by Vivian Lux
She relaxed a little. “You’re not pissed?”
“I mean…you had shitty taste in King Brothers,” I said, more stung than I wanted to admit. “But it’s just weird to see, considering we’re—”
“There’s nothing weird about a teenaged girl having a crush,” she interrupted, snatching the notebook away.
As she did, a piece of white paper slid free from where it had been tucked into the pages. I turned it over and laughed way too loudly. “You made wedding invitations, too?”
“Gabe!” she hissed and snatched it away. I was pettily gratified that she crumpled it into a ball and tossed it into her waste paper basket.
“You did a really nice job with the lettering, by the way.”
“Stop.”
“I love all the curlicues. Nice touch.”
She clapped her hands over her face. “I was a kid.”
“I remember now,” I mused. “The way you used to peek over at him.”
She looked up at me, stricken. “You’re mad.”
“I’m really not, I swear. It’s just…weird,” I repeated.
“I had a crush on him. Had,” she said, the corner of her mouth turning up. She set the notebook down and brushed her hand down the side of my face. “I like to think that these days I have better taste in King Brothers.”
I licked my lips, all my hurt pride melting away as she stroked her thumb over my lips. “Speaking of taste,” I said, nipping at her thumb. “I have this strange urge to find out if you taste any different in this bed compared to mine.” I pulled her to me and nipped at her lip, giving her that slight edge of pain I knew she liked with her pleasure. She responded by climbing onto my lap and pulling my face to hers.
I loved the way she wavered between hesitation and going for it. It was the same as asking Rachel to be her housemate and finding a little house where they could live all within the same week. She bided her time, watchful and waiting, and then, when she was sure of something, she made her move.
And I loved how sure she was of me.
I let her cup my face and kiss me until I could feel her hips start rocking against my lap. Then I pulled out my magic trick and lifted her in my arms.
I still wasn’t sure enough on my feet to stand completely, but I was strong enough now to be able to lower her onto her bed. Her eyes were wide, and I grinned. “I’ve been doing my exercises religiously.”
“I hope you’re not overdoing it,” she chided.
“Only where you’re concerned.” She grinned as I leaned over her and kissed her, slipping my hand down her body and under the waistband of her pants. She groaned in my mouth and I hissed in return to find that she was already wet for me. I drew my fingers out and touched them to my tongue as she stared. “I think you taste as sweet as ever, but I can’t be sure unless my tongue is down there, too.”
“My parents,” she murmured, but she didn’t stop me as I tugged her jeans down her hips.
“Lift that pretty ass for me,” I urged. “Dammit, Everly, I swear that someday I’m gonna fuck you in a normal-sized bed,” I complained as I shifted down and perched myself at the narrow edge of this tiny bed. “A fucking California King where we can move around and…”
She sat up and silenced me with a kiss. Searing and hot, her tongue slid against mine until I’d forgotten everything except the feel of her. I groaned and sank my hands into her hair, loving the way it twined into my fist, making it easier to hold her and kiss her properly. She whimpered as I nipped at her plump bottom lip and I used that moment to slide my fingers between her legs again. She moaned into my mouth when my thumb circled her clit, then screamed in her throat when my forefinger dipped inside of her.
I held her fast in that kiss, tugging gently at her hair until she was a mindless mass of sensations. I felt her pussy tighten around my fingers as I stroked that special place inside of her, timing my finger thrusts with strokes of my thumb over her clit. She clung to me, shuddering around my fingers as I swallowed her moans and gasps and pleas, until her whole body went rigid.
I groaned as her pussy muscles clamped down on my finger like a vise and my cock throbbed in jealousy of my fingers as she started to fall to pieces around me. I thrust my tongue into her mouth and devoured her sounds as she came over and over again until I felt her body go limp.
“Fuck, baby,” I breathed. “That was intense.”
“Condom,” she moaned.
“In my wallet.”
“Hurry,” she breathed. “I need you.”
I’d never moved so fast in my life. Injuries be damned, I was naked and rolling the condom on in three seconds flat. She moved to straddle me again, but I pressed my hand to her chest. “No, baby,” I told her. “Today I’m gonna fuck you. Lie back and spread those legs for me.”
