Dyeing to be Loved (Curl Up and Dye Mysteries, #1)

by Aimee Nicole Walker

  Gabe opened the door before I could change my mind and run away like a kid pulling a prank. I had seen the man wearing many different things—suits, casual clothes, and nothing but a “fuck me” smile. Somehow, seeing him in a t-shirt, flannel pajama pants, and bare feet felt more intimate to me. It was enough to scare the sense back into me, and I took a step back from the door.

  “Oh, I don’t think so.” Gabe fisted my running jacket and pulled me inside his house. “I got you now.” He shut the door soundly behind me, and I stared up into dark, lust-filled eyes.

  “I’m not sure I even like you,” I heard myself say to Gabe, earning a quick flash of a smile from him.

  “That’s okay because I’m not sure I like you either.” He relaxed the fist that held my jacket and slid it around to cup my neck. “But I will respect you in the morning.”

  Then his mouth was on mine—hard and hungry. I opened to him automatically, as if it was what I wanted all along. My brain and my heart might’ve wanted to steer clear of Gabe, but my body knew what I wanted. His grip on my body was firm, but not hurtful, like he worried I might try to escape. He had nothing to worry about because I was his after the first tangle of tongues.

  Like the first time we were together, flames engulfed my body. My hands wanted in on the action and were unwilling to lie idly against my body. I slipped them beneath the hem of Gabe’s t-shirt and relished the way his muscles quivered beneath his skin at my touch. It was good to know I affected him as much as he did me. I let my hands roam all over the hard body that I thought about every time I closed my eyes.

  I was honest about my uncertainty that I liked him, but I knew that I was safe and he wouldn’t hurt me, at least not physically. He let me take control and set the pace the first time we were together, but that wasn’t what I wanted, or needed, when I showed up on his doorstep.

  Gabe’s ravenous mouth consumed me, turned me inside out, and made me feel raw; like I exposed the most secret parts of me to his touch. I moaned when he slowed his kiss and finished with a few sweet pecks before he bit my bottom lip and gently tugged it. I felt that pull everywhere in my body, especially my dick who wanted a piece of the oral action.

  “I’ve wanted to strip these things off you since the first time I saw you running in them,” Gabe said, running his hands over the slick fabric that clung to my ass. “Jesus, you might as well run naked.”

  “Too much bounce,” I said. Gabe answered my smart reply with an even smarter slap to my ass. I’d never given slap and tickle much thought before, but I had to say I liked the way my skin burned a bit beneath his hand. “So, you’ve been perving on me, huh?” I asked once the real meaning of what he said penetrated my mind. Did I like that he watched me?

  Gabe’s cheeks flushed a deeper shade of red than lust had brought out in his skin. “It’s hard not to notice with those wild-ass colors you wear,” he said, trying to deflect.

  “Sure, blame it on my wardrobe.” A month ago, his words would’ve made me think he was comparing me to a woman and would’ve pissed me off. I didn’t know Gabe Wyatt, but I believed his apology and the erection straining his jammies told me just how much he wanted to be inside me. I reached down and stroked him through the soft flannel fabric. “Are you going to fuck me or not?”

  Gabe’s nostrils flared as he inhaled air deep into his lungs before releasing it slowly. “Hell yes.” He let go of me long enough to turn off the stove before reaching for me again.

  Nerves tried to flare up in the pit of my stomach as I followed him up the stairs to his bedroom. Even though I’d been there before, I didn’t know a single thing about his space beyond the color of his comforter. I had focused on getting fucked, and later, sneaking out without waking him. I didn’t stop to take inventory of the room on that visit either. I wanted to say it was because I only cared about getting fucked again, and I did, but another part of me didn’t want to learn the personal details of the man that might endear him to my heart. I wasn’t foolish enough to think something real would develop between us, no matter how badly we wanted each other. Lust didn’t equal love and fucking didn’t equal commitment.

  I reached for Gabe’s shirt and pulled it over his head to quiet my internal voices that made a last-ditch effort to convince me to run. It worked too. His naturally bronzed skin and perfectly toned torso distracted me. I kept my eyes away from his because I didn’t want him to see just how much I enjoyed his body; his ego didn’t need bolstering. I felt his eyes on my face as I watched my hand move over the smattering of dark hair that covered his pecs.

