Blaze (Blaze #1) (4 page)

I’m one step out of the restroom when a hand
grabs my wrist. Gabriel pulls me into a narrow hallway near the
restaurant’s back entrance. My back is against the wall and he
presses his body against mine. I’m wearing heels, but I still have
to look up to meet his eyes.

He touches a strand of my hair and slowly
winds it around his finger.

“So, where is Matt?” he asks, releasing my
hair and letting his finger trail down the side of my neck. He
traces the slope of my breast before firmly cupping it.

I swallow hard and answer.

“He’s… home.”

“Mmmm. Bad for Matt, but good for me.”

“Don’t you mean good for James?”

He rubs his thumb along my nipple, through
my shirt, and I gasp.

“You’re not going home with James, Kate,” he
whispered. “You’re going home with me. Now.”

I gasp as he pulls me against him. I can’t
help but jerk away at the feel of his hardness pressing against me;
the feelings are spinning through me too fast.

We’re back in his apartment, and the whole
city sprawls out below us. But I don’t care about that. I just care
about him, and what’s he’s going to do to me tonight.

“Don’t be scared,” he says, and his voice is
half growl.

God, he’s beautiful. The hard lines of his
jaw clench as he runs his hands down the small of my back, cupping
my ass, squeezing me there.

This time when he kisses me it’s softer.
More gentle. And I whimper at the fire building in the pit of my
stomach.

Before I know what I’m doing I’m kissing him
harder, crushing myself against him. I claw at him, desperately,
and I can feel the triumphant grin pulling at his mouth. But I
don’t care. I don’t care about anything except him taking me. I
want him like I’ve never wanted anyone before.

Please hurry, Gabriel. Don’t waste your time
teasing me. Tear my clothes off and just take me, right here, on
the floor if it makes you happy. Just don’t make me wait. I can’t
stand it.

I can hear the low groan building up in the
back of my throat, and I muffle it by sucking on his lower lip. His
mouth is hot and sweet. I run my hands over his back; I can’t
believe how hard and tight the muscles there are.

“I want to see you,” he demands, and his
fingers expertly run up from button to button on my shirt, popping
them loose. I shrug out of my shirt and it falls to the ground,
forgotten.

He walks me back against the wall and I feel
the hardness of it against my ass. His cock is pulsing against my
thigh and I moan with the desire flooding through me.

His mouth traces kisses down my neck, across
my shoulder. My heart’s hammering against my ribs. All I can think
of is him inside me. I can hardly breathe.

“The bedroom,” he whispers, and I nod
frantically. I can’t talk right now. It doesn’t matter though,
because his lips are on mine again, and I suck at his tongue, I
tangle my hands through his hair. I want to feel all of him pressed
against me.

I don’t know where the bedroom is, but that
doesn’t matter. With one smooth movement he scoops me up and my
arms link around his neck. He lowers me enough so I can still feel
the hardness at the center of him. Raw need sweeps through me at
the touch of it.

I bury my head in the collar of his shirt as
he walks me through the dark apartment, breathing in the raw scent
of him. My mouth opens and I suck greedily at his neck. My fingers
curl at his neck and he arches his back.

“Don’t cut me up too badly,” he murmurs. He
opens a door as I go to kiss him again, and he throws me down onto
his bed.

He shucks off his jacket and shirt while I
pull frantically at my clothes. I want to be naked for him right
now. My skirt catches for a moment and I desperately kick it off to
fly across the room.

He’s standing at the end of the bed. His
body is heavy with muscles. I can see the hard outlines of his cock
beneath his briefs. I scramble to the end of the bed with my heart
pounding like it’s going to explode up out of my throat. I pull his
underwear off, barely allowing him time to step out of them.

His cock springs up hard against his belly
and I moan as I drop my mouth over it, sucking him in. He’s so big
I have to draw back and I gasp for breath before laving it with my
tongue. A raw heat is pulsing between my legs.

He shudders then puts his hands on my
shoulders and gently pushes me back.

“There’ll be time for that later,” he says,
and I can feel the disappointment on my face.

