by Jorja Tabu
It went without saying that Echo was also the money maker, and the three men with him, though highly skilled, would probably not be living the same life without him. But that never came up, not as a joke, and certainly never from Echo himself.
In other words, Gabby thought, running through all these things in her mind...I have a crush on him.
I have a crush on a rapper whose most famous song is about getting head. I have a crush on a rapper whose biggest claim to fame--besides all those Grammys--is getting arrested four times in half as many years, back when he first broke. I have a crush on a rapper...
Who sneaks into my shows, and cheers for me.
Who smells like the ocean.
Who is kind to me, no matter what kind of mood I’m in, how little regard I give him, or how much I take from him.
Gabby was almost ashamed of how generous he’d been--he was constantly inviting her along to eat with them, to use his phone when hers died...He’d even bought her a coat.
Most of this she’d discovered through eavesdropping because Echo, of course, rarely actually spoke directly to her. The coat arrived unbidden on her bed that morning; when she’d woken up, bright and early, she’d kicked something and for the strangest fleeting second she’d thought--he’s finally come to bed.
But he hadn’t. In his stead was a dark red box tied with a black ribbon, and inside was a luxurious red wool coat. It was elegant, simple, and incredibly warm; the style reminded her of something her mother might’ve picked out.
“You’re a dummy,” she heard Darris saying through the vent as she bent to put on her shoes, flush with gratitude. She’d assumed it was a gift from the group, and probably Darris, her older brother stand-in. “You’re getting stupid in your old age.”
“Tell her you bought it.”
“It looks like the kind of coat an old ass man would’ve bought, but you bought it, dummy, so I hope you put a pre-nup in that damn box with it.”
Because Echo hadn’t slept in the bed but once or twice, and presumably after everyone else was already asleep, they apparently had no idea that one of the ducts from the small bedroom provided perfect insight into the conversations happening around the card table. Most of the time, she pulled a pillow over her head and fell fast asleep, but not now. Gabby felt bad listening, but she couldn’t help herself. Pre-nup? Get real, Darris, she thought instinctively, and then she remembered how sad she’d been when Echo’s scent had faded.
Whatever, she snapped at herself. It was probably some line of cologne you could buy at a 24 hour Wal-Mart. And then she was ashamed of herself all over again.
He’d bought her a coat.
And you know what? Gabby took it out of the box again and smoothed it with her hand. It looked amazing. She was going to keep it, and she would find a way to keep Darris from freaking out because his boyfriend had bought it for her.
It was a frequent topic of conversation, actually, as Gabby discovered when she occasionally got over her distaste of listening in on their conversations.
Darris was forever warning him away from Gabby, but she didn’t really understand why; as far as she could tell, the embarrassing but undeniable attraction she felt flash over her when her guard was down was all her own. Echo rarely spoke to her unless it was to tease her in his subtle, dry way, and she knew that the open invitation she enjoyed existed just as much because of the general kindness of all four men, rather than his personal favor.
Gabby looked over at the clock; it was three o’clock in the morning. Why was she thinking so hard about this guy and his maneuverings? It was just a crush; okay, she could live with that. And crushes shouldn’t interfere this much with her sleep.
Especially sleep that was mostly being interrupted by a lack of scent. She rolled her eyes at herself when she realized she was looking for it again, subconsciously seeking just a gentle wave to roll out of her pillow and give her sweet dreams. You are ridiculous, she snapped at herself.
But the reprimand didn’t work, and twenty minutes later she finally sat up, stared at the beautiful coat where it hung on the door, and got out of bed.
Wrapping herself in a warm robe, she slipped past the bunks where Darris, Versus and Trajilla slept, and quietly pulled the partition shut behind her. She hoped she could make a cup of coffee quietly, without waking Echo; her earlier thoughts of telling him he could have his bed back fled as soon as she stood up. It was ridiculous, waking someone up to tell them to go to bed. She’d just make her coffee and sneak out to the icy van. Her icy van.