  I risked looking into Gabe’s eyes and was surprised to learn that mine weren’t the only ones giving up secrets. Not only did I see the want in his eyes, I saw that he was going to make me pay for dragging this out longer and making him wait for what he wanted so badly. I also saw that he needed me to make the next move, to give a little bit more of myself so that I couldn’t come back later and deny what happened between us. I pulled my jacket and shirt over my head and tossed them to the floor. I dropped my hands to the waist of my running tights, but Gabe stopped me.

  “Let me,” he said, lowering himself to his knees.

  I expected him to pull my pants down right away so we could get to fucking, but that wasn’t what happened. Gabe leaned in and kissed my stomach above my waistband while he stroked my erection through my pants. I could feel pre-cum seeping through the fabric as he continued to tease me. I lowered my head in time to see him run his tongue over the wet spot that betrayed how badly I wanted him.

  I slid my hands into his hair and tugged on the silky, dark strands. I could feel the heat of his breath through the fabric and couldn’t stop myself from pushing tighter against him. Gabe pulled my pants down just far enough to expose the head of my dick and teased the leaking slit with his tongue.

  “Gabe.” His name left my lips in a growl of need. I didn’t have to tell him; he knew.

  He yanked my pants to my knees and sucked my cock deep into his mouth. It was nirvana, pure and simple, the way Gabe worked my dick with his mouth. Foreplay had been nonexistent the first time we were together, and I hadn’t expected that to change, but I sure as fuck wasn’t complaining. Gabe nearly brought me to the brink of climax before he pulled off and rose to his feet so fast that he left me teetering. He grinned as he reached over and grabbed my arms to steady me.

  “Jackass,” I mumbled beneath my breath.

  “What? Did you say that you want me to fuck your ass?” he asked.

  “Actually, yes.” I toed out of my running shoes then removed the rest of my clothes, including my socks. Sex and socks didn’t go. “Your turn,” I said, stepping around him on my way to the bed.

  I had just put one knee on his bed when I felt his heated, bare skin against mine. His hands roamed all over my chest as he nibbled the side of my neck. I loved the feel of his strong, hard body against mine, but leaning on someone wasn’t something that I did. I didn’t want to become used to it, not even in the bedroom with him, so I pulled out of his arms and crawled onto the bed. I got on my hands and knees and waited to feel him crawl up behind me, but instead, he wrapped his hands around my ankles and pulled so that I fell onto my stomach.

  “I don’t think so,” Gabe said roughly, as he rolled me over onto my back. Only then did he climb onto the bed and on top of me. “You came here because this was what you wanted, so there’ll be no hiding. I want your eyes on me.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but he silenced me with a searing kiss that made my toes curl. Damn, but the man could kiss like no one’s business, and the fight left me as quickly as it flared up. I wrapped my arms around him and savored the feel of him against me.

  I spread my legs in invitation and Gabe eagerly moved between them. He took both of our cocks in his hand and began stroking them together. He already had me close to coming once, and I knew if he kept it up I would spill all over his hand. I pulled back from our kiss and looked up at him. “Fuck. Me. Now.”

  Gabe bro
ke away from my embrace to get a condom and lubricant from his bedside table. He returned to me quickly and began prepping me immediately. I loved the slight sting caused by the penetration of his fingers. My eyes started to close as I relished the push and drag of his fingers over my nerve-laden opening. Gabe’s fingers pushed against my prostate, and I jerked my eyes open to look at him.

  The smile Gabe wore told me he knew exactly which button he was pushing and just how much I enjoyed it. Like with our personalities, we seemed to be at an opposite end of a spectrum. He seemed to want to take his time stretching me open, and I wanted him to hurry up and fuck me. I could tell he enjoyed the way my body shook every time he lingered on my prostate. Well, two could play his sexy games. I spread my legs even further apart then reached down and began stroking my cock. It was my turn to smile wickedly at him when he growled hungrily.

  “Quit toying around and fuck me,” I demanded.

