A Question of Love (7 page)

Chapter Six

Tina stared in disbelief at the hulking mountain of a man standing in her doorway.
He’d come back
. After the way he’d left earlier, she’d believed he’d never want to lay eyes on her again.

An intense wave of relief swept over her.

“Have dinner with me?” he invited, as if nothing had transpired between the two of them today. As if he hadn’t professed his love for her. As if he hadn’t brought her to orgasm several times over. As if she hadn’t watched his face shadow over when she’d told him she’d loved both him and Connor.

“Y-you want to have a meal together?”

He shrugged. “We both have to eat.”

Tina hoped her jaw hadn’t dropped in response. Two hours ago Gabe had left with a tortured look on his face. Now he was extending a casual invitation to dinner.

She said the first thing that came to mind. “Well, gosh, Gabe. I’m kinda busy right now. You know? Forgetting about you and forgetting about today. Just like you instructed. I don’t have the time to stop for a bite.”

Gabe’s answering smile was slow to develop. “Damn, T, maybe one day I’ll learn to take offense to your cynical nature.”

“Damn, G, maybe one day you won’t inspire cynicism in me.”

He nodded, every glimmer of his smile gone. “I can only hope. May I come in?”

She narrowed her eyes as she looked up at him belligerently. “That depends. Do you have any plans to raid the contents of my bedside drawer again?” Her stomach gave an unexpected quiver. Shit. She should know better than to refer to her toys. Gabe’s skill with a vibrator surpassed any man’s she’d known, even Connor’s.

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “That would—” Gabe shook his head and broke off mid-sentence. “I came to take you to dinner, that’s it.” He frowned. “I swear there will not be a repeat of this afternoon’s performance…” This time he let his words trail off.

Tina eyed him warily. He’d left way too much unsaid. He could have finished his sentence with…
unless you want there to be one.
And damn it, she did. Just standing opposite Gabe had her nerves jumping about in a state of useless confusion. Okay, not confusion. Longing. Being anywhere near the man brought out a deep-seated ache for the physical gratification he and Connor had once freely provided.

She pushed the lust aside. Five orgasms and a confession of love in one day was about as much as her body could handle. Or her mind, for that matter.

Lord, where’d Gabe learn how to do all of that? He was the only man she knew who could bring her to orgasm more than once in a single session of lovemaking. Even Connor, for all his skill, hadn’t had the ability. But Gabe. Damn, over and over again she came for him, until her body was limp and sated and exhausted.

With less reluctance than she would have liked, Tina stepped aside and let him in. She’d have to take him at his word. Gabe may have done a lot of things, but he’d never lied. If he swore nothing would happen, nothing would happen. Unless, of course,
she
changed the rules.

She gave a sharp mental shake of her head. She wouldn’t.

He walked into her flat, and she closed the door behind them. That was when the momentary panic set in. Christ, he was back. Now what? Did she have to relive old memories once again? The months when she was happiest with the men she loved? The days when nothing could have gotten her down because she had two gorgeous men whom she adored and who worshipped her?

At first it had been just her and Connor. That had been fun. Connor was a smart guy with a wicked sense of humor. Sleeping with him was a serious turn-on. Then Gabe entered the equation, and the sex had gone from good to explosive. Making love to Connor
and
Gabe was the most sensual, most satisfying, most thrilling experience of her life. Falling in love with them had been a natural progression in their relationship. If the choice had been hers, she would have stayed with both of them forever.

The choice hadn’t been hers. Gabe had left, destroying the most precious of bonds.

She thumped him on the back. Hard.

“Ugh!”
He turned in surprise. “What was that for?”

“For walking out on me. On us.” She glowered at him, anger settling in the pit of her stomach.

“So you hit me?”

“Hit? Hah, I’d beat you senseless if I knew I stood a chance.”

His pupils dilated. “You stand every chance. Don’t you know you’ve rendered me senseless on more than one occasion?”

“Bull,” she sneered. “I’ve never even punched you before.” She corrected her error now, clenching her fist and striking out as hard as she could. Her hand connected with his stomach, and her breath left her body in a gasp. Damn it! She’d hit a wall of solid muscle, and the only pain she’d caused was to her own fingers.