“You’re up late.” His voice crept out at her from the blankets on the couch, and she realized, as she looked at him, that he was merely nestled in with his notebook. His ever-present hat was missing, though, as well as his shirt. Gabby took the opportunity to look at him for longer than she normally would.
Echo’s eyes were the color of the ocean, a deep, abiding blue. His hair was dark and shorn close to his head, and the wiry muscles she’d suspected were lurking under his baggy clothes shifted beneath his luminescent skin as he sat up straighter. The ghost of a five o’clock shadow dusted his jaw, but otherwise he was a white block of masculine anatomical perfection. Lean but muscled. Not perfectly chiseled in a gym, just...Naturally chiseled, built for action--fighting, really, she supposed.
Or fucking, a part of her whispered, and she spun back towards the coffee before he could notice her blush. “I didn’t think you’d be awake,” she said, trying to add her now infamous smile to the words. Illa and Darris had started calling it her armor. Where’s your armor, girl? When she turned back around, he’d wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and mercifully hidden his perfect chest from her eyes.
“You saw it, huh,” he said, watching her. His gaze was unhidden by shadows and the intensity of it suddenly made her miss his hat.
“What?” Your gorgeous body? Yes. Yes I did.
“The scar,” Echo said, his eyes following her every movement as carefully as if she were about to run, or some kind of threat. “Girls always notice the scar.” He was clearly not referring to the famous one on his cheek.
Bullshit, she thought, but instead of saying that she took a deep gulp of her coffee and burned her mouth. Gabby sat down opposite from him on the other empty couch and wondered how his long body fit on the narrow thing well enough to ever sleep. No wonder he was awake now. “I didn’t,” she said, and smiled.
To her surprise, he smiled back. A real one. It was beautiful, until he spoke, and then she wished he hadn’t. “Then why do you look like you saw a ghost?”
“Maybe because you are as white as,” she said, trying not to spill her coffee as she huffed and held in a laugh. His smile made her want to...Want to what? Do something he’d write a song about--Gettin Brain on the Bus? She sipped her coffee and hoped it would smother the butterflies swarming in her belly.
“Maybe,” he said, watching her. Per usual, he didn’t speak, but now his eyes did the talking for him; they never left her face. She wondered over the words she’d heard Darris say earlier.
And said fuck it. Maybe he should know she knew. “Thank you for the coat.”
His eyes immediately went to the notebook in front of him, and he shifted under the blanket uncomfortably. “Did it fit?” He finally asked, chancing another look at her.
“Yeah,” Gabby said, “perfectly. How’d you know my size?”
“Wasn’t sure,” he said, then shrugged. “But I figured you for a medium. If it’s too big in the waist I can get it tailored--” He stopped himself, looked back down at the notebook.
She’d never seen him this way. It took her a minute to think of the right word...Vulnerable. His blue eyes, ringed by thick black lashes, swept the coffee table, the chairs, the kitchen--everything but her. He didn’t chew his lip of show any other nervous signs, but then, he probably wasn’t used to having to hide his eyes; the rest of him he’d mastered into stillness long ago. Gabby watched his eyes. “It’s perfect,” she said again, observing closely. He nodd
ed his approval and made to lay back down on the couch, but she stopped him with her next words. “Why are you so nice to me?”
There it was again--the heat in his look was so intense she felt it bring the blood to her skin. Just for a second, and then he carefully pulled his mask back on. “I think you’re gonna be big. I think you should be big--you’re good.” He leaned back, and the covers around his shoulders shifted so that his collarbones were bare. “When I was young, I never imagined all this shit. But here we are. It was hard to get here.” He studied her impassively, but she wasn’t fooled this time. “I want to make it easier for you.”
“But why me?” She willed him to look at her again, the way he had before--Gabby let herself lean towards him and let her feelings show on her face: curiosity, lust, need. She was hungry for the brightness she’d seen in his eyes; no one had ever looked at her like that before.
“Because I like you,” he said softly, and his eyes locked on hers with the same fierceness from before. She could tell he wanted to withdraw, but couldn’t. His gaze was electric. “I like you, Gabby.”
