I read the label quickly because I have several shades from this brand. “Yep. What a coincidence,” I mutter.
We’re silent as the line moves forward one.
She leans her back on the wall and bites her bottom lip. “So that’s the second thing you and I have shared.”
I stare at her profile. “Okay, just say what you’ve gotta say.”
She eyes me, the friendly façade gone. “Why you? Why not me, huh?” She pauses, getting angrier. “Why didn’t Gabriel pick me? We’ve been hooking up for over a year and yeah, it was casual, but I kept thinking that one day it wouldn’t be! I thought we’d wake up and he’d still be in my bed for once, not run off like I was trying to sneak some ball and chain around his fuckin’ ankle.” We have a growing audience now but she does not care. “This whole time I tiptoed around his fuckin’ ego thinking he was just scared, but that wasn’t it at all! He wasn’t into me. He didn’t give a shit this entire time!”
I want to crawl into a hole and hide. “If it was going on for a year, he must have felt something.”
She shakes her head, wagging her finger like she doesn’t want to hear it. “No. Uh uh, when I see him with you he’s proud and letting everybody know that you’re his girl.”
My mouth opens and shuts.
She waves her hand in the air indicating the whole group of them at the airport the other morning. “He did that to show me. To make it really fuckin’ clear that it is done, over, and I’m supposed to do nothing and act like it never happened. Do you know how shitty that feels?”
All I can do is shake my head.
Gabriel has discovered us and works his way through the crowd. “Olivia, that’s enough!”
She turns on him, “It happened! I’m a human being and you were in my body over and over!”
“Oh Jeezus,” he mutters. “You want to talk about this, we’ll talk. But not out here in public.” He grabs someone’s phone to stop them from videoing. “Keep it up and you’re gone.”
She starts laughing in his face. “I fuckin’ quit! How ‘bout that!”
I glance around as photos and videos are taken so quickly he can’t do anything about it. It feels like the entire bar has surrounded us by how condensed these faces are.
Olivia goes on, “Get yourself a better dancer and good luck because one doesn’t exist! You trade me for her? Ms. Tiny Tits here? You fuckin’ crazy?” She pushes my shoulder.
I don’t know if it’s the fact that acting like a coward would be recorded for all eternity, or that between my brother and my upbringing I’ve had enough of taking people’s abuse. Whatever the reason, my fist hits Olivia’s face so hard her head spins and she falls into the wall.
Gabriel’s eyes go from ferocious to shocked.
Cameras are still aimed at me.
But I can’t see them anymore.
All I see is this bitch losing her dignity and trying to take me and Gabriel down with her.
Wide-eyed she stares as I demand, “Who do you think you’re talking to? Check yourself Olivia, because I will knock you down again if you ever breathe on me, understand? You don’t love him because you wouldn’t be making this scene like a child. You loved the idea of being with him. But I do love him. And there can be only one.”
I take Gabriel’s hand and together we push our way out of the crowd to freedom. He takes the lead to negotiate these steep fucking stairs that are crowded with curious faces and cameras. “Out of the way!”
On the cobblestone streets of downtown Dublin we hurry past closed shops to put space between those cameras and us.
When they decide to leave us alone and the voices fading behind us become silent, Gabriel pulls us into a shadowy corner and takes my face in his hands. “Wow.”
Throwing myself into his arms I kiss him and whisper, “That just slipped out. It’s too soon! I didn’t mean to say it. I didn’t even know I was going to!”
Searching my eyes his voice is thick as he tells me, “Hey, Paige, stop. I love you, too.”
Melting into him I whisper, “You do?”
He kisses me roughly and I respond with equal excitement. Gabriel pulls away to say on an amused smirk, “Remind me never to piss you off.”
PAIGE
I hold my forefinger and thumb an inch apart. “I thought you were a little off key during Can’t Wait Campaign.”
Gabriel snorts as we stroll through the rolling hills and sunny tree-lined paths of Parc des Buttes Chaumont in Paris. “You do, huh? Hate to break it to you but you’re wrong.”