Gabe gawked at her. “You don’t need to punch me. Just being with you takes my breath away.” He dropped his gaze to his stomach and then lifted it back up to meet hers again. His tone was lowered by several notches. “Making love to you… Damn, I never could think straight when I was inside you. Couldn’t see, couldn’t hear.” Gabe closed his eyes on a groan. “All I could do was feel.”

His words rolled through her like warm honey, slipping through her veins, heating her blood. “Shut up, Gabe.” Pain be damned. She punched him again and then again, this time on his arm. “I’m busy being pissed off at you.”

He tensed his biceps, accepting her blows without comment.

Shit, wasn’t that just typical Gabe behavior? Everything went by without comment. Everything. Even his departure from her life. She hit him harder. Then harder again. “Damn you, Gabriel Carter,” she spluttered. “You left us. You left me. You walked away from the best thing that ever happened to me. You bastard.” The hand she’d been attacking with throbbed so she switched arms and pummeled him good. Rage came bubbling to the surface, lending strength to her strikes. “I loved you, goddamn it. You and Connor. You were my world. My happiness. And. You. Walked. Away. You destroyed us.”

Four years, and who would have thought she still had so much emotion left in her? So much bloody anger and despair. Yes, he may have come back six months later, but by then it was already too late. She’d met Grant and tried to move on with her life.

“I destroyed me too,” Gabe whispered.

“Shut up,” she snapped. “You don’t get to have a say now. You don’t get to tell me how you felt. You’re four years too bloody late for that.”

She raised her arm to strike him again, but before her hand found its target, he acted. In less time than it took to blink, Tina hung suspended in space, her legs dangling uselessly below her. Gabe had her caught between his body and the wall. His chest pressed into hers, flattening her breasts against his pecs, against a barrier of super hard male flesh. His thigh was wedged between her legs, holding her up, pushing against her groin, making even the slightest move an exquisite form of torture. And his mouth was inches, centimeters, from hers. So close the rasping heat of his breath warmed her lips, tickled her nose and sent a blast of half-crazed lust careening down her spine.

“You were my world, T. But you were Connor’s first. I didn’t have a choice.” He thrust his thigh up, and she battled against him.

Oh, holy hell. She needed to stop struggling. The sensations smashing through her and lighting up her core had her writhing with need. Either she had to quit struggling—or she needed to go to war with him. All-out war, which would have only one result. An orgasm. And a damn hard one if her current state of desire was anything to go by.

“We all have choices,” she bit back and then added for good measure, “Sometimes we just make the wrong ones.”

“You think I don’t know how bad my decision was?” Gabe’s voice was hoarse, the look in his eyes tortured. “You think I didn’t spend the last three and a half years in hell wondering how you were? If you were married? Happy?” He ground his thigh against her pussy, and she bit back a whimper. “You think this is what I want? My leg here? Fuck, T, I want my whole body between your legs. I want…” He closed his eyes and groaned. “I want to be inside you. So goddamned deep inside you I lose myself. I want…need to feel your warm pussy wrapped around me, pulling me in deeper and deeper…”

Tina gulped, because now that he’d voiced it out loud, she wanted the very same thing. She had a maddening compulsion to tear off her clothes and his, draw him down to the floor and envelop his hard length with her pussy.

He dropped his head, resting his forehead against hers, taking in great gulps of air. She sucked in the air he exhaled, greedy for anything of his to become a part of her.

His voice was erotic as sin as he panted out, “Need to…make love…to you.”

She dissolved. Any reluctance that might have prevented her from responding dissipated in his words, in his raw desire for her. Her eyelids drooped, her lips parted, and she raised her chin to meet his mouth in the inevitability of a kiss. More than her next breath, she wanted his mouth on hers.

Which made the resounding thud beside her left ear all the more shocking.

Gabe pounded the wall with his fist. Once, twice and a third time. With a strangled moan he dropped his thigh and drew away from Tina. He did not release her until her feet touched the ground.

With legs as useless as rubber, she slid weightlessly down the wall, her knees caving beneath her, and came to rest in a shapeless lump on the carpeted floor.

