Page 41 of It's Always Been You
When I open my eyes, he’s standing feet away from me on the sidewalk, his stare locked on me. My breath hitches at what I see on his face. His eyes are deep pools of blue, swimming with desire and a need so intense it electrifies the air. His damp hair falls over his forehead in dark curls, and rain falls in rivulets down his beautiful face. We stare at each other, chests rising and falling in sync.
The air between us is heavy and charged.
I know without consciously knowing that Gabe is waiting for me to make the first move. That whatever is or isn’t about to happen right now is my decision and on my terms. And long term, I don’t know what I want. But right now, I want him. It may not be right or fair, but fuck rightness, and fuck what’s fair. The only man I have ever loved is six feet away, looking at me like I am the reason he breathes, and, in this moment, I can’t breathe without him.
But he’s going to come to me.
Eyes still locked on Gabe’s, I put a hand on my waist and cock a hip.
“Ask me a question, Gabe.”
His lip twitches, a stark contrast to the intensity in his eyes.
“Can I kiss you, Rory?” His voice is raspy and sends a shot of arousal straight though me.
I don’t say anything. Instead, I raise an eyebrow as if to say,come and get it.
And he does.
Gabe is in front of me in three long strides. One of his hands grips my hip, and the other slides around my neck into my hair, his thumb sweeping along my jaw. He tips my chin up and crashes his lips to mine.Yes, this, is my only thought as I grasp his hips and my brain fuzzes and something loosens in my chest even as the need for him swirls in my belly and swims in my blood. Gabe’s hand tightens on my hip, and his taste and scent surround me. I wonder how it’s possible I lived without him—withoutthis—for all this time.
As fast as the kiss starts, it ends when Gabe tears his lips from mine, bringing our foreheads together. Rain streams over us both, and his breath saws in and out of his lungs, and his heart hammers out the same rhythm as mine.
“Rory,” he says again, my name reverent on his lips, and he closes his eyes as if to get a hold on his control. But he must decide it’s not worth the trouble because he cups my face in both of his hands and lays his full, soft lips back on mine. His tongue glides along the seam of my lips, asking me to open for him, and the second I do, Gabe groans into my mouth. Heat skates along my skin so intensely, I’m shocked the rain doesn’t just sizzle off me. I grip his hips harder and pull him closer to me. When I feel him long and hard against my belly, my clit gives an answering throb.
Our tongues tangle and dance and fight for dominance, and Gabe tips my head back farther, taking the kiss impossibly deeper. Kissing him is both familiar and new. The time between then and now collapses, and we are who we were and also who we are. Gabe, the boy he was, and Gabe, the man he is, and meand the multitudes I contain. My mind spins with the knowledge that Gabe is in my heart and my head and embedded deep in my soul, and I couldn’t extricate him if I tried.
I could kiss him forever.
Except I don’t get the chance because suddenly a loudcracksounds above us, followed by a crash, shattering the night. Gabe and I break apart, staring at each other, both of us wide-eyed, breaths heaving before we turn in unison toward the source of the noise.
My house.
And the tree that used to stand next to it, which is now laying straight across my no longer at all intact roof.
Chapter Fourteen
Molly
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” I yell to the universe from the doorway to my bedroom, staring at what used to be my bedroom ceiling. I barely resist the urge to stomp my foot like a toddler having a tantrum. This is going to be my villain origin story; I know it for sure.
It’s raining through a giant hole right over my bed. Shingles, insulation, drywall, leaves, and twigs are scattered everywhere. Massive tree branches poke through smaller holes in the ceiling like giant, twisted fingers coming down from on high to steal my sanity.
I have just barely recovered from what was probably the best kiss of my life, and now I have a Defcon 1 level home emergency to deal with.
I’d laugh if I wasn’t so pissed.
Gabe comes up behind me, returning from his trip to my attic to assess the damage. He snakes an arm around my waist, and I spin around in his hold.
“What’s the verdict?” I ask him, as if I don’t already know from my tornado of a bedroom that this is a disaster of epic proportions.
He winces, and I groan. “Sorry, Rory baby, but it’s about as bad as it gets. The entire roof on this side of the house is caved in. The tree took out most of the attic, and your HVAC system is toast. I called my virtual assistant and he’s already working on getting the tree removed and the roof tarped, and he can coordinate the permanent roof fix as well as handle clean-up in here. Oh, and also, he’ll have the rest of the house assessed for water damage because of the rain. If you give me your homeowners insurance details, he can file the claim for you too.”
I stare at Gabe, not sure what part of that to address first. I decide to go with the low-hanging fruit. “You have a virtual assistant?”
He just shrugs. “Sure. I don’t use him all that much because I prefer doing stuff for myself, but it comes in handy sometimes. Like when my favorite person has a tree fall on her roof at eleven o’clock at night during a veritable monsoon.”
I smirk at him because I guess if a tree is going to fall on my house, better it happens when I’m in the company of a take charge kind of guy with unlimited resources and an assistant who can deal with the aftermath. “I’m your favorite person?”
