Lost in thought and drooping from exhaustion, she flipped on her apartment light and let out a startled scream. Gabe was stretched out on her sunny yellow sofa, his shoes off and his eyes blazing with anger and something else that looked a lot like disgust.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded. “How did you get in?”
“Iris took pity on me and let me in, after watching me sit in the hall for two hours waiting for you.” His eyes were dark and dangerous, his full lips compressed into a thin, grim line. “Where the hell have you been?”
Closing her eyes, Annalise nearly swayed with exhaustion. She didn’t have the energy for this, didn’t have the strength right now to keep up the party girl facade she’d spent so damn long cultivating. But when she opened her eyes again, none of the misery she’d combated on the beach showed.
“Out.”
“Yeah, I got that impression.” He stalked toward her, a gorgeous tiger of a man—all long limbs and careless grace. Intense eyes and bared teeth. A low growl rumbled from his chest, making her eyes widen and her heart beat faster.
Standing her ground in the face of his aggressiveness was one of the hardest things she’d ever done. But Annalise planted her bare feet and refused to budge, even when he got so close that she could feel his breath on her forehead.
“Where have you been, Annalise?” He repeated the question, his voice lower than she’d ever heard it, and a shiver of unease—and God help her, arousal—shot up her spine before she could stop it,
Angry with him, furious with herself, she ignored his unspoken warning. “That’s really none of your business. I went out, had some fun and now I’m home and ready to sleep.” She gave him her most disdainful look and started past him. She’d almost made it to her bedroom door when he grabbed her wrist and spun her around, pressing her against the living room wall.
His pelvis pushed insistently against hers and his hand rested at the base of her throat. Neither was anywhere close to painful, but the inherent threat was enough to stiffen her spine and harden her voice. “Let me go.”
“Did you fuck him?” Those sorcerer’s eyes blazed angrily, even while his lips hovered just a hair’s breadth above her own.
“What do you care?” she tossed back. “As long as I fuck you too?”
The hand near her throat tightened warningly, though his grip remained painless. “Did you let that fucking waiter touch you? Put his hands on you? Put his cock in you?” His breath was coming in short pants. “Or was it someone else?”
She shoved against him, but it was like trying to push a mountain—his muscles were like granite under her hands. “Let me go!” she demanded loudly, her voice rising despite her best efforts to keep it even.
“Not until you tell me, damn it. Who was it?”
“Gabe—”
He shook her then, not hard enough to do any damage, just enough to get her attention. “Tell me.” He was wild, out-of-control, his possessive instincts dangerously aroused.
She wanted to lie because it was easier. Wanted to tell the truth, though he would never believe her. But when she opened her mouth to speak, nothing came out. She shook her head, shrugged, looked down at the thick, cream-colored carpet beneath her feet.
“Damn it, Lissy, just tell me.” The rage was gone and in its place was a sad acceptance she’d never seen from him before.
Her resolve broke at the sadness in his voice and at the sound of her nickname on those beloved lips—he was the only man to ever care enough to give her a nickname. Unless “Oh yeah, baby, do it again” counted.
“I was driving, Gabe. Just driving. Sorting some stuff out in my head.” She gestured to her sand-covered feet. “I ended up at that spot in Coronado we found a couple of months ago.”
He let out a long, shaky breath, his dark skin paling considerably. But those watchful eyes continued to study her for a moment before closing as he sagged in relief. He bent his head, rested it in the curve between her neck and her shoulder, and she was shocked to realize he was trembling.
“Gabe?” Her arms came up and wrapped around him before she could stop herself. “What’s wrong, sugar?” Her lips grazed his ear. “Why are you acting like this?”
He shook his head, took a couple of deep, steadying breaths before stepping away from her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…” He gestured at the wall before shoving his hands in his pockets and turning away.
“Shouldn’t have what?” she asked. Suddenly the tables were turned and it was she following him around the apartment.
He whirled to face her, somehow even paler than before. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I—” His voice trailed off.
“You didn’t.” Her voice was clear. “If you had, you wouldn’t still be standing here.”
Those black-magic eyes studied her for a moment, looking for the woman behind the mask, searching for the soul she didn’t know she still had. And then he said, simply, “I love you, Annalise.”
Chapter Four
She stared at him wide-eyed, feeling like she’d just been run over by an eighteen-wheeler. “Gabe—”
“I know.” He nodded at her skeptical look. “I really do. I didn’t mean to, I did everything I could to avoid it, but it’s true. Somehow, despite my worst intentions, I fell in love with you.”
Annalise shook her head, backed away. She didn’t do love. Not now, not anymore. “I—”
His smile was sad. “I know. I shouldn’t have said anything. I never meant to tell you.”
“Gabe—” She was beginning to sound like a broken record, but she had no idea what to say. He’d completely blindsided her.
He grabbed his keys off her coffee table before leaning down and brushing a kiss against her cheek. “Get some sleep. I’ll call you in a couple of days.”
A couple of days? He was going to drop a bombshell like that on her and then leave—for a couple of days? Was he insane?
“Don’t go.” It was ripped from her just as he turned the doorknob.
