"Yeah, baby, I can imagine," she said softly. "You okay?"
He turned in the chair to look up at her.
"No, Kitten. I'm not," he said softly back, catching her eyes.
He saw something within her face spark, then soften as she moved her hand to cup his cheek.
"I'm so sorry, Gabe," she murmured looking deeply in his eyes.
That was all it took to have him up and out of the chair, pulling her to him and capturing her mouth.
God, she tasted so good. And the way she was clinging to him, responding to him, gave him a hope that his heart hadn't felt for the few days they'd slept apart.
"Oh, Gabe," she moaned, when he moved his mouth to her neck, her shoulder.
Without thought, he guided her down the hallway. Not to her room, but to his place. His bed.
"I need to be with you, Kess," he murmured against her mouth as they crossed the threshold to his room.
He maneuvered her the last few steps to his new mattress. He wanted her on it, wanted the visual of her on his sheets, her head against his new pillows and reached for the bedside lamp as he lowered her down to the mattress.
His body quickly followed and she opened her legs to receive him, cradling him in the channel between her thighs.
Their kisses were slow, deep and wet, never ending, and Gabe couldn't get enough.
He wanted her so fucking much. Not just to sink inside her but to pull her inside himself. To have her as much a part of his body as she was in his mind, his very soul.
He was hoping her moans meant the same thing.
They started to move, just like they'd always done, rubbing against each other. A way to find some sort of satisfaction between them that hadn't ever been satisfying in the least, but just another log on the bonfire of their desire.
"Oh, God," she breathed, when he moved down from her mouth, again finding the sensitive spot on her neck.
He was grinding himself against her cleft, rubbing in the way he knew she liked, at the angle he now knew brought her pleasure.
"Kiss me, Gabe," she moaned, and he moved back to her lips, delighting in the taste and feel of her. He could come with just this, her mouth on his, his hard cock sliding, thrusting against her mound.
"I'm gonna come," she warned hoarsely.
"Me, too, Kitten," he groaned. "Oh, God, Crys."
His body didn't like that he couldn't feel her pulse around him, but her legs around his ass were pulling at him in a way that it remembered. And, that was all it took for him to shoot into his boxers, limpid jets wetting the fabric and allowing him to slide against the fabric.
He swallowed the sounds of her orgasm as she took on his own, their mouths slowing with their releases, but never disconnecting.
Eventually, though, their hips moved more leisurely as they came back to themselves.
He felt Crys smile against his lips and he raised his head.
"We used to only do this kind of shit on my bed," she whispered. "Feels good to do it someplace where you sleep this time."
"Same room, though. Are we talking paybacks here?" he asked with a grin.
"You better believe it," she said, twining her arms around his shoulders. "Paybacks do have their benefits, you know."
"So they do, Princess Kitten," he breathed as he reached down again for her mouth.
She pressed her hands against his chest and began to twist away from him.
"Need sleep, baby," she said as she moved.
Wait, what?
But they were just getting started. Weren't they?
"Tired, Gabe, 'kay?" she murmured as he released her, his heart sinking.
"Okay," he said, moving off her, his heart hurting as he let her go, watching as she moved off the bed to the door.
"Sleep well, warrior," he thought he heard her say as she went.
*.*.*.*.*
Okay, that may not have been the smartest thing I'd ever done, but it was a hell of a lot of fun and reminded me of the times Gabe and I used to have. The times we drove each other crazy with lust without actually doing 'it'.
I made my way to my room and closed the door, reaching for the new notebook and painstakingly wrote out a list of things I might like to do.
Leila had given me a lot to think about, things that I hadn't realized had been lurking inside me. I liked the idea of having a plan, a written plan, something to work towards. And, hey, if it worked for her, I was completely on board with it.
But, it was what Leila had said about Gabe, my Gabe, that had rocked my heart. Maybe part of the problem was that Gabe and I were too close, knew too much about each other which was skewing things between us. And when Leila had called Gabe a warrior, I'd seen what she'd seen. The man, not the boy.
