“I can’t bear that you’ve been sleeping with that woman Gibson. She’s different than all the others. This one has a name…and a voice and knows her way around your place. Please don’t make me go out there.”
Chloe pleading with me gave me a tight feeling in my chest. On the one hand, she was telling me she was hurt and that would have ripped my heart out, but there was this excited little skip that happened, like it missed a beat and that made me feel elated because she was jealous. If she was jealous, she was definitely feeling some of what I was feeling.
Bending forward, my lips brushed her ear and I whispered in a calm voice. “Trust me, Chloe. I got you, darlin’.
Initially she looked hesitant then I felt her tiny hand slip into mine. I squeezed it to reaffirm that I had her and there was nothing anyone was going to do to change that. At that moment, Chloe dug deep and started to walk with more confidence although I saw that waver when her eyes dropped in the direction of the floor. I lifted her chin and kissed her softly on the cheek then slipped my hand from hers, slid it around her waist and drew her close.
By the time we reached the kitchen her hand was around my waist in return and the picture we presented was one of unity. As soon as I saw Morgan’s face, I felt sorry for her. The shocked look she had told me that maybe she had begun to think there was more going on with us than there was.
Maybe it was me that was in the wrong and strung her along? From my perspective, I had never once said anything that even hinted we were more than friends with benefits. Morgan had done all the chasing but I never saw it that way until tonight. I just thought she had more time on her hands, so had been the one that kept the contact between us going.
“So Morgan honey, what’s in this omelet you made?” Walking past her, I reached into the cupboard and got a plate and began to put together a place setting for Chloe.
“You must be starving after all that energy you expelled this afternoon, Chloe.” Seeing the pink tinge on Chloe’s cheeks was always a turn on, especially when it was me that put it there, so I smiled and leaned in to kiss her slightly parted lips. Chloe’s eyes flicked in Morgan’s direction and I placed my hands on her cheeks, knowing that it would block her line of vision from Morgan, and took her mouth in a hungry kiss.
Part of me felt shitty for doing that to Morgan, since Morgan was maybe the one girl I did have some thoughts about, but not in the way I thought about Chloe. Thoughts were one thing but my feelings… they were all for Chloe, so I couldn’t afford to be that considerate with so much at stake between us. I’d speak to Morgan another time and explain my feelings and apologize if I had ever given her the wrong idea.
Chloe surprised me by sitting down at the table and chatting as if nothing had happened and Morgan, who was usually very extrovert, in her conversation, was practically silent. I had to hand it to her, as tiny as she was…Chloe could do sassy when it mattered.
At one point near the end of the meal, Morgan seemed to rally and tried to put Chloe down by not remembering her name then saying she was sorry, because she’d seen that many girls with me. I could have kicked her ass about that and scowled at her because I knew she was trying to raise my temper and embarrass me.
Morgan should have known better. Nothing embarrassed me about the women I had been with. I just had a few regrets about it now that I knew Chloe. Chloe had been there and seen me at my worst for herself. The fact that she was still with me, and had taken a chance, showed the strength of character that was somewhat buried beneath the timid way Chloe conducted herself most of the time, but I had no doubt about the awesome woman she was inside.
Chloe pushed her chair back and carried her plate and mine to the counter top.
“Morgan, that was beautiful, I’m stuffed. You make a mean omelet. It was nice of you to come all this way to cook for Gibson after his concert.”
Morgan raised an eyebrow at Chloe and got up with her plate, wandering around the counter to place hers in the sink.
“Gibson has a huge appetite, Chloe. I know that all too well. He’s kind of insatiable when it comes to putting things in holes.”
Morgan’s challenging smirk to Chloe was delivered to intimidate and shock her. Chloe’s irritation was clear in her eyes when they flicked to mine and I saw a fleeting look of annoyance before she bit her lip. For a second I thought she was going to cave, when she brought her forefinger to her lip and tapped it and adopted a kind of dreamy look.
“Mmm… doesn’t he just. And he does it with incredible precision and skill as well.”
