Threads Of Desire (Creative Hearts Book 3) (18 page)

He leaned in and kissed her. Gently. His lips soft and playful as they brushed against hers. She fought against the burgeoning smile and lost. He licked his tongue out, swiping it across her lips. She couldn’t help but stick the tip of her tongue out just to get a taste of him. He tasted warm and creamy with a hint of the smokiness from the cheese that she found perfectly matched his personality. Greedily, she stuck her tongue out to stroke his even more. A low moan escaped her throat at the same time that her stomach growled. This time she didn’t care. Turning away from his lips she leaned to the side and took a bite of the sandwich, then leaned back, satisfaction blooming from deep down in her middle. It was delicious.

“God, you are so damned sexy.” Nick let his hand glide along her thigh.

Gabby took the rest of the sandwich from his hand as her eyelids lowered to slits. He looked so good on the edge of her couch in her apron. So freaking hot she could almost believe all his words of flattery. She took another bite of the sandwich. “And you really do make a mean sandwich.”

He was busy massaging her calf now in these perfectly deep long strokes and he seemed so intent on it that she didn’t think he heard her, and honestly she didn’t care. It felt so good that she just wanted him to keep on stroking, and she just wanted to keep on eating. But he did stop and when he did, he looked up from her leg to her face, his gaze hot and intense. She paused mid chew as Nick reached over to the tray and picked up a small slice of the peach. “Now take a bite of this, then a bite of the sandwich. I would have gone ahead and just put it on the sandwich but I didn’t want to startle you.”

Gabby scrunched up her face. “I thought you weren’t all that adventurous in your food.”

“You’d be surprised just how adventurous I can be,” he said, a wicked undercurrent in his voice. Then he waved the slice in front of her lips. “Now take a bite.”

Gabby bit. The ripe peach flavor burst on her tongue with a sweetness and, at the same time, a tartness that surprised her, causing her to purse her lips. But she had no time to contemplate it because Nick was there hovering over her with another wedge of the cheese sandwich.

“Now a bite of this.” His deep voice had an instant wetness pooling between her legs. She opened her mouth again and let him feed her. The richness of the butter and the creaminess of the cheese melded perfectly with the sweet tartness of the fruit. Gabby moaned.

“Good, huh?”

She didn’t answer. All she could do was moan and nod her head as all the rich goodness slid down her throat and she looked up at Nick with sticky lips and glazed eyes. He leaned over and licked at her lips.

“Hmm. Peaches. Just how I imagine you everywhere.”

She felt herself blush from head to toe. How did he do that? She thought she’d aged out of the blushing phase of life years ago. But with Nick she was blushing and tingling and feeling all sorts of things, both old and new. It wasn’t right, and it wasn’t real. She had to keep that part straight.

Nick went to feed her another bite, and she turned away. “This has to stop.”

He froze. “But you said you were hungry.”

She looked at him with hard, serious eyes. “You know I’m not talking about the food here, Nick.”

He looked down, his eyes not going hard as she expected. Instead they went soft. Too soft for her to resist. He stared at her, his chest rising and falling as if suddenly he were having trouble breathing. “Can’t you just let go? Just for now and let me feed you? Let me be good to you tonight?”

The way he said it had her breath hitching. It was as if he needed to do this. Needed to take care of her. She was totally taken off balance, as it hit her how much she wanted it too. Wanted him to keep feeding her, to keep caring for her. To keep touching her leg in that loving, easy way, to keep kissing her like he did, to keep looking at her like he was. And more than anything, she didn’t want the night to end. Didn’t want the lights to come back on.

“Okay fine,” she breathed out. “Give me the other half of that sandwich. I did work up an appetite.”

Nick grinned wide and handed her the sandwich at the same time as he picked up a piece of strawberry and proceeded to lift the hem of her tee. She gasped. “What are you doing?”

He arched his brow. “Just adding a bit of sweetness to the sweetness.” He poured her a glass of the bubbly, handed it to her, then lowered his head. “You just lean on back and enjoy your meal and I’ll enjoy mine.”

