Wasted Vows

by Colleen Charles

  I walked up to her and rested my hand on her shoulder. “Ready to go?”

  “Yeah, fine, but you don’t get to touch me,” she said. “You’ve lost the right to ever touch me again.”

  I let go of her and nodded. That one syllable. God. I didn’t want to say it. Couldn’t say it. Saying it was like watching a life raft drift through my frozen fingers as I bobbed in the waters of the Bering Strait.

  “Fine.”

  Chapter 41

  Ally

  The scent of sizzling bacon and eggs woke me. I rolled onto my side, tangling the sheets around my ankles and groaning. My head was a swollen mass of aching nerve-endings. Yeah, drinking was definitely not my thing. One cocktail and I was half-hungover and ready to give up on life. Although that one cocktail had been about half the damn bottle. No dive bars again. Ever again.

  “What happened?” I asked the ceiling and instantly regretted it. Pounding filled the fluffy space my brain had once inhabited. I fumbled for the aspirin on my nightstand and popped two out of the packet. I crunched them down.

  Wait one hot second. I was in bed with a headache. So, who was in the kitchen cooking my favorite breakfast?

  I bolted upright and grimaced at the responding throb of pain. Memories mulched together, jamming through me in a flood of images. Matthew at the bar, confronting me, pepper spray and then a flash of motion.

  Gabe.

  He’d come to my rescue the night before. I flapped the sheets back, but I was fully clothed. Thank God, we hadn’t done anything. I guess he was more respectful than Matthew, although that wasn’t the highest in compliments.

  Still, he had no right to make breakfast in my kitchen after what he’d done. He had no right to be in my house at all. No right to be anywhere near me. I slipped from my bed, but paused to stroke Codsworth, who was curled into a ball at the base. Like he knew there was an interloper in the kitchen and he needed to protect me. He purred when I touched him and I stalled a moment longer, enjoying the simple touch of my fingers to his silky fur.

  Animals were so simple. They loved you and that was it. No complications or betrayals, just loyalty and lots of cuddles.

  Pity Gabe Moreno couldn’t emulate that.

  I squared my shoulders and marched out of the bedroom and into the hall. I peered into the living room and sighed a stream of relief. Tangled blankets and a flattened pillow inhabited my sofa. I ignored the brief flutter of regret at the picture. A fantasy starring my naked body splayed out on that couch. And Gabe. Touching me.

  He thought he could sweep in and save me, did he? I’d put him in his place. I wasn’t his to save anymore.

  I stormed into the kitchen and stumbled into a scene from Leave It To Beaver. Eggs on a plate, accompanied by bacon and toasted English muffins with butter. There was even a pot of jam positioned beside it and steaming coffee in a mug on the counter.

  Gabe turned, wearing my pink frilly apron and nothing else. Okay, he had jeans on, but his naked back and chest detracted from that minor detail.

  “I thought you might appreciate a real breakfast,” he said, waggling a spatula at me. “Nothing like a bit of grease to fend off a hangover, right?”

  I didn’t answer, but reluctantly tore off a piece of English muffin and dipped it into the sunny-side egg yolk. I deposited it in my mouth and let out a tight groan in spite of my intentions.

  “It’s good then.” He grinned and switched off the gas with his free hand. “Allegra—”

  “Don’t you dare start before I get a chance to speak,” I said, picking up my mug. I sipped and nodded approval. He’d gotten the cream and sugar right, at least.

  “All right,” he said, opening his arms and dropping the spatula into the sink. “Speak.”

  “How dare you swoop in and save me after what happened between us. Shouldn’t you be with your fucking fiancé at her house, anticipating the birth of your first child?” It spewed out in a rush of anger, and it felt so damn good to get it out.

  “Whoa, okay. You don’t understand.” He ran a hand through his mop of bed-head hair. “I’ve been trying to tell you that I can explain.”

  “Whatever,” I said, trying to detach myself from the situation, forcing myself to remember he’d lie. Again and again.

  “Let me explain?” He stripped off the apron, muscles rippling beneath. He stretched, showing them off and pretending it wasn’t for my benefit.

