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Of course, I can’t, and the minute I’m done coming, Gabrielle nudges me so that I fall onto my back with a thump beside her. Catching my breath is a task I’m not quite up to as we stare at the ceiling, thoughts smashing together in my brain.
The scratch of her smooth skin on the carpet grabs my attention, and I watch this gorgeous creature stretch like a satisfied cat as a smile blesses her face for a moment.
“We should talk about this.” My cheek meets the floor of the bookstore as I turn to look at her.
“No, we shouldn’t.” She begins to rise, her naked body illuminated by the moonlight.
She looks like a siren, here to send me crashing into the rocks with her beauty. I grab her wrist before she can stand, and Gabrielle whips her head around to glare at me.
“You can’t tell me it’s ever been like that with anyone else. You can’t tell me that didn’t feel … fucking perfect.” I sound desperate. I shouldn’t say any of this, but I can’t care enough to stop.
It’s taken me twelve years to get her here, and I’m not backing off without a fight.
“It doesn’t matter.” Gabrielle relents a tad because at least she’s not denying it.
Doesn’t mean she’s going to give me an inch either, though. As she begins to pull her clothes back on, I stand stark naked, trying to force her to look at me.
“What are you scared of? It’s been twelve years, Gabrielle. Most of the people who live here don’t even remember you taught at the high school. There has to be a reason you came back, and you knew I’d be here, too. You knew we’d run into each other. You wouldn’t allow it to happen all those years ago, but now? Why can’t you try? Why can’t we try?”
I need some kind of explanation here because I’m so tired of feeling confused and empty. Sex between us has lit something in my chest that has been burned out and dead for so long, and I need her to give me a good reason why it can’t stay this way.
“The minute I stepped foot back into town, at least four people I bumped into knew me by name and asked why I was back after so many years of not teaching here.” She plants a hand on her hip in nothing but the jeans she had on before.
It takes everything in me to focus, and not on the way her perky breasts are winking at me. This woman … goddamn, she’s fucking perfect. The most gorgeous thing I’ve ever looked at.
“Because this small town is nosy and ridiculous.” I roll my eyes.
I love Hope Crest to the core of me, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t making my argument right now an easy one.
“Exactly. If anyone ever knew what we just did, they’d be all up in our business. Going back to fact check and find out if I ever taught you. Then they’d realize I did. What if someone saw us back then, huh? You made more than a couple of uninvited visits to my classroom. Then that night on the trail … what if someone saw us?”
My arms raise involuntarily, as if my body is completely over her harping on this. “Then they would have seen two adults talking to each other. Just the same as any time I stopped by your classroom. How many times am I going to have to tell you that you didn’t do a damn thing? That none of it matters now, twelve years later, because I’m a grown-ass man who wants to keep feeling whatever the hell that euphoria was.”
I point to the floor where we just made each other see stars, and even in the dark, I swear I see a scarlet blush on Gabrielle’s cheeks.
“We need to get out of here.” She pulls her bra and shirt on, and I know I won’t get any more out of her tonight.
Grabbing my clothes and jerkily putting them on, I have to actively try to decrease my heart rate. This was never the way I saw our first time going, and knowing that I won’t be spending the rest of it with her cuddled in my arms is more of a disappointment than I can voice.
“Let me help you clean up or bring out those boxes you were working on.” Before I interrupted and ate you out on a bookshelf, is what I want to add.
“No, it’s late. I’m going home.” Gabrielle turns on her heel and starts for the front of the store.
“I’ll drive you home,” I offer, but it comes out as more of a statement than a question.
“I walked earlier, and no, I don’t need your assistance.” She doesn’t bother looking at me, her blond hair pale and ethereal in the moonlight as she reaches the front door and the bay window next to it. Grabbing whatever bag she brought with her, she heads outside.
“Then this isn’t much of a discussion now, is it. I’m walking you home.” No way am I letting her go alone.
She doesn’t realize what’s been going on here for the past two years, even if she’s probably heard some of the gossip. Two of the women in my family have been attacked, and I’ll be damned if I’m even going to let the possibility of that happening to Gabrielle occur.
“Liam, I’m fine. It’s half a mile. I’m a smart woman, it’s a small town.” Her shoulders set like she’s been weathering life alone forever as she locks the front door of the bookshop.
I don’t know it for a fact, but if I had to guess, I’d say my assessment is accurate; this woman has spent an awfully long time answering to no one and relying on no one. My heart aches with the want to be that for her.
“And I’m a stubborn man, which means I’m not taking no for an answer.” On any front, but she’ll find out more about that later.
An exasperated huff leaves her lips as she whirls around. “Listen, this was … fun. Needed, even. But it’s not happening again and I don’t need a chaperone. We’ve talked this to death and nothing more needs to be said. It was a slipup, one I’d been avoiding, and now we got the urge out. Go home.”
