Page 10 of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The hot tears fill my eyes again, though they don’t fall. Then I whisper, “I can’t be there anymore. He’s out there. He took Elise on her wedding day, right off Lord grounds. Gage, Houdini will come back.He will.” I sniff, glad he can’t see the snot running down my nose.

“Baby, we’re on the offensive now. We’re hunting him, not the other way. But if you don’t want to come home yet, just tell me where you are. I’ll come to you. Let me take care of you, please. I won’t tell the brothers. It’ll just be you and me until you’re ready.”

“Let me think about it, okay?”

“Okay, baby. What are you doing now?” The crazy part is I could feel how much it cost him to give me that out. What is wrong with me?

“I just sat down to dinner.”

“Really? What’re you having?”

“Chinese. A noodle bowl. It has seared scallops, shrimp, Bok choi cabbage and some other junk. What about you?”

“Ah, Elise fed me lasagna. She feels sorry for me. Honest, I’d rather be having noodles with you.”

We spend the next couple of hours on the phone while I clean up from dinner. While I transfer the wet clothing from the washer to the dryer. Right up until he hears me filling the beautiful clawfoot tub with water.

“Taking a bath?” he asks, his interest clearly peaked.

“Yeah, gonna soak.” My words come out muffled as I pull my shirt up over my head. “Hang on—let me put you on speaker so I can finish getting undressed.”

And when I do that sitting the phone on the closed toilet lid, and he hears the plunk of my body hitting the water, he speaks again with a voice filled with longing. “You naked, baby?”

“Yeah, I’m in the tub.”

“Touch yourself, Liv.”

“What?” I ask, astonished.

“Touch yourself. Pretend your hand is my hand, baby.” God, his sensual, throaty voice makes it hard to resist, turning me on more than I’ve been in a long time. “You’ve done this over the phone before. Tell me what you’re doing.Now.”

“Okay, I’m running my hand down the silky skin of my stomach.”

“Keep going.”

“My fingers brushing through the curls.”

“Use your fingers to part those lips.” The sound of unzipping filters through the receiver. But I do as he orders. “Rub that clit. Bet it’s nice and swollen. You swollen for me, baby?”

“Yes.” I breathe.

“Good girl. Now keep rubbing with your thumb. Dip those fingers inside that tight pussy and curl them forward.”

Nothing happens, not like when he does it. Not until I open my legs wide, draping each one over the side of the tub, and sit up to go at it from a different angle. Then it’s just… “Oh god!”

“You find it, the spot?”

“I… oh, hell… I found it, Gage.”

His words come in spurts, his breaths in pants. “Keep going…baby. Pump… those fingers.”

It’s only this good because I picture Gage’s fingers inside me. With his voice in my ear, it’s not hard. We fall silent, but I know what he’s doing and he knows what I’m doing.

And then, “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” he grunts at the same time I yell, “Gage!” My release hitting hard and fast.

“Shit, baby, I just came on my gut like a damn teenager.” He laughs. “Now I gotta go clean up.”

“Don’t let me go. I’m not ready.”

“You know the answer to that, Liv. I love you, baby. I love you with everything in me.”

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