No Apologies

by Tracy Wolff

  “I doubt it,” he answered with a grin. “Cows get wet all the time.”

  “Thanks for the ride. I decided today was as good a day as any to start getting into shape, so I walked to work.” She grimaced. “I should have checked the weather first.”

  “It’s San Diego. Who actually checks the weather?”

  Annalise grinned at him before she could stop herself. “Exactly.”

  He looked her over, his eyes dark and approving despite her impersonation of a drowned rat. “Besides, you look great to me.”

  She laughed. “Well, what woman doesn’t look great with mascara running down her face?”

  See, this wasn’t too bad. She just needed to engage in a little harmless conversation until he got to her building and then she never had to see him again. Never had to wonder how he was doing.

  What was left of her heart cracked wide open at the prospect. Damn it, when had she turned into such a girl? And how did she make it stop?

  “I’ve missed you.” The words slipped out before she had a clue she’d been thinking them.

  “What did you say?” Gabe glanced at her abruptly, those black-magic eyes of his dark with confusion.

  She shrugged again, cursing herself. Then looked him straight in the eye and lied. “Nothing. Just rambling.”

  He stopped at a light and silence stretched between them for a minute. “I missed you, too.”

  “I could tell.” Shit, shit, shit. What was happening? Someone had hijacked her mouth and nothing was coming out the way she wanted it to. She was supposed to say something about how busy she’d been, about how she’d barely noticed he hadn’t called. What she wasn’t supposed to do was sound like a miserable, whiny little girl who wasn’t getting her way.

  “Annalise.”

  “Look, just forget it,” she said. She gestured to her building, less than a block ahead on the right. “Drop me here and you can make the turn for your place. Thanks for the ride.” She gathered up her briefcase and reached for the door handle.

  But Gabe didn’t stop, not at the corner before his turn or even in front of her building. Instead he cruised down to the next street and made a left, heading out of downtown and away from where they both lived.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Taking you somewhere we can talk.”

  “We are talking!” She knew she sounded panicked, but she couldn’t help it. Her defenses were too low for her to stand up to him for long. “I want to go home.”

  “Tough.” He kept his eyes on the road and drove for about ten minutes before she realized where he was taking her.

  “No, Gabe. I don’t want to go there.”

  “Why not?”

  “I just don’t.” He couldn’t take her to Coronado, to the small, secluded spot she had begun to think of as theirs. He just couldn’t.

  But he ignored her protests, and didn’t say another word to her until he’d parked the car next to the private little cove they’d found two months previously. Before he could say anything, she asked, “So do you want to fuck me one last time? For old times’ sake?” She unfastened the first button on her sheer pink blouse, just to let him know how little she cared. “I don’t have much time, so we should probably get right to it.”

  “Stop it!” He knocked her hand away. “I’m sick of games, Annalise. I’m sick of pretending that nothing that happens between us matters.”

  “I’m just being honest, Gabe. Isn’t sex what you brought me here for?”

  “You don’t know the first thing about honesty. You’re too busy proving how tough and unfeeling you are to let anyone see the real you.”

  She pushed her wet hair out of her eyes, went nose to nose with him before she could think better of it. “This is the real me, Gabe. I’m sorry I don’t live up to your stupid expectations.”

  He studied her for a minute, shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Well, that’s your problem then. I never promised you a damn thing.”

  “You’re right, you didn’t. I was just too stupid to realize it.” His mouth turned grim. “But things change. We’ve been playing this stupid one-upmanship game since the day we met. And it was fun for a while. But I want more from you now. I need more.”

  “I’ve given you more than I’ve given anybody else. Why can’t that be enough?”

  “Because it isn’t.”

  His eyes held hers, and she realized that she was trapped, unable to look away. Unable to walk away. “I don’t have anything else to give,” she whispered.

  “That’s bullshit. What you mean is there’s nothing else you will give.”

  “Do you have to push?” She looked at him imploringly. “Can’t we just do this for a while?”

  “What exactly do you want to do?” His eyes snapped fire at her as the tight leash he was keeping on his temper slipped.

  “You know,” she shrugged, gesturing with her hands. “Do—”

  “What?” Gabe demanded, before slamming out of the car.

  “Do what?” he asked again as he came around to the passenger side and yanked her out of the car and into his arms.

  “Do this?” He let her slide down his body, then turned her so that she was facing the car, her hands planted firmly on the hood. He pushed her pants and underwear down to her ankles with his right hand while he thrust the fingers of his left as far into her as he could go. As he found her G-spot and began to stroke he asked, in a voice made husky with desire, “Is this want you want to do for a while?”

  She struggled against him, furious that he could make her want him with one stroke of a finger. But each movement she made brought him deeper, pressed him harder, made her wetter.

  “Gabe, stop!” she demanded, her voice high and panicked as she moved restlessly against his hand. How could he turn her on so completely that she would fuck him right here, out in the open, while cold rain lashed at them from every direction? Where was her self-control? Where was her pride?

  Leaning forward, he grazed her long, elegant neck with his lips while he used his free hand to fumble his belt and zipper out of the way. She felt his cock against her bare ass and couldn’t prevent her whimper any more than she could prevent the blind instinct that had her pressing back against him. Searching for completion and to hell with pride and everything else that was keeping them apart. She loved him and if this was all they could ever have, then so be it. Annalise cried out as he bent her over the hood of the car and surged inside of her with one powerful thrust of his hips.

  She moaned deep in her throat and spread her legs, desperate to have him as deep inside of her as he could go. It had been a long few days without him, without anyone, and the relief of having Gabe inside her was totally overwhelming. She tried to speak, but couldn’t form words around the high, hungry sounds clawing their way out of her throat with each surge of his cock inside of her.

