A Question of Love: Sequel to A Question of Trust

by Jess Dee

  What the fuck?

  Gabe shook his head as if to clear the cobwebs, although fuck knew whatever cobwebs had been there should have been atomized in the deluge.

  How had she gotten into his flat? The front door was locked. He knew because his keys were still in the door where he’d put them this morning. And for that matter, how the hell had she left his flat?

  Christ, she hadn’t left. She was on the balcony…

  No, she wasn’t. She was gone.

  Cold and wet, Gabe stood on the small ledge outside his living room, dumbfounded. Where the hell had the little spitfire disappeared to? He peered over the railing and down two floors.

  No way. No fucking way had she climbed over. Not to get down and not to climb up here either. She would have killed herself in the process.

  Well then, where the hell was she?

  Gabe yanked his shirt off and wiped his face with it. He charged inside and headed to his front door, using the shirt to dry his hair. Not that it helped. He tossed it on the floor.

  He pulled the handle, swore when nothing happened, took a second to turn the key and stormed out into the hallway. Shit, what if she had scaled the goddamned balcony? He wouldn’t put it past her. He wouldn’t put anything past her.

  Fear edged down his spine, and he took off at a sprint, heading for the stairs.

  He came to a careening halt not five paces later.

  Tina stood at the open front door of his neighbor’s unit, smiling at its occupant.

  “No worries,” the divorced father of two was saying. “Glad to have been of assistance.”

  Tina shook his hand, thanked him again and turned to leave. At which point Gabe, seeing red, grabbed her waist and threw her over his shoulder.

  She let out an outraged shriek.

  He marched back to his place.

  “You two have a pleasant afternoon,” the neighbor called after them with a chortle.

  “Put me down, you big oaf,” Tina demanded, pounding his back. “You’re…making me…wet.”

  Gabe slammed his front door, stormed over to the couch and dumped Tina on the now soaked cushion. And not a second too soon, since she’d begun attacking with her feet, and had she connected, his ability to father children might well have been compromised.

  “You have two seconds to explain,” he snarled at her.

  “Ah, so now you want to talk,” she said with her trademark sarcasm.

  “I don’t want to talk,” he corrected. “I want answers.”

  “You’ve given me the silent treatment the whole week, but now you want answers, I have to be forthcoming? Go fuck yourself, Gabe.”

  He grimaced and resisted the urge to either kiss her stupid or smack the wall. “How did you get into my flat?”

  She gave him one of her sweet smiles. So sweet he could not doubt the insincerity of it. “Your charming neighbor, Colin, let me in.”

  “Colin has no way of getting into my place.” He set her straight.

  “Sure he does.” Still with the sweet smile. “Why he’s just a hop, skip and a jump over your balcony.”

  He gawked at her. “You went through Colin’s flat to get to mine?”

  “Well, Carter, you sure as hell weren’t letting me in voluntarily.”

  He rubbed his eyes. “That was you banging on my door?”

  She folded her arms over her breasts and treated him to a stony silence.

  Gabe sat in the chair opposite her, his heart performing a hundred-meter sprint in his chest. “What are you doing here?” he asked in his calmest voice.

  Christ, she looked incredible. Her lips were painted cherry red and her eyelids smoky blue. They matched the navy dress that ended an inch above her knees and offered just the slightest hint of cleavage. A large, silky scarf-type thingy was wrapped around her shoulders, warding off the cold.

  She eyed him evilly and then smiled again. Her sweet, sarcastic smile. “I came here to chat about Connor.”

  It took a lot to bring a man of Gabe’s size to his knees, but with just that one sentence, Tina succeeded.

  Her smile vanished. “I thought I might give you a chance to explain why you acted like a complete moron the second Connor and Maggie showed up the other night.”

  The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Once again he pictured the look on Tina’s face as she spied his friend for the first time in four years. The glazed lust in her eyes, the rounded “oh” of her mouth and the way her chest rose and fell in pre-orgasmic flutters.

