Fuck, he hadn’t realized how hard that still was to say out loud.
She sat silently, then put her hand over his. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
Three small words, but the depth of feeling behind them took his breath away. God, she knew exactly what to say. A long, drawn out speech – no matter how eloquent – would’ve been lost on him at the moment. It would’ve made him uncomfortable.
But to know that she was sorry? To hear in her voice how deeply she meant it and how much sorrow she felt in empathy for his loss? Yeah. That was exactly the balm he needed to start healing his broken heart.
After a few minutes, she said, “What do your brothers think?”
He shrugged. “Only Troy knows so far. And only for a couple of hours. He dropped his coffee on the ground.”
“Sounds about right. If I’d had coffee, I’m sure it would be all over me right now. So, am I the only other person you’ve told?”
He shook his head slightly. “No. Mila knows.”
She grinned, the first purely lighthearted moment they’d shared that day. “Excellent. You’ve told the two most kick-ass women you know. You may have piss poor judgment about a lot of things, but that was very smart.”
He laughed. God, how was he able to laugh about this? He should’ve been ready to drown his sorrows in a bottle of Jack, but instead, here he was, laughing with a beautiful woman.
Life was really fucking strange sometimes.
“So, yeah. I’m going to have to tell the rest of my family. Soon. And I’m not looking forward to it.”
She scooted closer and laid her head down on his shoulder. “God, Gavin. I really thought something was wrong with you. Something serious.”
He decided to take a chance. “You cared?”
Her head whipped up. “Are you freaking kidding me? It scared the crap out of me! I know we’ve never defined what we are or had any commitments, but you mean the goddamn world to me, Gavin. You have to know that!”
His heart was beating so fast at those words that he found it hard to hear his thoughts over it. He felt they were at a crossroads in their relationship. This was a fork-in-the-road moment. Things could move forward between them or stay stagnant where they were. And it all depended on what he said next.
Talk about pressure.
Words weren’t really his thing, but Genevieve was worth it. He’d do his best to express his heart to her. He had to.
“Gen, you make me smile when no one else can. You make me laugh when I should be pissed at the world. You—”
The speech he’d worked so hard to build up to was cut off early by the frantic press of her lips against his. That hadn’t been the way he’d expected things to go, but he wasn’t going to complain.
He pressed his lips back against hers, moving them passionately as the frenzy between them built. He felt like they were back in high school again, making out at the overlook, their whole lives ahead of them. Just having fun and not thinking about the future. Hell, they hadn’t needed to. It was spread out in front of them, wide open and full of nothing but possibilities.
That’s when it hit him – the same thing was true now. Sure, maybe there was one set of dreams that was now closed to him. But, he was holding a whole new dream right here in his arms, and she was kissing him and moaning his name.
He’d spent so much time since he’d been home focusing on what he didn’t have. It was about time he started focusing on what he did.
And he was going to start that right here and right now, with kissing and touching Gen with all of the fervor that she was kissing and touching him.
Chapter 34
Gen’s head swam as Gavin’s hands roamed over her body. Their clothes were still on, but she was as excited as if they’d been doing a full-on buck-naked tango. There was just something so deliciously naughty about doing the whole “teenage car make-out thing” that made her feel like it was all forbidden and wild.
Add that to the fact that they’d just shared one of the most revealing and intimate – not to mention longest – conversations of their lives, and her brain’s pleasure centers were lit up like a pinball machine.
God. She’d known Gavin Valentine since before either one of them could talk, but tonight was the first time that she really felt like she knew him. Like they were connecting on a deep level, operating on the same frequency.
Well…emotionally, at any rate. Matching up their sexual frequencies had never been much of a problem. It was just that it was even better now that their feelings were in sync.
Wow.
Even. Better. Sex!
That was not a concept she’d have thought possible when it came to Gavin, but even this little bit of fooling around they’d done so far had proven it was going to be true.
His hand landed on her breast, his palm rubbing back and forth over her blouse, causing her nipple to spring to life so hard it almost hurt. But, oh, sweet mama, it was the good kind of pain. It was the kind of achiness that springs from a build-up of pressure that gave the ultimate pleasure when it finally exploded and she’d subject herself to that kind of pain any day.
With her head spinning and pulse racing through her veins, she threw her head back and moaned.
Gavin dipped his chin and planted demanding kisses along the exposed, sensitive skin of her neck. She whimpered. Aw, damn, He knew how she loved that. He knew how it made her crazy.
She was suddenly frantic to be closer to him, to totally devour him, so she decided to do exactly that. She pushed his shoulders firmly back and trailed her mouth down his chest, all the while working feverishly to undo his pants.
When she’d finally freed his erection, she lowered her mouth onto it and swirled her tongue around the tip. She’d always loved the lead-up to the big event – trailing her turgid tongue tip up and down his shaft, tickling his balls with her fingertips.
Today, there wouldn’t be time for much of that. They were both far too frenzied already, too far gone down the lust trail to leave much room for stopping to smell the roses, so to speak. But whatever little amount of teasing lead up she could bring herself to be patient enough to indulge in, she was going to do exactly that – indulge. Savor. Milk every freaking drop from it…pun intended.