Gabe stiffened, then turned to face her. “I don’t want or need your pity, Annalise.”
“I know.” She stared him directly in the eye, her gaze rock-steady though her stomach pitched sickly. “I want you to stay.” She reached for him. “Please stay.”
He studied her from across the room, his eyes hopeful but his mouth grim. “I don’t think that’s a good idea until you figure out what you want.
“I don’t know what I want. I don’t know how I feel.” She swallowed. “All I know is that I don’t want you to go tonight.” She glanced outside at the blossoming daylight. “This morning. Whatever.”
“That’s more than I expected,” he murmured, striding across the room and yanking her into his arms. Then his mouth was devouring hers, his tongue teasing and tasting, thrusting and stroking, until her eyes crossed and her knees turned to jelly. He tasted like he always did—like rain and the ocean and a raging inferno that burned her alive. But he tasted sweet, too. The mixture of the familiar and the new nearly drove her over the edge.
Her hands reached up and tangled in the thin silk of his dress shirt. She needed him inside of her, needed the long moments of oblivion he always provided. Just a little while where she wouldn’t have to think.
Her hands slid down his arms to cup his ass as she pressed firmly against him. Gabe moaned low in his throat, his hands pulling her even closer into the shelter of his body.
She loved the feel of him, the hardness of his muscles, the roughness of his hands, the surprising softness of his skin everywhere else. Breaking away from his kiss, her fingers scrambled frantically at the buttons of his shirt.
But he stilled her, his hands finding hers, his thumb stroking the urgency from her fingers. “Let me take care of you this time,” he murmured, guiding her slowly backward toward her bedroom.
Tears stung her eyes, but she batted them determinedly away. This was no different than all the other times, she told herself. It was just sex. Just scratching an itch.
&nb
sp; But as he lowered her to the bed, she knew better. This was everything she’d run from for eight long years, everything she’d hidden from in the arms of friends and strangers alike. She knew she should protest, that she should push him away. But she simply didn’t have the energy to do so. Or the heart. For once, she wanted to let a man make love to her. To love her. Only her.
Gabe stretched out beside her, elbow bent, head resting on his upturned palm as he studied her. Those wonderful eyes had gone completely black, an intense heat burning deep inside of them. His desire was palpable and a shiver of excitement skittered up her spine. She licked her lips, and even she didn’t know if she did it to be provocative or because it was suddenly necessary.
“I need you.” His voice was soft, seductive. A silken whisper stroking along her skin. A velvet caress igniting every nerve ending in her body. “I need all of you.”
“Yes.” It was a whisper, as confusion and excitement surged through her with every breath. His face was serious, focused exclusively on her. His body was hard, completely unyielding against the softness of her own. But it was his eyes, so full of hunger and desire and need for her—and her alone—that made her pulse quicken and her inner thighs grow wet. It was that hunger that also began the slow, inexorable task of melting the first of the many layers of ice she’d built around her heart.
He reached out, cupped her breast in his strong hands. Let his thumb run in light, seductive circles over the already aroused nipple. Annalise arched against his hand, increasing the pressure, and she could have sworn she heard electricity crackle around them. That one simple touch seared through her, through veins and muscles and organs until she began to fear spontaneous combustion.
She moaned low in her throat and reached for Gabe, pulling him over her, onto her, wanting to feel every inch of his body pressed against every inch of hers. He stared at her out of eyes burning with need, studied her, watched her, waited for her.
Cupping his face in her hands, she looked deep into his eyes. “Please.” She arched her back, spread her legs, tugged at him until his cock was pressed against her. “I need you. Please.”
She saw the moment he slipped the restraints he’d placed on himself, saw lust, raw and needy, explode within him at her words. Grasping the front of her dress in his strong hands, he shredded it from neckline to hem with one downward tug. She gasped as the cool air hit her hot body, arching her back, and he took one of her ripe, raspberry-colored nipples in his mouth.
She screamed then, her hips moving restlessly against his, the muscles of her vagina contracting again and again. She wanted more, needed more, but he held her there, pinned by his weight and suckled while her body caught fire. Each swipe of his tongue made her moan, each graze of his teeth took her higher and higher until she could think of nothing but him, desire nothing but his hot possession. Forever.
She was wet and slick, her thighs drenched and her clit aching for his touch. He ground his cock against her, once, twice, and she came—her body going off like a firecracker on the Fourth of July.
He reached a hand to her other breast and squeezed the nipple tightly. The painful pleasure took her higher and she convulsed again, her orgasm going on and on.
And still he wasn’t done tormenting her, tasting her, driving her completely mad. His hands tugged at her hair until her mouth met his for one long, passion-drenched kiss. And then he was moving, his lips grazing across her cheek, stopping momentarily to blow on the sensitive spot behind her ear. He turned her onto her back, and stripped the ruined dress from her. Roughly. Deliberately. Then he leaned forward and bit the nape of her neck. And lit her up all over again.
She screamed again, her hands fisting in the blood red sheets beneath her. “Do it,” she begged. “Please, just do it!”
“Do what?” he answered, pressing his cock against her ass as his wicked, wonderful mouth worked its way over her shoulder and down her arm.
