Page 73 of Little Bird
He shoves my left hand out of his jacket, grabs my hips, and scoops me right into his lap. I’m still facing the sunset, but now he has access to both of my hands, and instead of pulling them into his own jacket he wraps them in his larger paws and slips them underneath my jacket.
Which puts his hands directly over my belly.
While I’m sitting in his lap.
My body immediately reacts, my back fighting to arch so that my ass presses against him. A rush of heat runs from my belly to my pussy, and I get wet so fast it almost makes me gasp out loud. I want to spread my legs and sit up so I can grind myself against his lap while at the same time wanting to turn around and throw my arms around him
Oh my God, how did this happen? How am I sitting in Gabe’s lap watching the sunset, his cock already hard against my ass and my pussy throbbing with the need for him to do more than just warm my hands up?
Did he plan this? Because he can’t have thought this was a good idea.
Actually, maybe he did. Gabe has always had trouble with impulse control.
“Warmer?” he breathes against my neck.
I nearly come undone at the feel of it. His breath is hot and moist, his lips far too close to my skin to be innocent. I’m not just warmer. I’m fucking hot. Burning up like someone lit a fire between my legs and the flames are licking up every inch of my skin.
So the only possible answer to his question is yes.
“Sure am,” I reply, hoping I sound at least a little bit normal. “So, come here often?”
Hey, I’m hoping that if I ask a normal question, my body will forget about that whole being on fire thing.
He settles in a bit, putting his chin on my shoulder and staring across the view at the setting sun. “A couple nights a week,” he says quietly. “It’s my favorite time, actually. It’s so quiet that it makes my brain shut down. I can’t overthink things when the world is going to sleep.”
I frown, trying to make sense of that. I’ve never known Gabe to need peace before, but I also haven’t been here over the last four years, and something’s definitely gone sideways for him. It doesn’t escape my attention that he comes up here at the opposite time from his father, and though I wonder if that’s on purpose, I put that idea away immediately. It’s not avoidance; it’s because Gabe and Gunner are very different men. Gabe is warm and melty while Gunner is stern and impossible. Of course they like different views.
“Your dad likes the sunrise,” I note, giving voice to my thoughts.
Gabe snorts. “Of course he does. I’m sure it signifies the start of yet another day of work for him.”
It does, but I don’t think now is the right time to say so. Instead, I say something else.
“You two used to be closer.”
He pauses for a beat before he answers. “That was before.”
“Before what?”
This time the pause is longer, and when he answers, some of the fire in my veins freezes.
“Before you and your mother left. He changed when you disappeared. Like the love he still had left just vanished.”
Ouch.
“The love he had left after your mom died?” I ask quietly, guessing at the root of Gunner’s pain.
Instead of answering, Gabe squeezes my hands more tightly, his arms strong around my body, and then moves so that his forehead is pressed against the back of my head.
“Yes,” he whispers.
I turn in his lap, adjusting so that my legs are outside his and I’m straddling him. And when he meets my gaze, his eyes are gentle and searching, as if he’s desperate for the answers I might have.
“What can I do?” I ask gently. “I want to help.”
I want to do more than help. I want to save both of them. Take them in my hands and tuck them into my pockets. Tell them it’s going to be okay and that I’ll take care of both of them. Gabe looks at me like he can hear all of those promises. Like he’s hoping against hope that I’m telling the truth.
And I finally see how broken and tender he actually is. He hides it so well when he’s out in the world, but right now, when it’s just the two of us, he takes his walls down and lets me see all the heartbreak and loneliness. And my God do I regret every second I’ve spent away from him. I should have been here holding his hand when he needed me. Helping him become the man he wanted to be. Letting him protect me from the world that was trying to destroy me.
