Gabe sounded like he was breathing heavily.
“I do,” she admitted, loving the idea of Gabe demanding her compliance in the bedroom. The whole idea turned her on. He was already a demanding lover, but she’d love to put herself at his complete mercy. It was a measure of trust, and she did trust him. He’d make it the most pleasurable experience imaginable. “I want to be yours,” she added enigmatically.
“As far as I’m concerned, you already are,” he grumbled.
“Then show me.” She moved her hand up his thigh and gently cupped his cock that was currently trying to pop the buttons of his jeans.
“Chloe.” His voice came out strangled.
“I want you, Gabe. I want everything you are, everything you feel for me.” She teased the denim fabric with her fingers.
“You might be sorry,” he said huskily.
“I want to make you come,” she insisted.
“That’s a given,” Gabe rasped.
“Any way you want it,” she added. “Any way you need it.”
“Fuck! You’ll pay for teasing me like this, sweetheart,” he said gruffly.
How many times had she heard similar threats from James? But her ex was far from her mind. Hearing it from Gabe’s sensual mouth was more like a promise of ecstasy. Pain was the last thing on his mind.
“I’m counting on it.” She squeezed him through his jeans.
“I feel too damn much. I’m scared that I’ll hurt you if I let go,” Gabe admitted gruffly.
His vulnerability clenched at her heart. “I want it. I want it all,” she answered simply. “I’ll give you all of me if you give me all of you.”
“Deal.” The word shot out of his mouth instantly.
Chloe was done playing any kind of games. Gabe loved her body, and she would willingly let him have it.
Chapter 12
Gabe had given in the moment Chloe had told him that she was willing to give him everything. Damned if he didn’t want that more than he’d ever craved anything in his entire life.
He was a sexual dominant. It was something Gabe had always accepted. He wasn’t into pain, and he wasn’t into clubs that catered to dominant males. His needs were simple. He liked to be in control, and he enjoyed a willing woman who let him win the majority of the time. Strangely, his desire to cherish Chloe, to help her overcome her fears, had outweighed his usual preference to be the boss. But the thought of a warm, willing Chloe was almost more than he could stand.
Not holding back like he’d been doing since he’d first touched her aroused him unbearably.
It also scared the shit out of him.
He felt too much, wanted to brand her as his with a ferocity he’d never felt before.
“I’m yours to command,” Chloe told him in a
sultry voice when they arrived in his bedroom.
He closed the door and locked it, turning to look at the seductive, dreamy look on her face as she looked up at him expectantly.
It was way too much for Gabe, and that was the moment he lost it.
She watched Gabe as he strode over to a comfortable chair and sat, watching her expectantly. “Strip,” he commanded. “Take everything off except your panties. Now.”
Chloe felt a rush of heat flood her core at the exacting tone of his voice, but she didn’t experience even a second of fear. His eyes told her something different. His eyes were dying to get her naked, longing to touch her.
She watched him, removing her clothing slowly. The sweater went first, and then her bra. The flash of molten jade heat in his eyes was unmistakable as she freed her breasts and let her bra drop to the floor.
“Do you pleasure yourself, Chloe?” Gabe asked bluntly as he leaned back in his chair.
“Once in a while,” she answered truthfully as she removed her jeans and stepped out of them, kicking off her socks with the denim.
“Show me,” he said in an insistent voice. “What do you do?”
The experience was different, but she did as he asked, cupping her breasts and playing with her already painfully erect nipples.
Her body was already so aroused that her core actually convulsed as she slipped one hand in her panties and slid them through the moist heat between her folds.
“Take them off now,” Gabe instructed. “I want to see you.”
She slid the satiny material down her legs, shivering at the silky feel of the cloth on the sensitive skin of her thighs.
“Continue,” Gabe ordered.
Chloe could hardly make herself stop. The heat in his eyes was too much for her as their gazes held and locked. She teased her nipples with one hand as she slid the other back between her thighs, opening her stance so she could get better access to her pussy.
Right now, she’d rather have Gabe’s cock filling her, but this time wasn’t for her. It was for him.
Heat spiraled through her entire being as she saw his eyes flash fire when his gaze dropped to watch her pleasure herself.
“Are you wet, Chloe?”
“Yes,” she gasped, putting more pressure on her clit.
“Stop,” he ordered. “Come to me.”
Oh, God. How could she stop now? She was close, so very close…
“I said stop.” Gabe didn’t yell, but he didn’t have to. The demand in his voice was vibrating through the room.
Chloe stopped, removing her hands from her body painfully. “It’s hard,” she whined as she moved to his chair.
“It will make your climax sweeter when I make you come,” Gabe explained, his voice kinder now.
Please let it be soon. Chloe was so turned on that she could hardly breathe.
Gabe stood up and yanked the sweatshirt over his head, tossing it on the floor. His jeans and boxers followed, and when he was naked, Chloe automatically reached out to touch him.
“No,” he growled. “Don’t touch me.”
Her face fell with disappointment, but she kept her hands to herself. He urged her toward the bed, but he didn’t make her get on top of it. He placed her hands on the edge of the mattress.
“Do you know what it’s like to watch you please yourself?” he asked as his hand smoothed down her back.
“No.”
“It was beautiful to watch you get aroused, but I wanted to touch you myself. When I see the desire in your eyes, all I can think about is satisfying you, Chloe.” His hand moved between her thighs, delving between her slippery folds and into the burning heat of her core.
He was directly behind her, and she whimpered as one of his fingers brushed over her throbbing clit.