He moves onto the bed and kisses me so
tenderly that for a moment I lose all sense of where I am. All I
know in the whole world is his lips on mine.

Then with one thrust he’s inside me, and I
groan so loud he’s going to get complaints from management tomorrow
morning.

The pleasure consumes me. Every thrust
stifles the hunger I have for him, every time he moves away I’m
desperate for him to fill me again. He pulls me tight against him,
pushing deeper and deeper until he’s hilting himself inside me.

“Jesus, Kate…” he breathes, and he kisses me
again, hard and strong. I’m almost sobbing with relief when he
breaks away; whenever he kisses me a burst of electricity goes up
and down my spine and I can’t handle the intensity of it.

He slams into me, hard and fast, and his
strokes begin to get more and more ragged.

“Come in me,” I whisper into his ear, and
his body tenses. I rake my nails down his back and suck his earlobe
into my mouth before whispering again.

“I want you to come in me,” I say, and I
draw my knees up. I have to bite my lip as he follows me, thrusting
from the hips, entering me even deeper.

I’m going to come. I can feel it building.
I’ve never had an orgasm with anyone else before. His thrusts are
getting faster and more insistent. He clamps his hands on my ass
and pulls me closer to him.

“Gabriel-” I start to say then the words are
lost. My orgasm roars through me like a tidal wave and I cry out,
high and sharp. The feeling explodes from my stomach and I’m
helpless, washed away, as he breathes out hard and I feel his cock
get even harder and pulse before his own orgasm takes him.

I can’t help but notice how perfectly our
bodies fit together – my head on his chest, our legs intertwined,
his hand lightly stroking my back. His heartbeat is steady against
the side of my face. It’s enough to almost lull me to sleep.
Almost.

“I wasn’t scared.”

“Hmm?” His reply is a deep rumble in his
chest that vibrates through me.

“Before we... you told me not to be scared.
I wasn’t afraid of sleeping with you.”

Gabriel shifts and with very little effort
he pulls me directly on top of him. My hair falls forward like
curtains on either side of our faces, which are just inches
apart.

“You certainly don’t fuck like you’re
afraid.”

Then he kisses me. It’s soft, tender, and
nothing like our earlier kisses. I want so much to lose myself in
it, but I pull away and sit up.

“I am worried about what comes next,
Gabriel.”

I know it’s ridiculous to attempt
the
talk
when I’m naked and straddling the sexiest man I’ve ever
seen, but if I don’t do it now, I never will. I’ll allow myself to
get swept up in whatever this is whether I should or not.

Gabriel sighs and sits up as well. I stretch
out my legs so they’re wrapped around him.

“What comes next, Kate?”

He says my name like a frustrated teacher
scolding a pupil.

“I don’t know. What do you want to come
next?”

He lowers his head and kisses one nipple,
then the other, and then the first one again.

“I’d like you to come next, then me, and
then you again. But that’s not what you meant, is it?”

I shake my head, not trusting myself to
speak. My nipples are hard and ache for his lips.
Focus,
Kate.

“I’m in town until I finish writing my next
book. It’s set here. While I’m in San Francisco, I’d love to keep
seeing you. And keep fucking you. As much as you’ll let me.”

“And then?”

“Is that important to you? Because I
honestly don’t know.”

“I’m not asking you to promise me happily
ever after, Gabriel, if that’s what you’re thinking.” I hate how
offended I sound, but I know it’s for the best - cards on the table
and all that.

“Good. Because happily ever after doesn’t
exist.”

I smile and run my hands down his chest.

“Not according to every book you’ve ever
written.”

His mouth sets in a frown and his eyes
travel over my body, but I can tell he’s not really seeing me.

“My characters get the fairy tale ending
because I never will.”

Alrighty, then
.

Pushing further doesn’t seem like a very
good idea so I lock my hands behind his neck and dip my head,
forcing him to look me in the eyes.

“So, no strings attached. We just enjoy
ourselves while you’re here. No riding off into the sunset.”