I'd crushed on the boy for years and years.
But the man?
The man was making my heart get involved in a way I might not be able to protect myself.
Scary, shit, though.
From the way Leila said it though, she made him sound unusual, special. And, if I knew nothing else, I knew Gabe was special.
I looked over my list carefully and thought about what I needed to research, to do to accomplish the things listed.
I didn't have to go into the shop until late tomorrow, since I'd be closing.
The Mall was going to be my first order of business since I had come up with an idea to give Trish a welcome I hoped she'd never forget.
*.*.*.*.*
I had been in the bloody chair for three hours already and Beth was still working on getting all the extensions in. My platinum short do was long gone and I now had beautiful chestnut hair brushing the top of my shoulder blades.
It was a stranger that looked back at me from the mirror but I liked what I saw. A lot.
Frank had worked with Beth, the girl who did the extensions, to get the color exactly right and I was amazed at how natural it looked.
At long last she was finished; I was finally, blessedly, done.
"You look like a woman, Crys," Frank had said, cuddling me as I was leaving. "I'm thinking we aren't going to be able to call you 'Baby Girl' anymore."
"Aw, Frank-kay," I said, wrapping my arms around him. "You can always call me anything you want."
"Cara-Bella it is, then," he said with a chuckle. "Now, go show your man the new you."
"My man?" I said stopping.
"Yeah, Gabe is your man, isn't he?" Frank-kay asked, starting to clean up his area.
"Well, kinda. I guess," I mumbled.
Frank shot me a look. "When you figure it out, you let me know, okay?"
"…and the horse you rode in on," I said with a laugh and went to pay Dee for all the services rendered today.
I could feel the wind in my hair as I walked to my Jeep and it felt good, although I almost didn't recognize myself in the reflection of the visor's mirror. The movies that has the girl on the lam changing her looks with just a long, different colored wig, used to make me snort. But now I could see how that would be an excellent way of hiding yourself in plain sight.
I picked up some Chinese and made my way home. I wanted to go through my closet and do some reassessing of some of the outfits that wouldn't work with the new hair.
Sometimes a girl has just gotta change, don't you think?
I was just sitting down at the table to eat when Gabe came in.
He just stared.
"What did you do to yourself?" he whispered, plunking down in the chair across from me.
"Oh, I'm fine, Gabe. How about you?" What a freaking stupid thing for him to say. Do to myself? What'd he mean by that?
He'd just lost his 'vocal chords' pass card.
I flipped my hair over my shoulder as I dug into my food. "There's plenty here if you want to join me."
He was still staring but, at least he wasn't talking. Thank God.
"You are fucking gorgeous, Crystal," he breathed.
Say, what?
"And I wasn't before?" I asked with a grin.
&n
bsp; "Yeah, you were. But now you're…," he stopped and went back to the staring thing. "Fucking breath-taking."
"Stop being an asshole, Gabe. Do you want something to eat or not?"
He moved to get a plate, but practically tripped over his own feet since he wasn't watching what he was doing.
He was looking at me.
It made me laugh. He was acting like a love struck kid or something. All because I'd changed my hair.
"What made you decide to change it?" he asked finally.
I shrugged. "Guess it was time. I was getting tired of looking like nothing but a rock chick." I thought about what Leila and I had talked about. "There's more to me than that."
"Yeah, there is," he agreed. "You still look like you. But, damn, Crys. A brand new you."
"You're sweet," I mumbled with a grin, moving my plate to the sink and cleaning the table of the empty cartons.
Gabe snagged my wrist.
"Come to my room tonight, Kitten?" he asked, not taking his eyes off me.
I saw the desire there and felt my body respond in kind, tightening, moistening.
"No, Gabe," I whispered softly. "Not tonight. I've things to think about and a closet to weed through."
He nodded and looked down at his plate.
"Trish'll be here soon," he said softly, before he raised his face.
