The Object of His Obsession (The Alexanders Book 4) (18 page)

All kind of thoughts
floated around in his mind when he laid down on the couch. He
hadn’t bothered folding out the bed portion of it, because that
would only irritate him. He didn’t want to be in such a small space
with Gabrielle and not be able to be close to her. He missed her.
He came here for her, to reclaim her. How could he do that if he
was in the living room and she was in the bedroom?

Tyson sat up on the couch
and walked over to the refrigerator, taking a bottle of water. The
tension in the small beach cabin was too much to bear. He thought
if he drank some water, it would distract him from knocking on the
bedroom door. The water quenched one thirst, but not the other. His
desire to make love to Gabrielle intensified with every second
ticking by. He needed her. How could he fight the urge?

He knew she needed him
too, but she hadn’t wanted things to happen so quickly. She wanted
everything to be right between them when they finally made love
again. And since he wanted what she wanted, he fought with
everything inside of him to avoid knocking on the door.

Gabrielle was so antsy
that she stood up from the bed and opened the balcony doors again.
The balcony was small, but it provided a most perfect view of the
ocean, and while the waters couldn’t be readily seen at this time
of night, the sound of it was just as satisfying. She sucked in a
deep breath and walked to the bedroom door, just standing
there.

Tyson walked to the
bedroom door and touched it. He wanted to knock, boy did he want to
knock, but what if she was sleeping? He didn’t want to wake her.
He’d already disturbed her enough by coming here unannounced,
invading her alone time.

Tyson sighed. His
willpower was gone. He couldn’t fight it anymore. He needed to be
close to her. Now. He tapped lightly on the door and said,
“Gabrielle?” in as much of a whisper as he could muster with his
deep, husky voice.

Gabrielle closed her eyes.
The sound of him saying her name like this tickled her insides,
especially since she was already standing at the door, too. “Yes?”
she answered back.

He closed his eyes and
smiled. “May I come in?”

She opened the door,
meeting his gaze and like an anchorless boat being swept off to
sea, Gabrielle lost herself in her husband’s eyes. Her gaze lowered
to his lips – lips she hadn’t kissed in months. Lips that had the
power to make her legs go wobbly underneath her and when he saw her
eyes lower to his lips, he knew she wanted the same thing he
wanted.

In the stillness of the
room, their hot bodies joined together, they made love for the
first time in a long time, reclaiming their love for each
other.

Afterwards, Tyson assured
her, “Gabrielle, I know us making love is not a fix for our issues.
I know we still need to talk and work things out. I just...I just
needed you.”

“I needed you just as much,
Tyson.”

He kissed her neck and
tightened his arms around her. “When we’re up in the morning, over
breakfast, we’ll talk. Is that okay?”

“Yes. That’s
okay.”

Chapter 35

Over the next couple of
days, Gabrielle and Tyson managed to work out their differences and
frustrations. Tyson finally understood how much he had hurt her and
vowed to never do it again. He admitted that he had trust issues
because of his past, but he promised to never take it out on her.
Gabrielle, he knew, loved him and would never hurt him. They were
both new to marriage and had a lot to learn about each
other.

* * *

When they arrived back to
Southern Shores today, him trailing her in his jeep, Gabrielle
pulled up at Padma’s place, jumped out of the car and ran to the
front door. She missed baby T.J. and she wanted nothing other than
to kiss his sweet, chubby cheeks.

Padma opened the door with
T.J. in her arms and Gabrielle nearly cried she was so happy to see
him.

“Oh, look at my sweet baby
boy,” she said, scooping him into her arms. “You miss your mommy?
You miss your mommy?” She could’ve sworn he smiled at her. She left
kisses all over his face.

Padma looked and saw Tyson
walking down the sidewalk towards the front door and before he came
up the stairs, she quickly asked Gabrielle, “So have you and Tyson
patched things up?”

“Yes, we have.”

“Oh, I’m so happy,” Padma
exclaimed.

Once Tyson was standing
next to Gabrielle, he looked at his son and said, “Hey, T.J.,”
giving him a kiss in the forehead. “How did he do,
Padma?”

“He was a piece of cake
with his adorable, little self.”

“I can’t wait to take him
home tonight,” Gabrielle said.

“No, no, no. You and Tyson
got some making up to do,” she said, raising a brow. “Y’all go on
home. I’ll keep Tyson Junior one more day.”

“Oh, Padma, you don’t have
to do that,” Gabrielle told her.

“I want to.”

Gabrielle turned to Tyson
and said, “What do you think?”

“I think Padma is on the
right track. Plus, that will give us time to get the house back in
order.”

Gabrielle smiled.
“Okay.”

* * *

When they arrived home,
Gabrielle went upstairs to get some of her things out of the guest
bedroom. She told Tyson that she’d be right back.

She kicked off her shoes
and allowed her hair to fall free after removing a ponytail holder.
When she turned around, she saw Tyson standing in the doorway. His
arms were crossed and he had an inquisitive, reminiscent look on
his face.

“You remember our first
kiss was in this bedroom,” he told her.

Gabrielle
smiled.

“Actually, wait...I take
that back,” Tyson said. “You kissed me first downstairs, then you
came up here, I followed, and finished the job.” He walked closer
to her. “You remember that, Gabrielle?”

Of course she remembered.
Every woman remembers her first kiss, and with a man like Tyson
kissing you, you remembered every detail. She could easily recall
how she seemed to be losing cognitive functions in her brain, how
her legs went weak, how her heart nearly beat out of her chest.
When his tongue slid into her mouth, she thought she would just die
of a pleasure overload. When the kiss was over, she remembered him
smiling.