Struggling to hide my smile I insist, “Seriously, right in the middle of the song there was this teensie weensie little moment that wasn’t absolutely without a doubt perfect like the rest of the show. I was appalled. I don’t know how you look in the mirror.”
He grabs a pink blossom from a bush we pass, and smells it. “If only I had someone to give this flower to who wasn’t overly critical.”
While looking at the sky I smile, “If only.”
He backs up to set it where he found it. “Oh well.”
“Give me that!”
Holding it out of reach my gorgeous man fakes innocence really, really well. “What...this? You want this? Grab it from me then.”
Shaking my head on a grin I head away. “Nope. Don’t need it.”
He hurries after me, behaving like a commedia dell’arte character, twirling an invisible mustache. “Oh? Why not?”
Spinning around I slip my arms around him and look up into his eyes. “Because I have you and that’s all I need.”
His pale green eyes flicker and change moods instantly. He sensually cups my head and whispers, “One minute I’m giving my cousin Ethan shit for getting married, and the next I’ve got images of you walking around my loft with a ring on your finger and my child in your arms.”
My heart skips as I stare at him, speechless.
We kiss and let the Parisians around us disappear for a while. I feel the flower pressed into my hand as we separate. “I might have bent it.”
“It’s beautiful.” I smell the crumpled petals. “No smell though. Try harder next time.”
He bursts out laughing, shaking his head. “Oh we’re going to get along fine.”
Our fingers lace as we walk further. “You know I’m messing with you, right? I think you’re wonderful, Gabriel.”
From the corners of his eyes he holds my look. “I know. Don’t worry, Gorgeous. I’ve got siblings and cousins with the same sense of humor and it just means love. If we’re not giving each other shit then something is wrong.”
“My brother and I didn’t do this,” I quietly say. “But in our house there wasn’t a lot of fun and playfulness growing up.”
“You want to call and check on him?”
A long, painful breath leaves my lungs. “No.”
“You didn’t tell me how you handled your apartment before you flew over to be with me.”
“To be with you — that sounds so good.”
We stop for a fashionably dressed couple pushing their baby boy in a stroller. “Bonjour,” the man says with a polite dip of his head.
“Bonjour,” we reply. The woman nods to me as they move along. They don’t recognize Gabriel, which just adds to our relaxing afternoon.
After a few steps when we can’t be overheard, I explain, “My mom was so happy I was finally doing something for myself that she and Dad packed up my apartment for me.” Off Gabriel’s curious expression I explain, “I thought they’d turned their back on Bobby when they wouldn’t let him live there anymore, but really they turned their back on enabling him. She knew I had to find my own way. They call it hitting bottom, where there’s nowhere to go but up. I had to get to that point, myself, before they’d help me. Seems harsh huh?”
“Nope. You had to ask for help,” Gabriel mutters. “What’s harsh is your brother stealing from you. That’s gotta kill him as much as it hurts you. I think when you stopped allowing it he might have been relieved. Like you’re telli
ng his demons no more. It’ll give him the strength to tell them to fuck off, too, when he’s ready.”
Staring ahead I let that idea soak into me. “Wait, explain.”
“If he’s in there, in the dark corners of his mind fighting these demons…wait. First let’s say they’re not imaginary, that they’re as real as you and me and they are loud. If that’s true then when people allow him to do what the demons tell him to do, it almost gives their direction credibility. But when enough people in his life, especially the ones who matter most, say, no more, he’s then forced to look at the demons and ask himself why the fuck he’s listening to them. And he can make a choice.”
“You think he couldn’t make the choice before?”
“I think it’s harder.” Gabriel rakes a hand through his hair and stops walking. “We used to have a different drummer, a guy I knew from childhood who gradually disappeared into drinking. It inches up on you. He didn’t see it coming. Neither did we until he started fucking up, not showing, missing rehearsals and finally a show, and then another. We loved the guy but had no choice but to let him go the night we had an audience of two hundred waiting for us to go on, and no drummer.”
