Phoenix Flying

by Kaitlin Maitland

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Gabriel was burning up from the inside out. His cock was straining to burst free of his pants. Every nerve in his body was hyperaware of the goddess lying naked in the bed. His bed.

  He’d intended to let her sleep it off. He’d gone back downstairs to finish closing up, fully expecting Anne to be asleep until sometime tomorrow morning. Then he’d come upstairs to find her rolling naked on his sheets, and it’d been all he could do not to strip down and cover that warm flesh with his own.

  Gabriel took hold of his T-shirt with trembling fingers and pulled it over his head. He met her gaze, letting the shirt fall to the floor. The pink tip of her tongue flitted across her lips, and his breath caught in his throat. She leveled the intensity of her dark eyes on his waistband. He let his hands rest on his belt until she whimpered. The sound aroused him past his limits. He needed this woman with every fiber of his being.

  He popped the buttons on his pants and shoved them down his legs. Fortunately his boots were unlaced. He didn’t think he could’ve mustered the brainpower it would’ve taken to get them off otherwise. He stepped clear and stood beside the bed, waiting to see what she’d do.

  Anne rolled to her belly and craned her head back to give him a glimpse of her bedroom eyes beneath her tousled hair. “So beautiful, Gabriel. God must be jealous.”

  Her words soothed something inside his soul. Not their flattery, but the acceptance underlying it. She wanted him. Not his estate, or his title, or his connections, just him. In this moment he was enough.

  She palmed his hard shaft in one hand and cupped his balls in the other. Gabriel moaned. It was pure heaven. Then her mouth closed over the head of his cock, and he was lost to sensation. She used her tongue to tease and stroke. Up and down his shaft, over the head and back down until she could suck him properly.

  Gabriel gently threaded his fingers through her silky hair. He watched her lick him like a treat she wanted to savor, and he thanked the universe for whatever twist of fate had landed this woman in his life. Heat began to build in the small of his back. It burned a path through his veins and culminated in an aching awareness in his balls that told him he was perched on the edge of bliss.

  “Anne,” he whispered. “I want to be inside your pussy, my love. Let me make this as good for you as it is for me.”

  She drew back just far enough to speak. “I want this. I want to taste your cum and know I brought you this far. Please.”

  Her words sent him plunging over the cliff. Gabriel shouted something garbled as he convulsed. He locked his knees to keep from falling, and still she sucked until she’d taken every bit he had to give.

  She rolled away from him with a sultry smile of conquest on her face. Gabriel collapsed to the bed and tried to remember how to breathe.

  “You better not fall asleep,” she admonished. “I’m not done with you just yet.”

  The underlying insecurity in her words shattered him. Gabriel reached for her, pulling her flush against his body. “I’ll never be done with you. Even if it means I never sleep again.”

  He lowered his lips to her nipple. The clean feminine taste of her overpowered his control. He hungrily devoured each breast, nipping with his teeth until she was arching her back and gasping for breath. He cupped and kneaded the full mounds with his hands. He buried his face in their fullness and laved his tongue through the valley between them until he was mindless with the pleasure.

  Forcing himself to leave her breasts, Gabriel let his mouth skim lower. He trailed a path of kisses along her sternum and down her belly toward her mound. She moved restlessly against him, fingers twisting in the sheets. He got to his knees and took her hips in his hands to tilt them upward. Her legs fell open, and he groaned at the sight of her damp pussy.

  “I can’t see that wet cunt and not want to taste it,” he murmured.

  Her belly quivered, and she spread her legs farther. Gabriel took it as an invitation. He dropped down and nudged his way between her legs. With both hands he spread her wide to admire the pink folds glistening with cream. At the first taste of her honey, his cock twitched. A few more minutes of this, and he’d be hard and ready for her again.

  Still, for now this was about bringing Anne pleasure. She’d made him come with her mouth. It was only fair to return the favor.