Her eyes went dark and heavy-lidded. She reclined back on her bed like a princess and I positioned myself over her. “Wider, baby. Give me those hips.”
She arched up and I plunged into her in one smooth motion.
I saw stars. I saw the fucking fabric of the universe. That searing heat burned me from the inside out and I was close to coming before I was ready. Desperate, I deliberately leaned over her in a way that put pressure on my ankle. The pain brought me back from the brink long enough that I was able to focus again and finally fuck her the way I’d been wanting to all this time.
“Gabe.” Fuck, I loved the way she said my name while I was inside of her. And I definitely loved the little yelps of pleasure that escaped her lips every time I thrust into her. I was being way too rough, pounding into her with an unexplained urgency, but she took everything I had and kept asking for more, no, pleading for it with her eyes, her lips, and the arch of her back as she lifted herself up off the bed to brush her spectacular tits against my chest.
She needed that explosion, so I gave it to her, pressing my thumb to her clit and leaning over to nip at her pretty little nipples. When I bit down, she gasped, which only made me thrust harder, slamming myself into her and making her tiny bed squeak. “Gabe! Gabe!” Her breath caught as I curled my tongue along her ear and nipped again, and right then and there I had the mind-blowing pleasure of feeling Everly’s pussy clamp down on my cock as I fucked her.
“Shit, baby, yes.” I was babbling but I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything but the fact that I was claiming this girl. She was mine, mine, mine.
Something white and hot exploded behind my eyeballs even as fireworks exploded up my spine. I came with a roar, thrusting into her so hard I was sure I was going to split her in half. But she clung to me, and at the perfect moment, she raked her fingers down my back, sending me over the edge into oblivion.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Everly
Gabe and Beau had Rachel and I moved into our tiny little gray-shingled house in a matter of hours. That first weekend, Gabe called me and asked me out on a date.
“A date?” I squealed.
He chuckled. “A date,” he repeated. “But don’t come over here. I want to pick you up.”
“You mean…” I put my hand to my mouth in shock.
Now he was outright laughing at me. “I can drive. I just got the okay from the doctor.”
“I had no idea.”
“How would you? You’re my girl, not my nurse.” My heart squeezed to hear him say it again. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get over him calling me his girl.
He wasn’t done blowing my mind. “I know a guy is supposed to pick up his girl for a date, but I’m gonna let you drive.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Oh, really? Why’s that?”
“You’ll see. Wear something nice,” he said, then hung up the phone.
My heart raced as I stared at the screen. I wanted to run through the town, shouting out the news to complete strangers. “Gabe King is taking me on a date! I’m going on a date!” I wished there was someone I could tell who would be happy for me.
Then I remembered there was.
I got up from my bed and went to
the door of my bedroom. Rachel sat in the living room, immersed in a giant fantasy novel from the library. She looked up and smiled when she saw me. “Hey, was that Gabe?” she asked.
“Oh, sorry, was I loud?”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping,” she said quickly. “I’m used to filtering out the noise of people around me.”
I grinned at her. We were both still so wary and careful around each other. I opened my mouth to apologize again. Instead I said, “Guess what?”
She raised her eyebrows in that quiet way she had, not using more words than absolutely necessary.
I knew her well enough now to realize that was her way of showing interest, so I barreled on in glee. “Gabe is taking me on a date! And he’s driving over!”
“Oh, he’s driving? That’s wonderful!” she cried, clasping her hands together in a gesture of prayer. She looked down at her hands and consciously unclenched them before looking back up with her eyes shining mischievously. “A date, huh?”
“I know. I’m so secular,” I teased.
“You’re gonna have to tell me all about it because I have no idea what dating is,” she sighed. “Where are you going?”
“No idea. Maybe a restaurant? The bar? He said to dress nice, but I don’t have anything for going out. All my clothes are work clothes or scrubs. Think I should wear scrubs on my big date?”
Rachel hopped to her feet. “Absolutely not,” she said, her face thunderous.
“I was just kidding.”
“I know, but come with me anyway,” she ordered.
