She laughed. “It’s like you live in a Sephora over here.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked, turning around.
“Double cleanser, toner, moisturizer with sunblock. Serum?” she read through the labels on the narrow shelf.
He walked over to her and framed her face with his hands. “Listen, none of this is an accident. I’ve got to look after my skin.”
“I only use makeup remover and a night cream.”
“That’s because you’re twenty-four and haven’t spent your life in the harsh desert. Wait until you’re old and grizzled like me.”
Ellie turned around and faced him. She reached up and smoothed her palm over his cheek. “Hmm... Not so grizzled.”
He reached behind her. “That’s because of the serum,” he said, pouring some bubble bath into the tub under the water. And that was why he liked—loved?—Ellie. It wasn’t just the sex, although that was incredible. She was smart, funny, tough. But there was more to her—to them. They had fun together. They laughed. And that was something he’d never shared with a lover. No matter what Ian said to Charles, no matter what the consequences for him, being with her was worth it.
She looked at his reflection in the mirror without turning around, frowning as she studied him.
“What?”
“Were you ever young, Gabe?”
“What do you mean?”
“Were you ever young and stupid, impulsive?”
He wondered where the line of questioning had come from. If it had anything to do with her father, or her small outburst in the club earlier, and he recalled the story she’d told him about her turbulent younger years. “Like you, you mean?”
“Nothing that extreme. But you’re just so serious all the time. When was the last time you let your hair down?” She reached up and ran her fingers through his golden waves, disheveling his hair.
Hardly ever. He stood from the tub and folded his arms as he faced her with a playful smile. “Need I remind you that I co-own an erotic club?”
“When was the last time you got out of your bubble? Sure, you own a sex club, drive a Harley, you own a piano you won’t play, but you’re still very buttoned-down. It’s all a front. You’re so stiff. You still haven’t been able to cut loose.”
“Haven’t you spent your entire adult life trying to erase your wilder days from memories?”
“Yeah, but at least I’m able to say that I made those mistakes, and learned from them. You’ve always been so sensible and in control. Me losing control as a teenager was self-destructive. You losing control can be freeing.”
“I seem to remember a wild weekend where I almost drowned in champagne, a beautiful woman and telling a pretty decent Elvis impersonator that I wanted her as my wife.”
“Hmm, yeah, that was you, wasn’t it?”
“But maybe I was helpless under your extremely bad influence.”
“You’re saying this was my fault?”
“You know I don’t remember, but either way, I’m glad it happened.”
“Me, too.”
He turned and saw that the tub had filled. “Let’s get in,” he suggested, as he helped her into the bathtub before settling in behind her.
Leaning back, with Ellie at his chest, he ignored the way his cock stiffened in response to the warm naked body pressed against him, and he leaned his head back and breathed a sigh of relief. He’d never had an appreciation for the tub before. Having only used it after a few stressful days at the office, or a vigorously intense workout, sharing it with Ellie was an experience unto itself.
They lay quietly for a moment, but Gabe couldn’t fully shut off his brain. “Do you want to tell me about your dinner with your father?”
She stiffened against him. “Not really.”
“It couldn’t have been that bad.”
“He told me to stay away from you and your friends.”
That surprised Gabe. Charles had been one of his biggest champions during his career. “Why?”
“Your friends, because he thinks they could be my gateway back into debauchery. Like I’m the same person I was back then.”
“You know what? I’ll bet you were an amazing person back then, too. He was just too much of an old, conservative asshole to see it. Why does he want you to stay away from me?”
“Because he doesn’t want me to destroy your future like I’d almost done my own. I’m a bad influence.”
Gabe tightened his arms around Ellie. He regretted the line he’d teasingly said earlier that she was a bad influence. He couldn’t begin to imagine how much hearing those words could have hurt her. And he understood why she’d acted out earlier. Her mother and father had really done a job on her. “Jesus, Ellie,” he whispered against the top of her head, before placing a kiss there. “I’m sorry. I had no idea how cruel he could be.”
“It’s okay. It isn’t anything I’m not used to from him. You know, I’d leave and forget he ever existed if I didn’t need the job.”
“You graduated from a good school. You can get a job anywhere.”
“Please. I already know how small Vegas is. If I leave the firm, people are going to know why. Not to mention that it’s pretty easy to use Google, and I know my name brings up some pretty interesting headlines.”
“You can stay here. I can take care of you,” he told her.
“What? You want to cancel the annulment, have me here as your happy housewife, making sure I meet you every day at the door with a martini and a pot roast in the oven?”
Gabe didn’t think that would be so bad, but he didn’t push it.
“I’ve worked too hard to get where I am. I want to keep the job. Even though my father paid for my education, I’ll never say I wished he didn’t. I’ve got a promising career. I can’t turn my back on that. You know that. It’s the same reason you won’t leave it either.”
Gabe had no response to that, so all he could do was wrap his arms around her. And he held her close, neither of them talking, until the water cooled.
In the silence, with his eyes closed, Gabe felt himself begin to drift off into sleep. He shifted, needing to get them out of the chilled water before he fell asleep. “Ready to get out?” he asked her.
