Alara finally made contact and bit my bottom lip as she began to shudder. I opened my eyes and pulled back to watch her. Her mouth was wide open but her eyes only half closed, fighting to stay open because she wanted to see everything.
I grabbed her hands that had wandered to my hips before lacing our fingers together and bringing them over her head until she was pinned to the bed. Her eyes flared with desire as I fucked her faster, harder. I could see the sweat gathering at her temples and smell the sweet coconut lingering on her skin, and we were both so close I couldn’t stand it.
I let go of one hand, reached down and pinched her clit, sending her over the edge. She cried out as she trembled and squeezed my hand. Her head moved from side to side on the pillow as she continued to moan and shake while she tightened around me, creating the most wonderful pressure I’d ever felt. Only a minute later I followed her over, tensing and groaning out my powerful release.
We were both silent, except for our pants, as we came back down. I had collapsed against her and still hadn’t found the energy to move off her, but when I thought about how I might be hurting her I rolled off and onto my back. Getting up, I disposed of the condom and cleaned her up before lying back in bed and shuffling us both under the covers. We said nothing; in fact we hadn’t even looked at each other as we lay there.
“Alara?”
“Yeah?” She tilted her head up and looked at me with hazy eyes.
“That was perfect.”
She smiled and kissed me once, twice, three times before responding. “Yeah, it really was.”
We were silent once more as we wrapped around one another as much as we could and sunk further into the warm sheets.
“So… Thanksgiving is in a couple days,” she murmured a few minutes later.
“It is.”
“Do you have any plans?”
I shook my head and placed a kiss on the sensitive spot below her ear. “Nope. My sister wants to stay at home with my dad, but I just can’t go back there.”
Alara gave me a sad look as she grabbed my hand. “I understand.” She shifted around and cleared her throat before gazing up at me, looking adorably nervous. “But uhm… you could come over to our place, if you want?”
I pretended to think it over, and at first she looked a little crushed and definitely embarrassed. But the second she realized I was messing with her she tried to suffocate me with a pillow.
Tugging on her hand until she released the pillow, I tossed it across the room and I pulled her down to seal our lips together. “Of course I’ll come.” I tilted my head as I thought of something. “Why aren’t you going home? And what about Derek and Naomi’s parents?”
“My parents have to be traveling around the holidays this year, and Jackie is taking Megan out of the state to visit her other grandparents. Naomi and Derek don’t speak to their parents. And Sherry is never around on the holidays—we don’t even know where she goes.” She finished like none of those things were abnormal and even though there was definitely more to all of that, I let it go.
“Naomi and Derek usually come home with me. But like I said…” She trailed off and shrugged. “We’re trying to do it right too, so even if the food’s not good, it’ll be entertaining to watch us try.”
I smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
I walked out of Gabe’s bedroom at eleven and saw Naomi passed out face-first on the couch, clad only in her bra and with half her pants off. What the hell? I shook my head and abandoned that mystery for the kitchen where I pulled out a carton of eggs, milk, an aluminum mixing bowl and a frying pan. I felt like a cliché as I started making breakfast in nothing but my underwear and Gabe’s button-down flannel from the night before, but God help me if I didn’t absolutely love it.
Today was Thanksgiving, and it’s possible that the four of us getting trashed the night before (Naomi allowed me one more allowance on account of the holiday) wasn’t the best idea, especially since we were still going to try making a traditional Thanksgiving meal. But one drinking game led to another, which led to another… and yeah… we were wasted, and truthfully I didn’t remember much after midnight, but based on the delicious soreness between my legs I was guessing the Gabe and I were… productive. Hopefully we remembered to use condoms. Being productive is one thing, but I certainly didn’t want to be reproductive. I snorted at my lame pun and seriously considered the idea that I was still drunk.
I had already cracked eight of the twelve eggs and poured in the milk when Gabe’s voice sounded behind me. It was deep and scratchy like he had just woken up.
“What are you doing?”
“Riding a bike,” I deadpanned. I turned around, cradling the bowl against my stomach and whisking the eggs as he walked to the fridge and grabbed the orange juice before drinking straight out of the container. We smiled warmly at each other and he returned the juice to the fridge without breaking eye contact.
“Can you toss me the stick of butter while you’re there?” I nodded toward him.
“Course.” He continued to hold my eyes until I turned around and started the stove. The butter slid across the counter under my arm, already sliced and on a plate, ready to be put in the pan.
“Thanks,” I whispered.
Gabe nuzzled my neck before wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. “No problem.” We were silent for several minutes as I put the butter and whisked eggs and milk into the pan, watching them cook.
“Maybe you should put some pants on… not that I mind the view.” I shivered as his hand disappeared under the shirt and his fingers dipped into my underwear. “But I really don’t want Derek walking out and enjoying the view either.”
I rolled my eyes and turned around in his arms, allowing his hand to glide along my hip and rest on my butt. “I have known Derek since I was a kid, and unfortunately he was very present for the period of time where I seemed to hate wearing clothes. So he has probably seen ‘the view’ more than you have at this point.”