Gabby took a long swig of the fizzy drink as Nick did something positively decadent with that strawberry and his tongue. She was grateful for his fast hands and quick thinking when her back arched and her head fell back and the fluted glass slipped from her fingers to his and didn’t crash to the ground.

Chapter 14

“I was a virgin, you know.”

The sun was rising and Nick was drifting off to sleep in Gabby’s arms, his head cradled on her breast. He was deeply content in her lush softness. He knew this was as close to heaven as he’d ever get or ever deserved to.

His eyes slid further open catching the lazy sunrays just barely grazing across her creamy brown skin. They were back in her bed where they could stretch out more comfortably after having finished their late-night meal, which was more of a treat for him than he’d dared imagined. Nick felt Gabby’s heartbeat fluttering under his ear. It seemed to pick up pace with her declaration and his own followed suit. He was a young boy again as guilt washed over him with her soft words of admonishment.

“I know,” he croaked out.

He felt her go tense, the softness and the pliancy leaving her body. He ran a hand gently down her side, but she shoved it away and sat up. Looked at him with eyes that were cold and accusing in the light of day.

“If you knew, then why did you do it?” Gabby drew her knees up and put her head down on top of them, her curls falling forward. Nick leaned in. The tangled sheet formed a barrier between them now. He kissed the top of her head, wanting her to raise it and look up at him, but she didn’t.

Why? He let out a breath and leaned back on his haunches staring at her. How could he answer her? Deep down he knew why, but how could he explain it? He felt his stomach knot. He didn’t want to talk about this. He didn’t want to talk about anything. He just wanted to turn back the clock and get the night back. Have her back in his arms, on his lips; be inside her and let the outside world stay where it was. He raked his hand over his scalp and she looked up at him, pinning him now with her wide eyes. Then he knew where his uneasiness came from. He’d expected more—more anger, astonishment, maybe tears, some judgment. But there was nothing. Just a look of wide nothingness as she stared. “Why?” she asked.

The question hung loud and real in the air, the word so big in the vast silence of a city without the hum of electricity. Nick longed for an alarm clock, a distant television, anything. But there was nothing. Just their breathing and her eyes. The same eyes that looked at him all those years ago when he’d hurt her the same way.

“I’m sorry.”

“You said that before. But still I want to hear you answer why.”

“Would it make any difference?”

She lowered her gaze and shook her head. When her eyes came up again they were harder and softer at the same time. She was back. Her mask was on. “I guess not. It is what it is.”

Nick sighed. He suddenly wanted to rip his own guts out. Claw at himself from the inside out for what he’d done. He leaned in and grabbed Gabby by the arms, pulled her to him, and kissed her. Hard. Fisting her hair in his hands, he captured her mouth as he let one hand trail to her breast and kneaded with all he had. He brought his other hand down to the sweet juncture between her thighs, probably rougher than he should have, and as his lips, tongue, and teeth tried to take and taste all of her that he could, he leaned over and brought her down low on the bed with him. She squirmed and arched, pushed at him at the same time as he felt the wetness start to come under his touch.

“Stop.”

“Please don’t make me,” he begged.

“You know I will.”

He sucked at her nipple, and despite her words, it hardened under his tongue and he pulled harder.

“Stop.”

“Gabby, please. Don’t make this the end,” he moaned against her, hard and ready, coming up to taste her sweet lips again.

She went rigid again, freezing him with her eyes. “I asked you a question.”

He fell down against her body, knowing he was hard and heavy, but somehow wanting to fall though her. Nick pushed up and off her with a sigh, rolling onto his back.

“Shit, Gabby. Can’t ‘I’m sorry’ be enough? I know I hurt you. You trusted me that weekend to introduce you around. Take you to meet some people and I ended up being an ass. Worse than an ass. I don’t have an excuse. I’m my father’s son. What more could you expect from me?”

With that declaration, she was quiet. Of course the mention of his father would seal the deal. He didn’t want to bring the man up. Didn’t want to use him as an excuse. But it was true. That kind of evil lived on. Was carried through from generation to generation. Gabby stared at him, her brown eyes breaking him down bit by bit. Finally she spoke. “I heard, you know.”

