His Inspiration (X Enterprises Book 2)

by Tanya Gallagher

  “Sounds about right,” he agreed.

  She lowered her voice. “Between you and me, I’m pretty sure you did everyone a favor. I spread the word that he hit on my niece, and now it seems worthwhile to remind the rest of the art world that he’s the asshole, here, not you.”

  A sigh of relief puffed out of him. “Thank you.”

  Angelica sat forward in her chair. “You’re welcome. Now show me what you’ve got.” She offered Gabe an encouraging smile. “If it looks good, we might be able to open up a wall or two for you.”

  Gabe strode into The Walton and swept Bex off her barstool to plant a deep kiss on her luscious mouth.

  “Nice to see you, too.” She smiled, her eyes dancing. “What’s got you so excited today?”

  “Can’t I just be happy to see my woman?” My woman. It had such a nice ring to it.

  “You can.” Bex cocked her head. “But there’s something else.”

  “I got a new showing space for my fine art exhibit.”

  “You gonna keep us all on ice?” Colton said from his side of the table. “Come on, spill already.”

  “The Trailblazer Gallery at the Renegade Hotel.”

  Gabe only had a few days to pull together the show, but at least he already had prints on order from when he thought he’d be showing at the Illusion Arts gallery. The photographs would arrive in a few days, and then he’d have to hustle to mat and fame everything. It was busy but doable. Totally worth the rush.

  Bex squealed and jumped to her feet, throwing her arms around his neck. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Not bad?” he asked.

  “Not bad at all.” Bex waved Aderyn over. “A round for the table to celebrate.” Bex sat back in her seat and pulled him onto the seat next to her. “It’s a good day all around. I just turned in my design for the competition at work.”

  Colton leaned forward. “You going to tell us what it is?”

  Bex jerked her head at Emma. “I’m going to keep this anonymous until the results are in, given that there’s a possible competitor in our midst.”

  Emma held up her hands. “I’m not looking to steal your trade secrets.”

  Bex just winked. “It’s a good one. I had a little extra inspiration.”

  Gabe’s hand tightened on her knee. He leaned close to whisper in her ear. “You’re going home with me tonight. Sounds like we both deserve a private celebration.”

  She raised an eyebrow, a smirk on her pretty lips. “We should make it a good one.”

  “We should.”

  Was she going to let him take her there? Hand over her trust and the control? There was nothing that made him happier than making her happy, making her feel her best. And damn—he’d started to unlock that puzzle. Three cheers for trying new things.

  Aderyn returned with a round of beers, setting down a glass in front of Emma. When she leaned across the table to hand a glass to Colton, the sweating sides slipped through his hands, and the beer crashed onto the table.

  “Oh shit.” Everyone dove for the spill with napkins, but Bex took the brunt of it—a whole wash of beer soaking into her blouse.

  “Here.” Emma shoved a wad of napkins at her while Aderyn ran to grab a rag.

  Bex waved them off. “No, no, it’s okay.” She wrinkled her nose. “But as much as I love the smell of spilled beer, I think I’m going to go home and shower up.”

  Gabe leaned over and pressed his mouth against her ear. “I’ll help.”

  Bex whispered back, “Obviously,” and climbed to her feet.

  “Both of you?” Emma frowned. “Stay and keep celebrating.”

  “That’s okay. You guys will have this covered.”

  Gabe stood with breathless anticipation. This was what he wanted anyway—Bex in his arms, riding his cock and making those sounds that he loved so much. It was just as well the beer had spilled. If it hadn’t, he would have needed to come up with an excuse for stealing her away.

  Bex followed him onto the sidewalk outside of The Walton, the air fresh and dry as they pushed through the heavy doors.

  “Let’s go to my place,” he said.

  Bex lifted her eyebrows. “But I need to pick up some clean clothes at home.” The lights from passing cars highlighted her pretty face.

  Gabe nudged her side. “You might find what you’re looking for at my apartment.”

  She searched his face with her eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but okay.”

