by Eva K. More
Gabriel leaned down and kissed her desperately as if he wanted to swallow her whole in just that moment, and she poured all her emotions, her frustration, her anger, and her longing in that act. He was devouring her. The nature of the kiss changed when he hoisted her upwards, and she crossed her legs at his waist.
“You make me crazy,” he growled into her mouth.
Kat lightly squealed when he set them both in motion, carrying her into her bedroom. Her damp towel laid on the floor completely forgotten, and the lights were still on.
Stopping in front of the bed, he took hold of her hair and squeezed her as hard as he could in his arms, taking her breath away. His fingers tangled in her wet locks, and he pulled back only his head to look at her. This time, his eyes had lost their accusing appeal and were deep pools of liquid heat. And although the tension increased with every passing second, Kat was unsure whether Gabriel just appreciated her appearance or was fighting with himself to let her go.
“Are you being a coward now?” she tentatively asked finally.
Gabriel lifted one corner of his mouth into a devilish smirk. “No. Are you?”
“Ha! I thought we agreed that between us, I was the brave one. Then are you going to ravish me or what?”
“In a minute.” He smiled and pulled her face close to his, their breaths mingling. “I fucking missed you.” And then he kissed her without leaving room for an answer.
Finally disentangling himself, he pushed her to sit on the bed. “Pull off your clothes,” he said, and when she did exactly that, his eyes became heavy-lidded. “Come here,” he motioned for her to slide further onto the bed.
Looking up, she admired his bulking, tattooed biceps in his mouthwateringly tight shirt. Then she reached for his fly, but his fast reflexes stopped her.
“That’s not what I had in mind,” he said, but Kat heard only the hoarseness in his voice.
“But it’s what I have in mind.”
It felt like a small victory when he helped her open his trousers. And then, right in front of her, he swelled and rose until she could see veins popping up. When she traced them with a finger, he hissed.
Kat had no real experience in sucking cock. She had seen some videos, experimented a little with Peter, but she really had no idea what to do precisely. Ever since Gabriel had gone down on her, it was all she had been thinking about. It didn’t feel dirty or forbidden, but sexy and loving.
She leaned in to kiss the head and stroked the shaft with her fingers, and when she looked up, his fiery eyes were trained on her, caressing her like an extension of his soul. His arms remained hanging tautly to his side, but when she kissed his head again, he stroked her hair carefully.
“Open your mouth, baby,” he rasped. “Yeah, like that. And look at me. Now take my cock into your mouth.” He sharply inhaled when she followed his instructions, closing his eyes.
Kat continued stroking him, gripping him more tightly like he wished, using her other hand to scratch his balls lightly. Just when she thought that she had found the perfect rhythm, he interrupted her by pulling away.
“Not like that, little bird,” he whispered, undressing the rest of his clothes.
He took her hips into his big hands and turned her around, pushing her on all fours as if she were a puppet. Then he proceeded to caress the skin of her back and ass as if she was made out of china. Kat felt the bed dip next to one of her knees when he put his own there.
One of his hands curved around her stomach and dipped lower until he reached her center, massaging her clit slowly at first. His cock, still wet from her saliva, kept rubbing against her ass, sliding in between the crack and hitting her cheeks with his movements. Kat let her head fall forward, moaning into the mattress.
“Are you ready?” He whispered harshly, his hand moving furiously now. When she could only nod and sigh, he leaned above her and entangled his finger once again in her hair, pulling her head upwards and pressing her backside firmly into himself. “I can’t hear you.”
Closing her eyes in desperate need for more of his touch, she cried out. “God! yes, yes, I’m ready, please.”
He was panting when he entered her, and she gripped the cushions on her bed tightly. After a few shallow thrusts, he pulled her upward, the angle awkward with her ass pushed back against him and her back hollowed.
“Didn’t I tell you that my name was Gabriel and not God? Did you miss me, too?” Gabriel asked through clenched teeth.