  I could see the internal conflict in his eyes. He wanted to give in and fuck me, as I imagined his body was demanding, but he didn’t want to give in to me. Making me wait was part of his plan to punish me for doing the same to him. Or, maybe he thought it would be the last time for us to be together and he wanted to make it last. I felt a sharp pang in my heart at the thought but refused to examine the reasons.

  I could see the moment that I won; lust overrode any other plan he had for me that night. He made quick work of rolling the condom on his erection before I felt him pushing against my entrance. He pushed inside me with one, long stroke until his dick was buried to the hilt.

  Gabe rested his forehead against mine as he waited for my body to adjust to his penetration. “You feel so fucking good; like you were made for me.” His breath ghosted across my lips, and I tried not to be moved by his words. It was the sex talking; it always was.

  I raised my mouth for a kiss because he couldn’t talk if he were kissing me. He couldn’t tell me meaningless words that my heart would choose to cling to; the stupid organ didn’t know anything except a yearning to be loved and accepted. Gabe held my face between his large hands and kissed me; soft, slow, and long. I couldn’t name the emotion I saw in his eyes when he pulled back and looked down at me. I just knew it was nothing I expected when I knocked on his door.

  I grabbed two handfuls of Gabe’s ass and urged him to move inside me, to finish what we started. I wanted to be fucked, but Gabe didn’t seem to get the message. When he finally began to move, it was slow and deep like he was savoring every second he was inside my body. That wasn’t what I came to his house for, yet, my body began to come alive in ways it never had before then.

  I kept my gaze locked with his while our breathing synchronized as he rocked his body in and out of me. I felt him in every pore, every muscle, and every molecule as he gave me what I didn’t know I needed. I resisted it; I tried to spur him on by digging my heels into his thighs and raising my hips up to meet his thrusts.

  Gabe just kept the same steady pace that threatened to unravel my tightly coiled sanity. “This isn’t what I came here for,” I told him. I was desperate to hold onto the defenses I built up to protect myself while he seemed hell bent on tearing them down.

  “I know.” He swept his thumbs over my cheeks tenderly, and I had to turn my head and look away from him. Gabe turned my face until I was looking at him again. “No hiding,” he reminded me. “You win, Josh. This time,” he amended, right before he pulled back slow once more and then slammed inside me.

  Gabe aimed his cock at my prostate with each hard thrust, giving me the fucking I needed. The only thing I could do was hold on for dear life as waves of pleasure rolled over me and threatened to drown me. My nails dug into his back, and I gasped into the mouth that captured mine in a devastating kiss. I knew I’d feel the way his mouth felt against mine long after the tremors of ecstasy left my body.

  I felt my balls tighten and retract as my body shook from the strong orgasm building inside me like a fierce thunderstorm. Gabe was close too. We might’ve only been together once before, but I recognized the way his body tightened and the sexy growls that emanated from deep inside his chest.

  I reached between our bodies and began stroking my cock furiously. It didn’t take, but a few pulls before my body stiffened, and I shot all over my stomach and chest. Gabe captured my cries of pleasure with his mouth then pulled back. I opened my eyes to find him staring down at me as he fucked me mercilessly. The raw emotion I saw in his eyes looked suspiciously like tenderness. I wanted to look away from him again, but his dark gaze ensared me.

  His powerful body glistened with sweat, and the sound of his body slapping against mine echoed throughout his room. Gabe buried his head between my neck and shoulder, holding me as tightly as he could while his orgasm ripped through him. I reveled in his shouts of pleasure that were muffled by my skin, the jerky way his body moved as he spilled himself in the condom, and the boneless way he melted against me when he had nothing left to give.

  We held each other for a long time as we caught our breath. Gabe’s weight made it harder for me, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. Eventually, he rose and gingerly pulled out of me. I lay there sprawled on his bed while he went into the bathroom to discard the condom. When he returned, he brought a warm washcloth with him and attempted to wipe me clean. Of all the things we shared, that seemed too intimate for me to handle, so I took it from him and finished cleanup duty.