Confused, I followed her into her bedroom. It was smaller than mine, but so pin-neat that it felt bigger by far. “What are you doing?” I fell into awed silence as she opened her closet door.
Dress after dress hung in Rachel’s closet. Sparkly tops nestled next to scoop-necked sweaters organized by color. I leafed my fingers through the shiny, slinky fabrics, pausing to admire a gauzy blouse before whistling at a skin-tight orange Lycra dress. “Did you rob a boutique?” I gasped.
She laughed quietly. “When I first got out,” she said, brushing her hand fondly across an angora sweater, “I wanted to blend in. It was easy enough to get the credit card. The hard part was knowing what real people actually wear day to day.” She chuckled ruefully as she pulled out an especially bright top sewn entirely from sparkly palliates. “Turns out you guys don’t wear clubwear every day of the week.”
“There are still tags on most of these. You could return them.”
She shook her head and ducked away from me. “If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to help my friend look pretty for her date.”
It felt good to grab her in a spontaneous hug and it felt even better when she hugged me back. “What do you think I should pick out? You’re a little smaller than me, so maybe not a dress…”
She thumbed through the hangers with an intent look before pausing. “This one.”
It was a blue tank top with a gauzy blue long-sleeved overlay that fastened with one pearly button at the chest. “It’s the same color as your eyes. He’ll love it.” Her grin twisted into mischief again. “I don’t mind if he tears it.”
“You little minx!” I scolded, but I definitely wouldn’t mind either.
Rachel insisted that I take her silver heels too, even though I had barely walked in heels before. A pair of dark wash jeans and a swipe of lip gloss were all it took to feel pretty. I liked that when I looked in the mirror, I still looked like me. I didn’t look like someone else, like I had the night Gabe and I met. I looked like a version of myself I could be proud of.
The crunch of wheels on the gravel road was loud enough for both of us to hear, and Rachel flew to the window to check. “I think it’s him?” she called, sounding confused. “I don’t know his car.”
“He’d probably be in his mom’s SUV,” I called from the bathroom as I patted water through my ponytail to combat the frizz around my hairline. Humidity was not my friend.
“It’s not an SUV,” Rachel called back. “It’s a car.” She paused. “A pretty fancy-looking car.”
Curious, I met her at the window. A light blue Acura stopped in front of our house. “That’s not him?” I said. “Or it might be? I don’t know.”
The car door opened and there was no one else it could be other than Gabe King.
It took my breath away to see him standing so straight and tall. And wow, was he tall. Standing this close to my tiny little house, he looked like he wouldn’t fit inside.
He wore dark jeans that hugged his hips and renewed my belief that I was an ass-woman. His casually untucked gray button-down looked soft and comfortable. The light drizzle was beading upon his skin, which still somehow retained the traces of a tan in spite of the sun not shining for months on end.
Rachel made a small noise next to me. She was literally biting her lip as she watched Gabe stride—slowly and carefully, but still confidently—to our front door. “Are you checking out my man?” I teased.
She shook her head as if waking from a dream. “Sorry, I—” She bit her lip again. “He looks exactly like everything my church warned me about.” Rachel turned and gave me a smile that was half wicked, half wistful. “Does he have any brothers?” she joked.
I laughed and was still laughing when Gabe knocked on the door. Some dating rule somewhere probably stated that I should have made him wait a couple minutes, keep him on his toes. But hell, not knowing or following the rules at all had gotten me this far—with Gabe King of the King Brothers waiting on my doorstep to take me out in his fancy car—so I didn’t intend to follow them now.
I threw open the front door with such exuberance that it left a dent in the wall. “Shit,” I sighed, and turned to Rachel. “I’ll pay for it.”
Then I threw myself into his arms.
He grunted as I slammed into him. Gabe had to step back to catch his balance, but he caught me in his arms all the same and returned my wild kiss with the same fervor. “We’re going on a date!” I exhaled when I finally came up for air.
“I mean, we could stay right here,” he said, his eyes darkening and his voice going all growly in the way that always made my toes tingle. “I’m sure Rachel wouldn’t mind taking a walk.”
“It’s raining,” Rachel pointed out sourly from the kitchen doorway.