She cried out, unable to stop the sound or the sobs of desire that then wracked her body, one after another. She arched against him, helped him settle more firmly between her thighs. He rewarded her with a sharp nibble along her spine while his hand crept around to her clit and began to stroke her firmly.
Every muscle in her body stretched tight and she rode his hand, too far gone to care that she was begging him with every movement she made, every sound she uttered. “Fuck me,” she demanded, burying her face in the sheets to stop herself from screaming. “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me.” It was a litany, her new mantra, and she didn’t care how desperate she sounded. She was desperate. He was going to kill her if he kept this up.
“Where do you want me?” He turned to her side, ran his tongue over her suddenly dry lips. “In your mouth?” he asked, before licking his way to her breasts. “Between your tits?”
She whimpered and bucked against him as her need shot out of control. “Yes,” she gasped. “Yes!”
He straddled her, his eyes gleaming. “But I haven’t finished listing your choices.” He drew first one nipple and then the other into his mouth as his talented fingers rubbed teasingly over her breasts.
He rolled her over, worked his way down her spine one teasing lick at a time. Without warning, his teeth sunk into her ass, nipping her before his tongue soothed away the sting. Straddling her, he grabbed a wrist in each hand, spread-eagling her before she knew what was happening, holding her in place while he explored every inch of her back.
“Is this what you want?” His voice was darker, more seductive than usual as he traced the line of her ass teasingly. “Do you want it here?”
He followed the line around until he found her, hotter and wetter than she’d ever been. He pulled her onto her knees and slid his hand under her to get better access to the slick, hidden folds, his fingers running back and forth against her slit over and over again. Dipping inside just enough to make her crazy, rubbing her inner lips just hard enough to have her gasping for breath and pressing back against him.
“This is what you want, isn’t it, baby? You want me right here, between your thighs.” He thrust one finger inside of her hard, followed it with another, and another. Her inner muscles clutched at the fingers greedily and Annalise screamed at the pleasure he brought her.
“That feels so good,” she gasped, moving her hips in rhythm with his questing fingers. “You feel so good.”
She looked over her shoulder at Gabe, saw a dark intensity shining in his eyes that she’d never seen before. For a minute he looked wicked, wild and she knew that she should be afraid. But she was too far gone to worry, too aroused to do anything but ride out the unbelievable sensations he drew from her body without any effort at all.
“It’s about to feel better,” he murmured, shifting so he lay beneath her, her legs on either side of his head.
His tongue—his wicked, wonderful tongue—darted out, caressing her inner folds again and again. Annalise spread her legs wider, seeking something more, something deeper. With a groan, he clutched her ass and spread her legs as wide as possible, thrusting his tongue deep inside her.
She came instantly, screaming and bucking wildly against his mouth. He held her in place, his iron grip unbreakable as he continued to lick and suck her through the first climax and into a second before he relented.
Settling next to him with a low, satisfied moan, she was focused inward as aftershocks of incredible ecstasy continued to rack her body. Sweat gleamed on her brow as she sucked air into her oxygen-deprived lungs and her hips moved restlessly against the bedspread, searching for Gabe.
He was right next to her, smiling, as he reached a hand out to stroke her hair. To toy with the pearl necklace she still wore. “You didn’t give me a chance to take it off when you ripped my dress off me.” Her smile was lazy, her voice content even as she reached for him. “Your turn.”
“Not yet.” He shook his head, his eyes as turbulent and mysterious as the ocean she could see from the balcony of her apartment.
Her hand found his erection an
d she pumped gently as she ran her thumb back and forth over the tip. “Now.” She leaned forward and took him in her mouth, savoring his low groan as much as the feel of him against her lips, in her mouth.
His hands fisted in her hair, anchoring her in place as she slid her tongue up and down the length of him. She glanced up and found him watching her, his hot eyes following her every movement as she slid her lips up and down his cock. She swirled her tongue around him before pausing, deliberately, to flick at the drop of moisture he couldn’t hold back.
She tried not to react as he ran a finger lightly down her cheek, treating her as if she was fragile, as if he feared breaking her. Those damn tears sprung to her eyes again and she lowered her lids, refusing to let Gabe see her at her most vulnerable.
Determined to beat back this rising tenderness for him, Annalise took his entire cock in her mouth and encouraged the involuntary thrusting of his hips against her. Reaching beneath him, she grabbed his ass and held him to her as her teeth lightly scraped the underside of his cock.
He nearly shot off the bed, and she relished her ability to turn this strong man on. To turn him inside out and make him forget everything but how much he wanted her. Needed her.
But those were dangerous thoughts, so when he sat up abruptly and flipped her onto her back, she didn’t fight him.
Instead she looked into his passion-glazed eyes and licked her lips, savoring the sweet and salty taste of him on her tongue. Sweat was trickling down his forehead and over his chest as he fought for control of his raging body. She loved knowing that she had pushed him right to the limits of his self-control. But she had to know—
“Why did you stop me?” she asked, eyeing the rampant proof of his desire for her.
“When I come, it’ll be inside you.” His voice was harsh, rusty with need.
“Sounds good to me,” she purred, turning behind her to the nightstand and the condoms that rested there.