  “Gabriel, oh my God, oh my God…” Whatever else she was trying to say never came out.

  He traced her contours with his tongue. Lapping at her opening, he felt it tremble and flex. He gently probed her entrance with his index fingers and teased her clit with the flat of his tongue. He sucked the little nub between his lips, and she went wild. Juice spilled from her opening as she cried out and climaxed hard.

  Anne was going to die. That was the only possibility. She flew so far outside herself that she felt certain she could see the stars wheeling in the night sky. She never wanted it to end. Elation replaced the alcohol in her veins, and the euphoric bliss took her to heaven.

  Gabriel pressed a featherlight kiss to her inner thigh before settling himself on the mattress beside her. Anne rolled to face him. His sensual lips were wet with her juices. She traced their contour with her trembling thumbs, awed by the connection she felt to this man.

  She touched his face reverently. Her fingertips memorized every line and angle. The dark stubble on his jaw tickled her skin, and she smiled. He was watching her. His gaze was like a physical caress. How would she ever be able to settle for another man after experiencing this level of passion with Gabriel Hawkins?

  “What are you thinking?” His voice was a rough murmur in the night quiet.

  “You’ve spoiled me for any other man.”

  “Good.”

  He captured her mouth in a deep, drugging kiss. Anne sank her fingers into his silky dark hair and pulled him closer. He rolled to his back and continued to kiss her as though he feared she might slip away.

  Anne had never imagined she would feel comfortable lying atop a lover, but Gabriel’s powerful frame made her feel almost petite by comparison. Rising to her knees she straddled his hips. His cock was trapped between them. Anne felt it swelling, and let her damp crotch slip across its rigid surface.

  Gabriel hissed at the contact. He nipped her lower lip and slid his tongue deep into her mouth. Anne ground against him, loving the contrast of his strength and her power. When the rounded head brushed her swollen entrance Anne could no longer resist.

  She arched her lower back and wriggled her hips, rewarded when Gabriel’s erection entered her body. He gripped her upper arms in his hands and ended the kiss as he arched his back as though his spine might snap. Anne straightened and rolled her hips to seat his cock firmly inside her pussy.

  The penetration was everything she’d needed, everything she wanted. She rocked back and forth against him. Instinct drove every movement. There was nothing but the perfection of a woman determined to please her lover. She closed her eyes and let the sensations wash over her one by one until there was no beginning and no end. Just the two of them locked together in the carnal dance of gratification.

  For once Anne didn’t spare a thought for how she looked astride Gabriel’s body. She didn’t worry about her weight, or her shape, or her attractiveness. She could feel his appreciation in every tense line of arousal in his body. His muscles grew taut as he gripped her backside with his hands and helped her grind harder. He thrust as she moved, increasing the friction until they both gasped in satisfaction.

  So beautiful.

  The thought drifted through her mind seconds before an orgasm shattered her ability to process. She flung her head back and squeezed her eyes closed as the tidal wave swept her beneath an ocean of desire. Below her Gabriel growled like a beast and pushed deeper. His cock touched her G-spot and sent her deeper even as he ejaculated a warm stream of semen into her body.

  Gabriel wondered if he would ever recover from the experience of being with Anne. He suspected that parts of him would, but that most of him had been
irrevocably changed. In short, he could no longer pretend he could live without Anne in his life.

  She was a comfortable weight on his chest. Their erratic breathing had slowed in tempo until they shared a single rhythm. He idly stroked the wispy silk strands of hair that curled damply around her face. His cock was still embedded in her warm body, and he was content to leave it that way. Forever if possible.

  She sighed. “I should get off of you before you suffocate.”

  “I like you just fine where you are.”

  He could tell she didn’t know how to respond. Gabriel wondered how many years it would take for her to see herself the way he saw her. He suspected it was a lot.

  “I think I might still be buzzed.” She gave a lighthearted chuckle that made him smile. “I wonder if drunk sex is always this good.”

