It’s like I’ve stepped into some magical alternative universe.
Gabriel leads me to a bar shaped like a conch shell and hands me the cocktail list. I’m too giddy with the joy of this place to decide what to have, so I tell the bartender to make us something fruity and delicious.
The bartender hands us our drinks. They’re in glasses encrusted with glittering jewels and hundreds of tiny shells, and on top is a delicate sculpture of a mermaid tail made from sugar diving into the emerald alcohol. It’s almost too perfect to drink, but I take a sip anyway. It tastes like blueberry sherbet.
We take an empty booth in the corner, sipping our drinks and watching the dancer. When she finishes her act, the bobbing lanterns float up to the ceiling, and three musicians emerge from the murky depths of the room and carry instruments onto a narrow stage – some kind of stringed thing, drums, a weird double-barreled flute. The music isn’t like other club music – it’s ethereal, hypnotic, with a beat that matches my heart. As if in a trance, every patron of the club moves toward the dance floor.
“Feel like shaking that shaggable arse?” Gabriel grins. I let him take my hand. He holds it aloft, his fingers just grazing my skin, and I feel like a queen.
Tonight, I’m his queen.
The music pounds through me, and I’m not in Emerald Beach any longer. I’m a mermaid in an underwater palace with a prince on my arm. Gabriel leads me to the center of the floor. We grind against each other, our bodies moving as one while others twist and undulate around us. Gabriel’s hands are all over me – sliding in my hair, skimming my hips, cupping my chin, brushing the edge of my breast until I can’t stand it anymore. He moves like the music he writes – breathless and beautiful, singing the stars against my skin.
“This night doesn’t have to end,” Gabriel’s eyes burn into mine. “There are rooms upstairs.”
My heart stutters. I know what he’s asking.
Gabriel’s playboy ways are notorious, but he doesn’t know I’m a virgin. Well, maybe he can guess. I’ve been living alone since I was thirteen – not exactly the prime environment to get my freak on. And as hard as I’ve tried to hold Gabriel at arms’ length – for his safety, for mine – I came to this club with him tonight with the hum of anticipation building between my legs.
All I want is to exist in this magical place a little longer. I want to lie in the arms of a beautiful boy whose words and music touch my soul, and believe that I deserve a fleeting moment of happiness. I want to tear down the shield wall I carry to protect myself, and embrace my enemy.
Embrace the darkness that lives in my heart.
Embrace the boy who sings of blood and rain.
I smile, and that smile reaches all the way to my toes, all the way to the edges of my soul. “You’re on.”
41
Eli
I manage to spend three hours in bed, staring at the ceiling with Gizmo jabbing my eyeballs, before I can’t take it any longer.
What the fuck am I doing?
Why did I let them go on their own?
Why did I lie to myself?
I did what I always do – I hung back and let my actions speak for me. I let Gabriel seduce her with his fucking Gabriel-ness, and waited and hoped that she’d see us both for who we truly are.
I lost her.
Again.
No. Not this time.
I throw off the covers and creep back downstairs, hoping Maria’s already asleep. I back the Porsche out of the garage and drive to the docks. I know Gabriel will take her to Midnight Grotto.
I don’t have a membership, because I usually come with Gabriel. The lady behind the secret door recognizes me (and she definitely recognizes the stack of Ben Franklins I wave in her face), and ushers me inside. The main room is dark, the booths filled with shadowy figures drinking drinks shimmering with dry ice, while a woman dances on the bar with an enormous boa constrictor wrapped around her neck.
I push through the crowd, searching absinthe eyes and fae faces. Finally, I spot them.
Gabriel and Mackenzie.
He holds her hand and leads her up the spiral staircase to the bedrooms. In her hand, I catch the glitter of a silver key.
The world stops.
Gabriel and Mackenzie.
He’s one of my closest friends, and right now I’d happily see him garroted.
I sink to the floor.
I can’t breathe.
Am I breathing?
Pain arcs through my chest.
I’m too late.
She’s made her choice.
It isn’t me.