“Oh, yes.” She replied, those being the only words that her mind could process at the moment.
His free hand returned the attention on her clit. He was filling her to the hilt, the perception of him everywhere was almost too much, and at the same time, it wasn’t enough.
“You feel incredible, little bird,” Gabriel groaned. “So fucking good.”
He pumped his hips viciously as he simultaneously pleasured her with his fingers. Goose-bumps appeared on her skin when he bit into her earlobe and groaned into her ear. Her nipples hardened, but she wouldn’t interrupt him just because her breasts wanted attention.
“Yeah,” he whispered. “Come for me. Only ever for me.”
And as his fingers continued their assault and she felt him move deep within her, she shattered and did as he commanded.
Panting hard, he leaned forward and wound his arms around her upper body. Kat barely felt the light kiss he planted just behind her ear as she was still so lost in her tingling limbs.
However, she knew that he hadn’t come yet.
He rolled her over before entering her again, and she was back to feeling like a china doll instead of a ragdoll when he began to caress her breast with his fingertips. His rhythm remained slow and steady as he caressed her with his eyes and hands. The confusion of the change of pace had her enjoying his lead without question, quickly falling back into a state of anticipation and expectation.
Kat didn’t think that she was able to build up to another orgasm until he leaned forward and captured her nipple, sucking on it lazily.
Finally, the look in his eyes, open, feverish, full of longing and warmth, and the subsequent kiss followed by his caressing of her clit had her tumbling over the edge once again.
And this time, he followed her.
***
Kat came back from the toilet, and Gabriel was already waiting for her in her living room instead of her bedroom.
He pushed her t-shirt into her hands. “Put that on so we can talk,” he said gruffly. Nerves fluttering in the pit of her stomach, she nodded and dressed.
Stalling for time, she didn’t yet sit down. Kat was scared of him backing out again after having their encounter and remembered that he hadn’t said anything when they saw each other at the gym. Was this his way of saying goodbye?
“Do you want to drink something?” She whispered.
“Water.”
She returned to him with two glasses because, after moaning and crying out so wantonly, her throat felt dry. Carefully, she sat next to him but kept some distance. She wasn’t sure where that conversation was going to go.
Where she had been angry and excited in the beginning, she was nervous and tired now. The sex had been incredible, but it had reminded her of the fragile state of her heart, and she wasn’t sure she could survive another rejection from him.
“Kat,” he said, and she could feel how his eyes were directed at her.
Inhaling profoundly and feeling as if the air that was permeating her lungs were batches of bravery, she folded her legs beneath her on the couch and looked up. Gabriel was sitting next to her with his legs spread wide, pants zipped up again, shirt obscuring the breathtaking view of his chest, and gunmetal eyes staring intensely into her own.
“Kat,” he repeated. “It doesn’t matter that Ivo and Anton are dead. It would help if you always were careful when you open the door. That security system isn’t going to work if you don’t use it.”
“I know that,” she answered in a small voice. Was that what he wanted to tal
k to her about? Her safety, her reckless behavior yet again?
He leaned closer. “Do you?” he asked softly. “Then why do you keep opening that door without checking. It’s the middle of the night.”
“I-”
Gabriel interrupted her. “I could have been anybody. A burglar. A rapist. You hear of missing girls every day on the news. Think about your grandparents. If anything happened to you again, do you think they would survive it?” He didn’t wait for an answer but paused long enough for his words to sink in, and she looked down. “Someday I won’t be there and-” He wrapped a big, warm hand around her nervously playing fingers. “Look at me.” She lifted her head in his direction. “You shouldn’t gamble with your life. That’s much too important.”
Quietly she looked into his eyes. “You’re right. But what’s it to you?”
“Your life?” he clarified her question.
Kat shrugged one shoulder carefully. “My life, me. What are you doing here, Gabriel?” Except for the obvious. She hoped this wasn’t some goodbye-fuck or had-to-have-you-one-last-time-fuck.