“Gabrielle?”

She blinked quickly and
looked at him. “Yes?” she said. How did she not know that he was
standing directly in front of her now?

After sending a kiss to
her temple, they fell onto the bed, made love again, then he held
her in his arms. Face-to-face they lie there in the center of the
bed, hearing nothing but the sound of their own breaths. Smelling
the intoxicating aroma of their love. Feeling the warmth and
dampness of their own skin.

“I’ve been thinking,” Tyson
said.

“About what?”

“I’m not sure if I want to
leave Roanoke Island...not sure if I want to leave this
house.”

Gabrielle smiled. “Why the
change of heart? You were so intent on moving further
inland.”

“I know.”

“And you wanted a backyard,
grass and a dog.”

“Yeah.”

“So why’d you change your
mind?”

He ran his fingers through
her hair and said, “Because
this
is our home. I think you like this house more than
I do.”

“Yeah, I think so
too.”

“We could upgrade...tack on
another bedroom if need be. I for sure need to get an office space
since we’re going to have little ones running around.”

“Little ones...wait a
minute now...one is plenty right now,” she said, then
laughed.

He laughed, too. “Yeah.
T.J. is a handful now, but I’m talking in the future. I was content
with working right there in the kitchen, but now, I think I need my
own office space.”

“You’re right. You do need
your own space.”

“And,” he said, brushing
hair away from her temple and pressing his lips there. “You know
what else I was thinking?”

“What’s that?”

“I thought about how nice
it would be for you to have your own little business
venture.”

Gabrielle sat up. “What
business venture?”

“Well, you remembered how
you told me about your idea to start a bakery?”

Her eyes brightened.
“Yes...”

“Well, I think I know of a
perfect location for it.”

She frowned.

“That’s not the reaction I
was expecting,” Tyson said.

“I like the idea, Tyson,
but I thought you wanted me to be a stay-at-home
mother.”

“That is what I wanted, but
that’s not what you want. Now, I understand your need to be a part
of something. I get it. And I want you to know that all I want is
for you to be happy. I want us to spend the rest of our lives
together. Happy.”

“Wow, Tyson. This
is...um...wow. First, you don’t want to move, which I love and
second, you don’t mind if I had my own bakery, which I also love.
You’re really beginning to loosen up a bit.”

He grinned. “Almost losing
you has opened up my eyes to a lot, Gabrielle. I never, ever, ever,
ever, ever, ever want to feel that sour feeling in the pit of my
gut again, so that means I must do everything in my power to make
you happy.”

She smiled, inhaled deeply
and said, “And you’re sure you want to stay here?”

“Yes. I’m sure. It’s where
our family is. Padma is like a mother to you.”

“Yes, she is.”

“Quite frankly, I think my
mother is a little jealous at how well you two get
along.”

She giggled. “I love Rena,
too.”

“I know you do,
sweetheart.” He left a kiss on her cheek. “And then there’s Ms.
Beatrice.”

“She’s the grandmother I
never had,” Gabrielle said.

“With her country
self.”

Gabrielle laughed again.
“Yeah. That’s my Beatrice. Love her so much.”

“Who else?
Heshan...”

“Speaking of Heshan, I saw
him talking to you when we had dinner at Padma’s. Are y’all cool
now?”

“Yeah. We’re
good.”

“Yay,” Gabrielle said, and
kissed his lips. “I’m glad Prasad and Lalita worked things
out.”

“Me too. They’ll be our
only date-night couple for now. If Heshan would go ahead and holla
at Charity, we might have another couple to hang out
with.”

“Wait...are you talking
about Charity, the volunteer waitress from the
restaurant?”

“Yep.”

“Oh my goodness. I saw him
checking her out a while ago, but I didn’t think anything of
it.”

“Yeah, he likes
her.”

“That would be awesome if
they got together. They would make a cute couple.”

“Yeah, they
would.”

“You know what I wish,
Tyson?”

“What’s that,
sweetie?”

“I wish my father and
Destiny could be closer to us. I miss them, and I know Destiny is
lonely now that Carmen is in college.”

“Well, I might have a
solution to that as well. Imagine this...while you’re busy being my
hot baby mama, there’s something going awry at the bakery. I can’t
be there, you can’t be there, so there needs to be a manager
there...someone who we both know we can rely on.”

“You are something else,
you know that?”

“You think he’ll go for
it?”

Gabrielle thought about it
for a moment and said, “I’m not sure. He doesn’t have the
experience. My father is more of a hard, physical labor type of
worker.”

“So I’ll school him. As a
matter of fact, my guy Patrick Goodwin who manages my Atlanta
restaurant would be more than happy to come up here and spend a
couple of weeks training him.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Really.”

Gabrielle smiled, then
kissed his chest.

“I’ve been meaning to ask
you,” Tyson said. “When you said you felt like you didn’t deserve
me, what did you mean?”

“Oh, gosh, Tyson...don’t
make me talk about that.”

“We need to, because that
bothers me, sweetie,” he said, then lightly pressed his lips
against her nose. “Talk to me.”

“Um...I said it because,
from day one, I’ve always felt like you were greater than
me.”

“How so, because I’ve never
made you feel that way?”

“I know, Tyson, and I’m not
implying that you tried to flaunt your success in front of me. I
just felt so...so lowly. I mean, here I am living with you and I
come from nothing. My mother left, my father struggled to raise us
girls and I guess I always looked at myself like I was a lost
cause. After graduating from high school, I was looking forward to
going right into the workforce so I could help out my father and my
sisters. I never thought a man could love me...especially a man
like you.”