42
Mackenzie
A woman hands us a giant silver key, like something from a fantasy film. I hold it up to the light, watching the silver twinkle under the lanterns. Gabriel leads me by the hand, up a winding staircase and down a narrow hallway filled with crooked doorways. From behind the doorways, all kinds of lurid sounds fill my ears, heating my veins until my blood boils with lust.
At the end of the hall, we continue our climb on a narrow metal staircase. A school of fish swims past the window as we wind and wind our way upward. At the top of the stairs, there’s only one door. Gabriel steps aside so I can thrust the key into the lock.
I push the door open and step into an oddly-shaped room, enclosed in the same eldritch architecture as the club downstairs, with those eerily beautiful lanterns bobbing across the ceiling. The bed sits in an alcove of glass thrust out over the water, which is several feet below – it appears as though we’re floating. Or flying, for the night sky stretches above us – a blanket of midnight tinged with blood and sprinkled with Gabriel’s magic. I kneel on the edge of the bed and peer down at the water lapping below. Pleasure boats circle around the docks, and in the distance, the lights of a superyacht add their own magic to the skyline.
“How did we get this high?” I ask.
“Were you so distracted by my remarkable personage you didn’t notice all those stairs we climbed?” Gabriel leans down beside me, his hand falling oh-so-casually on my thigh. My skin burns beneath his fingers, and I press my lips together to keep from moaning, from begging.
“Who even says remarkable personage?” I hit back at him, but it’s without my usual fire. Now that I’m here, the buzz of the club and the hypnotic dancing has worn off a bit. I’m alone in a room with Gabriel Fallen – expert fornicator. My celebrity crush, in flesh and blood with his haunting grey eyes focused entirely on me. My nerves kick in.
In response, Gabe tips my chin toward him, brushing his lips against mine so softly, so sweetly, I might’ve convinced myself I dreamed it. But my dreams never light up my body like Fourth of July fireworks, nor do they involve soft fingers tangled in my hair or a hard chest pressed against mine…
Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.
Fuck. I should probably…
“Gabe…” It takes all my self-control to fist a handful of his shirt, to hold him as I lean back, giving me an inch of breathing space.
“Let me guess, you’ve never done this before?” Gabe cocks his eyebrow.
“You got a fetish about taking delicate virgin flowers?” I growl. “And you’d better give me the right answer, or I’m kneeing you in the balls.”
“No fetish, I’m just…” Gabriel kisses the tip of my nose. “It would be an honor, Mac. But are you sure you want it to be me? What about Eli?”
I shake my head. Eli… if I chose him, it would mean something. Eli couldn’t have sex with someone without giving away a piece of himself, and I’m already broken enough as it is without carrying someone else’s pain around with me. It would open a window into things I’m not ready to say, not when there are still so many secrets.
Not when I promised him I wouldn’t lie.
Eli would be wonderful as a boyfriend, but I’ve already hurt him so deeply he’ll never heal. I may be the Ice Queen, but I’m not cold enough for that game.
But Gabriel… he doesn’t bring emotions to us – there’s no weight
of a history only one of us recalls crushing us together. Gabe can make me feel without giving away a piece of himself. He does it night after night on stage, and judging by the pure sex that spills from his mouth every time he sings, he’ll be damn good at it.
“Everything’s messed up,” I murmur, stroking his arm, tracing the lines of the snake tattoo encircling his wrist. His skin feels so good. “But I don’t care. Right now, tonight, I want you. I want you to make me feel something. Just, you know… don’t expect one of your sex-crazed groupies.”
“How about this? We’ve got this room all night. We can go back downstairs if you want, or we can stay up here, and kiss, and touch…” Gabriel circles his thumb on my bare shoulder, playing with the edge of the strap. “And if you want to take things further, we can. Either way, we’ll have a fun night.”
A fun night. Part of me needs that, desperately, and part of me wants to be so much more to Gabriel. But the way he has my body purring like a kitten with just his thumb, I’m not saying no.
“Will this cause problems with the others?”
“Only if we let it.” And then he’s kissing me, slow and reassuring, and it feels so good, I don’t ever want him to stop.
