Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Chapter nine
Abbie
We do indeed make out like school kids for about five minutes and it’s delicious and wonderful. He’s delicious and wonderful. Laying on his couch, our legs entwined, I am lost in this man and I feel how lost he is in me, how lost we are in each other. I don’t remember a time in my life when I was in this kind of sultry, sexy haze with another human being. And he took his pants off.
I start laughing. “You really took your pants off.”
“What did you expect me to do?” he challenges. “You felt weird and for the record, I left my pants on because I needed the control. Otherwise, I would have ended up inside you, fucking you before you had that orgasm.” He strokes my hair. “Because you tried to undo me.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re the one who undid me,” I say, and with Gabe, I really don’t feel like this is giving him the power, but hey. If it empowers him to do anything he’s already done again, I won’t complain.
“And if you stay naked, I’m going to do it all over again,” he says as if he read my mind. “Let me grab you something to put on.” He kisses me and sits up, giving me a charming wink. “Don’t move. I like you naked and laying all picture-perfect across my couch.” He stands up and walks his picture-perfect backside around the couch.
I sit up and grab the blanket, charmed beyond belief by this man as I watch him disappear down a hallway behind the living area, which I assume leads to his bedroom. His bedroom. Will I end up there tonight? Do I want to end up there tonight? Of course, I do, but it’s a bad idea to stay if he even really wants me to stay. I’m a little too into this man and that scares me. I’ve been burned, so very burned, and so very recently.
“Hey.”
At the sound of Gabe’s voice, I twist right and look up to see him leaning over a railing. “What happened to staying naked and sprawled out on my couch?”
I laugh. “That would be weird again.”
“Then we’ll move to the bed. That won’t be weird at all.” As if he read my mind again about the bed, and even from here I can see the mischief and heat in his eyes.
He disappears into a room just behind him and I decide that I’m going to fall, and fall hard, for this man if I’m not careful. And the thing is that he could hurt me, he could, but I could hurt him, too, and not emotionally. Not even by way of my own desires. It’s time we talk, really talk. I tell myself to get up and get dressed, but I don’t. I hold that blanket around me and stare at the railing I’d held onto when Gabe’s mouth had been on the most intimate parts of me and I just can’t seem to move. That’s when my cellphone starts to ring.
I search for it and find my briefcase, which is somehow on the floor not far from my feet where I assume Gabe set it earlier. I really don’t remember. My phone is just inside the pocket and I find my mother’s number. I hit decline and text her: Sorry. I know I was going to try to make dinner, but I’m working late.
It’s not a lie. I did work late and I’m about to talk to Gabe about our problems. My mother replies with: Gabbie gabe birth! Three gorgeous golden boys. No girls! You know how Gabbie hates girls.
I laugh, especially since she accidentally typed gabe and I reply with: Yes she does. I might not make it by to see them but send pictures!
“More laughter,” Gabe says from behind me. “And I wasn’t even in the room.”
I twist around to eye Gabe, noting his low-slung sweats, but he’s still naked from the waist up, that lion tattoo majestic on his broad shoulder. “My mother sent me a text,” I explain. “She’s a vet and one of her patients gave birth.”
He sits down next to me. “Gabbie,” I say, which is kind of funny because you’re Gabe, and she typed this.” I show him the messages and now he laughs.
“Gabbie,” he says. “And she hates females. The name sounds a bit symbolic of something, but I’m not sure what. And for the record, I definitely do not hate any female of any species.”
“No female?” I challenge.
“Dislike a few,” he concedes, “but I hate with caution. A lesson I learned a long time ago.”
He hates with caution while my ex hates with ease. The man even hates me and he married me. Gabe indicates the T-shirt in his hand. “I thought you’d look exceptionally good in this.” He drops down to his knee in front of me. “If you don’t mind wearing my T-shirt, that is.”