Chloe had a slightly pink tinge in her cheeks again, but this time she was smirking knowingly and there was a look of defiance as she wandered over to me. Snaking her hand up my bare abdominal muscles to rest over my heart, she landed a quick kiss on my mouth.
“I don’t know how I got through that entrée when dessert was in full view, Gibson.”
A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and I knew she knew she’d delivered a corny line of her own, but Morgan’s face was ashen and there was a kind of panicked look about her, as if she had finally realized what Chloe was to me.
We heard the outside door close, and Johnny called out, “Where is everyone?”
Pretending to be surprised, I called back before he came into view, “Johnny, what are you doing here at this time of night?”
Johnny stepped appeared from the hallway with a grim look on his face, and I made a note to give him a raise, he was playing the part.
“Jerry is a mess, he’s in the van. He’s in a real state. He found out his wife was having an affair and he’s been drinking heavily, but so have I. He won’t stay with me and insists on driving. I need someone to drive him to a hotel.”
Johnny turned and addressed Morgan, “Oh, Morgan. Hey, honey, I didn’t know you were here. Can someone give me a hand? You were drinking with me at the gig, Gibson, so I know you can’t help. You haven’t been drinking have you, Morgan?
Morgan threw the towel on the side. Johnny knew she had a sweet spot for Jerry. They were great mates, but I don’t think she ever fucked him.
“I’ve had a glass of wine but I should be okay to drive. Let’s see if we can talk him in here first, I’d rather he stayed with us if he’s as emotional as you say he is.”
Morgan pulled on her long black leather boots and her black faux fur jacket, flicking her long shiny brown hair over the collar, then headed for the door. Johnny winked at me and turned to follow. I fucking loved that guy almost as much as Chloe at that point for coming up with a clever plan to remove Morgan from the scene with minimum drama. Wait. Do I love Chloe?
CHAPTER 10 - SPEECHLESS
Chloe
When Johnny told Gibson about his wife, my heart went out to Jerry. I knew how he felt from the first time Kace cheated on me, but after he’d hit me a few times his affairs were a distraction and a welcome relief for me.
What was strange was that Gibson didn’t seem to be interested in Jerry’s welfare, and that Johnny had looked to Morgan for help and not from him. How did Johnny know to ask her? There was more to Morgan than just her relationship with Gibson. What was it about her that all these guys were looking to her? Johnny hadn’t looked drunk when he turned up at the cabin either. And he was definitely in a better state than when he’d spoken to me on the phone an hour before.
Gibson cleared his throat, bringing me out of my reverie, and I turned to look up at him. Smiling down at me, he had a strange expression on his face and I was as confused as ever about the whole deal with him. I mean he just can’t smile at me that way, it makes me fall apart inside and my thoughts go to hell.
“Jerry’s fine, Chloe. Johnny isn’t drunk. He never drinks on duty and when I’m on tour, Johnny is always on duty. You think I’d let you walk away like that? Just let you get up and leave me without a fight? You have a lot to learn about me yet, darlin’. I’ve been a fighter all my life. Done what I needed to do to get by.”
Wagging his long finger between us, Gibson conti
nued, “This—you…me…for the first time in my life, I don’t feel like I’m doing that at all. It’s like I’ve been in a smoke-filled room where everything was hazy and grubby…sleazy. Then you breeze into my life and out again in a flash, and fuck it’s… it’s like I’m different in here,” Gibson pointed to his head as he spoke, “The smoke and smog clears and everything is crystal clear. You imprinted instantly with that look you gave me and damn, suddenly my mind’s eye is full of that image. Full of you. Consumed and controlled by you.”
Gibson led me to one of the huge sectionals and lay down, then pulled me down beside him, rolling me on top of him. He grabbed a large cushion and tucked it under his head and placing his hand on my head pulled it down to his chest. Listening to his heartbeat steady and strong and the feel of his satiny warm skin against my cheek made my heart sync with his and my panties became soaked with desire. Gibson smelt all masculine from his gig and the contact between us sparked pheromones, raising both our levels of arousal.
