Page 72 of Tempest

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I’ve been holding back. I’m not going to do that anymore.”

“Holding back? Why?” And how? Holy shit, the man can already fuck me like a piston with no end in sight.

“There is a long list of things I want to do with and to you, Ode. I just wanted you to be all in, first.”

“What kinds of things?” I ask, pushing his head back so I can lick up the column of his neck.

“I want to fuck you on every surface in this house, which is going to take a while since it’s so big.”

“Too big,” I moan.

“I want to tie you up to your headboard, tease you endlessly while you can’t touch me back,” he says, then strains up to kiss me. “Then I’ll let you do the same to me.”

“That could be fun.”

“First thing I want to do is eat that plump fucking ass of yours, though.”

I burst out in laughter. “I did not expect you to say that.”

“It’s been on my mind for a minute,” he says, winking.

“What else has been on your mind for a minute, Gavin?”

“That I don’t want to fuck this up.”

“Then try not to, and I’ll try, too,” I say as he finally finds the clasp of my bra and pulls it off me. “Britton is gone again tonight. She and Hugo are having a lot of fun, too, I think.”

“So, we can fuck right here?”

“If you get naked.” His tongue finds my nipple, and I lose thought for a split second. “I like the new flowers.”

Gavin is still sending them regularly; I’m starting to think he’s never going to stop. The latest bouquet is a huge spray of baby’s breath. Delicate and feminine, nestled between hardy greens, it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before.

“I’m glad,” he says, switching breasts. “Let’s get naked.”

Gavin strips me of my clothes before he takes off his own. Bare, we stand in the middle of my living room eye to eye. The world stops around us. An invisible bubble forms, protecting us from the outside, silent and still.

It feels right. Like the first time I dressed Britton. Instinct told me it was the choice that would change my career. This feels life-changing, too. As if I’m not making the wrong decision by giving us a second chance.

“You are devastatingly fucking beautiful, Odette Quinn.”

“I could say the same about you,” I tell him, raking my sight over his ridges. He’s so incredibly built. No fat anywhere in sight, just muscle layered on muscle, down to thick lines that seem almost like directions to his cock, which is already hard and proud.

“Why did you change your mind?”

“Do you want me to change it back?” I tease.

“No, you brat,” he says, reaching around to give my ass a swat. “Call me curious.”

“It’s what I always wanted,” I say after a moment. I’m not quite as composed as I thought I was, and tears well as I spill some truth. “I’ve done stupid things, Gavin. I let men fuck me the way I imagined you were fucking her. I fuck men imagining they’re you, that it’s one last time before they walk away to their pretty wives.”

“Ode.” He pulls me into his chest, cradling my head in his strong hand.

“I made up so many make-believes about you that I couldn’t trust reality anymore. But it’s what I’ve always wanted, so I’m trying to be brave enough to listen to my heart telling me it’s real.”

“It’s real. I’m sorry things weren’t different, I’m sorry about so much. But you and me? We’re real.”

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