  He linked his hand with hers, smiling without giving anything else away. “Let’s go find out.”

  Gabe steered Bex into his bedroom and nodded at the dresser. “Check in there, would you?”

  She gave him a skeptical look but crossed the room, running her fingers over the drawer pulls. “Are you sure there’s not a snake in here ready to jump out and surprise me?”

  “First of all, snakes don’t jump. Second, just open the damn drawer.”

  His palms sweat as she pulled open one of the drawers, and he fought the urge to fidget. Even from his spot in the doorway, he could hear her small gasp.

  “Gabriel.”

  He walked up behind her, stepping close enough to see the pajama set he’d bought for her, along with the dress the saleswoman at Mon Amour had insisted Bex would be able to wear to work.

  “I know the drawer’s half empty,” he said. “But the rest is for you to fill however you want.”

  Bex’s mouth was on his before he could react, and he dropped his hands to her hips. Until he was holding her, he didn’t realize how much he’d needed this moment of connection. With Bex, he was still dizzy half the time, never quite sure if she’d accept what he offered or use it as an excuse to run.

  “I’ll take that as a thank you.”

  Bex tilted her chin up to him. “When did you become my favorite person?”

  Favorite person, huh? The knowledge tugged a smile on his face. “When you were so busy fighting it.”

  “That was silly of me. I should have caved in a long time ago.”

  Gabe nuzzled the spot below her ear, smiling as her head dropped back to allow him more access. He loved that she gave in to him, that they could build this thing together. This, right here, might be the only thing he needed in the world.

  He kissed and sucked his way down her neck, his cock growing hard at the soft little moans she was making. Then he unbuttoned her silk blouse and pushed it off her shoulders before sinking to his knees in front of her.

  “You can be stubborn,” he agreed. He caught her hips again and leaned forward to lick across her belly.

  She giggled at the light touch. “What are you doing?”

  “Taste-testing. Gotta see what parts taste like beer.”

  Bex laughed and raked a hand through his hair. Her touch sent lightning shooting to his cock. “Hopefully none of them, if you let me shower.”

  He held up a hand. “Maybe so, but I have to be sure.”

  She didn’t taste like beer at all, just like Bex. The smell of oranges and body wash and underneath that her own unique taste, salty and a little sweet.

  He kissed around her belly button, dipping his tongue inside and swirling until her breath hitched higher. Then he helped her out of her pants and underwear, so very hard at the sight of her.

  “Jesus Christ, Bex. I’m going to need to be inside you soon.”

  She murmured her agreement and wiggled her hips at him. He couldn’t help but lean forward to taste her, lapping at her wet, silky folds.

  She closed her legs slightly and nudged him away. “No, Gabe. I need to shower. I smell like beer.”

  He looked up at her. “You smell like you, Bex. You taste like you. The single most intoxicating thing in the world.”

  She shook her head, her tone light and teasing. “You really want to get laid, don’t you?”

  “I really want to make love to you.” He couldn’t help the way everything turned suddenly serious. “However you want me to love you, I’ll love you. With my hands. With
my mouth. With my cock. Just say the word, Bex. I’m yours.”

  She looked down at him with wide eyes. “You love me?” she whispered.

  Of course he did. He couldn’t stop himself even if he tried.

  He looked into her pretty eyes and showed her his heart. “Yeah. I do.”

  This time when he leaned forward and licked a trail over her slit, she didn’t protest. She just shifted her hips to give him better access.

  Gabe slid a finger inside her, all heat and sensation. Bex moaned and reached behind her to grab the dresser for support.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “It’s so hard to stand when you do that.”

  He smiled at her. “Then let’s get you off your feet.” He lay on his back on the bed, and when she followed him, he arranged her aching cunt just above his face. He pulled her down onto him, demanding access so he could spear her with his tongue.

  “Oh god, Gabe.” Her voice came out shallow and wild, and his heart hammered. “Wait.”