  “That’s a cheap trick,” I growled, but waved for him to explain. How could there ever be an explanation for having a fiancé?

  “I’m not engaged, Allegra I told my dad I wouldn’t go through with it.”

  “I don’t get it. What’s your dad have to do with this? If that were true, why wouldn’t you just tell me in front of him? In front of her?” I pressed my lips into a tight line.

  “I didn’t want him to know how much I care for you. I wanted him to think you weren’t important,” he said.

  “Well, you did an excellent job. I’m not important.” I turned to walk out, but he hurtled across the room and grabbed my upper arm. “To you.”

  Gabe spun me on the spot and looked into my eyes. His gaze traced the contours of my face, resting on my lips, the tip of my nose, then flicking up to meet my anger again.

  “A cheap fuck,” I spat, struggling against his grip. “So that’s what I am to you?”

  He gave me a slight shake. “Don’t you ever talk about yourself that way in front of me again. Quit jumping to conclusions and let me finish. I wanted him to dismiss you because everything my dad touches turns to shit. He destroys whatever gets in his path, Allegra, and you would be nothing but a bug to crush beneath his heel if he thought I cared about you. He stops at nothing to control me.”

  I stopped moving and swallowed. “Huh?”

  “Yeah, that’s right. Donovan Moreno isn’t just the billionaire you’ve heard about. He’s a ruthless asshole and he’ll do whatever it takes to get his way.”

  I chewed the inside of my cheek. “Okay, but what’s that got to do with… her.” I couldn’t say her name as childish as that might’ve been. It made me want to break things just to think about her. Her perfect hair and lips. Her perfect designer outfits. Everything that she was and I wasn’t.

  “My father wants me to marry Faith because of her influence. Her father, George, is on the same ‘level’ as my dad. He thinks it would be a prosperous marriage. All he cares about are appearances. He doesn’t understand relationships. Or happiness.”

  “I’m still missing something. Why don’t you just tell your dad to stick it?” I asked, keenly aware of his body pressed against mine. Abs against the fabric of my PJs, strong hands gripping me so I couldn’t move a muscle. I didn’t want to be fighting. I just wanted to forget everything except the feelings coursing through my body. I wanted to melt into him.

  “He’ll cut me off if I don’t do what he wants. Sever my inheritance.”

  “Money,” I spat out, “that’s what this is about? You’re willing to marry Faith and forgo a damn paternity test for money? For your daddy’s approval.”

  “Once, yeah, that was who I was,” he said and his forehead creased in that way that made me want to comfort him. To trace the frown lines with my fingertips and take away his pain. Damn it. He should be worried about taking away my pain. “I’ll admit it. I wanted to be the golden boy, the son who impressed him. He hates the fact that I’m a firefighter instead of using my fancy college degree.”

  “And now?” I wanted to believe every word of it. God, help me. Why couldn’t I stop these emotions and stop wanting him? I felt like every kind of idiot. What if it was a lie again and I got lost in him again? So deep that I drowned in it and ended up destroyed.

  “Now, I don’t care what my father wants. I don’t care about the money. I want to do what I love and be with the woman I love.” He let go of me and gently reached up to cup my face in his palms. “That’s you, Allegra. I want your love. I swear to God, I could fucking breathe, eat and sleep your
love. You’re all I need, woman.”

  I couldn’t summon a word of argument. I wanted to put up those walls again and shut him out, but when we stood like this, chest to chest, his calloused skin brushing my cheeks, I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

  He was the man for me. Flawed maybe, with a child on the way from another woman, but he was the one. His soul was on the same level as mine, we were in sync and I couldn’t pull back now.

  “Love me,” he whispered, kissing my forehead.

  Chapter 42

  Ally

  “Gabe,” I said, unable to get the words out.

  He pressed two warm fingers to my lips and shook his head. “Just love me the best way you know how.” Those tender words coupled with the sincere tone did it. I was flat out gone.

  I ran my fingers up the muscles of his back, on either side of his spine and stroked him, tilting my head back and offering up my neck. He loved my neck, I could always tell from the small noises of satisfaction he made when kissing me. Soft grunts of pleasure.