“Yeah, I was waiting for you to wake up,” she told him with a laugh.
“I wasn’t asleep,” he told her. He was sure he’d only drifted off for a minute—tops.
“Oh really? You normally snore when you’re awake?” She stood and he watched the rivulets of water roll down her body. Maybe she was right, and he had napped. He was reinvigorated, his energy rising, along with his dick as he watched her step gingerly from the tub.
He followed her out and grabbed a fluffy towel. He stood behind her and drew the towel over her body, soaking up the water, following it with his lips. Her warm, damp skin was smooth under his mouth, and he kissed, licked, tasted his way across her shoulder blades. She turned in his arms and encircled his neck with her own. She kissed his mouth, and as he kissed her back, he could feel himself, naked chest to naked chest, melt into her. Kissing had always felt like a precursor to the more fun elements of sex, but kissing Ellie was different. He’d never felt anything so good or pure. He could have stood there kissing her all night.
Her body shifted, reminding him of his hard cock that stood straight up between them. Keeping his mouth fastened on hers, his tongue entwined with hers, Gabe lifted Ellie, and she wrapped her legs tightly around his middle. He made the short trip to his bed and lowered her into the center of his king-size mattress.
He followed her down and settled on top of her, between her knees. But soon, Ellie took over, and pushed him over to lie on the bed. On top, with her thighs straddling his hips, she stroked him, gripped him.
Gabe groaned his approval and let himself relax and enjoy her touch. But when she rose above him and slid he
r sweet, hot pussy against his dick, he thought he might explode.
“Fuck, Ell,” he muttered through clenched teeth.
“You like that?” she asked. He saw the wicked smile that played on her lips. She was enjoying torturing him.
“I’d like it a lot better if you would just lie back and let me do my job.”
“Your job is to just lie there,” she told him. “Tonight, you’re mine.” She continued grinding on his dick. Her moans and quick breath told him that she was enjoying herself.
“I’m always yours,” he whispered.
She stopped moving at his declaration. He opened his eyes and saw her watching him. He didn’t know if he’d scared her. He regretted saying anything. He cursed his own stupidity and lack of control where she was involved.
She didn’t say anything, but she raised up above him, took him in her hand, and lined him up with her opening. She started to lower herself. He was already inside of her, albeit just an inch, when he put his hands on her hips, stilling her movement.
“Ellie, wait.”
“What?”
“A condom,” he told her, nodding to the top drawer in the bedside table.
“No,” she whispered back.
“What?”
“I don’t want one. I want to feel you.”
Gabe’s restraint was razor-thin. He’d never had sex without protection, and as a sexually active young man, he underwent testing every few months. “Are you sure?”
“I’m on birth control, but besides that, I was tested a short time ago. I’m clean. Unless you have something to tell me.”
“Not a thing,” he assured her.
As Ellie lowered herself onto him, he arched his back off the mattress at the feeling of filling her with nothing between them.
Fully seated on him, she stilled and moaned. “Jesus, Ellie. If you don’t move, I might die.”
Her laugh was throaty and full of passion. She lifted and lowered herself, and then repeated her motion, riding him.
Not using a condom was a risky move, but as Ellie moved over him, he watched the spot where they connected. Gabe realized that he would risk everything—his career, his friends, his future, his life—for this woman. His Ellie.
He gripped her hips and slid his thumb to her clit, and rubbed her with small, gentle circles until her breath quickened and her movements became more frenzied. And when she came, her internal muscles clamped and squeezed him. It was all he needed to follow her over the edge. He pumped his hips quicker until he was completely spent. She fell over on him, and he could feel her heart beat in time with his.
“Ellie,” he whispered against the side of her head. He knew what he wanted to say. He loved her. But the words wouldn’t form on his tongue. “Ellie,” he started again. But he couldn’t finish.
“I know,” she whispered, her lips against his chest. “I know.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
GABE SAT ON the bench behind the keys of his piano. Ellie was asleep upstairs. After making love to her, she’d dozed off immediately, leaving him wide-awake and unable to sleep. His fight with Alana was fresh in his mind, as was his realization that he loved the woman now asleep in his bed. When they’d asked him, he hadn’t responded to his friends, but he believed he was falling in love with her, as inconvenient as it was. They’d agreed to see each other, sleep together until the annulment went through. But the sex between them was so good, and the conversation even better.
He was tired of the secrecy. Part of him wanted to scream it from the tower at the top of the Stratosphere. He wanted to touch her in public, talk to her, hold her hand, drape his arms around her. But he couldn’t. Not until she was ready. He would wait if she needed him to.
With each passing day, he found himself growing closer to her. He wanted to know everything about her, and wanted her around him all the time. Gabe had never felt that way about a woman before. He was falling deep. Was it love? How could it be? He’d only known the woman for such a short time. He’d allowed her to get closer to him than anyone else, but love? He had no idea.
With his forefinger, he stroked the middle C4 key, and then pressed it down, the noise echoing throughout the hallway. He then hit the next key—D—and ran through a scale and back several times, his hands getting used to the movement and pattern on the keys. The instrument was still in tune, despite its misuse. He dived into a tune that he’d played over the years, his fingers moving wildly over the keys, the beat of the music matching that of his heart as he played.
