Page 22

Chapter

Twenty-One

TARA

T he one thing I can’t stand is showing weakness in front of people.

Even after Elio and Ava rescued me, I never cried or broke down in front of them, not after that first day when I let a few tears slip through my walls.

But yet, here I am, sobbing loudly against Gabe’s chest in a car full of men.

However, I don’t feel judgment coming from anyone.

Not that I honestly thought they would see me as less than, but still, it’s hard letting someone see you in this position.

Of course, Gabe is correct, and it shouldn’t hurt me to admit that, but it does a little bit.

My whole identity has been wrapped up in getting my revenge and doing everything myself that I forgot a minor detail.

I’m human. I have feelings and emotions, and sometimes, I’m not as strong as I think I am.

I don’t want to question if I could have prevented this all from happening had I allowed someone to help me along the way, but just like these tears, I can’t stop the thought from forming.

As if reading my mind, Gabe whispers, “This isn’t your fault.” His strong arms tighten around me, and I snuggle deeper into his embrace.

Hell, I might as well be sitting on his lap.

I focus on the steady, reliable thump of his heart instead of the racing thoughts relentlessly beating against my brain.

My senses slowly start working, one by one.

Instead of strong arms wrapped around me, I’m surrounded by soft cotton sheets.

Gone is Gabe’s heartbeat, and in its place is the soft whirl of the air conditioner.

Slowly, I open my eyes and take in our bedroom.

Pushing myself up, I lean against the wooden headboard and just take a second to breathe in the mixture of smells.

This is the smell that I’ve missed for so long but refused to think about.

The perfect blend of me and Gabe.

Muffled voices come through the open doorway, meaning the guys are still here doing whatever is needed for me.

All the while, I got some needed rest. My eyes start to sting, and my nose tingles at that thought.

I don’t know what I did to deserve a family like this one, but I’ll never take it for granted again.

As I go to move to the side of the bed, my muscles ache and throb in some places.

Someone, probably Gabe, must have thought ahead because on the small table by the bed is a bottle of water and a bottle of pain reliever.

I quickly swallow two and head into the bathroom for a shower.

Gabe must have removed my clothes before putting me to bed because I’m naked as the day I was born.

While the water is heating up, I search for something to wear.

Pulling open the closet door, I’m stunned when I see not only Gabe’s clothes hanging up but also women’s clothes.

I don’t want to touch any of the pieces because my hands are still dirty—not as dirty as before, but still.

The closer I get to what used to be my side, the more I notice that all the clothes still have the tags on them.

They appear to be in my size range and are precisely what I would choose for myself.

I grab a shirt that looks butter soft and a pair of sweatpants, only touching the hanger.

Once I lay the clothes on the bed, I head back to the bathroom and start looking around.

On the counter, I find a new toothbrush, the exact toothpaste I’ve always used, a similar hairbrush as the one I had before, and a straightener.

I open the drawer that was always mine and find it full of all different kinds of makeup, hair accessories, and skin care products.

Leaving the drawer open, I pull open the medicine cabinet, only to find it full of the same stuff I had here before.

Now I’m in a frantic state and drop to the ground—uncaring about the pain that is shooting through my body.

Ripping the doors to the cabinet open, the tears I’ve been battling finally spill over.

Sitting right inside the door are the tampons and pads I always buy.

“What the fuck are you doing on the floor? Princess, are you okay?”

I startle at Gabe’s voice but turn toward him.

My shaky hand covers my mouth, my heart is trying to beat out of my chest, and my stomach is full of butterflies.

I open my lips, trying to say anything, but nothing comes out except a choked sob.

Gabe moves instantly and wraps his arms around me.

I feel his head turning to take in what I was looking at moments before.

“Shit, I can explain. None of this belongs to another woman. I promise you, Princess. I would never do that to you. When I told you that there hasn’t been another, I fucking meant it with my whole soul. Since the moment you showed up on Reed’s doorstep, my heart has only beaten for you. Even if you had died that night, my heart would never beat for another. I love?—”

Unable to listen to him word vomit in panic, I push up off him and press my lips against his.

He wastes no time taking control of the kiss.

One hand fists my hair, holding me exactly where he wants me, while the other cups my breast. He groans when my nipple starts to harden against his palm.

“Princess, you’re hurt.”

“Don’t care,” I mumble against his lip, needing the pressure of his kiss.

I’m not seriously hurt; even if I was, I need him.

My hands push under his shirt, and his muscles jump at my touch.

I am not going to lie.

Knowing that my touch has this kind of effect on a man as big as Gabe makes me a little light-headed.

Even with his hands tightly fisted in my hair, I still move closer to him until I’m straddling his waist. It’s awkward because he is kneeling on the floor, but I’ll make it work.

His erection presses against me, and I moan.

“I need you.”

“Fuck me. Hold on.” I hear the slap of Gabe’s palm against the bathroom counter, and then we are moving upward.

I don’t put an inch of space between my lips and his skin.

I kiss down and over his jaw, nipping as I go.

Gabe strides forward as I move on to lavishing his neck with more kisses and bites.

It’s been a couple of days since he has shaved, and the feeling of his stubble, rough against my soft lips, causes a tingle to shoot down my spine.

“Princess, I have to put you down so I can get un—” Before he can finish speaking, I’m off him, and my hands are pulling at his shirt.

In mere seconds, we have successfully stripped him of all his clothing.

All the green in Gabe’s eyes has been consumed by the black, and the fire in them heats my core more than the hot water when we step into it.

Without a word, I drop back to the floor in front of Gabe and lick the pre-cum off the head of his dick.

“Shit, Princess,” Gabe groans as he once again fists my hair.