  He made them now, lowering his open mouth to my flesh. He nibbled and sucked on each sensitive spot, feasting and inhaling through his nose, then finally moving to the next position, further down.

  I gripped his back, lost in his sweet, hot kisses. This was right, even though I didn’t want it to be. I loved his touch as much as I loved him, my need for his soul was entwined with my lust for his body.

  Gabe broke away, studying me for a moment. He brushed my lips with his and I squirmed for more, but he withdrew, chuckling.

  “Follow me, gorgeous,” he whispered, that sexy half-smile lighting his features. That was a beacon to me, a combination of confidence, sex appeal and utter desire that went deeper than skin.

  I was most definitely a moth to his flame.

  He walked out of the kitchen, glancing back once. He crooked a finger and my heart thumped, a strange tickle of excitement crawled through my soul. Nerves that should be reserved for the first time.

  Every time with him was like the first time.

  I followed, drawn by his scent and those delicious broad shoulders. I was wet at the prospect of touching them again, running my hands along the rippling biceps and to that solid middle, then up to his tan chest. God, so tan, and those enigmatic eyes.

  I throbbed for him.

  He strolled into the lounge and stood in the center of it. Pop went the top button and he unzipped those jeans slowly but left them on to seduce me with the sexy indentations of his muscles.

  Take them off.

  “You’ve been waiting for this, haven’t you?”

  “Wh-what?”

  “You wanted me the minute you woke up this morning. Your pussy was probably wet the second you walked into the kitchen.”

  I gulped and nodded, though I was a little reluctant.

  “I didn’t want it. I would have done anything to stop it.” The admission cost me. “There’s something about us, Gabe. I don’t know what it is.”

  “Chemistry,” Gabe groaned. “I fucking knew it. I pictured ripping those pants down and burying my face between your legs while we talked. I want you dripping for me, Allegra. Most of all, I wanted to look like a man who’s been eating pussy instead of eating cupcakes.”

  I blushed at the words as my hands went to my chest and my breath came in short gasps. I was so wet it misted through to my PJs, spreading to the indents at the top of my thighs. “Gabe, how did I get these pajamas on last night?” I glanced down at the flannel plaid design and noted the soft cotton against my fevered skin.

  He stilled and found my gaze. His stare dripping with passion. And more.

  “I put them on you.”

  “How?” I couldn’t help it. I wanted to know. Wanted to hear him say it.

  Just wanted.

  “First, I peeled your dress off your flushed body inch by painful inch.” He leaned against the counter. Like he needed fortitude in order to continue. “The bra and panties surprised me. I didn’t know such a little scrap of see-through fabric could cover anything. The moment the cool air flowed over your exposed body, your nipples puckered. Like they wanted me to touch them. Kiss them. Pull the lacy fabric of your bra down and lick and bite them until your sexy eyes opened.”

  “Did you?” I could barely croak the question past my parched lips. The same lips that wanted to capture his with everything that I was and everything that I could ever be.

  “I didn’t. I wanted to, but I would never disrespect the woman I care about by taking advantage of her when she’s passed out. I didn’t even touch you any more than I had to in order to remain functional.”

  “Gabe…”

  “Yes, Allegra?”

  “I’m wet. I’m so wet I can’t even tell you.”

  He didn’t acknowledge my dirty admission. Acted like I hadn’t even spoken.

  “Then, I pulled your dress past those curvy hips I love so much and hung it on a satin hanger. It’s in your closet. I had to search through your drawers to find something to make you presentable. Had I left you in just your lingerie in the middle of that bed, I wouldn’t have been able to stay out of it.”

  Never leaving my gaze, he reached down and slowly inched those jeans past his sexy hips to fall in a pool of denim on the floor. He could give it as good as I could. “I’m really hard right now, Allegra. So hard I can’t even tell you.”

  A mangled groan escaped my mouth.

  “Touch yourself, Allegra,” he prompted. “Slide your fingers down between your legs and touch yourself. Then, you can show me how wet I make you.”