  Gabe pulled away just long enough for Bex to undress him, then she settled back into position. This time she wrapped her lips around him and used the flat stroke of her tongue to trace the veins on his cock. It was like he was fifteen and getting his first blow job—everything wonderful and addicting and new. She touched him like she was made for him, the layers peeling back on his control.

  “Just like that,” Gabe murmured.

  While Bex sucked him with abandon, he continued his seduction, licking at her slit with fevered intensity until she started to ride his face shamelessly. “You taste so good,” he whispered. “I need you soft and ready for what comes next.”

  Bex writhed, moaning loudly now. Coming apart at the seams. He pulled out of her mouth when he sensed she was getting close, and she made a soft, disappointed sound. Being outside of her hot, wet mouth was almost painful, but he didn’t need her to clamp down on his cock when she came. And she was going to come hard.

  “Don’t worry, honey. I’m going to finish inside you later.” Bex moaned her agreement and grasped him with her hands, jacking him, lubricated by the moisture her mouth left behind.

  His body bucked. “Easy, honey. Not yet.” He returned his tongue to Bex’s body and kept his tongue pulsing inside her while he reached back behind her to spread her arousal between her cheeks. Then he slipped a finger inside and pushed up to the knuckle.

  Bex accepted him with a small, greedy cry.

  “Oh fuck, Gabe. I’m going to come.” That single touch sent her over the edge, climaxing around him in a shudder that tightened her grip on his cock and almost made him come, too.

  Bex rolled to the side, breathing heavy, her eyelids slitted.

  “I’m not done with you yet,” he said, aware of his heavy cock still stretched across his stomach.

  “Oh?” she smiled.

  “It’s time for that shower now.”

  Chapter 27

  Bex stepped into the shower, and a surge of affection rolled over her as she saw what Gabe had done. He had taken the surprise in the dresser and done one more, lining up all of her favorite beauty products on the ledge and hanging a new loofah from the showerhead.

  Bex smiled, and steam filled her vision. The year she’d turned ten, her family had taken a trip to Hawaii, driving south on Kauai toward Spouting Horn. They’d stopped at a pretty stretch of beach along the way, and the water was too blue and inviting to ignore. Sam was thirteen—that awkward age when he was starting to be too cool to hang out with his sister—so Bex dove into the water alone. She had been too far in her own head to notice the riptide dragging her to sea with greedy suction, but when she’d felt its grip, she’d panicked. Bex had fought for a while, thrashing against the water before her dad shouted to swim parallel to the shore and let the current pull her out to a safer point.

  That’s what it felt like now, with Gabe. Bex’s feelings for him were this consuming passion that pulled her under like a riptide. When she stopped fighting it, that’s when she could finally breathe.

  You love me?

  Yeah, I do.

  Bex knew he wanted to hear those three words back, and she appreciated his patience when she couldn’t say them outright. But she hoped that there—in his bed, in his shower—he knew how much of her was his. He’d claimed every inch of her. She was his. Even her heart.

  Bex dipped her head back to let the water wash her face, shivering with anticipation as Gabe slid into the shower behind her. His erection pressed at her back, insistent, and he trailed his hands over her breasts to lightly pull her nipples to attention. Her skin pebbled with goosebumps, every touch a sweeping sensation that rolled through her body.

  “That feels so good,” she murmured.

  He gently bit her earlobe. “Glad to hear it.”

  She was still loose-limbed from the orgasm on the bed, and she leaned back against him, her body lax, to give him more access. He reached past her for the body wash, squirting some of her favorite kind into his palms so that the whole shower smelled like oranges.

  Gabe washed her, the act so intimate and caring that tears rose in Bex’s eyes. But the touch turned sensual fast as he slid the soapy water up her inner thigh, then circled her clit and demanded to be felt.

  Bex smiled as he reached for the body wash again. This time his fingers trailed backward from her aching sex, parting the seam of her ass cheeks to wash her reverently.

  “You ready for me tonight, honey?” His seductive gaze made her lose her breath.

  “I couldn’t be more ready.”

