“Ah, you’re back!” Earl said, grinning at us. “We weren’t sure we would be seeing you two tonight.”
I felt the hot burst of mortification singe my cheeks. Earl laughed and was swatted by Beatrice.
“Be nice, you old coot!” she teased, smiling at me. “We were all young once.”
Still chuckling, the two walked away, arm in arm. Lydia and Jonas were a little less amused by the situation. Lydia refused to meet my gaze, even when she pulled me in for a quick hug. Jonas stuttered something about it being nice to see me again and hurried off after his wife. Tamara stayed. She stood watching us with a wide, cat who ate the canary smirk.
“You two are nasty,” she said, strolling around the table. “Goodnight.”
With that, she skipped away after the others, leaving us staring after her.
“Oh my God!” I gasped, horrified. “Your family thinks I’m a sexual deviant who humped their son at a school event, in front of children!”
Gabriel burst out laughing at my dilemma. The rich sound of it carried through the nearly empty hall, over the fading sound of music as the band played their final set. His arm slinked around me and I was pulled into his chest. His warm breath burned my temple.
“I’d do it all over again.”
So would I, but that didn’t mean I’d be able to look his family in the eye again for a very long time.
Chapter Fourteen
Gabriel
I let a week pass before I even considered taking Ali again. I knew I had been rough with her the night of the play and though she never said it, I knew she was sore just by how gingerly she would take her seat. While it made my cock swell knowing it was a reminder of what we shared, I was careful to give her time. Not that that stopped me from fingering her pussy and making her come at every opportunity. Making her beg and sob my name had become my new addiction. Making her wet and slippery was practically what I lived for. I had a lot of regrets in my life, things I would change if I could, but breaking my vow for Ali wasn’t one of them. Having her was a type of peace I never imagined I deserved and I knew I would fight heaven and hell to keep her.
Granted, there were nights I would lie awake with her curled up next to me and dread all the things I couldn’t control. My mind would run rampant with images of losing her and I would reach for her, satisfied only when my hand slid over silky skin and her soft sigh filled the room. I knew the fears would never truly go away, but they were manageable when she was around.
I just had to make sure it stayed that way.
“You have an oil change booked for two, but they haven’t arrived and no one’s answering at the number they left.” Ali looked up from the calendar in her hands. “There’s a tire rotation on a Honda booked right after, did you want to take that one in case oil change comes in late?”
I wiped my hands on a rag and glanced out at the blue Honda parked out in the waiting area.
“No, I actually need to do something else.”
Ali frowned. “What?” She peered over her neatly kept notes. “You don’t have anything else booked for the rest of the day.”
I chuckled inwardly. “It’s upstairs.”
She followed me, as I knew she would. Our combined feet shuffled up the ramp to the newly designed office. I paused at the top to peer back at where Mac was installing a new muffler on a Ford Probe.
“Going to help Ali with some papers,” I called down. “Call up if you need anything.”
Mac waved, but never glanced up.
“What papers?” Ali asked, hurrying after me as I crossed the new laminate flooring and headed for the second ramp leading to the loft.
I had the concrete walls plastered over and painted a soft pink, the same shade of pink as her mouth, and redid the floors and changed the one wall to glass to overlook the shop. Ali loved it, which made me happy. Plus I got to see her every time I looked up, which also made me happy.
The loft was left exactly the same, but Ali was making noises about adding some color. I didn’t know what she meant, but I would let her do whatever she wanted.
“Come here, woman.”
I turned to her and hooked a finger in the waistband of her skirt. I dragged her with me as I walked backwards to the bed. Heat flared behind her eyes and I knew she would already be wet for me.
“Take it off,” I told her. “All of it.”
She hesitated and I wondered if it was because mac was downstairs, or because we were at work.
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
The smooth column of her throat bobbed with her swallow, but she shook her head. Her fingers moved down the front of her blouse, unhooking buttons all the way to the bottom. Her eyes stayed on my face, the uncertainty and doubt puzzled me, but I didn’t stop her.
She dragged her top off and let it fall to the floor. Her skirt slithered down her legs to pool in a soft puddle around her ankles. She stepped out of it and stood before me in her lacy panties and bra.
Her gaze dropped and she caught her lip between her teeth as she worked the hooks on the bra. Her cheeks glowed bright red as the bands gave and her beautiful breasts spilled free, firm, round and just the perfect size for a man’s hands. I had yet to really enjoy them. Most of the time, she was always dressed, or had enough on to cover most of her and I allowed it, because I was only interested in her pussy. But now I wanted to see all of her, everything that now belonged to me.
“Now the panties,” I instructed and heard the barely suppressed desire raging through me.
Her fingers trembled, but they hooked into the elastic band and the fabric was sent floating to the ground. Then she stood before me, perfectly naked, flushed and aroused.
“Christ, you’re beautiful,” I breathed, devouring her with my eyes.
Her lashes lifted and I found myself caught in the question.
“What?” I urged, going to her.