“The sight of you on your knees for me is remarkable.”

Wrapping a hand around the base of his dick, I don’t waste another second on teasing him.

Before Gabe, I was always self-conscious about my blow job ability, but he was so gentle and kind the first time we did this.

As it turns out, I do, in fact, love pleasuring him this way.

I hollow my cheeks and take him in my mouth until he hits the back of my throat.

He’s too long for me to take all of him in, but he has never complained about that.

The noises coming from him make my core clench around nothing but air, and my clit pulse with need.

As I pull off, I bring my hand with me, jerking him off at the same time.

I look up at him, and the look of pure pleasure sends another tingle down my spine.

“Love,” I say before leaning in to lick up his shaft as if he is an ice cream cone.

“Fuck my throat.”

I don’t give him time to reply before I take him back in my mouth.

I move both hands to his ass and push his hips forward.

Gabe grips my head on both sides and says, “My pleasure.” His hips start moving without my assistance.

He never goes too deep, knowing my limits.

My eyes close and roll into the back of my head as pleasure soars through me.

My arousal is practically dripping out of me with how turned on I’m becoming.

He must be as aroused as I am because it doesn’t take long before his thrust starts to falter; he grows thicker in my mouth, and then he comes down my throat.

I barely have time to swallow his seed before Gabe pulls me up and presses his lips against mine.

“You are fucking breathtaking, Princess.” He slows the kiss down as he wraps one hand around my throat and the other drops straight to the apex of my thighs.

“Goddamn, my girl is soaked.”

I whimper as his fingers ghost over my lips, but he doesn’t wait to put me out of my misery.

I’m so wet that he finds no resistance when he thrusts three of his thick, long fingers inside me.

His thumb presses on my clit, and I arch into his hand.

His thrusts are brutal, but I feel nothing except pleasure soaring through my body.

He does a come hither motion with his fingers, and my legs almost give out on me.

Due to his grip on my throat, no sounds come from me, but I mentally beg him for more.

“You greedy little girl. You want more, don’t you.” I nod slightly.

“Wrap a leg around my hip, and I’ll give you exactly what you are begging for.”

I do as he instructed.

Our skin is wet from the water, but I hook my foot against his inner thigh and hold onto his shoulders with my hands.

Gabe removes his fingers, places them in his mouth, and licks them clean.

Once he has all my juices, he lines up his dick with my opening and presses inside with one hard thrust. My head hits the wall of the shower as I stretch around him.

He doesn’t give me time to adjust, nor do I want him to.

The fire spreading through me grows hotter and hotter.

The need to come claws at my muscles.

With each thrust, he hits that spot deep inside that only he has ever found.

This might seem hard and uncaring to the outside world, but to me, it’s everything I need it to be.

Gabe is taking my body roughly, which is showing me that he doesn’t see me as weak or broken.

That he isn’t afraid that I’m too fragile to handle this.

So many people have seen me as weak in my life that I crave being seen like this.

Crave being treated like this.

“Princess, I need you to come for me. I’m fucking begging you,” Gabe says through gritted teeth.

My walls clamp down tighter on him, and my muscles tighten to the point that my stomach aches, but I need just a little more.

Gabe’s hand around my throat tightens to the point that he totally cuts off my air, and his other hand moves to my clit, where he pinches it, and I sail over the edge.

He lets go of my throat, and I scream out his name hoarsely.

Stars dance behind my closed eyelids as Gabe falls over that edge with me.

With a strength I don’t have right now, Gabe scoops me into his arms, with my legs wrapped around him, and turns us into the water.

Thank God for his big ass water heater because the water is still warm.

I lay my head on his shoulder as I catch my breath and my mind returns from orbit.

Finally, I loosen my grip on Gabe’s waist, and he helps me stand.

I grab his bottle of body wash and pour some on a sponge.

“About before, not once did I think that those things were for another woman or left by someone else,” I say as I run the sponge over his shoulders and down his chest.

“Really?” Gabe grabs the other sponge and pours his own body wash on it.

I smile at that little fact because I love that he wants me to smell like him.

Gabe’s body wash smells like mandarins and sandalwood, which is one of my favorite smells of all time.

I raise an eyebrow and narrow my eyes.

“Of course. Gabe, the only thing I ever worried about this past year was whether you would see me differently once you found out what happened. Just like I told Ricco?—”

Gabe pulls my body into him, and soap flies around us when we collide.

“I would never?—”

I cover his mouth with my soapy hand.

“I know that now,” I say, then remove my hand.

“What I was saying is I never once doubted your love for me or your loyalty. The reason I was crying was because… How long has all this stuff been here?”

Gabe uses the back of his hand to wipe the soap from his lips.

“About a month after Valarie came and got all your stuff.”

“That’s what I thought.” I step back and swirl my finger in the air for him to turn around.

I add more bodywash and continue to clean him.

“The sizes on the clothes gave it away. So even though everyone around you thought I was dead, you?—”

“Like I said before, Princess. I knew you were alive. I would have felt it the moment your soul left your body, and I never did. So yeah, I went out and replaced everything the best I could. I’m not sure about the makeup, but I bought one of everything I could remember, and we can pick up anything I missed later. When I finally found you, I didn’t want you to have to deal with what she did.”

I press a kiss to the middle of his back and sigh.

“I shouldn’t have stayed away so long. I’m so sorry I did that to us, Gabe.”

“I’m not going to lie to you, Princess. That year was the most painful three hundred and sixty-five days of my life, but I’m ready to move on and start our forever.”

I turn Gabe around and cup his face.

“Me too, Marito.”

“What does that mean?”

I laugh and tip my head back to wet my hair.

“That, my love, you will have to find out on your own.”