“I like you too, Echo,” she whispered, and before she could stop herself she was straddling his lap, her lips seeking his relentlessly, her hands searching for a way to touch him--all of him, at once.
She didn’t know how the impulse ambushed her, but it took her a second to realize what she was doing, and yet another before she realized what he was doing. Echo’s strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her tight against his chest as her robe opened. Her nipples were taunt against the fabric of the silk nightgown underneath, and pressed against his skin; his mouth met hers almost immediately. That first instant of shock was over-ridden, she could tell, as soon as instinct took over, and his tongue sought hers as her fingers slipped over his cheeks. Echo’s strong hands slid down her back, gently stroking her closer to him, and as Gabby felt his mouth leave hers and begin to taste her throat, she let her head fall back as her center ground into him involuntarily. Echo’s lips traveled over her shoulders; his hands cupped her ass and guided her in rhythmic pressure over the place she felt his cock growing beneath the blankets. As she arched her back, his lips kissed her collarbones, his arms steadied her, and he found a hard nipple and gently sealed his lips over it, fabric and all. His arms crossed as he gripped her shoulders and she ground into him. She could feel the layers of fabric between them, and her body begged her to rip them away. She wanted him inside--she wanted the strength she felt in those arms wrapped around her waist as he filled her. Heat rose in her body like a spring, and Gabby heard herself gasping as his stiff cock probed her open body through the blankets. Echo grunted, slipping her other nipple into his mouth as pulled one of his hands away from her back and slid it around her waist towards her belly.
The movement pulled Gabby back from the brink. She sat upright on his lap, her nipple sliding out of his mouth, the wet spots he left slick against her skin. “Oh my god,” she said, and almost pulled away.
But his face was right there. So close. He licked his lips as he searched her face--for what, she wasn’t sure, but the same impulse grabbed her again and she kissed him before she could stop.
This time, it was Echo that pulled back. “Gabby,” he whispered, and pushed a ringlet behind her ear, “I...”
“I know,” she said, forcing the words out. She did. She’d been listening to him talk about fucking women senseless left and right in his music for years.
“Know what?” Some of his natural wariness returned, and she sighed.
“That this can’t be anything serious, for real,” she said, and closed her eyes. “I know it, you know it--let’s just promise not to write any songs about each other, okay?” His beautiful smile returned, blinding, but she’d seen something else in his bottomless eyes just a second before...Hurt? That didn’t fit. “Pinky swear,” she said, giving him her best smile. She wasn’t going to make the mistake she’d made with Charles again, and certainly not with Echo. This would be what it would be, and she wasn’t going to make it more that it seemed.
“No,” he said, watching her.
“What do you mean, no?” She glared at him, rearing back. He seemed amused that she thought she might look intimidating with her nipples still hard, so she grabbed her robe around her as she balanced on his knees. With one strong hand, he kept her from falling backward.
“No,” he said. “Can’t promise that.” He met her eyes, and she felt greedy for the heat there, but then he leaned away from her and shook his head. “But I do promise I will never, ever disrespect you.”
“Isn’t that kind of the same thing?” Gabby squinted at him, and he blinded her with his sudden smile again.
“Nah,” he said, shifting below her. She felt his cock again, there below the blankets, and it reignited her need; she tried to ignore it.
“Prove it,” she said, expecting one of his sarcastic replies. Instead, his arms pulled her close as his eyes searched her face.
“Give me the chance,” he whispered, “and I will.” Gabby leaned into the kiss and rested her elbows on his shoulders as her hands ran over the soft bristles of his hair. His tongue gently explored her mouth as his palm returned to the business she’d interrupted when she’d pulled away, sliding along her waist; when he reached her belly, it smoothly moved south to the apex of her thighs.
Gabby didn’t mean to want him. She hadn’t wanted to want him. She hadn’t been able to acknowledge how badly she did, but now he was all she could see or think or feel. When she felt his fingers slip under her nightgown, they sent an instant shudder over her skin that told her this feeling had been growing for a while. Her head was thrown back, and only Echo’s other hand against her spine kept her from falling. His mouth whispered down her chest and found her nipple again, and his teeth gently nibbling on the bud as his fingers slid along her inner thigh. “Echo,” she gasped, knowing she should stop him--shouldn’t she?