“Oh no. What did you do?”
“Luckily the band who opened for us was still there and it was a fucking miracle because their drummer was a fan. He’d seen all of our garage shows and little dives and shit. He knew most of the songs and we improvised. It was crazy.” Gabriel smiles with disbelief because it still amazes him how lucky they were. “We kept him and that’s when things skyrocketed. His old band was fucking bummed but what are you gonna do?”
I went to two meetings before I got Gabriel’s call. As we walk across the suspension bridge this park is known for I tell him, “When I get back to Atlanta I’m going to get a sponsor and see if I can’t…I don’t know. I’m still trying to grasp how it all works.”
Gabriel nods. “They have sponsors in Al-Anon?”
“Yeah. I’d like to have a guide. Mom can’t do it. It can’t be family, especially not your qualifier. Anyway,” I smile, squeezing his hand to get back to what he asked me. “Mom’s storing my car in their garage, and they boxed up my clothes. The furniture is being donated to the women’s shelter on Howell Mill, because Carrie’s place is furnished and she said I could stay as long as I like. When I get my own place I want to start over with things that don’t remind me of the past. It’s just stuff. I want a fresh start. I’m going real ‘minimalist.’ Only buy what I need as time goes on. Doesn’t that sound amazing?”
A thoughtful grin plays on his handsome face. “Nah, I like to carry a ton of crap with me wherever I go.”
Hitting his chest I laugh, “Your suitcase is half the size of mine!”
“That’s to impress you when really I’m carrying around eleven clunkers they have to stow in every hotel. Even have a couple cats in them.”
“You’re a mobile hoarder, is that it?”
“One of my suitcases is just empty takeout containers.”
“Stop. Do I hear another waterfall?”
“This is where I wanted to take you.” He points to a slice in the small mountain just up ahead.
“Is that a cave?” I gasp, excited and tugging his hand.
“Yeah, it’s a grotto.”
“What is that?”
“Just means it’s manmade. They even formed these stalactites, look. Those aren’t real.”
Staring up at the limestone spikes reaching for us from the moss-green ceiling I can’t stop smiling. “It’s beautiful here.”
“This waterfall was manmade, too.”
He takes my hand and walks us as close as we can get, where the spray cools our skin. In between kisses I lock eyes with him. “This reminds me of something Ben said.”
He cocks an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“The mill doesn’t have a waterfall. It’s a dam.”
He dryly asks, “Is water falling from it?”
“Yes.”
“Is it bigger than this rinky-dink thing?”
“So much bigger.”
“Then Ben doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“Who’s Ben?”
Gabriel laughs. “That’s better.”
I show him my flower. “But you gave me this pretty little thing so it’s all okay.”
“Oh, and I’m a flower-crusher, too.”
“Nobody’s perfect.”
He looks me dead in the eye and smirks, “Wrong. I’m perfect.”
I cry out, “Oh my God, you’re so ridiculously cocky!”
“Nobody in my family has ever been called that before.”
I stare at him. “Really?”
He laughs, “No, not really.”
Rolling my eyes I slip my fingers into his belt loops and give a tug. “You think we could have sex in here and not get caught?”
“Want to spend the night in a foreign prison?”
“Maybe?”
Two children who can’t be more than six years old run in, their high pitched voices unabated as they race each other. Their tourist parents appear, looking around with long oohs and ahhs.
Gabriel whispers in my ear, “Let’s try it.”
I push him away and start walking out, shaking my head.
GABRIEL
I can’t get close enough to this girl.
It’s the first time I’ve been on stage and was distracted, looking forward to when I had her alone again. Never been in love before but holding her in my arms as she sleeps is better than eating.
She’s dreaming. I can tell it’s not a good one so I kiss her forehead and whisper, “It’s okay, babe, I’ve got you.”
Her eyelashes flutter open and bleary eyes focus on me. She burrows closer and murmurs into my neck, “Thank you.”
