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With a curse, I put on my blinker and make a fast turn, thankful there’s not a cop around to see my wild move.
What in the hell is she doing here?
I unlock the front door, immediately recognizing that the alarm is off. It’s silent, so I make my way into the back bar area. I see Gabby standing behind two sawhorses, with a piece of wood laid between. She hears my footsteps, and her head immediately snaps up in fear.
When she sees me, she places her hand over her heart. “Geez, Hunter. You scared the shit out of me. ”
“What are you doing here?” I ask, completely bewildered that she’s working at… glancing down at my watch… three AM.
“I’m working,” she says, pulling her tape measure out and marking a line on the wood with a pencil, which she slips back behind her ear when she’s done.
“It’s f**king three in the morning. Are you crazy?”
She doesn’t even look up at me. “No, I’m just hard working. What’s got you in a snit?”
I ignore that question and ask another. “Is this where you’ve been each night?”
“Yeah,” she says as she picks up the circular saw that’s lying on the floor. She flicks the switch on and starts cutting through the wood.
I’m pissed that she’s ignoring me and pissed that she’s working at three AM. I bend down to grab the extension cord that has the saw plugged into the wall and yank it out, watching her glare up at me as the saw winds down to a dead stop.
“What the hell?” she asks in exasperation.
“You cannot be sane enough to think that this is okay,” I tell her. “You work all f**king day here, and now you come back and work in the early morning hours. No wonder you fall dead asleep as soon as I’m done f**king you. ”
Her eyes narrow at me, and she stomps over to the wall outlet to plug the cord back in. “You hired me to do this job, but you have no f**king say-so in how I do it, so just back off. ”
She walks back to her work area and, as she reaches for the saw, I grab the cord and yank it back out again.
Her head snaps up and flames shoot out of her eyes. God, she’s f**king gorgeous when she’s mad. She opens her mouth to lay into me, but I hold my hand up. Surprisingly, her lips snap together, although her glare is no less ferocious.
In a calm voice, I say, “Just tell me why you feel the need to work these hours?”
She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes. When she opens them, the heat has died down a little. “I need to stay on schedule to meet the deadlines we set. Since we added this project for the hanging wall for your trophies, I just need to put some extra hours in to stay on track. It’s no biggie. ”
My heart flops over, and my pride and respect for her increases tenfold. I walk up to her and pull her into a hug, which she halfheartedly returns. Kissing her on the head, I tell her, “We can extend the deadline, Gabs. It’s not that big of a deal. Besides… I miss you in bed at night. ”
I expect her to go all gooey and melt over my proclamation, so imagine my surprise when she pushes angrily out of my embrace. “Wrong! It is a big deal. It’s my reputation. ”
I laugh, trying to ease the tension. “Seriously… no one is going to know if we extend the deadline by a few days. ”
“Wrong again, doofus,” she says angrily. “When I make a bid for another project, they call you for a reference, and they ask if I stayed on schedule, are you going to lie for me?”
“Yes,” I tell her simply, because I have no qualms about doing that.
“No,” she says in frustration and stomps her foot. “This is important to me. A General Contractor staying on budget and on schedule is paramount to making it in this business. ”
Okay, I’m starting to have a newfound appreciation for the lengths that Gabby will go to make it in this world. My mind searches frantically for a solution, and then it comes to me.
“Let me make sure I got this right. You had a set schedule based on the original bid, right?”
“Yes,” she says in a humoring tone.
“And we decided to do the additional wall after you started the project, right?”
“Right. ”
“Then we should have re-done the original contract. The fact that I added on additional work should have included an extension of the deadline. ”
“That’s true, but—”
“But, nothing. It never crossed my mind the importance of a set deadline. I had no clue. So the easy solution is we redo the contract and budget in the extra time you’ll need. ”
“Yeah, but in about another week, I could have it finished. ”
“At what price?” I ask gently. “You’re killing yourself and for no good reason. It’s an easy solution. ”
Gabby pulls that bottom lip in between her teeth and starts nibbling, a sure sign she’s considering my solution.
“So we just redo the contract?” she asks skeptically.
“Duh,” I tell her. “Isn’t that what would happen on any other project?”
“Yes,” she says, sounding defeated and a little embarrassed.
“Good. It’s settled then. Now let’s get you back to my place so you can get a few more hours of sleep. ”
She looks at me with a smile that’s somewhat feral and a whole lot of hot. “I’m not tired. ”
My eyebrows raise at the husky tone to her voice. “You’re not?” I tease. “Want to do something else when we get back home?”
She shakes her head and lowers her eyes shyly. “I want to do something here. ”
“Here?” I rasp out and, all of a sudden, a million dirty things I want to do to her come to mind. I eye the pool table, and I know that’s exactly where we’ll get started.
We step toward each other and her hands come up behind my head, pulling me down for a kiss. I engage her for just a moment and then pull away, grabbing her hand and leading her toward the pool table. She pulls back against me though, so I stop and turn to look at her in question.