Gabriel leaned into the couch but kept watching her. She couldn’t distinguish the exact expression in his face, but his voice was a soft rumble. “I had to see you.”
Kat gulped, not yet ready to believe he was here for something more than a farewell. “Why?”
Gabriel’s intake of air was audible, and probably the first sign that he was feeling equally insecure at the moment.
“After what happened with Anton, I was sort of in a bad place. I knew that I had done my best, but every time I closed my eyes, I remembered seeing you next to that monster. The look in your eyes, your fear- it made me crazy to think that I had failed to protect you.” He took another deep breath. “Despite my injuries, I trained until I keeled over. I wanted to become stronger, to make what happened somehow undone. But in the end, I learned that it would never happen. No matter what, I’ll never be good enough for you.”
Oh goodness, Kat thought, her hands shaking. “And you came here to tell me this?” She was so close to breaking.
Gabriel regarded her silently for a moment before he brushed a silky lock of her hair behind her ears. “I came here because I’m done being a coward.”
Wide-eyed, Kat lifted her eyes to search his own.
“You admit that you care about me?”
This time he gripped her face with both of his hands. He didn’t lift his head from the backrest, but pulled hers in, so close that she could feel his warm breath gliding over her skin as his eyes roamed over her face.
“What you told me in the gym… It stayed with me. I remembered how brave you were, how you did what you did, and still looked forward. You didn’t care about the past or what could have been, and it made an impression.” Then his lids became heavy, and he stared at her in a way that showed her a lot more of what lay behind his cool façade. “I know I’m not the right man for you and will never be, but I’m done punishing myself. If you are strong and brave enough to have me, I’m all yours.”
She held her smile back, not ready to fall into his ploy. “Is this your way of telling me you love me, too?”
“It’s me telling you I don’t remember a time not loving you, little bird. Even when you were a chirpy ‘little dragon.’ And I’m done fighting it.”
Her heart stopped for a second and then started beating faster than ever before. She could have fainted from happiness, but she wanted to prolong the moment. Gabriel had never been this open before, and she was afraid all this was only a dream.
Kat traced the stubble on his jaw with a finger. “Did you love me even when I ran away back at the cabin?” She remembered how furious he had been.
His expression turned from dreamy to stormy. “Especially then.”
She frowned in response.
His eyes focused on her lips and then moved up to her nose and finished at her eyes. It appeared that he was making a mental scan, molding each of her features in his memory.
“It was the first time I was afraid I couldn’t save you. The weather was catastrophic, and I only found you by sheer luck. And when I did, you were babbling senselessly and shivering so hard the whole car shook. I couldn’t sleep for the whole night. I wasn’t as afraid of Maryan’s reaction as I was of never seeing you smile again. That’s when I knew that I had lost my heart to you.”
Fighting back the tears of heartfelt devotion, Kat smiled at him, her lips wobbling. “I thought you don’t do feelings, Beast.”
He smiled back at the use of his nickname. “Normally, I don’t. But with you, everything is different.”
She kissed him lightly, her heart soaring high. “Don’t get me wrong, okay? I’m happy you did, but why did you change your mind about being with me?”
He groaned as he drew her face downward for another scalding kiss as if he was frustrated with all her questioning. “You started the ball rolling with your little speech and then- it was just something somebody said, and it all got me thinking. I never considered myself happy, so I started asking myself: what makes me happy? And it all came back to you. You make me happy, little bird. If I knew you’d wait for me at home every time I went to work, you’d be all the reason for me to live for.”
She breathed in response, smiling against his lips. His answer was so perfect that it made her toes curl. And then she felt as his hand slipped beneath her t-shirt and began playing with the skin of her lower back, drawing indistinguishable designs.
They enjoyed another kiss, maybe the most carefree of them all.
“What about your loyalty to Maryan?” she asked after pulling away.