She slid her lips down his shaft, keeping them tight so that the seal of suction she’d created remained strong and in place. When she reached the base, she moved back up until her lips had all but crossed the tip again, then plunged her head back down and started the whole process over again.
She continued this up and down rhythm, moving faster and faster, until she could take it no longer. She had to feel Gavin inside her, and it had to be now. She was going to explode if he didn’t fill her up soon.
She sprung upright and gasped, “Condom!”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, fished a condom from it, unwrapped it and slid it down over his stiff and shining member.
This whole operation was accomplished in just a few short seconds, leaving Gen almost as impressed as she was horny. When he was done, she reached up under her skirt and hooked her thumbs into the sides of her panties, dragging them down her hips.
“Don’t wiggle your hips all sexy like that unless you want me to shoot my load before I’m even inside you,” he growled, and she moaned at his words, and creamed all over the bottom of her skirt.
Breathlessly, she said, “How about we make sure that doesn’t have a chance to happen?”
With that, she slung her leg over him and settled down on his lap. She grasped his dick, positioning it at her opening. When she was satisfied that they were fitted together perfectly, she plunged down on him.
His cock drove into her with a powerful thrust as he raised his hips to meet hers. She contracted her inner walls around him, loving the way he spread her out and filled her up. He satisfied her on such a deep level that she wondered, for a fleeting moment, if she was ever fully complete when he wasn’t inside her. It was like their bodies had been created
to fit together and both of them had jagged pieces exposed when they weren’t locked together with the other. Only when they were snapped together did they become the two halves of a round, smooth whole.
His strong hands clamped onto her hips and guided her movements up and down his thrusting cock. The friction rubbed each and every nerve ending inside her, and she could feel herself building up to a bone-crushing orgasm. It was going to be truly epic, she could already tell from the way her muscles were twitching in anticipation.
Gavin slipped his hand up underneath her skirt, wedging his fingers in between their two bodies and rubbing her clit in rollicking circles. She could tell that it was a challenge for his hand to keep up with the rhythm of their bodies from the way that it kept slipping off, but Gavin just continued to immediately find her sweet spot, again and again.
God bless whatever quirk of genetics, or maybe military training, instilled that sense of tenacity. Dude…nature or nurture, who gives a damn? I’ll take it!
When Gen felt her orgasm building deep inside her belly, she dug her fingers into the back of Gavin’s neck and held on for dear life. She could tell it was going to send her spinning off into space with the force of a jet propulsion engine and she wanted to hang onto something—someone—that would keep her grounded and tethered to earth.
She wanted to hold on to Gavin. In fact, he was the only thing she wanted to depend on or hold tight to for the rest of her life. And he was so much more than enough.
She cried out as her climax hit like a freight train. And not just metaphorically – she felt the force of it physically, ramming into every muscle and organ. It was the pleasurable equivalent of getting her feet swept from under her by a strong wind.
When the climax had passed through her completely, every last shudder and tremble dying down, she and Gavin stayed there together, still and tangled in each other, their breathing the only sound to fill the air.
Chapter 35
“Make sure you hold up your end.”
Gavin glared at Troy from behind the couch he was holding from below, as Troy guided it from above and they struggled together to heave the heavy piece of furniture up the narrow staircase. “Don’t worry about my end, worry about your own.”
“Those are the brothers I know and love, working together like a well-oiled machine,” Donovan said, coming up behind Gavin on the stairs. “Now can you two hurry your asses up? This chair is heavy as hell.”
“Going as fast as we can, bro,” Gavin grunted in response.
Donovan laughed, the sound a little strangled as he held fast to the heavy chair. “The sad thing is, I think that’s actually true.”
They crested the landing just outside Gavin’s new apartment door and worked together to tilt the couch at the correct angle to be able to fit through it. When they finally set it down on the floor, in the general area that Gavin had decided would be the living room, they straightened up, both breathing a sigh of relief.
Gavin consciously let his hands travel to his back and rub a sore spot there as Donovan made it over to them and set the chair down at a perpendicular angle to the couch. He straightened and rubbed his shoulder, and Gavin then looked over at Troy, who was rubbing the back of his neck.
Gavin had to laugh, a small and bitter bark of a sound. “Shit, I guess were not as young as we used to be.”
Troy groaned. “Who is?”
Gen, Abby, and Ella came through the front door carrying bins and boxes just then, and Gen exclaimed, “Hey! Aren’t you guys supposed to be the muscle? And here you are, standing around, while we carry your boxes up three flights of stairs.”
“Two flights,” Gavin corrected. “We’re on the third floor. It’s one flight from the ground floor to the—”
“Not to be rude, but I don’t care,” Gen cut him off with a laugh, which set the other two girls off laughing. Then Donovan started laughing, probably more on account of how cute he thought his girlfriend was than how funny he found the comment. And that was enough to get Troy joining in, as well.
“Well, as long as you don’t mean to be rude,” Gavin said, a smirk tugging at the side of his lips. It was hard not to smile around Genevieve. Even if it did put them at risk of being “found out” – whatever that meant.