“Any time.” I close my eyes and get ready to let sleep take me out but her hand stretches out on my abs and begins to travel downward. “You’re that awake huh?” I smile as she slides her soft open palm over my growing length.
“Mmhmm.” Nibbling my earlobe she murmurs, “I love your cock, Gabriel.”
“Something every guy wants to hear,” I groan as she strokes me. I’m filling up more by the second, an ache beginning in my groin.
“Every guy wants to be called Gabriel?”
I laugh and stretch my hips up, gently fisting her hair and guiding her to kiss me. “C’mere smartass.” Her deep brown eyes are hooded and lusty before our mouths find each other. She gives the base of my shaft a tug and then glides a firm hold up my length. It’s so good I moan into her lips, “Keep doing that.”
“You like it?”
“It’s perfect.”
Her smooth leg slides over my thigh. She’s on her side, me on my back hard as a rock. Paige’s tongue plays with mine and I feel a steady pulse build in my core. My hands find her hips and I lift her up to mount me. She loops the other leg over and cages me in with her hands on either side of my head, her long hair creating a cave around our faces as she lowers her sweet pussy onto my tip. We’re gazing at each other as I penetrate her and rasp, “You’re so wet.”
She licks my lips and whispers thickly, “I love touching you. Stroking you.” She kisses me then murmurs, “Making you want to cum before you even get inside my cunt.”
Laughing in surprise at her word choice I tease her, “Yeah? Getting dirtier, huh, Paige?”
“You’re a bad influence,” she smirks, rising up as I hit her cervix. I reach for her breasts and rub my thumbs over her nipples in little circles as she toys with my erection, keeping the in and outs short when she knows I want to go deep every time.
“You’re teasing me,” I groan, craning my hips. But she keeps control and adjusts rising with me.
“Ah ah ah,” she moans, adjusting again and riding me in short bursts that are driving me crazy with desire. She dips down so that I’m all the way up in her, and holds there. I grab her hips to start pumping with thick strokes but she grabs my hands and pins them back. I could f
ight her but this is too fucking hot. Her hard tits are held by gravity as she keeps my hands over my head and rides me in short bursts before slamming one down to completion, then more little bursts, then all the way in again.
“So good,” I groan closing my eyes on a grimace of hunger for more. “God you’re so wet.”
We kiss as she moves a little faster, her moans as contained as her moves. Suddenly I feel like I’m going to blow so I break from her kiss and lock eyes with her. “Fuck baby, I’m almost there.”
“Me too,” she moans, eyelashes half-mast. She begins to move and says, “Take over!”
I don’t need to be told twice. I grab her hips and grind my cock all the way into her, enjoying every second of watching her receive me. She grinds a little and I lose my shit. “Oh fuck!” I groan, fucking her harder until her pussy starts to palpitate against me, pulling my orgasm with each tight grip of hers. I roar and thicken, shooting my hot juices in her until I have nothing left.
She falls onto my chest and kisses my face as I gasp for air. In soft caresses her lips travel to my earlobe and give it a final nibble before she murmurs, “You’re mine.”
Out of breath I hold her soft body closer and turn my head to kiss her and whisper, “Promise?”
PAIGE
Carrie explains as she points to it, “Hot and cold are labeled wrong in my shower. If you need it warmer turn the knob left not right.”
“Got it. Thank you for this.”
She waves my gratitude away. “I’m never here. Glad someone is using it. And you’re helping me out, paying half the rent.”
“I can pay all of it soon.”
“Oh no, then it would be like I’m really living with Mags and I’m not ready for that yet.” Walking out of the bathroom she gestures to a cupboard we pass. “Towels and sheets live here. We met while I was living with another woman, one I’d moved in with way too quickly. You know the old joke right? What does a lesbian bring on her second date? A U-Haul truck.” Carrie rolls her eyes as I laugh. “It’s funny because it’s true. So I told Mags, don’t even bring up us living tougher for at least two years.”
Cocky Rockstar: Gabriel Cocker (Cocker Brothers of Atlanta Book 10) Page 14