Gable (15 page)
Uh. What in the world was going on in his head? One minute he’s telling me he’s with me, whatever he meant by that, and the next he’s looking at me as if I was the biggest mistake he’s ever made. God.
His demeanor jarred my fogged brain into action and I remembered then that we needed to talk. I also remembered the reason I was out here in the first place which was to possibly catch him making out with his professor. Crap.
I extracted myself from his arms, dropping my hands (and foot) and stepping to the side to put some space between us, the whole time trying to even out my breathing. I swear, the man was the embodiment of sex itself, making me want him any time he touched me which was just unnerving. When I got myself together somewhat, I glanced up to see the pained look still on his face as if he regretted what had just happened between us.
“What?” I whispered with a frown.
He closed his eyes for several seconds then opened them before taking a deep breath. “It’s complicated.”
“Yeah,” I answered. His head came up and his eyes held mine, regarding me as if he was afraid that I knew about his past, which I, of course, did, but he didn’t know that. “I don’t know what’s going on, Gable. You haven’t talked to me in five days. And then you tell me you’re with me but don’t explain it. I’m not sure I understand.”
He backed away and went to the steps to pick up his pack of cigarettes, getting one out and lighting it. I watched as he sucked in deep then blew out the smoke.
“I’m fucked up, Scout. Screwed up,” he answered, his eyes cutting through me as he took another drag. “You were smart, you’d leave me the fuck alone.” He then looked away as he took another hit from his cigarette.
Ugh. Same thing Hayden had said to me which had been a big fucking excuse. And now I was pissed.
“You know what? I hate when guys do shit like this,” I hissed, throwing my arms up. Gable’s head came up and his eyes pierced mine. “Suck you into their lives then feed you that bullshit line. That’s a fucking copout, Gable, and you know it.” I glared at him, angry that he’d gone to that.
He narrowed his eyes. “Oh, yeah? Had this happen before, have you? What, your ex cheat with your best friend? Then tell you he’s fucked up? That what happened?”
I now scowled at him. We’d only talked about this through email never in person, so now I was sure he knew we were pen pals. “Yeah. Had exactly that happen,” I snapped.
He didn’t even flinch. Yep. Definitely knew. He took one last drag on his cigarette before flicking it away. Then after exhaling the smoke, he gazed at me for a moment then took a deep breath in through his nose, blew it back out and took a step toward me. We were still about three feet apart at that point but the distance felt like miles. His eyes scanned my face and my hair as if he was trying to memorize what I looked like then they came back to mine. “So fuckin’ beautiful. So fuckin’ hard to resist,” he mumbled as he shook his head. I started to tell him not to resist but he spoke before I could. “But I’ve got shit goin’ on and I can’t do this right now.”
It took me a moment to process that and when I did, my brows came down. Okay, even though I knew we weren’t technically together, was he saying he was breaking up with me? But he’d just told me he was with me! God! He was so frustrating!
“Ar—are you telling me we’re over?” I asked, my mouth instantly dry and tears stinging the backs of my eyes.
“Not fair for me to ask you to wait until I get shit sorted, so, yeah, I guess I am.” His eyes, void of any emotion at all, held mine.
Oh, my God. Was he kidding me right now?
Wow. Just fucking wow.
I opened my mouth to respond then closed it. I opened it once again and closed it again. Well, three times a charm and all that, so I once again opened it, but still having no clue what I’d say if I could’ve actually spoken, closed it one last time. Then keeping my eyes fixed to his and seeing that he wasn’t budging on what he’d said, I nodded a couple times, still reeling from what had just happened, and unable to hold the tears back, stood humiliated in front of him as they spilled down my cheeks.
Then I walked away.
~*~*~*~
The next part was carried out in a zombified state:
I went inside the bar, found Jack, told him I didn’t feel well and needed to leave. When I got his okay, I clocked out, walked outside, got in my car and drove home.