The response sent the five of them into gales of laughter, and Gavin couldn’t help but laugh along shaking his head. “Well, I’m glad you all find me amusing. If I can provide some comic relief, it’s the least I can do for all of your help with my move.”
“Oh, no way, buster,” Genevieve replied. “If you think you’re getting out of the pizza and beer you promised us, you better think again.”
“Hell, no,” he replied. “Believe me, I want that just as bad as you guys do at this point.”
“All right, then, let’s finish this thing up,” Ella said. “I’m starving.”
After a few more trips up and down the punishing steps, finally they walked through the door with the last few odds and ends and collapsed onto the couch and easy chairs that sat in the middle of the large room.
Damn. Between all of the boxes he’d dug out of the garage at his childhood home and the hand-me-down furniture that his grandmother had set aside for him, he actually had an apartment full of stuff. It was a surreal feeling. All those years in the service, he hadn’t collected much more than what could fit in a duffel bag, and now he had a home of his own, full of his own possessions.
He liked it.
“I feel like I’ve just done ten miles on the StairMaster,” Abby groaned.
“True,” Ella agreed. “I guess the good thing is that we don’t need to work out today. Or this week. Or maybe all month.”
“I’ll just tell you one thing, Gavin,” Gen said, in a comically exaggerated threatening tone. “You’d better not move again for a long, long time.”
They caught each other’s eyes, and suddenly the words took on a new and deeper meaning, much more than the simple joke about the grueling steps. He held her gaze, wishing he could assure her that she had nothing to worry about, that he was staying right where he was, that he was one hundred percent hers. But there were people around, and so he kept his mouth shut. Normally that wasn’t a hard thing for him to do. Right now, it was torture.
Gen flushed then, an even deeper red than the exertion had already painted on her cheeks, and popped up out of her chair as if her delectable ass were spring-loaded. “I’m going to the bathroom,” she declared, in a voice that was just a couple notches too high and too loud. “Order that pizza while I’m in there, will you? I’m starved.”
“Oh, God, yes, me too!” Ella chimed in, and Gavin was glad that the whole thing hadn’t devolved into a whole awkward moment. As he pulled out his phone and ordered the pizza, and then went to the refrigerator to check on how cold the beers were, it struck him that this apartment really felt like home, even though he’d lived here less than a day. He’d stayed in housing all over the world, some of it for as long as a year at a stretch, but none of it ever felt like home. This did.
“Okay, I’m back. Did ya miss me?” Gen asked the room at large as she re-entered.
Hell yes I did, he thought. God, what he wouldn’t give to be able to just tell her that, flat out, regardless of who happened to be around at the moment. In fact he wanted to say it more because other people were there. He wanted the whole world to know. Instead, he simply said, “Pizza should be here in twenty.”
Gen gave him her mischievous, crooked grin. “I hope you triple his tip because of all the stairs he’s gonna have to climb.”
Gavin returned the grin and added a shrug. “Good exercise.”
“So, Gen,” Troy said. “Are you excited about the Fall Festival starting next week? The Labor Day picnic? You’ve been running us ragged, handing out jobs. I’m almost afraid to open my email nowadays. I mean, unless that’s only me?”
Gavin fought laughter at the chorus of protests and groans assuring Troy that he wasn’t the only one that Genevieve had been drivi
ng to work like a dog.
Gen grinned. “See, though? That’s the magic of it. So much work has gotten done, and now there’s hardly anything to worry about. It’s all in hand, and the day of the festival is sure to run like clockwork.”
“That’s why you’re the event planner and I’m the artist,” Ella said. “If it’d been up to me, right about now would be when I’d suddenly say to myself, ‘Oh, crap, the festival’s coming up!’”
“Exactly,” Gen confirmed. “I’m awesome at what I do.”
“And humble,” Abby teased.
Gen shrugged. “Not a job requirement.”
Gavin plopped back down on the couch. Yeah. Hanging out here in his apartment with his family and friends, waiting on a pizza to arrive, while they all kidded around and gave each other a hard time. That, to him, was the very definition of a home.
“So, Gavin. Now that you’ve got your own couch to plant your lazy butt on, instead of mine, have you given any thought to what you’re going to do for work?”
“Yeah, I have.”
Gen turned to him, eyebrows shooting up to the sky. “Really? You have? You didn’t say anything.” She looked around the room as if suddenly remembering they weren’t alone. “To…anyone, I mean. Or, well, I would assume so. That would be my guess.”
She snapped her mouth shut, cheeks growing redder by the second, and Gavin decided to put an end to her misery. “You’re right. I haven’t. I’ve been mulling it over, but I’ve finally settled on a plan that feels right.”
Donovan plopped down next to him on the couch. “What is it?”
“When Troy took me along on the House the Homeless build, I really got a lot out of it. Working with my hands, being outdoors, interacting with the kids—”
“Say no more,” Troy cut him off. “I see where you’re going with this.”
“You do?”
“Oh, sure. This is an elaborate build up to you asking me for a job in front of everyone. Well, no worries, brother. There’s always room for family. Just know there won’t be any special treatment. It’s a hard job. Minimum wage and swinging a hammer. And the boss can be a real hardass.”
Rescuing His Heart Page 14