  Suddenly Gabe was cold. Freezing. And fucking wet too.

  “Her name is Maddie,” he told her. “As in Madeline. M.A.D.D.I.E. Maddie.” And with that he stormed to his bedroom, ripping his jeans off as he went. The damp denim stuck to his skin, making a slurping sound as it came off. “And she’s Connor’s girlfriend,” he yelled. “The woman he loves. The only fucking woman he loves.”

  He kicked off the jeans and threw open his cupboard doors, staring blindly at his clothes. Jesus, he wanted to hurt someone. Wanted to rip someone’s fucking throat out. But whose? Whose fucking fault was it that Tina loved Connor as much as she did him? Connor’s? Tina’s? His? Where did he lay the fucking blame?

  He jumped when an arm wound itself around his waist and a warm hand touched his stomach.

  “And you are the only man I love,” Tina said behind him as she rested her head against his back.

  Gabe stilled. Even his lungs ceased working for a moment.

  She tightened her hold on him. “I love you, Gabe,” she said, whispering the words against his spine, shooting chills up his neck.

  Christ, he wanted to believe her. So much. But he couldn’t. Not after he’d seen her response to Connor in the restaurant.

  She pressed light kisses to his back. “I have since the day Connor introduced us. I loved you while I was with Connor, and I loved you when you left.” Her voice dropped. “You hurt me, but I loved you still.”

  Her hand trailed a feathery path up his chest, and his groin responded. Fuck, his heart was a fucking tangled knot of pain, and she could still make him hard with just a touch.

  “I’ve never stopped. It’s you, Gabe. Only you. You are the only man I love. The only man I ever could.”

  “Yep, just me…and Connor.” It was Gabe’s turn for a little sarcasm. “The only men you could ever love.”

  Her head moved against his back, as though she were shaking it. “Nope, not Connor. Never Connor. It was you all along. I just couldn’t see it. I couldn’t separate you two out, and I didn’t want to. Because that would have meant the man I’d lost my heart to rejected me. Walked away from me.” She took a shuddery breath and released it, the air a gentle wisp over his buttocks. “It would have hurt too much to acknowledge.”

  “Damn it, Tina, I saw your face. I watched your reaction when you saw him again.” Shit, he sounded like a lovesick, jealous fool.

  Perhaps that’s because he was a lovesick jealous fool.

  “What did you see, Gabe?”

  Fuck, again he had to picture it. Fuck, fuck, fuck. “Your eyes.” He closed his own against the agony of the memory. “The open lust in them. The naked desire in your face.”

  She sighed. “Did you ever stop and think that maybe all that lust and desire had nothing to do with Connor?”

  He snorted in disgust. “So who was it for? Maggie?”

  “Maddie,” she corrected with a soft laugh and then made him jump again. The hand that was not caressing his stomach dipped into his undies. The sensitive flesh on his dick screamed to life as the lightest vibration buzzed against it.

  “Oh, damn.” He gasped. “T…”

  The buzzing ceased.

  “Three hours, Carter. I endured this for three hours on Friday night.” The vibrations started up again, and he drew in a burning mouthful of oxygen. “I had to sit with you in public and pretend—for three hours—that I did not want to drag you home and fuck you into oblivion.”

  Silence. Stillness. Nothing but the rasping
sound of Gabe’s own breathing.

  Until the soft hum filled the air again, messing with his head.

  “You tormented me the whole evening, Gabe.” She moved her hand, positioning the butterfly on the base of his cock.

  The light flutter drove him nuts. Drove his nuts nuts. Fuck, it wasn’t enough. He wanted her hand wrapped around his dick. Her mouth… Her pussy…

  “Who do you think my open lust and naked desire was directed towards?” Stillness once again. “Connor? Maddie? Or maybe it was the waiter?”

  She pulled away then, and Gabe was left colder than before without the heat of her body to warm him.

  Oh, Christ, was it possible he’d read the whole situation wrong? Could that look have been for him and not Connor? That dazed gaze of naked lust and adoration? For him?