"Yeah, Gabe. On Monday, right?"
He nodded again.
"I don't fucking want her here," he rumbled, his forehead furrowed.
"Well, one good thing about her being here is that if she doesn't have the official test results you can always get an appointment at the clinic to find out once and for all," I suggested.
His head whipped to me very fast.
"What'd you just say?" he demanded.
"Take her to the clinic. That way you'll know for a fact if it's true or not," I repeated.
"Holy fuck! That's awesome, Princess," he said rising slowly and joining me at the sink. "I never even thought about doing that. Do you know if you need an appointment for that kind of thing?"
I shrugged. "I make one for my girlie tests, but I don't know about the pregnancy shit."
"You are so fucking smart, Crys," he said softly running his hand down my arm as he moved by me.
I know and I was just now was starting to appreciate it.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Gabe watched as she made her way back to the reception desk and couldn't get over the way she looked. Crys had been pretty before, had always been pretty, but with the new hair? Fucking gorgeous.
He heard the long wolf-whistle from Dex's booth and watched Crys strike a fifties pin-up girl pose.
Hot damn.
She was wearing that little red plaid skirt he loved so much, paired with a buttoned-down white blouse and her black lace bra. Black knee-socks that she had pulled up to the top of her knees and her heeled ankle boots completed her look.
Sexy as hell.
Gabe knew he was going to have blue balls by the end of the day if what was going on in his pants at the moment was any indication.
He wiped his hands on his jeans and turned back to the shop's light box, wishing the day was already over.
Trish was coming and he wasn't looking forward to it. Although now that he had an appointment for her at the clinic for a pregnancy test, he felt better. It was the first thing he'd done when he had gotten to work. Trish may arrive with documentation out the ass, but Gabe wouldn't put it past her to have dummied up the results.
"Goddamn, Baby Girl," he heard Dex say from the reception area. "Looking damn good."
"Thank you," Crys's voice held a giggle. "Could you do me a favor, Dex? Could you take my picture so I can send it to Leila?"
"Love to, Crys," he said and Gabe heard the whirring of the cellphone as it took Crys's picture.
Fuck.
"Uhm, hey Gabe?" she said from over his shoulder.
"Kitten," he said not looking up. He was afraid that if he looked at her directly, he'd be dragging her off to a quiet corner and doing whatever it'd take to get inside her hot, wet depths.
"I, ah, have a plan for today's special visitor and wanted to run it by you first," she said hesitantly.
He continued to work as she spoke and felt the laughter bubble up inside him. He liked her idea and knew, one way or another, it might be another way to get to the bottom of whatever game Trish was playing.
*.*.*.*.*
Back in the day, when Human Hieroglyphix was just starting out, the guys had joined a bowling league. It was a great way to market the shop to the locals and helped show the town that my dad, Dex and Benny were just regular guys.
And it worked really well.
I would sometimes hang out with them at Gateway Lanes since there wasn't much for a teenager to do on a Thursday night in Grantham.
Rather than get bowling shirts, the fellas had designed their own t-shirts that were the freaking bomb. I still have Dad's shirt in my memory box.
And it was the inspiration behind the idea for having t-shirts made to celebrate Trish's visit and her alleged reason for coming to Grantham.
I grabbed the bag marked with the 'Create Your Own' logo and moved to Dex's booth, where he was setting up for his next appointment.
"Dex? Could you put this on and wear it today?" I asked, handing him a black t-shirt all folded up.
He rolled his gloves off, his eyes shooting to the shirt and then back to me.
"What's this?" he said, taking it from my hands.
He read it and started to laugh.
Gabe came back and I handed him the shirt I'd had designed and printed just for him.
I took out the baby-doll tee that I was going to wear and held it up against me so they could see what my particular shirt said.
Only two t-shirts remained in the bag.
"Who're we going to get to take the picture, though?" Gabe asked.
I shrugged. "Doesn't matter. As long as we are all in it, right?"