  Reaching behind her, she raked her nails down his bare ass as she tried to pull him even closer. “Harder,” she finally managed to gasp. “Please. Harder.”

  He heard her strangled gasps and responded with even more pressure, even harder thrusts until she feared he would rip her apart. But he felt so good and she’d missed him so much. She needed everything he could give her and more.

  His left hand moved between her legs while his right one remained on the small of her back, keeping her bent forward for the best access. He spread her open, stroked the spot where they were joined as she pressed against him, desperate for release.

  “Come on, Lissy. Come for me. Let me feel you, baby.” He reached for her clit, stroked his thumb over it once, twice, a third time. She shattered, screaming his name as he rode her through her orgasm. Wave after wave of sensation crashed through her, weakening her knees and sending slivers of electricity to every part of her body.

  Her muscles clenched rhythmically, milking him with every contraction of her strong body. She felt him pull back, felt him as he fought his fast-approaching orgasm with everything he had.
He wasn’t done yet, and she understood. She wasn’t ready for this one, perfect moment in time to end either.

  Taking a couple of deep breaths through his mouth, he reached under her shirt to rub her nipples through her bra. “I can’t,” she gasped, pushing weakly against him. “No more, Gabe.”

  “More,” he said, squeezing her nipple between his thumb and index finger, feeling her muscles clench around his cock in response. “There’s always more. I can’t get enough of you, Lissy. More and more and more.”

  He moved his hand down and with his index finger gently tapped a pattern on her clit. She moaned his name, her head lolling forward even as her questing body arched into his caresses.

  “That’s it, baby. That’s it.” He continued the pattern, watching as her hips moved more and more urgently against his hand. “I love it when you come. I love watching you and feeling you. I love being inside of you when your muscles clench around me again and again.”

  He bent his head to her neck, licked the line of sweat dotting her nape. “I love your hard nipples and your hot little clit.” He brushed his lips over her lobe, his tongue sweeping against the sensitive spot behind her ear as he whispered to her.

  Annalise moaned deep in her throat, her body moving feverishly against his even as tears of need streamed down her face. His words were enflaming her, taking her closer and closer to another climax, something she would have sworn was impossible only minutes before.

  “I love that you’re always hot for me, always wet and willing. I love to fuck you, to thrust inside you and feel you clench around me.” He pulled out slowly then slammed back into her. “I love how you take all of me, how you always want more.” His mouth fastened on the juncture between her neck and her shoulder, sucking ravenously.

  “I love how you seduce me, with your wild ideas and your open responses. I love how you let me fuck you anywhere. I love thinking of new places and new ways to fuck you.” He pinched her clit with his thumb and middle finger, leaving his index finger free to stroke the sweet bundle of nerves again and again. “I love you.”

  “Gabe, stop!” she sobbed, her entire body shuddering. “I can’t take it. I can’t.”

  He squeezed her clit a little harder and was rewarded by a high-pitched scream as she thrust her ass even harder against him. “You can take it. And more. Can’t you, baby?” His hips moved harder and faster against her as his control slipped another notch. “Can’t you?” He moved his right hand from her back to her nipple, flicking his thumb over the hard peak again and again. “Because you love fucking me as much as I love you.”

  “Yes! Yes! Gabe, please!” She was screaming, sobbing, wilder than she’d ever been before. He thrust into her again and again, and she knew he was claiming her, branding her as his so that no matter how far she ran she would always remember that she belonged with him. As he pounded into her, she knew he took a part of her with him. Knew that she’d never forget the feel of him inside of her while his voice and hands took her someplace she’d never been.

  He shifted so that he hit her G-spot with each thrust of his hips and she screamed. She was completely his at that moment, completely at his mercy, and she knew he realized it. She should be frightened of the control he had over her, but she was too aroused to care about anything but her next orgasm. She was going to die if he didn’t give in, if he didn’t come soon and stop this totally incredible, absolutely amazing torture. Desperate, she closed her legs, trapping Gabe between them, and then clenched her vaginal muscles as tightly as she could.

  She was rewarded when he groaned deep in his throat and thrust against her one final time before spilling himself inside of her. His orgasm triggered her own and she screamed his name, again and again, completely caught up in the physical and emotional storm ripping her body apart.

  When it was over, when they finally came back to themselves, Annalise tried to pull away from him. But he wouldn’t let her go, his body keeping hers pinned against the car while his fingers toyed endlessly with her nipples.

  “I’m not letting you go, Annalise.” He thrust against her, more to make his point than for any sexual gratification. “You’re going to have to get used to that.”

  She turned her head, met his steady gaze with one of her own. “You can’t keep me if I choose to go.”

  He pressed more deeply into her, as if he could lock them together for all time. “So choose to stay,” he said, putting his hands on her hips and pulling her ass backward as he thrust forward as hard as he could. She gasped and he did it again. And again. “Stay with me, Lissy. Choose me.”

  She swallowed, her eyes still locked to his. “I’m scared.”

  He snorted. “So am I. Do you think you’re easy, Annalise?”

  Her smile, when it came, was self-deprecating. “I’m pretty much the definition of easy.”

  “Not anymore you’re not.” He pulled her up so that her back rested against his chest and he could wrap her securely in his strong arms. “I love you and I need you to stay with me. Please.”

  His eyes were dark and vulnerable, his love for her right there for her to see. She stared at him for a moment, soaking up all the emotions pouring out of him and into her. And then she nodded, because there really was no other choice she’d rather make.

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  ISBN: 978-1-4268-1206-4

  No Apologies

  Copyright © 2008 by Tracy L. Deebs-Elkenaney

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

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