“Can you do that, Kate?” he asks with an
urgency that feels like he wants me to say yes.

“Because someone always wants more.”

I try not to linger on
always.
How
many girls, in how many cities, has he done this with?

“Yes, I can do this, Gabriel. If one of us
starts to want… more… we’ll walk away.”

“Deal. Shall we shake on it?”

He kisses me then. I let go of his neck and
bury my hands in his hair, gripping tightly when I feel him grow
hard against me.

I break away.

“We could. Or we could do this.”

I lift my hips and reach down with one hand,
guiding him inside me. He grabs my ass, pulls me close, and I am
filled with every inch of him.

Another perfect fit.

As soon as I step out of the elevator the
office goes quiet. Dead quiet, like in a movie theater. Marie and
Christine, our two receptionists, won’t meet my eyes.

Normally this place is overflowing with
noise. I love walking into work here. Everyone’s always so busy,
dashing around the place, throwing jokes back and forth about the
latest shitty novel someone submitted about a time-traveling serial
killer who happens to look just like Channing Tatum or about how
bad the hours are.

But today there’s none of that, and a bad
feeling in my stomach is telling me it’s because of me.

It’s not until I walk past the reception
desk and Marie blushes and asks, “So how was your weekend, Kate?”
and Christine explodes into nervous giggles that I realize what’s
going on.

Natasha.

I walk through the office to my desk like
I’m running a gauntlet. Every last woman in the place – from
Juanita, the stunning Latina girl who handles our legal department
and whose curves I would
kill
for, to Mary, the
sixty-something general manager who’s been here
forever
–
gives me this
look
as I walk by.

It’s this knowing, almost-smiling
look
, and it’s the same on all of their faces. By the time I
get to my tiny little broom-closet office crammed away at the far
end of the floor, my cheeks are blazing red.

Finally I can duck out of sight and close
the door behind me and I breathe out in a giant whoosh of air. I
don’t want to go back out there until everyone else has gone home
for the day.

Great idea there, McDonald
, I think.
Just sit here for nine hours and you’ll be just fine, then rinse
and repeat for the rest of the week. And the month. And until
whenever it is Gabriel leaves town. Genius.

Before I can even turn my computer on,
Natasha’s slipping through the door and planting her butt right on
my desk. Her face is lit up with the biggest grin I’ve ever
seen.

“Gabriel
fucking
Call!” she
half-shouts, half-whispers. “You went home with Gabriel
fucking
Call! Please tell me you got some action this time
and he didn’t kick your ass to the curb again.”

“Jesus, keep it down!” I hiss back. “Half
the office already knows! You should have seen the looks I got
coming in today!”

She looks suitably embarrassed about
that.

“OK,” she says, not meeting my eyes. “I
might
have mentioned something to Hannah on Friday night
when you left with Gabriel. And everyone was drinking, and
that
news went off like a bomb so…”

“So now I’m the office slut,” I say
bitterly. “Great. Just great.”

“No way!” Natasha says. “Are you kidding?
Everyone’s been saying you need to find a proper boyfriend for
months
. You’re
way
too hot and funny and smart to be
single. It’s just… shit, Kate, Gabriel
Call
? That’s like…
that’s like someone suggested you go for a run around the block and
you come back with an Olympic gold medal.”

Despite myself, I laugh.

“And
I
heard,” Natasha said, “that
Madelyn was impressed as all hell. You
know
she’s been
looking for a new writer liaison. If you can sweep Gabriel Call off
his feet, you can sure as hell deal with some of the authors we
handle around here.”

“I don’t know if I swept him off his feet,
exactly,” I say. “More like he lifted me off mine.”

“Tell me more,” Natasha purrs, leaning
in.

The door to my office slams open and of
course, it’s Amy, my manager. As usual, her brown and gray hair is
pulled back into a tight bun and her face is stern and
disapproving.

“
Kate
,” she says, and my back
instantly goes ramrod straight. “And
Natasha
. As usual, I
have to remind you both that your office is not for gossiping. I
could hear the two of you out in the corridor.”