Gabriel kisses like he sings, throwing his whole self into it. He reaches inside me and drags up my demons from their lockbox and dances with them under the stars. It’s in the dark places and the fae shadows that Gabriel Fallen rules with his crown of thorns. I groan as his lips part mine, so slow, so assuring. Our tongues touch, and I get my first taste of starlight, and I know I’ll never, ever have my fill.
I wind my arms around his neck and pull him closer, my body aching for more, more, more, as if I can somehow crawl inside his skin and wear that sexy ass of his. Which sounds totally crazy and serial killer-ish, but I’ve got Gabriel Fallen’s tongue in my mouth – coherent metaphors ain’t gonna happen.
His tongue-stud is this whole other sensation, and I can’t resist playing with it, holding it between my teeth and tugging on it lightly. Now it’s Gabriel’s turn to moan, his grip on me tightening, his body tense with need.
Gabriel breaks the kiss to trail his lips along my jaw. He nibbles on my earlobe, his fingertips stroking a tune along my neck. Who knew having someone touching your neck is so fucking hot? Gabriel presses his lips to the hollow of my throat. The coolness of his piercings hits the heat of my skin, and I’m a trembling mess. The urge to beg him for more, for something I don’t yet know, dances on my lips, but I resist. Even when she’s horny as fuck, Mackenzie Malloy doesn’t beg.
“Let me make you feel good.” Sometimes the shit Gabriel says is so cheesy, but with that British accent purring in my ear, I’m not going to complain. A tiny moan escapes my lips, and it’s all the signal Gabriel needs.
His fingers twine in my hair as he pulls me back to him, our lips meeting with a rush of fire. He lays me back against the sheets. His weight on mine feels so fucking perfect. I stare up into a blood-stained sky shot with glittering stars.
Gabriel’s hands are everywhere – touching my cheeks, cupping my chin, in my hair, skimming my hips the way he did back on the dance floor, leaving us both panting. My stomach aches with a hunger that isn’t for food, and I raise my hips to grind against him, my body desperate for more, more, more.
Gabriel chuckles darkly as he slides a hand underneath my red top, pushing the fabric over my skin. I raise my arms above my head as he drags it over my head.
“Fuck, Mac.” Gabriel shoves my bra up, not even bothering to undo it. “If I’d known you were hiding these, I’d have had you sooner.”
His mouth circles my nipple, and I gasp. It’s wet and hot and intense and magical, especially when his piercing rubs against the sensitive bud. Gabriel cups my other breast, rolling the nipple in his fingers as his stormy eyes watch me, drinking in my reaction.
It feels fucking amazing.
So amazing in fact, I’m not even aware that Gabriel’s pulled off my shorts until he trails kisses across my stomach, his fingers teasing the edges of my lace panties. He pulls down one edge of the lace and stops, his face tipping toward me, his eyes wide and that cocky grin frozen on his perfect lips. The barbell jerks up and down.
“What are you waiting for, Fallen?” I growl. “A written invitation?”
Gabriel tears the flimsy material away and dives between my legs. His tongue finds my clit, and he flicks his stud across it until I’m a writhing, blubbering mess. My hands claw at his shoulders as I come undone. He slips a finger inside me and moans against me. The heat that rises inside me could burn the world. Gabe strokes his finger inside me while he makes circles around my clit, that stud doing magical things as he gets faster and faster. The stars swim in my eyes and I’m gone, I’m fucking gone.
I’ve made myself come plenty of times. I lived completely alone for four years. If I didn’t have a vibrator, I’d have gone full psychopath by now. But it’s a completely different thing to come by your own hand in an empty room in an empty house while your cat bats impatiently at your face so you’ll get out of bed and feed her, and to tremble with pleasure in the arms of the world’s hottest rockstar while the heavens dance around you.
Gabriel pulls me against him, holding my body to his chest, his fingers stroking my face. He picks up my limp hand and examines my fingers. “Looks like you ruined your manicure digging your nails into my back.”
“Don’t look so fucking smug about it,” I manage to choke out. “I’m going to marry your tongue stud.”
Gabriel tsks. “Marriage? Without sampling all the goods? Mac, I’m disappointed in you.”