At my apartment, I went inside, went to my bedroom, got a change of clothes, went to the bathroom, took a shower, dressed, brushed my teeth, went to my bedroom, got in bed and fell asleep.
When I awoke the next morning, I knew I’d been on some serious autopilot the night before because I was puzzled at how I’d gotten into bed much less gotten home.
Weird.
After lying there staring at the ceiling for a while, I got up and walked into the kitchen to get breakfast seeing Amy sitting at the table in her usual “I hate morning” position as she ate her cereal. I walked to the counter, grabbed the bag of bagels, got one out, pulled a knife out of the drawer to cut it in two, put the other half back in the bag, twisted the bag shut then dropped the other half into the toaster.
Jeez. I was still in zombie mode.
“You okay?” Amy mumbled as I pushed the button down on the toaster.
I turned and leaned my butt against the counter. “Yeah. Why?”
She looked at me through narrowed eyes. “You’re still moving like a robot. I said hi to you last night when you came in but you acted like you didn’t hear me or even knew I was there, and, like WALL-E or some shit, you did your nightly routine then went to bed without even acknowledging me. So, again, you okay?”
My eyes dropped to the floor and what had happened between Gable and me finally hit me. My eyes teared up and I looked up at her. “No, I don’t think I am.”
“Oh, sweetie, what’s wrong?” she asked, pushing away from the table and standing coming over to me.
I looked at her as a tear made its way down my cheek. “Gable said we’re over.” And that’s when it really hit me and I hiccupped out a sob as the tears came one after the other.
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry,” Amy whispered and took me in her arms, letting me cry on her shoulder.
There was a knock at the door then I heard a key in the knob and Bodhi made his way inside.
“Just got off work and I’m starv—” he started then I heard him ask, “What’s going on?”
I pulled my head away from Amy and looked up at him not able to contain the choked sob that came out and then he was there, taking me into his arms and letting me cry against his chest. He rubbed his hand over my back several times whispering sweet things to me as I clutched his t-shirt with my fists.
When I was cried out, I brought my head back to look up at him and I knew from the look on his face that Amy had communicated to him somehow what had happened.
“It’s gonna be okay, Scout. Promise,” he said looking down at me with a small smile.
I nodded as another tear slipped out. Amy handed me a napkin and I used it to wipe my eyes then nose.
“I—I feel like an idiot,” I told them. “I knew he’d hurt me.”
Bodhi ushered me over to sit in a chair at the table and Amy brought me a freshly toasted bagel that she’d put grape jelly on, placing the plate and a glass of orange juice in front of me.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, staring at my breakfast knowing I’d lost my appetite.
They both sat down at the table with me.
“What happened?” Bodhi asked, eating what I was pretty sure was the first bagel I’d put in to toast.
I sighed then told them what’d happened and afterward we sat in silence for a few minutes.
“He didn’t break up with you,” Bodhi finally said making my head jerk up to look at him.
“What?” I asked.
“I mean, he told you he had to work through some things, right?”
I nodded.
“He didn’t break up with you,” he repeated.
“So when he said we’re over he was just kidding,” I said sarcastically.
“His brother told you about what had happened to him,” Amy reminded me. “So I think Bodhi’s right. I mean, he may have said you’re over, but I don’t think he meant it. From what you’ve told us, pretty sure he’s totally into you.”
“What?” I asked incredulously. “May I remind you that he fucking broke things off!”
“Yeah, but I don’t think he meant to,” Bodhi threw out there.
“You guys are delusional,” I mumbled.
“You’re still going to the party tonight,” Amy stated. “You can confront him there.”
Oh, shit! The party. Oh, hell no.
“No! I can’t go!” I dropped my head into my hand with a groan.
“Oh, you’re going, all right,” Bodhi said. “And you’re gonna knock him dead with how hot you look. He’ll change his tune after that.”
I shook my head. No way was I going. No way.
“We’ll be right there with you, Scout. It’s all gonna work out,” Amy added.
