Page 77 of The Unraveling

“Stop overthinking.” Gabriel squeezes my shoulders. “We’re two consenting adults. Both single.”

Both single because of my husband. Because of me.

He leans in and kisses my neck. Soft lips rumble on my skin as he speaks. “Is this okay?”

I swallow and nod.

“I thought about you often this week,” he whispers. “Did you think about me?”

Only every waking moment…

My breathing grows labored. His touch feels so good, so right, yet I know it’s not. When I don’t answer, he nips at my neck.

I gasp.

“You like that, don’t you?” Again I hear the smile in his voice. “I have not been able to stop thinking about you telling me to hold you down and fuck you hard.”

I swallow.

“Did you think about me?” he asks. “Think about what happened at our last session?”

I nod. It might be the only honest thing I’ve disclosed since he spotted me on the street.

“Good.” He kisses over the skin he’s nipped at. “Very good, Meredith.”

Gabriel snakes one arm around my waist and uses it to pull me flush against him. His body is so hard, so warm. He sucks along my collarbone, and my eyes close, head lolling back shamelessly to give him better access. And then we’re moving. Walking. He’s guiding me, his body still pressed firmly to mine from behind. We step through a doorway. I see the bed, feel my knees hit the sideboard as we walk straight to it. I yield to the firm hand on my back that presses me forward until my chest is against the mattress.

Gabriel folds over me, his front to my back. He gathers my hands in one of his and stretches my arms up over my head. His teeth nip my earlobe, and I can’t help myself. I moan.

“I love that sound.” He groans. “I’ve dreamed about it every night since your office.”

His free hand slips between us, under my dress. It reaches between my legs, impatiently yanks my panties to one side, and then his fingers are at my slick opening. “You think it’s wrong, yet you’re so wet already.” Two, maybe three, fingers plunge inside. I’m not even sure, but it makes me gasp. It’s rough, no foreplay, just like last time. My eyes roll into the back of my head, and another moan escapes my mouth when he pumps.

“Beautiful,” Gabriel grits. His fingers pull almost all the way out and then sink deeper. I don’t even catch my breath before he does it again. Then again. And again. I’m on the brink of flying over the edge when he abruptly stops.

He stands. I vaguely hear the sound of a belt opening, zipper being tugged down, and then I feel his wide, silky crown at my opening. Though he doesn’t push inside. Instead, he reaches for my hair, wraps it around his fist.

“You want it hard again?”

I want it any way he wants to give it, but hard—so hard it’s punishing—feels right. So I nod. “Harder.”

The hand wrapped in my hair abruptly yanks—so damn hard that I lift off the bed. Gabriel uses his free hand to hoist me up at the waist, prop me up on all fours on the mattress. My scalp burns from how harshly he’s still pulling my hair, but he enters me in one deep thrust, and I forget all about the pain. Or maybe the pain adds to my pleasure, heightens all of my other senses, because nothing has ever felt so good. He’s buried so deeply inside me, my neck extended back. I’m completely under his control, and my body actually relaxes, gives in to him. I’ve been a knot of tension since our encounter last week in my office, thinking I needed to tell him I’d made a mistake, that this could never happen again. But it turns out this was exactly what I needed.

Gabriel powers into me from behind. It’s rough and demanding, but I need it to hurt more. So I push back when he thrusts forward, each drive colliding with a loud smack. It’s pummeling and bruising. I’ll probably need to sit on a pillow tomorrow and will still feel battered, but I love every second of it. Each plunge is more punishing than the last, boring deeper and deeper. My body climaxes without warning. There are no thoughts in my head—no worry, no sadness, no regret—only unbridled pleasure rimmed with pain that I never want to end. But of course it does. Gabriel roars to his finish and pulls out.

I’m panting. My mind that was so eagerly blank only seconds ago immediately fills with racing thoughts.

Gabriel moves. My blurry eyes follow him around the room until he disappears behind a door. The bathroom, I assume. Then my vision comes into focus, and I see my surroundings for the first time. Things start to flash faster than my racing breaths.

A framed wedding photo.

A woman’s bathrobe hanging on the back of a closet door.

A wedding ring on the nightstand.

Polaroids taped to the mirror above the dresser.

Smiling faces.

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