  If he had been drunk, her comment would’ve sobered him quick. “If you’re wanting to experiment, feel free to get pissed every night this week and we’ll try it out.” Emphasis on we as in with me.

  “Pissed? How is it that you Brits can say pissed for drunk and to us it means angry?” She propped her chin on his pectoral muscle and appeared to give this notion serious thought. “Maybe you’re all just angry drunks?”

  Gabriel snorted. Her drunk logic was rather adorable under the circumstances. He wrapped his arms around her and rolled them both to their sides. She settled automatically against him with her cheek resting on his shoulder and her arm around his side. He tucked her head beneath his chin. Nothing had ever felt so right.

  “I should go home.” Her whisper was faint.

  He frowned because she couldn’t see him do it. “Why is that?”

  “Tomorrow evening is my father’s stupid party. I don’t care what he says. I’m going to the party. I don’t want Paul to have the satisfaction of thinking I can’t find a date. Stewart is picking me up at six thirty, and I can’t look hungover when he shows up.”

  Gabriel wouldn’t have felt the pain any more had she reached down and twisted his balls clean off his body. He clenched his teeth and forced himself to think rationally. This was not the time to act like a knobhead and spout off, no matter how badly he wanted to.

  “Gabriel?”

  He made a noncommittal noise to avoid saying anything that might make him sound like a git.

  “Can I tell you a secret?”

  He made another noise, which she thankfully took for a yes.

  “It makes me sound like a bad person, but I hate my father.” She buried her head even deeper against his shoulder. “And I fucking hate my ex-husband. I wish… I wish… I want to show up tomorrow night on Stewart’s arm and act like my life is perfect. Then when Stewart and I get married I’m going to send them both an invitation. And then when they show up at my wedding, I’m going to ignore them.”

  Gabriel couldn’t stay silent any longer. “You think that would teach the manky prats a lesson then?”

  “No. It won’t.” She exhaled a ragged breath, and Gabriel felt the dampness of her tears against his arm. “But I want my happy ending so badly I can taste it and in every good story the villain gets his comeuppance. My father doesn’t know any better.” She tensed, digging her fingers into his ribs. “But some how, some way, Jason Paul needs to get his. I want him to feel what I felt. To know that I’m over him and that I’m wanted.”

  The naked longing in her voice tore him apart. He’d done this all wrong. From the very beginning he’d mucked it all up, and now he’d no idea how to go about setting it right.

  His throat felt raw from the effort of holding back the anguished roar that threatened to escape. “Go to sleep, my love. It’ll all look different in the morning.”

  “Good night, Gabriel.” She yawned. “Thank you for showing me what it can be like between a man and a woman.”

  He didn’t know how to respond. Her comment cut deep and left a mark on his soul.

  Her breathing had almost evened out when he heard her final murmured comment. “I hope someday you find happiness too. You deserve so much more than this.”

  He lay awake long into the small hours of the night, wondering exactly what she meant by those words and daring to imagine the possibilities.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Anne pulled the covers over her face, wondering why God had made the sun so damn bright. She silently cursed herself for leaving the draperies open. Had she been sitting on the balcony last night and just forgotten? That wasn’t like her. She struggled to recall exactly how late she’d sat out at her tiny bistro table while watching people scurrying about on their social errands.

  She had met with her father yesterday evening.

  It was disgusting that she could recall the insulting nature of that interaction with perfect accuracy. She’d been so angry and hurt. She’d gone home, pulled another dress from her “rainy day” collection and gone to the Phoenix.

  Oh…my…God.

  A rush of memories flooded her cheeks with heat. She’d had angry sex with Gabriel in the entryway of the bar. She’d hung out with Jessa and Emory. Then she’d engaged in a silly drinking game and gotten trashed. And then she had the greatest sex of her life with the most unavailable man she knew.

  Anne grabbed a pillow and squashed it over her face. She screamed into the crisp white cover.