Suddenly he couldn’t breathe. Shit. What was she talking about? What did she hear? His stomach seized up again with the fear of it, the anguish over the fact that he could have hurt her more than he knew. He closed his eyes briefly, readying himself, then opened them again, back to her hard gaze. “Tell me, what did you hear?”

Her jaw tensed. But she was strong, stoic. He knew there would be no tears shed in front of him. Somehow, it gave him no comfort. She swallowed then spoke. “That night, when you left me. I heard you when you were talking to your…” she paused, the displeasure over the label clear in her tone. She continued after a beat, now even more solemn. “Your girlfriend. More than my virginity, I’d just given you my trust and my heart, something even more precious, and you dismissed me out of hand.”

Just when Nick didn’t think he could go any lower, he did. He went from the high of being around her, inside her, finally living in the glorious light of her glow, to now feeling like sixty shades of shit. And still she stared, waiting for some sort of magic eraser to take away the thing he did, the words he’d said. But there are just some mistakes that can never be undone.

He flopped back on the bed, staring at the light glinting on the crystal chandelier as the college weekend at Bonnersville came back to him in a rush. Steve telling him on the phone to give Gabby the royal treatment and her showing up in all her beautiful, young glory with those eyes, lips, and soft curves. And yes, right at the exact wrong time.

Nick had been just getting his footing. Just figuring out his game. For the first time, he was his own man, not the Ross boy. He was putting his family, the past, and even his mother’s death behind him, and then she showed up, bringing it all back. Just what he didn’t want or need. He’d had a new girlfriend and she was perfect. Ava was a sweet co-ed, the president of her sorority, and, the daughter of the dean of the business department. He did, apparently, have a type.

But at the party, those girls ragged on Gabby and made her feel small for her homemade clothes and her quirky style. When she ran off, and Nick went after her to check if she was okay, he’d found her in the walk-in coat closet. She was huddled in the back, barely visible under the dim overhead lights but she was there, silent and waiting for him to finish with his friends and retrieve his coat and take her home. She had that sad look in her eyes, a soft wash of tears brimming on the edges, and suddenly, all he’d wanted was to catch them before they fell. She looked up at him and he remembered his heart stopping for a moment as he caught a glimmer of trust there. It was so absolute that it scared him down to his bones. Then her lips began to tremble and it took him off the cliff.

When he’d kissed her, it was as if every dream, every want he’d had for years exploded on his tongue. She was all of it, and he took, greedily, hungrily, afraid that in a blink, she’d realize what was happening and with whom and put a stop to it. But she didn’t back away as he expected. Instead, she opened for him like a flower on one of those time-lapsed videos, but seen with his own eyes and felt with his hands. He fell to his knees at her feet, ready to worship her in every way he knew how.

When he came back up, she was shaking, but smiling, a glowing smile that took his heart, flipped it inside out and back again in a way he didn’t think was possible. He thought he could live on that smile forever. But then she unbuckled his belt—it was a poor excuse, he knew, but he took it. Took it and ran with it. And when she took his length in her hands and her pretty pink nails raked over him he thought he’d spill right there. Right on her tight, white—and as the mean girls had pointed out—post-Labor Day skirt. But, no he didn’t spill and she shimmied that skirt up and took him. Took control as she often did. With her eyes and her hands and her mouth, she guided him, and before he knew it, he was up, and she was lifted, her panties to the side, and he was in. Oh, so tight and warm and perfect inside, where he could happily stay forever.

Her shocked inward gasp was a calling to forever in his ear. She’d clutched at his shoulder, holding so tight it was as if it were a plea for him to never let her go. She’d tightened her legs around his waist and burrowed her cheek into his neck and he buried his head into her hair, the sophisticated up twist she had coming undone and tendrils falling around his ears, the smell of honey and peaches invading his senses. In two heartbeats and three quick strokes, it was over. The sensations had been so overwhelming, he wasn’t able to hold back. Nick was instantly embarrassed by his poor showing. But before he could apologize for that, a voice rang out from the front of the closet.