  Jesus fuck, maybe it could have.

  Maybe, just maybe, she did love him after all. Just him. Not Connor.

  “T…” He turned around, grappling with the thought. God knew he wanted it to be true. He wanted her to love him. Just him. No one else.

  She sat on the edge of the bed, staring at him. Her gaze was ice cold.

  What the…?

  “T,” he said again, but she cut him off.

  “You treated me like a stranger in that bathroom.”

  He froze, the accuracy of the accusation blasting through him. He’d tried so hard not to think about it, not to remember his terrible behavior, but of course he’d failed outright.

  “You’re right.” He nodded. “I acted like a jerk, and I apologize. I was jealous,” he added hoarsely. “So fucking jealous it hurt.”

  “And pushing me away helped ease that pain?” Her eyes flashed.

  “Nothing eased that pain.” He pressed his fist against his eyes. Christ, just thinking of the night made him see red. “I had to show you that Connor meant nothing to you. That it’s me you love. Just me.”

  “By bringing me to orgasm in a public bathroom? Without throwing me even a crumb of affection in the process? That was the best way you could show me?”

  “God, I’m sorry.”

  “You turned away from me. You shoved your fingers in my pussy, yet refused to kiss me.” Her neck flushed red. “You rejected me while you fucked me. And then you left!”

  “I read your response all wrong. I thought you…wanted Connor. Christ, I hated how wet you were. How excited you’d been to see him. I had to prove I was the only one who could make you come.” He grimaced.

  “It had nothing to do with Connor, Gabe. I was wet for you.”

  “I didn’t know that.” He fell to his knees in front of her. “The last time we discussed Connor you told me you couldn’t separate us out. You said you loved us as two halves of a whole.” He dropped his forehead on her knees. “The first time we made love, this time round, it happened after you’d seen your sketch of me and Connor. It killed me. Knowing you wanted me only because you’d seen him. But I couldn’t say no. I wanted you too damn much.”

  “Oh, Gabe.” She sighed and ran her fingers through his hair, sending tingles racing across his scalp.

  For sure she was the only woman who could make him tingle.

  “It had nothing to do with Connor,” she said. “It was all you. You’d spent the whole day and night seducing me. You introduced me to Valerie, you made me laugh, you wined and dined me. And you told me in no uncertain terms that you wanted to fuck me. I was oblivious to the sketch of Connor. It was the sketch of you, G. I saw it and I wanted you, more than I’d ever wanted you before.” She laughed. “Which is almost impossible seeing as how badly I wanted you before.”

  “How badly you wanted Connor and me before,” he corrected.

  She tugged on his hair, pulling his head up until he looked at her.

  “See, G, that’s where I was wrong. All along. It was never about Connor. I never loved him. But when I met you… Everything changed. I fell head over heels. I convinced myself I loved both of you because I was with both of you. But when you weren’t there anymore there was nothing left between Connor and me. There couldn’t be. I loved you, not him.” She shook her head. “It’s just taken me four years to admit that to myself.”

  “What are you saying, T?” He needed her to spell it out. To tell him in one syllable words he’d be sure to understand. To comprehend. To believe.

  “That I love you, G. Just you. Not your friend. You.”

  The last ounce of doubt melted away. “You do, don’t you.”

  “God, yes!”

  “Even after I walked away from you on Friday night?”

  Her eyes darkened. “I hated that. But yes, I still love you.”

  He took her hand in his, brought it to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “I love you too.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “What about Maddie?”

  Huh? “What about her?”

  “Do you love her too?”

  He frowned. “No. I never did. I told you that weeks ago.”

  She blushed. “I just had to make sure.” Then she shot him a look of pure mischief. “Well then, how about Maggie?”

  He snorted. “I don’t love her either.”

  “Good.”

  He smiled then, a smile borne of relief and of love. Four years it had taken to reach this point. Four very long, very lonely years. “It’s just you, T. I only love you.”