She shifted nervously. “I know I’m not perfect…”
“Says who?” I lay her down on the bed and reclined over her fully clothed. “Do you know how hard I get just by looking at you? Fuck, I can come just by watching you walk. Every inch of you is like a fantasy come true.”
“All of me?” she whispered, peering down at me as I kissed my way down her chest to the dusky nipples reaching for me.
Rather than answer her, I showed her by licking and kissing every hill and valley of her lush little body. I sucked on her nipples until the buds were hard little points that I pinched and rolled between my fingers. All the while, Ali writhed beneath me, unable to do more than grip the sheets and beg me to make it stop. I kept my parted knees between her thighs, holding her open with nothing to rub against but air. Her clit glistened and the sheets were soaked beneath her squirming hips. The stain kept getting bigger the longer I withheld her release.
When I finally broke through the tight ring of her pussy with my cock, she wailed. Her back tore off the mattress and she nearly scalped me with her fingers. I sank inside her with a painful slowness that I knew drove her crazy. I watched her face as she watched me disappear inside her and the look … God, the look of pure euphoria was nearly enough to send me over.
“Like that?” I teased, settling home to the hilt.
“God, yes!” she growled, breathing hard. “Don’t stop!”
I drew out all the way to show her the thick, white cream she had left on my shaft.
“Put it back!” she sobbed, drawing her knees to her chest and holding them there.
In that position, I had a clear path to both her holes.
“Where, baby?” I nudged her pussy. “Here?” I slid down the seam of her ass to the puckered hole I had yet to explore, but had every intention of doing so. “Or here?”
“Pick one! I need you in me.”
I adjusted my position so I sat on my knees. My hands closed around her hips and I dragged her into my lap. Her legs anchored my waist and I let her impale herself on my cock. I let her roll and grind and rut over me with all the passion I
loved in her. As shy as she could be sometimes, once I had her aroused to the point of no return, she was a vixen in heat. She was wild and horny and instable.
“That’s my girl,” I encouraged, holding her close. “Fuck me.”
“I’m coming!” she gasped, gripping my shoulders hard as her body shuddered. “Gabe, I’m coming … Shit…”
Her heat rushed over me and dripped over my balls to soak into the sheets. She jerked involuntarily as she used me to ride out the last of her orgasm.
“Feel better?” I asked when she’d slumped forward in my arms.
“Yes.” She drew back to peer down into my face. “But you didn’t come.”
“I will,” I assured her. “I’m just enjoying my pussy.”
A slow smile spread across her face. “I love when you call it that.”
I kissed her and I would have kept on kissing her, because her mouth was my life force, but she pulled away. She broke away from me and grinned with a dark sort of coyness that made my cock twitch inside her. Never breaking eye contact, she reclined. I parted my knees until she was on the mattress with her legs fastened tight around my waist. Her arms lifted and her hand wrapped around the headboard of the bed. In that position, her breasts strained, proud and full for my taking pleasure.
“Fuck her then,” she coaxed. “Fuck her like you’ll never have her again.”
I did.
Hard, fast, and mercilessly, I pounded into her until she was a limp, sated mess and I had filled her with my come. Only then did I release her and only when I pulled out did she unfurl her fingers and let her arms drop on either side of her head in exhaustion.
She was wheezing. Her chest rose and fell violently with every breath. Her legs slid open, liberating me now that she was thoroughly satisfied.
I sometimes wondered who was fucking whom. But I wouldn’t change it for anything.
“Have dinner with me tonight.”
I pressed the words into the soft skin of her throat. The little pulse that had begun to calm quickened and I knew it wasn’t out of pleasure. The woman beneath me stiffened.
“I can’t.”
She tried to roll out from beneath me, but I held her to me, keeping her legs around my hips and my body pinned to the mattress.
“You agreed that we both wanted this to be about more than just sex, Ali,” I reminded her. “That means dinners, and movies, and all the stuff that comes with being in a relationship.”
Her green eyes met mine, shadowed with doubt and insecurities I never understood.
“I can’t,” she whispered again, making no effort to pull away. “I can’t eat in front of people.”
That had my interest perked.
“Explain.”
When she nudged against my chest, I released her and watched as she dragged the sheets up around herself and sat up. Her hair had come undone from its knot and tumbled carelessly around her face and shoulders. She brushed a strand back and tucked it behind her ear.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” she murmured so quietly, I almost didn’t hear her. “I don’t know how to explain anything about myself. I’m a lot screwed up, Gabe.”
“Hey.” I skimmed my fingers over the curve of her cheek and slipped them beneath her chin. I tipped her face back to peer into her watery eyes. “Try me.”
For several long minutes, she simply searched my face and nibbled anxiously on her lip. I held her gaze, never blinking.
“My mother used to joke that watching me eat made her sick. She would invite people over just to watch me. They would laugh and point and…” She broke off when her voice hitched. She turned her head away from me. “My mom would call me a pig and throw food at me. If I was going to eat like a pig, then she would treat me like one.”
“Ali…”
She flinched away when I tried to touch her. The sheets rustled as she climbed off the bed.