Tugging at my sweater, Gibson pulled the hem up to my chest, and I rose up from him as he tugged it over my head from the back. Pulling the cashmere garment from between us, he threw it long and high to land at the bottom of the sectional.
As soon as his warm hands skimmed over my skin in a sensual touch, he let out a guttural groan and moved them to my butt, pulling me tighter against him and grinding his hard bulge against my pubic bone.
“Chloe, oh…what you do to me.”
I lay silently, waiting for him to speak, then wondered if he had said something else and I’d missed it, but I heard his heartbeat increase in pace and he worked a swallow, then took a deep breath. When he still said nothing I got the feeling he was struggling with something. What was he going to tell me? Why was this amazing man who was afraid of nothing and no one, who spoke his mind constantly and didn’t care who he upset, struggling to talk to me?
Raising my head, I studied his handsome face and I could see that there was a ‘big think’ going on for him. He was mulling something in his head and he didn’t know how I’d take what he wanted to tell me. Was he going to say that Morgan was important and I had to suck that up? I doubted that after the way he’d dismissed her, but in my warped mind the thought did cross my mind and I almost got off of him, but he chose that moment to speak.
“Chloe. You know that place in my head I just told you about. Like I’d been living my life in some kind of…anyway, what I want to say is…you are my clean air, Chloe. Have you ever been to the mountains? Like Denver or Wyoming or anywhere and stood at the top of a mountain?”
I hadn’t, but I could still relate to what he was saying.
“I once stood at the top of a mountain in Breckenridge and the feeling…anyway I digress, but the feeling I had was something else. When I travelled up the mountainside in that open chair lift my head became more light headed with the thinner less oxygenated air, but when I stood at the top and looked down on the town there was a kind of spiritual feeling and everything was so fucking pure. The white powder beneath my feet, the air was clean and no one else was breathing the same air as me…you know what I mean? Virgin.”
What was going on for Gibson was some kind of expression of words in relation to us, but I was yet to understand fully where he was going with it all.
“Chloe. You give me that feeling. Like I’m in pure air. Everything is insignificant as long as I can stand on that mountain.”
Gibson snickered and the wonderful sound of laughter that rumbled from his throat was a real turn on. “Not that I’m saying you look or feel like a mountain.” Gibson shuffled me around so that I was in the back of the sofa and he was in front of me, lying side by side facing each other. He took my chin in his hand and tilted my face up toward him.
“Morgan isn’t coming back, Chloe. I texted Johnny. I had no fucking idea she’d turn up here. Our friendship is terminated tonight.” Gibson stared silently at me for a minute, then he inhaled deeply. “I like her, Chloe. Morgan I mean. But I think I love you. No, scratch that—I fucking know I love you. It’s taken me a few days to figure out what all the thoughts running through my head meant, all the feelings that were so different to anything I’d felt before and I know without a doubt I’d die for you. So I guess that’s love, right?”
My external reaction was to remain completely still and stare wide eyed back at him. My mind was in meltdown. My heart was beating so wildly in my chest I thought it would pack up at any second. All of my body’s shock receptors were at full capacity and I trembled with the words that I never thought I’d hear someone like Gibson say to someone like me.
Struggling for words, I couldn’t say it back to him. That would make it real. And I wasn’t sure I really knew what to do with those words he’d given me, at this stage of my recovery from the mess of Kace. If I loved Gibson then I’d be leaving myself at risk of being hurt, and I wasn’t sure my heart could take much more of that. I couldn’t leave myself wide open like that.
There was no doubt in my mind that I cared about him. And, when he left to perform, the ache in my chest I felt from that separation was almost unbearable, but it had only been a short time since I’d escaped the hellish life I’d been captive in, so it was understandable that I didn’t know exactly what I was feeling. I was fascinated, mesmerized, captivated and charmed by him, but my brain wouldn’t go to feelings beyond those.
Gibson made my heart light, he made me feel special, valued and cherished and he made me feel protected. Sharing his heart with me was a one-off for him, so I had to make sure that if I took it, I wasn’t going to give it back somewhere down the line.