  She smiled right back and made a show of tossing the butterfly vibe over his shoulder. “Then prove it. Make love to me. No toys, no aids, just you. Show me you are the only man I’ll ever need in my life.”

  Gabe loved using toys with Tina. Dug it. He loved how responsive she was to the added stimulation, how keen she was to play and explore. But for the last eight weeks the compulsive need he’d felt to use the toys went beyond Tina’s enjoyment. He’d used them to make up for Connor’s absence. He’d used them to prove she didn’t need another man in his bed. He was man enough for her.

  And now he could prove it to her—without the toys. He was all the man she would ever need again.

  “With pleasure,” he growled, and had her naked and flat on her back in less than a minute. And when he pressed his lips to hers, he knew for sure she was his. Tina surrendered to him, offering the most delicious kiss he’d ever tasted. So delicious he refused to release her mouth. While her tongue played with his, he found her breasts with his hand and caressed them until she moaned against his lips. He kissed her as his finger found the slick folds of her pussy and the plump bead of her clit and teased her until she broke on his hand.

  He swallowed her cries as he stroked the sensitive bud between her butt cheeks, making her come again, and he kissed her as she pumped his rock hard dick with her bewitching fingers.

  He pulled away long enough to lose his undies and don a condom, and then he was back, taking her mouth, slipping his tongue between her lips and settling between her legs to claim her.

  Inch by glorious inch he pressed into her, relishing the satiny smoothness of her tight channel, the creamy moisture that eased his way until he was encased in the velvety heat of her body.

  Still he kissed her, tasted her, consumed her. They moved together as one, her hips rising to meet his thrusts, rhythmically, sensuously, his lips gliding over hers, melding to hers.

  It didn’t matter how many times before Gabe had made love to Tina. This, now, was different. This time she made love to him too. It wasn’t about sex, or fucking, or breaking records for the number of orgasms induced. This was love, and dear God, it was perfect.

  Gabe didn’t try to hold back. He couldn’t. When Tina’s rocking changed, when it became frenetic and frantic, Gabe let go. He gave in to the urgency of her demands and drove into her over and over again. As her muscles began to contract around him, his balls pulled tight against the base of his dick. When she cried out as she arched her back, Gabe lost control.

  They came together, she convulsing beneath him in wild abandon, he shooting his release into her once, twice, a hundred times.

  God
, his orgasm seemed to go on forever, a rapturous, wondrous liberation of emotion. And with every jerky ejaculation inside her, she spasmed again, the two of them spurring each other on, until they collapsed in a tangled heap on the sheets.

  “Tina,” he gasped when he could drag air into his lungs. “Damn, T, that was…” he shook his head in awe. “That was… Just damn.”

  “Nope, Gabe,” Tina answered, just as breathless, “that was love. Pure and simple.”

  A smile blossomed on his face. That was exactly what this was. Love. Pure and simple.

  No question about it.

  About the Author

  To learn more about Jess Dee, please visit her website at: www.jessdee.com or her blog at: http://jessdee.wordpress.com. Or send an email to jess@jessdee.com.

  Look for these titles by Jess Dee

  Now Available:

  Ask Adam

  Photo Opportunity

  A Question of Trust

  Three’s Company

  Circle of Friends

  Only Tyler

  Steve’s Story

  Coming Soon:

  Going All In

  When love is threatened by truth, every moment counts…

  Steve’s Story

  © 2009 Jess Dee

  Circle of Friends, Book 2

  Steve Sommers is having a gut-wrenching week. His fiancée has left him, the woman who broke his heart is back in town—and they’re all gathered at the bedside of his best friend, who’s in a coma. The emotional ties between them are strained to the breaking point. Like it or not, it’s up to Steve to find the strength and compassion to support the four of them through the toughest ordeal of their lives.

  In the midst of the turmoil and trauma, passion unexpectedly flares anew between Steve and the woman he loves. Suddenly the future he’d believed lost lies within his reach. But she still carries the secret that once tore them apart, and determined to protect Steve from the truth, she fights their rekindled relationship every step of the way.