Gabe's smile was wicked.
"Shit, Kitten," he breathed. "The way your mind works is kind of scary."
I smiled with him as I turned to make my way back to my booth to change.
The bell on the shop's heavy front door dinged and I heard Benny's booming voice. I smiled to myself.
He was going to have a cow, a happy cow, when I gave him his shirt and I knew I wouldn't have to convince him to wear it.
Shit, he'd wear it with pride.
We'd probably have to pry it off him to wash the damn thing.
I smooth my shirt down and folded away the white one I'd come in wearing.
My shirt said, "I'm going to be a …Fairy Godmother."
Nothing special, right?
I went back to reception and handed Benny his shirt.
"I thought we could make Trish's visit special, Ben," I said. "Could you wear this today?"
He shook the shirt out and read it.
"God, Crys," he breathed, his eyes shining.
His shirt? "I'm going to be a …Grandpa".
Dex came into the area, adjusting the sleeves on his t-shirt that read, "I'm going to be a …Godfather".
Gabe, not to be left out, was sporting his shirt. I'm sure you can guess what his shirt said.
"I'm going to be a …Daddy".
"Aw, Buddy," Benny said, capturing Gabe in a man hug. "You're going to do the right thing."
Gabe gave his dad a one thump on his back before pulling away. "I always was, Dad. But that doesn't mean I'm marrying her. If there's a kid and it's mine, I'll step up."
I watched as Gabe brought his eyes to me before he continued.
"I always take care of what's mine," he said firmly.
"Think I'm going to be sick," Dex mumbled and went back to his booth.
"I even got one for Trish," I said, moving to Benny. "You think she'll wear it?"
I watched Gabe roll his eyes as he walked away.
Oh, yeah. This was going to be fun.
Trish arrived
a couple of hours later, with all the bustle and drama that was her. I had expected nothing less.
Benny was practically wetting himself and kept looking her up and down like he couldn't believe his eyes. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, with what looked like a silk shirt beneath her light blazer. Her leather bag was huge and matched her boots. Her hair, that even I could admit was a pretty shade of red, was pulled back in a pony tail and her makeup was done to perfection.
Yep, she was money.
"Where's Gabe?" she asked. Her voice was different than I remembered but, then, she'd been screeching for most of the time at the apartment in Eugene.
"Here, Trish," Gabe said coming around the corner. "How was your flight?"
She moved towards him and I watched as he planted his feet, crossed his arms and shook his head at her.
She knew. I could tell she knew that he didn't want her here and wasn't going to offer her any kind of welcome. Or, rather, the kind of welcome she wanted him to give her.
"What a great place!" she exclaimed, trying to save face. But as she turned around acting like she was admiring the shop, I saw her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were hard.
"Trish? We got you some flowers and a shirt," Benny said, almost simpering.
Now it was my turn to almost be sick.
"Really? For me?" she asked.
"Hi, I'm Dex," my business partner said as he moved into the reception area and I watched Dex shake her hand. Trish's jaw almost, but not quite, hit the ground as her eyes slid around his face and down his body.
I've known Dex so long that I forget how gorgeous he is and his effect on women. He is tall, with a rocking body, topped with a mop of dark brown hair and piercing green eyes. Too bad he is a self-proclaimed dick of the first order.
Oh, yeah. Trish was liking the view and tripped over her tongue as she introduced herself.
I heard Gabe snort. He obviously was seeing her reaction to all that was Dex, too.
"C'mon, Trish," I said trying really hard not to laugh. She was already showing a bit of her true colors even though, at the moment, Benny was oblivious. "You can change in my booth."
"Change?" she asked, one eyebrow raising.
"Yeah, Trish," Benny said, beaming. "Change into your t-shirt."
Her eyes roamed our little group, reading the writing on the shirts and I watched her face pale. I glanced at Gabe and he caught my eye with a chin lift.
Crys And Gabe Page 22