Gabe prowled her lounge, a veritable giant amongst her furniture. He drew to a halt against the wall opposite her, hit it once and then dropped to the floor as well.

For endless moments he stared at her, his eyes hooded, his mouth drawn. The sound of heavy breathing echoed in her ears. His? Hers? She had no idea. Her heart slammed into her ribs, her lungs seeking oxygen in the airless room.

“I’m sorry,” he rasped. “I…shouldn’t have done that.”

She waited until she was sure she could string a sentence together. “I…shouldn’t have hit you.” Yet even with the acknowledgement her hand still curled into a fist, the dull ache in her knuckles nothing compared to the need to lash out at him again.

He stared at her fist and raised an eyebrow. The look on his face might have been skeptical—if longing and naked desire hadn’t shadowed his eyes. “But you’re not sorry you did.”

She forced her fingers to straighten. “You hurt me, Gabe.”

He nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“I wanted to…hurt you back.”

Another nod. “That’s okay.” He slumped against the wall and let his arms drop to his sides. “I won’t respond this time. I swear.” He kept his gaze level with hers. “Come at me. Hurt me as much as you need to.”

Instinct made her hands curl into fists again, but this time, Tina restrained herself. If she went at him now she’d last maybe three seconds before her blows turned to caresses. Instead of inflicting pain she’d draw relief from touching his skin. If she so much as tapped a finger to his flesh now, she’d be naked and begging for more before Gabe had time to register what had—or hadn’t—hit him.

She bit back a frustrated cry. “I just want…” Her voice trailed off. “I want… I need…” She shook her head, unable to put words to her thoughts.

“What is it, T? Tell me. Anything you want. Anything. It’s yours.”

She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. “I just want…” And then because nothing else would have made sense under the circumstances, she said, “I just want pasta for dinner.”

They went to an Italian restaurant. Gabe plied her with good food and good wine. He entertained her with stories about his patients and his practice. He coaxed her into telling him about her life over the last few years, listening to each word as if he were hungry to discover every detail he’d missed. So enjoyable was his company she was almost lulled into believing the incident in her apartment had never taken place. Almost. Except for the tangible desire Gabe seemed to emit with every breath.

The heat between them pinged back and forth across the table, Gabe exhaling it, she inhaling. It burned through her lungs as clearly as if he’d touched her, scorching her with his fingers. He
hadn’t
touched her. Not once. There had been no physical contact between them since he’d released her from the sensual prison of his body. Didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of the lust that hissed between them.

As she spoke he watched her with heavy-lidded eyes. Each time she laughed his gaze lingered on her mouth for just a second too long. The one time she’d licked a drop of Neapolitan sauce from her lip, his lips had parted, the bottom one pink and full, as though it had just been kissed.

And then there were the not-so-subtle hints. The blatant expressions of his need that whipped up a whirlwind in her stomach and made eating impossible.

“T,” he whispered when there was a lull in conversation.

She leaned forward to hear him better. “Yes, Gabe?”

“I want to strip every single item of clothing from your body, lay you bare across this table and fuck you until neither of us can walk straight.”

His words, soft as they were, hit her with the force of a volcano. She gaped at him.

“I want to feel your mouth wrapped around my dick. I want…need your hot tongue lapping at my balls, making me come.”

Tina swallowed. The spicy tomato zest of her pasta vanished. All she could taste was the salty, musky tang of intimate male skin.

He took a small, uneven breath and then continued. “But not as much as I want to stretch your thighs wide open and bury my face between your legs. Christ, T, I want to lick your pussy until you climax, screaming, in my mouth.”

Had Tina’s mind been working on full alert, she would have glanced around the restaurant to see if anyone was watching them, listening in. But Gabe’s words, his tone and his honesty had her reeling, had her dissolving in a puddle of wanton lust. She too was desperate to strip away her clothes, desperate to lay naked on the table before him.

All she needed now was Connor and their trio would be complete.

“And then…” Gabe closed his eyes and seemed to swallow a moan. “And then, when you’re wet and hot and swollen—and still shaking from your orgasm, I want to flip you over, pull your hips up and slide inside you. Deep, deep inside you.”