  “Good girl.”

  He sank to his knees on the tiled floor and kissed a line from her inner thigh straight up, pulling her tender clit into his mouth once more.

  “If you keep fucking me with your tongue, I’m not going to be able to stand up anymore,” she protested, but she couldn’t help leaning into his touch as he brought her to orgasm once more.

  “You’re spoiling me,” she whispered, the sound of water in her ears.

  “Good. You deserve it. Now find the lube on the shelf and touch yourself.”

  “I don’t want to touch myself. I want you to do it for me.” As many times as she’d brought herself pleasure over the years—for her job, for her fun—her own hands didn’t hold the same heat as his touch. The knowledge hit her sideways—she’d come to crave his exact touch, the way he worshipped her body with his own. Maybe there was no substitute for the real thing.

  Gabe grinned. “Oh, I’ll be there in a minute.”

  He leaned back against the tile, unhurried, his eyes darkening as she followed his instructions. Bex’s hands grasped, greedy, and her skin felt overly sensitive. She bit her lower lip and held back a cry as her slick fingers found her most receptive spot.

  “That’s so sexy, honey. I love watching you give yourself pleasure. Keep going.”

  A draft of cold air blew across her heated skin as Gabe stepped out of the shower. He left a trail of puddles on the floor as he retrieved something from the vanity drawer.

  He returned a minute later carrying a vibrator from Bex’s collection.

  “I thought I wasn’t supposed to use toys,” she said.

  “I told you that you couldn’t use them without me. I never said anything about not using them with me.”

  He’d thought of everything, and Bex moaned at the possibility of the vibrator’s touch. This particular model was slim but powerful. One of her bestsellers.

  “This one’s waterproof, right?” Gabe confirmed.

  She nodded.

  “Good. Well, it’s going inside you while I fuck your pretty ass.”

  Just the sound of his words and the promise in them made her inner muscles clench hard. “Yes,” she breathed.

  “Turn around. Hands on the wall.”

  Bex complied, her body so, so alert, and so achingly tender. Gabe hugged her from behind, his body hard and protective around hers as he shielded her from the spray of water. He squirted some lube onto his hands and dripped more
between her ass cheeks. Then he slipped a finger inside her, pushing gently as her body opened with sweet surrender.

  Like before, the sensation of being touched in such an intimate place stripped Bex bare, and a moan ripped from her throat. How had she come to crave this dark touch so much? How could Gabe get her so crazy and wild from something she didn’t even know she liked until now?

  Gabe’s low chuckle rose above the sound of the pounding water. “You like that, don’t you?”

  “Yes. I do.” He had given her this gift of exploration, of finding something new to crave that she’d never considered for herself before. It felt delicious—the sin and trust all blended together.

  Gabe kept up a leisurely pace, stroking her with his fingers, his other hand drawing across her hip to find her clit again. She sparked with electric connection, and her hips circled for him, involuntary.

  Bex reached between them, finding his cock hard and thick and ready. “More,” she asked. “Come inside me.”

  She leaned her forehead on the wall and heard another plastic click as the lube opened again. This time, the tremors that shook her body were expectant ones. The head of Gabe’s cock pushed between her cheeks.

  “Ready?”

  “Please.”

  He pushed into her, slowly at first, and pleasure and a tiny bite of pain mixed inside her as she adjusted to his size. The overwhelming fullness seemed to push the air from her lungs, and she gasped for breath.

  “Ah, god, Bex. You’re so hot.”

  “All for you.” She rocked back on Gabe, accepting him, while his hands gripped her hips. Bex spun a finger over her clit, and the joy of the sensation helped her relax into the foreign feeling of him inside her.

  “You okay?” Gabe asked. She could hear the restraint in his voice, the way he was holding back. He wanted more, and she was ready for him.

  “Fuck me now,” she commanded, and he swiveled his hips, bringing a surge of pleasure to her. But he held back, going slow.

  “Now the toy, Bex.” She handed it to him, and he slipped it inside her slit.