I knew many women would think I was crazy and if Gibson Barclay was offering, I should take whatever he was willing to give me. But they would be fools to commit to a life in Gibson’s crazy world where everyone thought I was a whore with some magic vagina, and that I had managed to be enough of a sex freak to keep his interest.
A few times I had overheard some conversations about us to that effect. Those kind of remarks are the ones that stick when you’ve been where I have. Throwing caution to the wind when I was still emotionally fragile could leave me desolate, and although he had never given me reason personally, to doubt him, my barriers were on autopilot as far as men were concerned. There was a saying that I was determined to stick to because of those conversations. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Unfortunately for Gibson, I was no fool, so trust wasn’t coming easy for me.
Gibson tilted my face up and kissed me tenderly on my lips. “It’s okay, Chloe. I know. This is hard for you. As long as you are with me, I can wait. Take as long as you need. I got you, darlin’. I’m going nowhere, and I know I have a lot to prove to you. The world I live in doesn’t help. I realize that, but we’ll work past all the shit together to get you to that happy place.”
Gibson smiled again, and brought his mouth to my ear. “I love you, Chloe Jenner and I’m gonna make you love me back.” Hearing his breathing, his seductive, low whispered words sparked pangs of pleasure again and my pussy clenched, but his voice cracked even in barely-there voice. Leaning back, he worked a swallow, watching my reaction then he licked his lips and bent his head to kiss my neck.
“Fuck, Chloe. I’m so fucking head over heels about you, and I don’t know how to express that to you adequately except to shred your panties and bury myself in your pussy until I can’t see straight. I never knew how tight and suffocating the feeling of wanting someone so badly could be, until I had you in my arms.”
Without another word, Gibson scooped me up in his arms with my legs around his waist and began walking towards the bedroom. We made it about half way before his mouth took mine in a soft kiss that turned so passionate our tongues were soon dueling with each other.
The sensation of that kiss sent goose-bumps cascading across my skin, my flesh sensitive to his touch and my core weeping with the sticky essence of our passionate embrace. As Gibson broke the kiss, I dipped my head and sucked hi
s neck for a second and Gibson growled and pushed me hard against the wall, my legs moved around him and he stared lustily at me.
“Don’t fucking tempt me, Chloe.” Again he almost turned away from the wall, but slammed me back against it, not in a scary way, but overcome with passion. Pushing his hard length against my heat, he growled again and spun around purposely, kicking the bedroom door wide and throwing me on the bed. What he was doing excited me and I panted, still breathless from the kiss as I watched him unbuckle his worn leather belt and free himself from the constraints of his faded jeans.
“You have no idea, have you?”
Shaking his head, Gibson was talking to me but didn’t expand on what I had ‘no idea’ about. As soon as he was naked, his big strong hands were fumbling with the ties of my sweatpants. Then, he lost patience and pulled them down, in one strong fluid, almost rough movement below my knees.
One forearm hooked just below my knees and pushed my legs towards my chest while his mouth was sucking at my entrance and clitoris through the lacy material of my panties. “Mmm…fuck, your pussy is incredible.”
Gibson suddenly became more urgent and stood up from the bed, hugging my jeans the rest of the way off, then grabbed at my panties. “What I’m about to do… trust me okay?” When I didn’t answer he said it again. “Trust me, Chloe, I got you.” His face was serious and he was watching me intently for any signs that I wasn’t invested. I was.
“Okay.” My voice sounded confident, more confident than I was feeling at that moment.
The sound of lace tearing was quite erotic actually, and Gibson’s mouth was on my pussy, his hands splaying my legs in the air as his mouth was working on my clitoris, then his tongue began sliding into my warm wet pussy. “Holy…damn, you are so fucking wet. I can’t get enough of this…of you.”
Gibson began licking me from front to back, then focused on my butthole. It freaked me out at first then I kind of got overtaken by the passion and eroticism of it and forgot about the dark side of what he was doing.
Trusting Gibson (Last Score Book 2) Page 9