Sure it would. I’d find him at the party, tell him I was his pen pal, he’d tell me he hated liars, and even though my dear friends were trying to convince me that Gable and I weren’t over, when I told him, we’d be
really
over and that’d be the end of that.
Sounded like loads of fun.
I couldn’t wait.
______________________________________
From:
9543254
Subject:
Tonight
Date:
October 31, 9:02 a.m.
To:
9565876
[email protected]
Six,
Can’t wait to see you tonight. I’ll be the one dressed as Arrow in all black, hooded jacket and jeans with a bow and quiver and a mask, of course. I’ll be there around 9. Don’t know if you’ve been in the Sig Eps’ house before, but when you walk in, go to your left. I’ll be waiting in the hallway by the kitchen bar.
See you soon.
xx
My stomach flipped when I read Gable’s email that morning. If Amy hadn’t been right there when my phone dinged, I would’ve written back and told him I wasn’t coming. But she was and she grabbed my phone and answered for me.
______________________________________
From:
9565876
Subject:
Tonight
Date:
October 31, 9:04 a.m.
To:
9543254
I’ll be there.
And that was that.
~*~*~*~
I went to my classes that morning, thanking God that I didn’t run into Gable and now here I was getting ready for the stupid party that neither Bodhi nor Amy would let me get out of. The good thing was, they’d plied me with alcohol so I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I thought I’d be.
When Amy and I walked into the living room, Bodhi let out a loud wolf whistle then exclaimed, “Damn! You’ll be the hottest chicks there!”
I had to admit, we did look good. Amy had on her Catwoman outfit that was skintight, and she looked sexy as hell. I had on my lingerie along with the four-inch black stilettos I’d bought and the robe covering it all. I’d poufed my hair big with lots of big curls and done my makeup dramatic, giving myself smoky cat eyes with eyeliner even though they’d be mostly covered with my mask. I’d borrowed Amy’s scarlet lipstick so we matched and that topped off my outfit. Then we’d sprayed the adhesive to my mask and pressed it to my face and I was ready.
“Not looking so bad yourself,” Amy replied.
Bodhi’s Zorro costume did look good on him.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Antonio Banderas was in my living room right now,” I stated with a giggle, the vodka I’d been drinking having loosened me up quite a bit.
“Okay, enough with the booze,” Amy said, taking the glass out of my hands. “Ready?” she asked, looking closely at me.
I sighed. “As I’ll ever be.”
“Let’s go over the game plan again,” Bodhi repeated for the fiftieth time.
“I think we’ve got it down,” I whined. “We go in, we get a drink, I find Gable, I tell him who I am, if I need your help, I wave at you and you come over and get me the hell out of there. Do I have it right?” I raised an eyebrow at Bodhi.
“You do. All right. Let’s do this,” he muttered and we left the apartment, piled into Amy’s Mazda SUV and headed to the party.
~*~*~*~
I don’t know if I’d ever been brave before, but as we walked inside the frat house, I felt like a goddamned hero for even showing up.
I know that sounds stupid, but that shit was scary. Even though I was a bit tipsy (I’d snuck the fifth of vodka with me in my robe pocket and had a few hits on the way over from where I sat alone in the backseat) I could still feel my heart in my throat.
But I was so glad my friends were with me because without them, I think this bravery gig I had going on would’ve backfired the minute I got out of the vehicle. As it was, being sandwiched between Amy, who led the way, and Bodhi who was at my back, I was doing pretty well.
“Drink,” Amy directed once we were inside, having to yell this over the loudly thumping music that was playing, and I followed her through the crowd to a corner where several guys were manning a keg.
Since beer had made my shit list when I’d gotten drunk several weeks ago, I bypassed the cup that was offered me and pulled out the vodka bottle instead.
“Are you shitting me?” Amy snapped when she saw it and tried grabbing it from me.
