Page 34 of Bared Betrayal

It even smells like him. A scent I haven’t been able to get out of my mind. The masculine scent of pepper, tobacco, rum, and something uniquely him.

Sex and sin.

Gabriel watches me in silence.

“Why the fuck are you here?”

I turn to face him. Our eyes meet, and the air thickens around us. For a second, I allow myself to see my masked stranger. The man who knew my body before he touched it. The man who fused pleasure and pain so beautifully, making my blood sing for him while entirely at his mercy. He made me forget. He charged me with life with every strike of his cane and stroke of his hand. His eyes. His voice. His touch. His mouth. It’s all turning a one-night affair into an all-consuming urge for the forbidden.

I clear my throat. It’s the first thing I can think of doing to break the uncomfortable silence. “I think we got off on the wrong foot.”

“Oh, sweetheart, it’s more like you got off on the wrong dick.” His eyes glint, but I’m not amused.

“I’m not here to spar with you, Gabriel. I’m here to say—”

“What?” he interrupts, his eyes blue flames of animosity as he stalks closer. “Are you here to say you’re sorry? Sorry that you cheated on my son?”

“That’s not—”

“Are you sorry I smacked your sweet ass, then fucked you afterward?”

I stare at him in shock as he forces me to step back.

“Does my boy not know how to fuck you, Miss Sawyer?”

My back hits the wall, and I suck in a breath.

“Or is it no fun playing with someone your own age?”

“Fuck you, Gabriel.”

A cocky smirk tugs at his lips. “Been there. Done that.”

“Would you stop!” I yell at him. “Just stop for one goddamn minute and let me explain.”

“There is nothing to explain.”

He’s too close. He’s taking up too much space, and it’s making my head spin, drifting into the fantasy he dominates.

“Yes, there is. Now, if you can just shut up for two fucking minutes and let me breathe. Please.”

He doesn’t back away. He merely lifts his arms, planting his palms on either side of my head against the wall, as if my plea for breath motivates him to take it away.

I breathe in deeply and try to compose myself. “There’s a reason I went to Myth.”

“What reason could you possibly have for fucking another man besides your fiancé? And at a sex party, for that matter?”

“I did not go there to fulfill some sordid fantasy, Gabriel.”

“What, then?” he demands, his voice slicing like blades through my chest.

I press my lips in a thin line, glancing anywhere except at him. “I have my reasons, but it’s not the obvious, I assure you.”

A wave of fear mixed with anticipation runs through me. The fear because I don’t know what he’s going to do. The anticipation because…I don’t know what he’s going to do.

Hi. My name is Kallie, and I lost my fucking mind.

“So, you’re saying you didn’t go to Myth to get your ass caned and cunt fucked?” It’s like God took his voice and dipped it in liquid sex. What he says is rude and offensive, and apparently, my pussy likes it because there’s a familiar tingle that belongs to his presence alone, slicking up my sex.