“Don’t worry,” he murmured into her chest, almost as if he’d read her mind. “Just gonna make you feel good. Nothing else.” She didn’t know what exactly that might mean, but Gabby’s body wasn’t listening to her mind any more. Her head fell farther back as she arched into his pursuit, and his insistent tongue lapped at her nipples in turn, bringing them to sensitive points. His fingers slid along her thigh so achingly slow, she almost bucked; when he finally found her slit, she groaned as he pushed his fingers inside. “That’s it,” he whispered, letting her put all of her weight on his hand as she bent backwards, opening herself. His thumb stayed outside and began circling her clit, gently, so gently, as his fingers ebbed in and out of her. Gabby felt the orgasm growing inside of her so strongly she knew she couldn’t have stopped it even if she’d wanted to. “Do you like that?” He whispered, leaning in to suck her nipple through the cloth of her nightgown. His teasing tone made her shudder once more, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out his name again. “Tell me if you like it,” he whispered, and then his head rose from her chest and he deftly pulled the straps of her nightgown down with his teeth, letting them rake her soft skin. His fingers throbbed in and out of her pussy as his thumb brought her clit to an aching hilt. Echo circled her bare nipple with his tongue, teasing it hard, and then took it firmly in his mouth and sucked. His hand became more insistent, picking up speed. Gabby knew she couldn’t hang on much longer. He licked the skin between her breasts. “Tell me,” he whispered, and took her nipple gingerly between his teeth.
“I like it,” she gasped, “I like it, please don’t stop, please--”
He sucked her nipple feverishly as his fingers surged in and out of her, the pressure from his thumb instantly increasing as soon as she gasped. Lightening quickened in her center, exploding throughout her body as he pushed in and out, in and out, dragging her ecstasy relentlessly on with his insistent mouth and fingers. “Echo,” she moaned, her body racking with pleasure. His strong hand kept her from falling once again as she was overwhelmed by sensation, crying out his name as she rode th
e last waves of lightening his fingers pulsed through her. Echo didn’t remove them until she was utterly still, her eyes closed, her forehead resting against his as she caught her breath. Quietly, with no ceremony, he sucked them clean as she rested, and pulled her close against him. For a long time, they were both still, and Gabby took the moment to breathe in the heady mix of his scent--sea spray, pipe tobacco. Man.
“You ready to go back to bed?” He said it softly, brushing her unruly hair back from her ear. His voice was low, but she could hear it rumbling from where she leaned against his chest; her eyes opened and she took in the smooth breadth of his torso, hard planes of muscle that somehow made way to cradle her. She’d never gotten that blanket off of his lap, and as she leaned back once more, she couldn’t help but look down.
“Are you?” Gabby didn’t know how to ask what she was thinking: don’t you want to come too? He seemed to understand, his dark eyes watching her, always watching, and a small smile lifted the corner of his mouth. She knew it well.
“Yeah,” he said after a second. He gently picked her up and untangled her from his lap, placing her on the couch next to him. “I need some sleep.”
“You don’t need..?” She let her voice trail off, but made her eyes blink suggestively. This time she got the full Echo smile.
“Need..?” He raised his eyebrows; combined with his adorable grin, it was more muscle movement on his face than she’d ever seen before. Seeing the shock on her face, he laughed, and then she almost slapped his bare chest. He was now naked to the waist, and she had a better view of his body; realizing that snapped her back to the moment.
“Need anything...special? To help you sleep?” Then all at once, doubt appeared, looming over her joy. She felt torn--was this the ploy? To get her off, and then get her to do something--suck him, fuck him--and oh how she’d love to, but...Then she’d be that girl after the show, banging on the door. She’d be his ho. Echo watched her thinking things over wordlessly, and once again, as if he could read her mind, pulled the blanket over himself.