He looked up, his fingers stopping and clenching into fists. His breath came in short pants from the exertion of playing, when he saw Ellie at the base of the stairs, completely naked, just as he’d left her in bed.
“Sorry if I woke you.”
She shook her head. “It’s okay.” She walked slowly toward him, and stood next to the piano. She reached for his scotch tumbler and took a sip. “You’re really good.”
“Thanks. I feel like I’m a bit rusty. It’s been a while since I played anything.”
“Why haven’t you played?” she asked, taking a seat next to him on the narrow bench. He wanted her again.
“I’m just too busy. Work takes up a lot of time. And I started seeing this woman who just demands orgasms whenever she wants.”
“I’ve been begging to hear you play. You’re amazing.” She gasped. “I’ve got an idea. You told me that Di Terrestres does stage shows, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You should play there.”
“Play what?”
She rolled her eyes. “The piano, you idiot.”
He shook his head. There was no way he would get on a stage and play for the people there. “No.”
“Come on. Why not? You’re really good.”
“I’ve never played for anyone before, and I’m not starting there.”
“What, you’ll walk around naked, have sex in front of these people, but you won’t play a song for them?”
“It’s different, Ellie.”
“How?”
“I don’t know...” he trailed off, as if trying to find the words. “Sex is just sex. But when I sit behind the piano, it’s more. You know? It’s intimate. It’s me, laying myself bare. It’s scary. What if I suck?”
Ellie laughed. “You try to play the tough guy, but I know that isn’t you. You’re sensitive, creative, talented. What if you do it and you’re incredible? You never know until you try.”
“I’m not doing it,” he told her, hoping his tone would end the conversation.
With a sigh, she moved on. “It’s weird. I just look around this place, I look at your lifestyle. Why do you work for my dad? Sure, I know that law earns you a good living, but obviously a lot of your assets come from the Brotherhood.”
“I like practicing law. It’s what I’m good at. You know my dad was the other founding partner of Burnham & Associates, back when it was known as Burnham & Foster. When he retired, they took his name off, as some sort of weird challenge, like it would be up to me to see the name Foster back on the header.” He shrugged.
“You know what,” she said. “I think I finally get it.”
“You get what?”
“I get you. Why you’re so invested in the firm, and being partner, and why you’re so straitlaced. It’s all about living up to your parents, isn’t it?”
“You’re right. I guess that’s something we have in common.”
Not wanting to discuss it any further, he grasped her waist and lifted her so that she sat naked in his lap, her thighs straddling his. Her hot core open to him. He was wearing his briefs, and flexed his hips upward, making her moan at the contact, hoping she’d forget about the conversation. “I don’t really want to talk about that right now.” He punctuated his sentence by thrusting upward again, pressing his hard dick against her clit.
She moaned again. “But aren’t these the kinds of things that husbands and wives are supposed to talk about?” Her eyes closed, and she ground against him. Her moist heat was exquisite. “Their futures? Their careers? Their dreams?”
“You’re my dream,” he whispered against her lips.
He lifted her again, sitting her on the keys in front of him. The notes clattered, clashing against the marble floor. He put her feet on the bench and she was fully opened to him. He could feel her heat, smell her desire, see the glisten of her in the low light. He ran his thumb up her seam, eliciting another moan from her. He brought his thumb to her lips—tasting her juices. “I love how you taste,” he told her in a murmur. I love you, he left unsaid, shocking himself. But he realized it. He was in love with Ellie. It was irrefutable.
He leaned over her and put his lips against her, closing them over the tight, needy little bud at her crest. He lapped his tongue at her until she was rigid. He knew she was about to come, and he couldn’t wait any longer to have her. He stood and pushed his shorts down. He took himself in his hand and lined his dick up with her, and was inside in one forceful thrust. He withdrew and plunged into her again, and again. Over and over. The noise from the keyboard below her played an off-key tune, but he barely heard it. She felt amazing, flesh on flesh. He felt the fire burn up his spine, and his balls tightened. He came with a harsh shout as his orgasm sapped everything from him, and he collapsed over her in a heap.
He gave a few more leisurely thrusts, luxuriating in the feel of her.
Sitting on the bench, he pulled her down so she sat on his lap. “You’re my dream,” he told her again, kissing her on the lips.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
GABE WALKED INTO his office. Waking up with Ellie was quickly becoming the best part of his day. All of the secrecy was starting to get to him. They hadn’t talked about what they would do at the end of their marriage, and their court date was quickly approaching. But neither of them was ready to discuss it. He loved her. He was certain she loved him. But revealing their relationship—if that was something they even wanted to do—was something they needed to be prepared for. The ramifications would be serious. Gabe felt like he was ready. With each passing day, he cared less and less what Charles Burnham would think of their coupling. But he had to wait for Ellie to be ready. There was more at stake for her than just a job. For some reason, Ellie still wanted a relationship with her cold, distant father. Because the more he heard about Charles, the less he liked the man. But he would wait until the moment she was ready, and not a minute before.
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