  I started to rise from the bed when I finished so I could get dressed and do the run of shame back home. Gabe had other ideas. He took the washcloth from me and tossed it on the bedside table and then jerked the covers out from beneath my body before he slid in next to me. I wanted to protest, I honestly did, but that orgasm did a number on me. Running home after a short nap sounded more appealing right then.

  “I didn’t come here for this either,” I said sleepily.

  “Shut up,” he groused. “Just rest a bit. I’ll wake you up.”

  The next thing I knew, Gabe was standing beside the bed fully dressed in one of his detective suits extending a cup of coffee towards me. I lay there staring up at him in confusion until I realized that I saw sunlight creeping through his fucking curtains.

  “Fuck!” I threw back the blankets and nearly knocked the coffee out of his hand. Gabe wisely backed away from the bed as I made a mad dash for my clothes that were strewn all over his floor. “I thought you were going to wake me up,” I said accusingly.

  “I did,” he replied, gesturing to the cup of coffee. “I just didn’t say what time.”

  “You’re such a fucking asshole.” I pulled on my clothes and shoes as fast as I could. “Damn it.” It didn’t matter that it was still early morning. Some neighborhood busybody would see me leaving his house, and the whole goddamned town would be talking. It was probably his motherfucking plan all along.

  “I made you coffee,” he said as if that made up for it.

  I took the coffee cup out of his hand and left his room with another “asshole” tossed over my shoulder.

  Gabe called out, “You’re not going to give me a goodbye kiss, honey?”

  “Fuck you!”

  His laughter echoed through his house as I practically stomped out. I couldn’t resist slamming the back door hard enough to rattle the frame. Okay, my exit might’ve been a bit melodramatic, but I was good and pissed.

  It turned out that I had every right to be because as soon as I exited his gate, I came face to face with Alyssa from the vet’s office who was out walking her dog. Her eyes were huge as saucers as she looked me up and down, paying close attention to the cup of coffee I had in my hand.

  “Good morning, Alyssa.” My mother’s teachings about good manners took over as we stared at one another.

  “Hmmm, I imagine it is,” she said cheekily before she continued her walk.

  Well, at least one good thing would come of that little episode. Dr. Hot Eyes and Fast Hands would know that Gabe was no longer… Yeah, I put the screeching brakes on that sh
it! It was one night—okay, technically it was the second. I vowed to never do it again. I didn’t even like that asshole, so Gabe was free to fuck whomever he wanted whenever he wanted.

  I took a sip of the coffee Gabe made for me as I walked toward my house. Fuck him and his perfect coffee making skills. I glanced down at the cup and realized what held Alyssa’s attention. There was a pair of handcuffs on the mug beside the words: Some like it cuffed. I was certain his choice of mug for me to take home wasn’t accidental.

  “Asshole,” I muttered, but it was missing some of the venom from earlier.

  I SHOULDN’T HAVE LAUGHED at Josh’s reaction, but I couldn’t help myself. It was a much better alternative than the disappointment I felt when he was unhappy to wake up in my bed the next morning. Besides, the myriad of emotions that crossed his face was pretty damn funny. First, there was the adorable look of sleepy disorientation as he tried to figure out where he was and what the hell I was doing there. He blinked in confusion as he took in my wardrobe. Then there was a brief but definite look of pure bliss as he saw that I had a cup of coffee prepared for him. Finally, he must have seen the early morning dawn trying to creep in between the cracks in my curtains because his eyes got as round as saucers.

  Josh jumped out of my bed and moved about my room like a whirling dervish as he quickly got dressed, grumbling beneath his breath the whole time. It sounded like he was cursing me, the day I was born, and every one of my living blood relatives on planet earth. His hair was sticking up every place, and he put his pants on inside out. Somehow, I didn’t start laughing until after he snatched his cup of coffee out of my hand and stomped out of my room like an angry toddler.

  He sure clung to me in his sleep for someone who professed not to like me much. Neither Kyle nor I had been cuddlers in our relationship, but then again it wasn’t often we slept at the same time until we moved to Blissville. It hadn’t been my intention to have Josh stay the entire night, but I didn’t want to turn loose of him once I had him in my arms. The body heat generated between the two of us was hot enough to wake me up a few times in the night, but I held on tighter instead of pulling away.