His movements stopped, and the rough texture of his fingers pressed in her back. “I respect your father more than any other person in this world, but I don’t love him as I love you. I hope he’ll understand that I have no choice, or he might kill me... Then you better say goodbye now. Preferably naked.”
Kat hid her grin by laying her head on his strong shoulder. Just feeling his body-heat made her calm and centered. “I’m sure you’ll work it out.”
Gabriel made an inexplicable sound in the back of his throat but resumed stroking her back softly. They remained sitting in silence for a while, and Kat became drowsy.
“What about your grandparents? I’m ready to meet them if that’s what you want,” he said, and Kat stiffened.
Of course, it wasn’t all good and dandy in her world. Probably her grandparents would both die of a heart attack if she were to come to visit them with Gabriel tomorrow. She knew she had to confront them, but it could wait a day or two.
“It’s complicated,” she said finally, “I’ll deal with it.” Lifting her head, she straddled him, breaking their languid mood and changing it into something more heated. “Let’s not talk anymore.” She finished as she put a hand on his chest and marveled at the granite beneath her palm.
He regarded her with a hooded look. “Fine with me.” If he did have any qualms about her distracting him from the current topic, he didn’t show it.
abriel extracted himself from Kat’s sleeping body and moved to the living room to take the call.
“Maryan?” he asked.
“Lina is gone.” As always, Maryan got to the point without preamble.
Gabriel scrunched up his forehead. “Gone, how?”
“Jared had her arrested last night. Now, I can’t find her anywhere,” Maryan said calmly, his voice not betraying any emotion he might have been feeling at the moment.
“That bastard,” Gabriel said darkly, his gaze wandering to the door of his bedroom. After a year of peace in his life, something like this had to happen. “I’ll start working on it as soon as possible.” Damn it.
“With Katherina and everything going on, I don’t think it’s a good idea to involve you this time, my boy. I think it’s time we bring back Matthias.”
Gabriel thought about Kat and grimaced. Rubbing his jaw, he contemplated his next words. “I think that’s the best course of action. Are we going
to- to fill him in on everything?”
“Of course. Tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll be there,” Gabriel said and ended the call.
Gulping, Gabriel closed his eyes for a moment.
Well, he knew he would survive whatever came his way as long as Kat remained by his side. After all, he had managed to convince her father that he was good enough for her – barely, okay. Maryan had a threat hanging over his head. If Gabriel ever hurt Kat, he would lose all his teeth. One by one. And now there would be Matthias to worry about.
Having grown up with her brother, Gabriel knew that Matthias was a hot-headed mess, and he wouldn’t just threaten to pull his teeth; he would try. But Gabriel would take it because he knew that Kat was the best damn thing.
They had grown together.
The first time he had seen her after many years, she had been beautiful, innocent, naïve, too curious for her own good. Now, she was still beautiful and much too curious, but also strong, brave, and feisty. She had turned from a sheltered young girl into a spitfire woman.
And Gabriel himself had become more Gabriel than Beast. Of course, he still wore his mask when working at night, and his job didn’t just stop being brutal, but when in the past it had been all he had known, he now rushed home to be embraced by a warm body. Where he had only felt coldness and bitterness, he could now feel the warmth in his fingers and the constant beating of his heart. As he had already told Kat, he was sure she was the most crucial answer in his life.
When he had been young, he had loved his mother, and although he knew that she had done her best, she had still disappointed him. Not with her death, but with her carelessness beforehand. He hadn’t known how much he needed to hear Anton say those foul words to forgive his mother finally, and how much he needed to get to know Kat to realize that not all women were fragile.
So, what was his purpose on earth? To be with Kat.
His eyes caught the textbooks littered on the table and floor, and with a smirk, he remembered how he had distracted her from her studies a few hours ago. When she figured out that she had forgotten to bookmark the pages, she wouldn’t be pleased with him. But that was okay. As long as she could concentrate on him and her university instead of on her grandparents, Gabriel was happy enough.