He pinched my cheek and kissed the smirk off my mouth before whispering against my mouth. “Unless you started puberty extremely early, I think quite a bit has changed.” The hand on my butt squeezed, while the other came up and rolled my nipple until I was moaning against his mouth. He growled in response and roughly brought his lips flush with mine, plunging his tongue into my mouth. I could still feel a hand on my backside and fingers around my nipple, but I quickly realized that one of those sensations had to be a phantom feeling as a seemingly third hand slipped between my legs, finding my bare flesh.
“God, you’re gorgeous,” he whispered against my lips as he slipped two fingers inside me and slowly started pumping. We stumbled to the side away from the stove. I fumbled to turn it off as he picked up speed and the heel of his hand rubbed my clit. As I reached back to grab the counter, I hit the empty mixing bowl and several unused eggs, barely acknowledging them as the bowl scraped the wall and the eggs cracked on the ground. Gabe’s hand froze.
“Please don’t stop,” I begged, roughly grabbing his wrist and pushing it against me, filling me deeper.
“But, Naomi…” He trailed off, sounding torn between finishing what he started and getting caught. Pushing up on my tiptoes, I groaned as his fingers slowly left me until only the tips remained. With a quick glance over his shoulder, I saw that Naomi hadn’t moved an inch. For good measure my eyes flew to Derek’s door and found it also undisturbed.
Satisfied that no one heard, I sank back down quickly until his fingers were lodged and his palm cupped me once more. Unable to speak, I simply shook my head and urged him to continue as I rolled my hips. His eyes were dark and hooded with lust, but his hand was tentative and way too slow. I growled in frustration. “Jesus, Gabe. She’s not… awake… Derek’s door… is… closed,” I panted out as I rubbed myself against his practically immobile hand.
“That could change any minute.” Gabe’s hand slowed again, but his voi
ce was ragged and his eyes were slightly mischievous. He wasn’t going to stop this time, but he sure was enjoying torturing me.
My hands left the counter and clutched his shoulders, my nails digging into the fabric of his shirt. “Then you better be able to finger me in a minute.” His hand froze again as his eyes widened at my crass words, but I felt no embarrassment. I was surprised too, but it was simply a testament to how comfortable I felt with him. I knew I was safe here. I knew I was loved here.
I would have laughed at his expression if the throbbing between my legs hadn’t crossed the line from uncomfortable to downright painful. “So make it fast… and hard.”
“Are you trying to kill me?” Gabe’s words came out on a groan, his eyes flaring and his control snapping as he lips landed on my neck, roughly sucking the skin there. His hand went from zero to sixty, causing a whole different kind of pain. A pleasurable pain. A pain I would beg for. Gabe’s rough fingers continued to work me over and within a minute I was spiraling. He saw the signs and brought his mouth to mine to silence my cries. I bit his lip as I bucked against him, riding the delicious aftershocks until I was limp in his arms.
We were silent for a few minutes until Gabe slowly removed his hand and moved back enough to bring his hand between us. “Well, well… who knew you’d be into voyeurism?” Gabe smirked as he brought the fingers that were just inside me to his mouth. My face heated up at his words, but I still returned his grin and impulsively grabbed his fingers just before they reached his mouth and brought them to my own instead.
He groaned as I slowly licked them clean. “Definitely.”
“Definitely what?”
“You are definitely trying to kill me.”
We grinned as we continued to come back to ourselves and looked at our surroundings. My mind was reeling; I couldn’t believe I’d just had an orgasm in Derek’s kitchen. Eggshells littered the counter behind me, reminding me of my breakfast plans.
I laughed when I saw four broken eggs on the ground. My head fell against Gabe’s chest, shaking slightly from his own chuckles. “I guess I should probably throw this out, right?” I nodded to the pan containing only slightly burnt eggs. “It’s probably not very sanitary.”
“I see no reason why we can’t eat it.”
“We should probably clean this up before—”
Just as I was about to say before anyone wakes up, Derek’s door creaked open and he came stumbling out. He was shirtless and his hair stuck out in every direction as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
“What the hell?” he asked while pointing to his half-naked sister. Gabe and I remained frozen. He shook his head and walked our way but came to a halt at the entrance of the kitchen, his eyes going between the mess on the floor and us. Clearly he was still half asleep because his eyebrows were drawn tight for several seconds before they shot up into his hairline. “What. The. Hell?”
“Morning?”
“Alara…”
“Derek…” I mocked.
“Ughhh… you know what? Whatever… you’re an adult. You can do what you want.”
“Thank God, now I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”
Gabe smiled at me before whispering in my ear, “pants,” and nodding his head toward Derek. I laughed since he was far more interested in his phone than anything living, but with another quick peck to his lips I complied and walked to the bedroom, absolutely powerless against the smile overtaking my face.
I watched her walk away, only looking away once she’d disappeared from my line of sight. “How’re you feeling?”
“Like absolute shit. How are you so unaffected?”