“For eighteen years, I was taught to hate everything about myself. I can’t look into a mirror without spotting my flaws and I have never had a friend. I watch people because I don’t know how to be normal. I don’t know how to act like everyone else.” She took a deep breath. “You asked me once why I went to another country to study what I could have learned here.” She turned to me, face wet with her tears. “Because it was the only way I could get away from my mother without killing myself.”
I moved carefully across the bed until I was on her side. I kept my gaze locked with hers even as I reached for her and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t push me away. She crawled into my lap when I drew her down and I held her like a small, broken child, my own heart breaking.
“You’re snarky,” I murmured into the top of her head. “Which is sometimes even funny when it’s not aimed at me. You’re caring and organized. You have a temper, but you’re good at controlling it, so long as you’re kept away from iced tea.” I felt her back shudder with a silent chuckle. “You’re soft and one of the most sexually open women I’ve met in a long time. You’re a good person, but a better friend when people get to know you. You’re shy, but you make up for it by being observant of those around you. You’re beautiful, both inside and out, which is a rare thing to find. You also have exquisite taste in men, by which I mean me. And you don’t need to act like everyone else, because your normal is perfect.”
Sniffling, she lifted her head out of the crevice of my neck and peered up at me with shiny, green eyes surrounded by spiky, wet lashes. Tears dried on her cheeks in streaks and I lifted a hand to lightly brush them away for good. I slid the pad of my thumb along the slash of her jaw to settle lightly against her chin.
“You’re my kind of perfect,” I went on, quieter.
“Even if I really eat like a pig?”
I never batted an eye. “Even if you ate with your feet.”
She kissed me.
I met Ali at her apartment that night at exactly seven. I had taken great care to dress casual in slacks and long sleeved top. I even shaved and combed my hair back. I hadn’t been on a date since I was eighteen, but I hoped the same rules still applied, because I had no new material planned.
I knocked and waited, wondering if I should have brought flowers. Earl used to tell me that flowers on a first date were mandatory, but that was when Earl was dating back in the fifteen hundreds and things were different in the twenty first century. Regina had laughed when I brought her flowers on the first date, calling me old fashioned, but sweet. I hadn’t liked either analogy. Ali was different and that complicated my nonexistent game plan. I opted to forgo the flowers.
The door opened and Ali smiled at me from the other side. The pull on her lips was tight and I could see the reluctance shining in her eyes, but I ignored both.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Ready to go?”
She nodded.
I stepped back as she shut the door and locked it. Her hand strayed absently to her face before she remembered she didn’t wear her glasses anymore and moved to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear instead. I took the hand when it began to slide back down to her side and held it.
“Where are we going?” she asked as I led her downstairs.
“Was there somewhere you wanted to go?”
It didn’t surprise me when she shook her head.
I had chosen a quiet little Greek restaurant Earl used to take me to as a kid. The staff had changed over the years, but I recognized a few faces as we waited to be seated. I had already called a head and asked to book a table in the back, but not near the bathrooms. Somewhere away from the windows and too much chatter. I figured if the only person Ali had to worry about watching her was me, then she would be more comfortable.
“This is nice,” she murmured as we slid into the booth.
“Earl used to bring me here all the time when I was a kid,” I said. “Used to be my favorite place.”
She took up the menu the hostess had left behind and flipped through it. Her fingers rapped nervously on the plastic cove
ring.
“So, what’s good?”
“I’m a fan of the lamb souvlaki,” I said, taking up my own menu. “But the gyros are really good, too.”
She set the menu down and folded her hands on top. Her gaze moved past me to the painted portrait of Venus over my shoulder.
“Aphrodite,” she said around a deep breath.
I looked, even though that painting had been there forever.
“They have it labeled wrong,” she went on. “The Romans called her Venus. She was Aphrodite in Greek mythology.”
I glanced down at the gold plaque on the bottom of the gilded frame. Sure enough, it said Venus. I turned back to Ali.
“You know your mythology.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Not really. Just the basics.”
Well, I hadn’t known that. I didn’t tell her as much.
“You look beautiful,” I told her, pulling her wandering eyes back to me. “I should have mentioned it back at the apartment.”
Some of the strain lifted from her face and she smiled at me. “Thank you.”
I held out my palm to her across the table. My fingers closed when her hand settled into place. Gingerly, I rose out of my seat and rounded the table to her side. She said nothing as I slid into the leather bench next to her. My free arm slipped over the back of the seat and I leaned into her.
“I love the smell of orchards on you,” I murmured, releasing her hand to ghost my fingers along the curve of her cheek. “I love waking up to it on my sheets and on my skin and filling my apartment.” I hooked my index finger beneath her chin and tipped her face up to mine. “I love knowing you were there.”
The misty glaze in her eyes almost made me chuckle, if the subtle parting of her lips hadn’t drawn my attention.
I kissed her, softly, delicate little nips that coaxed an intoxicating moan from her that deepened the need growing in me. But I reined it in by drawing back.
“I have a question for you,” I said, trying to cool the fire crackling between us before I ruined my chances of ever being allowed back to the restaurant by taking Ali right there in the booth.
The Voyeur Next Door Page 26