“I want you to come so hard that you can’t think of anything else except me.” His finger slid over the vibrating bundle of nerves a little bit harder.
“Oh, God. Please make me come,” Chloe pleaded, ready to do just about anything to stop the aching need that was making her whole body quiver.
“What do you need, baby? Tell me.” He used both of his hands, getting one of his fingers wet with her juices and then sliding it along the opening of her anus while still teasing her pussy with his other hand.
“You. Just you,” she cried out, squeaking as his finger slid gently into her ass.
“Do you like this?”
Chloe knew he was asking if she liked anal sex. She didn’t, and there was nothing that terrified her more than just the thought of being hurt that way. She had to calm her mind, focus on how Gabe was making her feel to stop herself from panicking. She did like the way he was gently sliding his finger into her tight hole right now. Between that tender action, and the teasing fingers on her pussy, she was ready to come.
“That feels good. But I can’t stand anal sex. It hurts.” With a man as big as Gabe, it would probably be excruciating.
“That’s not something that can happen without being ready for it. Of course it would hurt,” Gabe said harshly. “Fuck! Did he hurt you like that?”
Suddenly, she couldn’t have cared less about her past experiences, and she couldn’t answer Gabe immediately. Chloe felt her heart galloping, her body starting to tighten. What Gabe was doing to her was driving her crazy. She forgot about the past and focused on the pleasure she was feeling now, and it was intense. “The past doesn’t matter,” she moaned, meaning what she said completely. “Oh, God. Gabe. It feels so good. I can’t take anymore.”
In one swift move, Gabe vaulted onto the bed, taking her with him. Once more, she was denied an impending orgasm, and she moaned in disappointment.
“I need to fuck you, Chloe. Now,” he demanded, positioning his body over hers. “Open for me. I’ll make you come.”
Chloe spread her legs, desperate to get him inside her.
“Tell me you want me. Tell me you belong to me,” Gabe growled as he pinned her hands over her head.
For a brief instant, Chloe panicked. Gabe had her completely at his mercy, and her first thought was to struggle to get away from the firm hold.
She squelched her instinct to attempt to break his hold, panting. “I do want you. So much it hurts.”
His mouth crashed down on hers and Chloe melted completely. This was Gabe; this was the feel and the taste of Gabe. Every thrust of his tongue reminded her of how much he wanted her, how much he needed her right now.
The feel of him restraining her to the bed became hotter and hotter as his embrace demanded, his mouth cajoled, and his tongue imitated the act of what he wanted to do with his cock, entering and exiting with an unrelenting sensuality that would have caused Chloe to beg him to take her if her mouth was free.
Her entire body was in flames by the time he broke off the ravenous kiss, and she moved her head from side to side. “Please, please fuck me now. I want you, Gabe. I need you.”
“Wrap your legs around me.” His voice was graveled and low.
She obeyed, trying to squeeze him closer to her.
“You’re so damn beautiful when you look this needy,” Gabe told her right before he positioned himself and entered her with one enormous thrust.
Chloe cried out his name, stunned by his forcefulness, white-hot heat surging through her body as he buried himself to the root of his cock inside her. “Yes. Please. More.”
Her restrained position gave Gabe control, so Chloe felt free to lose herself in the feel of him, the smell of him, and the fierceness of his desire.
He pulled out and surged in again, the surge just as forceful as the previous one. “This is mine, Chloe. You’re mine. No other man will even touch you ever again.”
“Yours,” she panted, her heart squeezing with the desperation she could hear in his voice now. She couldn’t imagine ever wanting anyone else. She only burned this white-hot for Gabe. “Harder.”
He shifted position slightly, and started a fast, hard, furious rhythm that Chloe couldn’t match. She lifted her h
ips and let him pummel into her.
She could feel a hot flame ignite in her belly, and she started to tremble.
“Come for me, Chloe. Come,” Gabe demanded harshly as he lowered his head and nipped at the sensitive skin of her neck, and then soothed it with his tongue.
She’d wanted to see Gabe in all his feral passion, and she was getting exactly what she fantasized about.
As he raised his head, she could see that animalistic expression on his face, every feature tight with need.
Her orgasm rocked her with its intensity; her entire body started to pulsate with an intense relief that it had previously been denied. It was so intense it was almost frightening.
Helplessly, she let her climax shake her. She tossed her head, and her fists clenched, her short nails digging into the flesh of Gabe’s straining hands.
Release hit her with a final wave as she watched his face, the muscles in his neck flexing and releasing as he began to come.
Keeping up his punishing rhythm, fucking her like he never wanted to stop, he groaned her name. “Chloe.”
It was one of the sweetest sounds she’d ever heard, and as a final wave rushed over her body, she screamed in ecstasy.
She’d never felt a climax this intensely before. Maybe because she’d never completely let go. Emotions flowed over her until tears filled her eyes: relief, intense pleasure, passion, and love.
I love him so much.
The thought pleased her and frightened her. What had started as pure desire had turned to intense love for this man who was so willing to open himself up to her completely.
Still shaking from the most incredible orgasm she’d ever had, her body went limp as Gabe rolled over and let her sprawl on top of him.
Caressing her hair, he was silent as his chest heaved.
“I swear you’re going to kill me,” he said as soon as he could speak. He paused before adding, “Thank you, darlin’.”
He was thanking her for trusting him with her body. She didn’t need clarification.
“You’re thanking me for that amazing orgasm?” she teased.
“Yes,” he replied earnestly. “Did I hurt you at all?”