“I didn’t have much, plus Alara and I found… ahh… activities that sobered us up quite a bit before we went to bed last night.”
Derek rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to say something when three loud knocks echoed through the apartment, causing him to wince and cover his ears. “Fucking shit, who the hell?” When we were both too slow to answer, the knocks sounded again and Derek bolted for the bathroom, looking like he was ready to throw up.
I walked over to Naomi and shook her awake, trying to keep my eyes away from anything other than her face. She moaned and shifted. “Naomi, come on, get up.” I shook her with a little more force. “There’s someone at the door and whoever it is, I don’t think you want them to see you like this.”
“I don’t give a fart,” she slurred. I squeezed her shoulder and whispered, “please.” She begrudgingly got up and headed for my bedroom where Alara was. I was crossing the apartment as the third set of knocks sounded. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming…” I trailed off as I reached the door. I froze as soon as it was fully opened and my mind registered who was in front of me. Several seconds passed and neither of us said anything, until…
“Gabriel.”
My dad was standing there. When I was seven and got stuck in a tree, I wanted him there. When I was ten and wanted someone to teach me to catch, I wanted him there. When I was twelve and broke my arm, I wanted him there. Hell, even when I was eighteen and graduating and I knew what an ass he was, I still wanted him there. And he wasn’t there. Not for any of it.
So I didn’t know if life was being cruel or ironic. Because now that he was here, I definitely didn’t want him.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
His eyebrows rose like he was shocked I’d be mad. “You should be with your family, it’s Thanksgiving.”
“I am with my family,” I gritted out, looking down the hallway toward the bedrooms. “And we’re actually going to be leaving soon, so if you wouldn’t mind…” I began closing the door; after all, there was nothing he could say that would change my mind.
“And what about Samantha?” he asked right before it shut.
Except that. I froze, cursing under my breath before I reopened the door. “I invited her over for Thanksgiving, but she said she’d rather be with you.” Which frankly I still couldn’t figure out, but she was adamant about it.
“She said that? She said she’d rather be with me?” he asked dryly.
“Yes, she said…” I trailed off as I thought about it, and no, she hadn’t said that. She had said that she needed to be home. And what she meant was Mom’s home; she had to be there for Mom. I hung my head in shame and stupidity. It never occurred to me that she saw that place as a shrine to Mom, since I had only ever thought of it as our dad’s prison.
I saw my father’s eyes brighten; apparently my thoughts were painfully obvious. “We both know how she feels about these holiday parties I host. It would mean a great deal to her if you were there.”
“If you know how she feels about them, then why don’t you cancel the damn things?”
He clucked his tongue. “You know I can’t do that. Business doesn’t take holidays off.” He paused and looked over my shoulder. “Speaking of business… have you forgotten about our agreement?” I remained silent. “Our agreement was that you had a year to get your dalliances out of the way before you came back to your,” he paused and allowed his gaze to shift over my shoulder once more before continuing, “real life. And I think coming home for this Thanksgiving party would be an excellent reinstatement of and commitment to that agreement.”
A throat cleared and I turned around to find Derek and Alara at the end of the hallway. Derek was glaring at my father while Alara simply wore a mask of confusion.
“Gabe?” she asked softly.
I walked over to her while rubbing the back of my neck. “Hey, maybe you guys should grab Naomi and head over to your apartment without me? I need to talk to him some more and then I’ll meet you there as soon as I’m done?” I phrased it as a question, trying to show her how much I didn’t want this, but I also hoped she realized it was something I had to deal with right now. Her eyebrows furrowed and she looked a little unsure, but finally she nodded her head.
“Sure. I’ll see you in a bit.” She glanced curiously at my dad before disappearing into my room.
“Is e
verything—” Derek started.
“Everything will be fine. I just need you to get them out of here.”
Derek was starting to look a little pissed, but he nodded as well and fifteen minutes later they were all gone, leaving just my father and me.
“My real life is here,” I said, realizing that all that bullshit from earlier was for Alara’s benefit, designed to hurt her. “You can’t force me back into anything.”
My father’s eyebrows rose and a mocking smile adorned his face. “You’re right, I can’t force you into anything. But I can offer incentive.”
“I don’t want your fucking money.”
His eyebrows rose. “I wasn’t planning on giving you any. You’ll earn more than enough when you’re at the company.”
My nails dug into my palms as I fisted my hands. “I’m not coming back to the company.”
My father looked down at his watch before sighing. “This really isn’t the time or place to have this discussion.” He looked around like the apartment personally offended him. “The party starts in three hours. I expect you to be there, and even if Samantha says she isn’t expecting you, she will still be hoping you show up. So think about that while you’re with your family.”
…
I blew out a sad, tired breath as I hung my head and stared down at my phone.
Me: I’m so sorry but I won’t be able to make dinner tonight
Alara: Okay? Is everything all right?
Me: yeah, I just really need to be here for Sam
Alara: Okay, well, have a good thanksgiving.
Unveiling The Sky Page 25
