Page 24 of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

“Where’d you go?”

“I’m right here, Gage. With you.” A desperate weeping rips free from deep in my soul as I come to terms with what I’ve always known. Gage is here when I need him. Always here.

Aside from holding me, he makes no other moves. Not to remove my clothing. Not even to kiss me as he lays us down in bed. Although he does strip down to his boxers, tossing everything in a pile on the floor. Not many people can rest in boots and jeans.

We talk some but mostly sleep, wrapped in each other’s arms. His warmth fills me with exactly what I’d been missing all these lonely weeks.

I hate that Michael forced my hand, leaving me no option but to call Gage. But I could never,wouldnever, regret having him here with me.

We’re Gage and Liv, as we’ve always been meant to be.

I lay in his arms much longer than I sleep in them. Having driven for so many hours, and most likely from the months of worry about me, my man sleeps soundly until close to three in the afternoon. The hotel offers an awesome room service menu. I call down to order us the softshell crab mac and cheese, a Virginia Beach version of poutine, chocolate-cherry lava cake and white milk because Gage drinks white milk with his cake.

He wakes, stretching, right after I hang up the phone and lay my folded arms and chin on his chest. Then he folds one hand under his head, and the other he uses to play with a thick strand of my hair, winding and unwinding it around his finger.

“You’re so beautiful, Liv. Can’t believe I got you back.Jesus, I’ve missed you, baby. Come’ere.” Gage tugs lightly on my hair to pull me closer to his face. “Kiss me.”

“Gage, I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.”

“Don’t care. I don’t care if they’re fuzzy and green. I need a kiss from you.”

As long as he doesn’t care, I push up to sitting, throw my leg over Gage’s hip to straddle him, brace my hands against his strong shoulders and bend in to kiss him. It’s a long, sensual kiss using only our mouths. His hands gently rest at my hips.

“Gage,” I whisper against his mouth, reverently. And I breathe in and out—heavy, ragged breaths. “I think I want you to make love to me.” Then I use my teeth to tug at his bottom lip.

“Is that a good idea? After what happened yesterday?”

“He touched my breasts, Gage. He didn’t rape me.”

“It was still a violation, baby. He scared you, scarred you. I don’t want—”

“I know I haven’t given you reason to trust me, but I won’t freak out this time, babe. And I need to feel close to you. I need that safety, warmth and comfort only you have ever been able to give me.Please.”

His answer comes in the form of a hand sliding up my back to capture my neck, his other anchoring me to his pelvis, then he pulls my head down to kiss me again and flips us around so my back rests against the sheet. As he continues to kiss me, he grinds his hard cock against my sex through our bottoms, my bikinis and his boxer briefs.

Between his mouth and dry humping, the first tingles of my first orgasm of the day hits. I moan and lift my hips for him to remove my bikini bottoms. He’s slid them halfway down my thighs when there’s a knock on the room door.

“Room service.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me?” Gage grumbles, running his hand over his face. “Be back, baby. Don’t you move.” Then he drops a quick kiss to my forehead and pushes up off the bed… in only his boxer briefs… with a raging hard-on. He flips the covers over top of me and answers the door.

Gage pulls the door open wide and gestures with his hand for the bellman to enter with the cart. The kid looks between Gage and me and drops his eyes to look only at the cart. His cheeks blush even as a smile spreads over his lips.

“Enjoy your meal,” he says, still avoiding eye contact with either of us.

“Oh, I will,” Gage says back. And I swear the poor kid chokes on his own saliva. But to be fair, he bends down to grab his jeans off the pile on the floor and pulls a one-hundred dollar bill from the billfold in his pocket, handing it to the kid as a more-than-generous tip.

“Thank you, sir.Thank you.” The bellman turns quickly on his heel and speed-walks out of the room.

With the door firmly closed and locked, I start to get up. Gage wags his finger at me. “Nope. We’re having naked dinner tonight, then I’m going to fuck your brains out. I was gonna go slow, but now I’m thinking hard and fast to start. You up for that?”

I bite my lip to hold back the smile, and nod.

He rolls the cart closer to me. “Thenwe’ll go sweet and soft.” Oh, lord. He drops his voice. Gage knows what he does to me when he drops his voice. “Still with me?” he asks.

Am I still with him? Hell yes, I’m with him. Again, I nod.

“After that we can end however soft or hard you want it before we rest, maybe take a dip in the pool, and come back to start the fuck fest again.”

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