“Just one more,” I explained, then took a huge gulp and gladly handed her what remained.
“Don’t get sloppy,” she responded but I could see she sympathized with me.
“There he is,” Bodhi said, his tall frame making him head and shoulders above everyone else and helping him see over the crowd. I looked up at him and he nodded toward his left. I know he saw the fear in my eyes because he grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “You’ll be fine.”
“You will,” Amy agreed with a nod then put her hand to the middle of my back and gave me a small push in the direction Bodhi had been looking.
When I turned and looked at both of them, Amy smiled with a nod and Bodhi gave me a thumbs up, then I continued on my way to where I knew Gable would be.
I pushed my way through the crowd catching several guys giving me appreciative leers, and one even stopped me to ask for my number, which oddly gave me the confidence to stay the course and talk to Gable. I won’t mention the guy who tried to feel me up in between the confidence-building I was receiving, but anyway, as I made my way over, I saw through the throng of partygoers Gable standing where he said he would be, talking to two girls who were dressed like Playboy Bunnies. One was rubbing herself all over him and I noticed that he wasn’t denying her the contact. Jerk. And this gave me even more confidence to confront him because I’d had enough of his shit. He was a cheater and a jerk and a bastard and I was done with him. This may have been the alcohol talking, but at that point in time, I was finished with his hotter than hot assholish self. It may have helped too when I turned and tiptoed up to see Bodhi watching me from across the room giving me a nod.
I stood at the fringe of the revelers waiting for Gable to finish talking with the Playmates and was somewhat impressed with his costume. He had on a black, leather jacket that was tight enough that anyone could see that he was buff underneath it, the black hood on his head making him look a little sinister and the mask he wore doing a good job of disguising his identity. He wore black jeans and black military-style boots and of course, the bow and a quiver strapped on his back. I hated to admit it, but he looked extremely sexy and I felt my confidence waiver a bit. Just as I was about to turn around and go back to Bodhi and Amy, I was bumped into by a very good looking guy (from what I could tell since he was wearing a mask) who was dressed as a fireman and who immediately wrapped his arm around my waist pulling me into his front, and apologizing for running into me. He had gorgeous white teeth as he smiled down at me and I was just about to ask his name when I felt someone grab my hand and yank me away not only from him but from the slew of celebrants that surrounded me.
“Six. It’s you,” Gable muttered as he still held my hand but looked me over from head to toe. “Fuck… me…” he mumbled.
“In the flesh,” I replied, now feeling fairly bold at his reaction but also disappointed that he didn’t know it was me. But the vodka swimming in my veins didn’t let me feel that way for long. No, it emboldened me and I was glad. So I’d play along for a bit before spoiling it all for him. Whatever.
Gable stared at me for a moment before he spoke again. “May I?” he asked and I frowned not sure what he wanted. When his hand tugged on the belt of my robe, I knew he wanted to see what I wore, and what the hell, I knew I looked good, so I nodded.
I looked down to watch him untie my sash and saw his hand shaking a bit. Hm. He was nervous. Good. And that made me feel even more fearless, as if I had all the power here which was awesome.
When he got my belt undone, he put his hands inside my robe, opening it with the backs as he pushed them out to each side.
“Holy fuck,” he muttered as he saw what I was wearing. “Jesus Christ, Six. You’re fucking stunning.”
I smirked at him knowing he’d never get to experience all the stunning that came with me, which was a weird thought, but hello, vodka.
Then his hands slid all the way inside to the back of my waist and he pulled me into him hard, surprising the hell out of me.
“Wanna fuck you, Six. Damn. I think I might be in love with you,” he whispered into my ear.
And, oh, God, I wanted that so badly, wanted him to want me, wanted him to be in love with me that all my senses went on the blink and I whispered back, “Then have me.”
He stepped back and looked down at me, his whiskey eyes behind his mask penetrating mine making me suck in a breath at the lust I saw there. Dang.