He rolls me over so that I’m cradled in his arms, my back against his broad chest. At first, I’m confused by this position – in every teen movie, your first time is supposed to be missionary style, gazing wide-eyed at each other for an awkward condom sequence before your mother walks in.
Only now, I’m looking at water and sky, and I feel as though I’m floating. Or maybe that’s the head full of orgasm endorphins or the fact Gabriel’s hands still trail over my skin, leaving paths that scorch so hot they’d show up under infrared.
Gabriel tugs off his shirt and kicks his jeans and boxers off the end of the bed, then his arms circle me again. Tattooed hands play with my nipples, and his barbell scrapes across the skin on the back of my neck. “Touch me, beautiful.”
I reach down between my legs and grasp him. The first time I’ve ever held a cock in my hands. I’m shocked by the size of him. I run my fingers down his shaft, feeling the ridge of the tip and the veins standing out from his skin. How the fuck does this fit inside me?
I touch metal. I feel along the length of a curved bar protruding from the tip and out the bottom of the head, with a ball on each end. Gabriel’s teeth stutter against my skin as I give the piercing a little tug.
I’ve heard rumors in the press about Gabriel’s cock piercing, but I’ve been a little distracted with all the fucking rest of him to recall it until now.
That thing is going inside me? How’s this going to work?
“What do you think?” Gabriel whispers.
“I think you’re a crazy motherfucker,” I whispered back. “Why would you do that to yourself?”
“Just you wait and see,” he purrs in my ear. “Put me out of my misery, Mac. Open those sexy long legs for me.”
I obey, dropping my grip on him to lift my knee. Gabriel’s body fits perfectly against mine. The tip of his cock brushes against my opening. I’m wet and waiting, and I want so badly to rock my hips back and let him inside. I hear a package tear, and I’m grateful I can’t see what he’s doing and that he doesn’t need my help because I got all my sex ed from Game of Thrones.
“You sure?” Gabriel’s lips find that spot on my collarbone. His cock brushes me again, and I feel how wet I am, how desperate.
“Just fucking do it already.” I’m ready to scream at him.
Gabriel pushes the tip of his cock inside me, and I do scream. A little. It hurts, but th
e good kind of hurt. The kind of hurt that makes you feel alive. He pushes deeper and I’m so full of him, full of Gabriel fucking Fallen, and he’s rolling his hips and driving deeper and fuck fuck fuck it feels so goddamn good.
I bend my head back to stare at my dark prince, his eyes hooded with an approaching storm, his silhouette ringed with a bleeding sky. I wonder if this is who he is backstage, night after night, for a hundred different girls. Or right now, in this room inside the stars, I’m a part of Gabriel Fallen he never gives to anyone else. A part that’s just for me.
Gabriel moves inside me, and if I died right now I’d kick the devil’s ass for taking me away from this because no way is hell as dark and delicious as Gabe’s cock inside me. His piercing is this hard nub rubbing and moving, and I wish so bad that I could feel it naked against my skin.
Tattooed arms cross my chest, holding me close, rolling my nipples. A hand snakes down between my legs, and Gabriel presses a finger against my clit. It’s too much, too new; there’s so much of him everywhere. I fall over the edge again. I’m swimming in a blue abyss. Stars swirl around me, but I don’t know if they’re the ones outside the window or inside my head.
Gabriel’s teeth scrape my neck as he rocks inside me. I tilt my head back and accept his mouth to mine, tugging at his tongue stud until he’s unraveling at the edges, too. His body tightens around me, and his hips thrust harder. I slam mine back to meet him, and he keeps one finger hammering against my clit. I come again in a shower of sparks as Gabriel curls around me, his breath hitching as his own release takes him.
Gabriel sorts himself out, then rolls me over so his arms are around me but we’re face-to-face, our bodies radiating heat, our noses touching. The bleeding sky dances in his eyes as he talks to me in that low, melodious voice of his. There’s an intensity to him right now I’ve never seen before.
“What do you see?” I ask before I can stop myself. “When you look at me, what do you see?”
My Stolen Life: a high school bully romance (Stonehurst Prep Book 1) Page 21