I hadn’t realized she was listening and blushed a little. “No way,” I mock pouted. “You promised me a date and you also promised I’d get to drive your fancy car, so don’t try to weasel your way out of it now.”
He laughed, a full-throated belly laugh, and pulled me to him. “There you go,” he murmured into my hair. “You ask for what you want and make sure you get it, baby. That’s how you do it.” He turned to wave to Rachel. “I guess this means we’re leaving.”
“Have fun!” Rachel said. I couldn’t miss the wistful note in her voice as she closed the door behind us.
“She needs to go out, too,” I fretted. “She’s never been allowed to go out and have fun before.”
Gabe stopped and turned. “You want to invite her to come with us?”
I pressed my lips together and scrunched my nose, making him laugh again. “Good,” he said. “Let’s bring her with us next time, okay? Sound good?”
“Sounds perfect,” I agreed, slipping my arm into his. It was hard to shake the habit of holding him up a little, acting as his personal crutch, and he knew it. With a glance downward, and one perfectly raised eyebrow, he let me know that he was fine to walk on his own. I contented myself with a squeeze of his bicep, which made him laugh, and cleared my throat. “So why do you need me to drive tonight? Is your right ankle bothering you?”
“No,” he said as he held open the driver’s side door for me. I grinned at him and slid into the leather seat, smoothing my hands over the console and brushing over the space-aged dashboard. “I wanted you to see if you liked driving it.”
“Oh my god, well…it’s gonna be a wee bit different from driving Grim around, but I’ll do my best to adjust.”<
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“Turn it on. No, don’t press the accelerator or slip it into neutral or any of those other gyrations you usually do. Just…press the button. Right there.”
I pressed the button and the car purred smoothly to life.
“That almost felt like cheating,” I whispered. “It can’t be that easy.”
He chuckled and gently shut the door, then came around and slid into the seat next to me. “How about you test it out a little?”
“Are you trying to make me jealous here or something? What are you up to, King?”
He shook his head with a smile that made me want to kiss him for no damn reason, but the siren song of a sexy car lured me away from his grin. I threw it into reverse. “Oh my god!” I cried as the engine hummed. “I’m sorry, Gabe. I’m leaving you for your car.”
He looked like the cat who’d swallowed the canary. “Keep driving,” he urged.
“Why? So I can know for sure that I want to marry a vehicle? Oh my god, you just press the accelerator and it goes! I feel lazy!”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“You shouldn’t be glad. I’m breaking up with you right now so I can have some alone time with this car.”
He grinned. “What if I told you that you could have us both?”
I froze and looked at him, then remembered I was piloting a gorgeous piece of automotive engineering. I wrenched my eyes back to the road. “Have you…both?”
“This car is for you, Everly.”
I swerved to the side of the road and threw it in park before I drove us both into a building. “What on earth are you saying? You didn’t really buy me a car, did you, Gabe? No,” I shook my head. “It’s too much. I can’t accept it.” I unbuckled my seatbelt and reached for the door.
He stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “I’m not giving it to you,” he said. When I turned back to him, he smiled. “Come on now. I know you better than that. I knew you wouldn’t accept a gift like this, so that’s not what it is.”
“What is it, then?”
“You need a reliable car,” he said with a note of urgency in his voice. “It’s not right that you had to deal with that deathtrap for so long, and I don’t ever want to see you having a panic attack about it—” I ducked my head away in embarrassment. He squeezed my hand. “I don’t want that to happen to you again, baby. So I figured if I could help you, I would. And I can.” He reached out and patted the dash. “This car is the loaner from my Dad’s friend’s garage. Since it’s a loaner, he’s totally cool with it being loaned out indefinitely. You take it. You take care of it, fill it with gas, and make all the recommended maintenance visits.” He grinned at this and wagged his finger. “Believe me, my Dad and his buddies insist on all of the recommended maintenance and then some.” I grinned in spite of myself. “If you can take care of it, it’s yours. If they need it back, which Chuck at the garage insisted they probably wouldn’t, then you bring it in and they’ll hook you up with another loaner.” He patted the dash again. “Though I doubt it’ll be as nice as this one. I made sure to snag you the good one.”