“Come with me,” he said, taking my hand and pulling me down the hallway into a darkened room, closing the door behind us. Then he was there, right there, his mouth crashing down on mine, his hands inside my robe, one gliding around my waist where he held fast, the other sliding up the front of my bustier to cup my breast.
And I loved it. Loved every bit of it.
My hands went up and pushed his hood down then my fingers folded into the hair at the back of his head, tugging, pulling, wrenching him tighter to me making him groan into my mouth. Then I lost his mouth as he moved it along my jaw, to my neck where he nipped at me, making me shiver against him. His hands then moved up to my shoulders pushing my robe down them and off where it fluttered to the floor.
I couldn’t see his face, only his outline from where he stood, but I knew he’d taken off his mask. He then unzipped his jacket and tossed it on the floor behind him and then I had him back, his mouth covering mine again, his tongue finding mine, twisting with it and making me moan. God, he felt so good pressed against me, his body so hard everywhere and I found myself pulling at the t-shirt he wore, tugging it out of his jeans then up over his head and off. My lips went to his chest, licking over what I knew were numerous tattoos that I wished I could see and ask him about, but it was too dark, of course, and what was now happening between us was too frantic, too hot and I was going to take all I could in that moment. A guttural sound escaped his mouth when my hand dropped down to brush over his chiseled abs at the same time my tongue grazed over his nipple then he’d had enough of my perusal of his body and was back in control, his mouth and hands back on me, seeking to give me as much pleasure as they could. He kissed the swell of my breasts as one hand slid to the back to cup my butt, the other running down my belly to between my legs where he curled his fingers over me making me squirm against him, my stomach flip flopping at the same time.
“Already fucking wet for me,” he said hoarsely as he slipped a finger under my panties to move slowly through the slickness. When his finger entered me, I dug mine into his shoulders and my head went back against the door as I gasped.
“Oh, God,” I breathed out, feeling my insides tightening as I headed toward a climax, his finger continuing to move inside, his thumb circling, bringing me closer.
Then his hand was gone making me whimper in protest, but then he picked me up, carrying me to the bed and setting me down on it where he knelt in front of me, removing my shoes then ran his hands up my legs over my stockings and to my waist to draw my panties down my legs slowly.
“You’re perfect,” he rasped as he stood, watching me as he unbuttoned his jeans then pushing them and his boxer briefs down and off before climbing onto the bed and pinning me beneath him so that he was cradled against my body between my legs, his weight on his forearms as he gazed down at me. When I felt him hard against my pelvis my hips tilted up involuntarily causing us both to hiss at the friction it created.
There was a small amount of light coming in through the blinds of the window, so I could see his face a bit although most of it was in shadows, but on it I saw an expression of pure desire as if he craved me, longed for me, his eyes burning into mine.
Oh, my God.
Then his lips came down to kiss me, and it was so sweet, so soft that I wanted to cry.
“Make love to me, please,” I begged shamelessly against his lips, so ready for him, tired of having waited so long for this, wanting him inside me now.
Now
.
He reached for his jeans to get a condom and I heard it tear then he was resting between my legs again looking down at me with hunger in his eyes.
“Been wanting this for so long,” he whispered, echoing my thoughts exactly, then he slid inside me smoothly. The moment he filled me I grasped his biceps, then cried out, coming instantly. “Baby,” he groaned as he started moving, filling me so fully each time he entered me my neck arched as I gasped at how good he felt.
He moved in and out of me slowly, thrusting in languidly, his eyes holding mine the whole time. “You feel so fucking good, baby. Been dreaming of this every night,” he said huskily, his head dipping down to brush my lips with his as his hips rolled into mine over and over again.
He moved his hands under my bottom and tilted my hips to his as he increased his pace, going deeper with each thrust, making my breath catch each time he buried himself inside. Oh, my.
“So tight, ah, fuck,” he mumbled as he continued pumping inside me, burying himself to the root on each drive forward.