  Wait. White cover? My sheets are floral print.

  She shoved the pillow away and sat up. Her stomach nearly revolted at the jostling, but a few gasping breaths helped her hold it together long enough to realize she was in Gabriel’s bed.

  “Talk about overstaying my welcome,” she said in a horrified whisper.

  She flung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. Dizziness made her sway precariously. She grabbed the bedpost to keep from toppling to the floor on her face. She bumped the nightstand in her overdramatic attempt to stay vertical and knocked the book to the floor. It landed with a resounding thwap against the hardwood.

  Anne froze. She expected Gabriel to come charging into the room at any second and witness her morning-after hag-like looks, but there was utter silence in the tiny apartment.

  “Where the hell is he?” She glanced around for a note, but there was nothing to indicate where he might be. He was probably hiding and hoping she would get the message.

  It was definitely a case of message received. Anne swiped the book off the floor and put it back in place before searching for whatever was left of her clothing.

  She recalled that her underpants were a lost cause but managed to locate her bra and dress draped neatly over the chair. Her shoes were placed on the floor nearby. The sheer thoughtfulness of the gesture brought the sting of tears to her eyes.

  Please God let Stewart be even half as nice as Gabriel.

  * * *

  Gabriel quietly let himself in through the bar’s back door. It was dead quiet and would stay that way for another two or three hours before Alex and Connor opened up for the night. He climbed the stairs to his apartment, automatically skipping the squeaky step and pulling out his keys. He moved to unlock the door and got a jolt when he realized it was already unlocked.

  “Anne?”

  No answer.

  He’d only been gone an hour or so. He’d opted to go for his usual morning workout as a way to clear his head. There was no magic formula to fix the cock-up he’d made of his “sort of” relationship with Anne. He’d spent most of the time pounding pavement while trying to find a way to apologize for treating her like nothing more than a commonplace trollop. He had yet to come up with anything more convincing than the woefully inadequate “I’m sorry.”

  Gabriel headed in the direction of his bedroom. “Anne, are you all right?”

  When he’d left for his run, she’d been sleeping like the dead all curled in a delicious ball beneath the covers. He’d made certain the blinds were closed, though the morning sun beating against them made that almost a moot point. Then he’d kissed her on the forehead and crept out of the apartment.

  Now she w
as gone. The covers were hastily pulled up and her clothes were missing from the chair. Gabriel stood in the doorway and stared at the bed as if he might be able to change things merely by thinking hard enough.

  He had no notion of how long he stood staring into space before the nightstand caught his eye. He reached for the drawer and slid it open. The well-ordered contents of the drawer seemed to mock him. The black jewelry case sat unobtrusively in the center of the drawer as it had ever since he’d placed it there when he’d moved in.

  Gabriel picked up the box and flipped the lid open. Twin rings gleamed against the gray satin interior of the box. He ran the tip of his index finger against the black carbide surface of the ring that had once sat on his right middle finger. The Celtic knot design was etched in silver.

  When Gabriel had originally bought the rings for himself and for Alex, he’d had something added to his. Now he tilted the box so he could see the inside surface of each black ring. The left one had the word veritas etched into the smooth surface. The right read libertas. Truth and freedom. He could never have expressed precisely why he’d chosen the engravings. A part of him knew he had stopped wearing the rings because he never fully believed in Franny as he’d wished he could. The ring had been a reminder that he’d promised himself truth and instead believed a lie.

  He plucked the rings from the box and slid them onto his fingers. They felt heavy but familiar. He flexed his hands and made fists. It was past time for him to be truthful with himself, especially when it came to someone as important as Anne.

  * * *

  Anne gazed into the mirror and turned to the right, then the left. She’d tried on no less than six outfits while attempting to decide which might be the most flattering or appropriate for the evening. So far she wasn’t feeling particularly confident about any of her options. It would take years of plastic surgery and dieting in order to give Anne a prayer of upstaging Rochelle.