“Thank you,” she says.
“For what?”
“For looking out for me. ”
Then she stuns me by dropping to her knees in front of me, undoing my pants. She pulls them down past my h*ps and, since I went commando, my erection that had built quickly once I looked at the pool table pops free.
She takes me in her hands and starts stroking me, eliciting a heavy groan from deep within my chest. I look down at her and drag my finger across her cheek. “Is this the way you thank me for looking out for you?”
Smiling, she looks up at me, never once missing a stroke against my dick. “No, this is just because I want you in my mouth. ”
Holy. Fuck.
Her words alone practically have my legs giving way, but then her mouth is on me and I have to lean my hand against the sawhorse to keep steady.
“Shit, Gabby. That feels good. ”
She hums against my dick as she moves her mouth up and down my length, reaching between my legs and gently squeezing my balls. It feels so f**king good, and I know exactly how it’s going to feel shooting down her throat because she gave me the best damn b**w j*b the other night.
But I find myself still thinking of the pool table, so I bend down to slide my hands under her arms and lift her from the ground. She makes a sound of dismay as I slip free from her mouth, and it takes all of my willpower not to put my hand on top of her head and push her back down.
Instead, I lift her up, wrap her legs around my waist, and walk over to the pool table, sitting her down on it. It takes me just moments to disrobe her, and when she’s naked, I put my hand against her chest and push her back. She has to tilt her head to the side to avoid the pool light hanging low, but then she’s laid out before me with her body lit up from the glow above her.
Smoothing my hands up her stomach and over her br**sts, I tell her, “You are the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen. ”
She smiles at me, shy and soft, unable or unwilling to be able to handle a real compliment.
That warms me to my soul and for a brief moment, I think about Sasha. If I had her spread out before me and laid the same sentiment on her doorstep, she would have smiled at me in triumph, her eyes clearly conveying, “Yes, I know I’m the sexiest woman, and you should be damn thankful for it. ”
I never realized that about her until just this very moment, but then I shake my head mentally. Sasha has no business being in my head at this moment, but I choose to believe that thought came unbidden to make me appreciate Gabby all the more.
“What do you want?” I ask her as I roll her ni**les between my fingers.
She gasps and arches her h*ps off the table. “I want you inside of me. ”
“Are you ready?”
Her eyes challenge me. “See for yourself. ”
So I do.
I bring one hand down between her legs, running my fingers through her curls and down a little further. She’s wet already and I sink a finger inside of her, fascinated to watch it disappear into her heat.
“Oh, baby,” I murmur. “You’re ready. ”
“For you… always. ”
My eyes snap up to hers and, for a moment, she seems embarrassed to have said that because her eyes slide to the side, hiding from me.
I bend over her, grasping her chin and bring my lips to hers, kissing her softly. When I pull back, I stare at her hard. “Don’t. Don’t ever hide what you feel from me. I love that you’re ready for me… always. ”
She swallows hard and nods at me.
I push back from her and grab onto her legs, pulling her closer toward me so her butt slides over the lip and comes right to the edge. I step in between her legs, taking my dick in my hand and lining it up to her sweet core, having to bend my legs slightly to find the right angle.
Her eyes flutter closed in anticipation, so I choose not to make her wait. Flexing my h*ps forward, I start to sink into her slowly. Her lips part and a tiny puff of air comes out before she says, “Oh, Hunter. ”
My entire body shudders, not just from the contact of her warmth surrounding me, but from those two simple words she just uttered. My name… held with reverence and desire.
Nothing has ever sounded sweeter to me.
I straighten my legs, wrapping my hands under her ass and lifting her up from the table. It causes me to sink into her deeper, and it feels perfect.
With measured care, I start to move against her and, after just a few thrusts, I’m lost to her, picking up the pace with driving force.
It doesn’t take either of us long, and the minute she starts to fall, I follow right along behind her.
11
Hunter has decided to throw a party this afternoon, and I’m petrified. Scared shitless. It’s just a casual, Saturday afternoon get together with local friends, but I feel the spotlight glaring down on me.
I’m worried that people will know that we’re f**king each other. He’ll look at me a certain way, or I won’t be able to take my eyes off him, and people will just know.
So far, it’s not been that big of a deal… keeping our secret. We see each other at Last Call during the day, but he pretty much stays out of my way while I’m working. At night, I go to his house, where he does insanely wicked things to my body, and then I go home the next morning to shower and change for the next day of work. It’s like shampooing my hair.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
The only person who knows that something is going on with Hunter is Savannah, and that’s only because after the third night of not coming home, she asked me where I had been. And whether you consider it a fault or not, I’m not very good at lying when I’m confronted with a direct question.
So I answered her simply, “I’ve met someone, and I’ve been staying at his house. ”
Then she asked, “Who?”
And, of course, I couldn’t lie, so I said, “Hunter Markham. ”
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