  I pressed my fingers to the fabric above my clit and rubbed in circles because I couldn’t handle this moment. The intimacy of touching myself in front of him. So I deliberately defied him and kept my fingers outside my panties. Wanting to see what he’d do. Wanting to be punished for my defiance.

  “Please,” I murmured, “don’t make me wait any longer. I want you to touch me.”

  He stepped out of the jeans and came to me, his massive erection outlined through the front of his boxer briefs. Gabe stopped in front of me and let his constrained cock rub the sliver of bare skin between the hem of my shirt and the top of my PJ pants.

  He hooked his thumbs into either side of my pants at the hips, then ripped down, taking my panties with them, exposing my bare flesh.

  I gasped at the cold air.

  He cupped my pussy in one hand and parted my swollen lips with his middle finger, slipping it past my clit, again and again.

  “You didn’t listen to me,” he said. Calm. Determined. “I said that I wanted to see how wet I make you. Touch yourself. Do it now.”

  I shuddered and grabbed his shoulders, scratching the naked flesh and leaving my mark. Tracks of white against his tan skin that flamed into red seconds later. He was mine. Even when he melted me to the spot and took control of my body. Gabe was mine.

  “Swear to me that you’re not engaged.” Through the haze of my desire and longing, I had to know the truth before this went any further.

  He pushed my hair back from my face. “I swear. I swear with every cell of my body that I only love you.”

  I nodded and turned my face into his hand, kissing his palm. Then, I took a deep breath and did what he’d asked. Touched myself. For him.

  Tentatively, because I’d never done anything like this outside of the darkness of my own bedroom, I slid my right hand down the curve of my stomach to land just above my pubic bone.

  “Now, Allegra.”

  The heat radiating from my core burned a sensation into my body. A branding. Of pleasure and desire. I’d never felt more in charge. Or more exposed.

  “I want more,” I said, meeting his gaze, loving the feeling of power I had over the speed and depth of this interlude. “I want you.”

  As I spoke the words, little more than breathless pants of desire, I allowed my fingers to drift lower and part my folds to the ministrations of my own hand. Gabe’s breath hissed and his eyelids fluttered shut. Like he couldn�
��t watch. Like it would be too much to watch me pleasure myself even though he’d demanded it.

  He curled his arm around me and dragged me close, lifting me effortlessly. “I’m going to split you wide open. With my tongue. And my cock.” Gabe slipped his middle finger between my legs and sank it deep, finding my clit with his thumb.

  My eyes rolled back in my head, the pressure and slow build too much to bear. The waves of the first orgasm ripped through my body like I’d been hit with a taser. Rapid fire pleasure caused my feet to levitate off the floor. If Gabe hadn’t had a strong arm snaked around my waist, I would have become a human puddle.

  He continued to hang onto my torso for dear life with his hardness pressed between us, aching and pulsing against my skin and shirt. “Yes, that’s it,” he growled. “Come hard, Allegra. You’re my woman. Mine. Say it.”

  “I always was,” I replied in between whimpers. “God, how I’ve wanted to deny it, but I can’t. And it might be the death of me.”

  “That’s right.” He took his finger out of me and ripped my flannel shirt over my head with one hand; the pearl buttons gave way and rolled across the linoleum. His eyes grew tight; his erection strained harder. “Fuck, Allegra. These gorgeous nipples.” He rolled them between his fingers. Pinched hard. Then leaned down to soothe the savage move with a soft roll of his tongue.

  I shuddered. “Oh god, more, please fuck me,” I breathed. “Gabe, don’t make me wait any longer.”

  He marched us to the couch and adjusted me in his arms, turning my body so I could wrap my legs around his waist and arms around his neck.

  I caught his bottom lip in my teeth and bit lightly, then sucked. I slipped my tongue into his mouth and took the kiss I’d craved from the second he’d taken those jeans off.

  His cock was at my entrance, quivering and sliding past the opening, teasing me.

  Gabe sat down and brought me down with him, ramming himself inside and sending a shock of pleasure through my ass cheeks and up my spine, straight into my brain.