Fallen (26 page)

I’d still try, though.

After my tenth shot, I could still walk and talk, so I needed more.
A lot
more. My aim was for the sweet oblivion of black-out drunk.

A leggy blond across the bar caught my eye. This was the third time our gazes had met, and each time, she’d smile before returning to her conversation with her brunette friend, who’d then look my way and give me the same smile. It would take absolutely no effort to have her upstairs, naked in my bed. Hell, I bet I could’ve had ’em both if I really wanted.

Thing was, I didn’t. The thought of having a threesome with these two women couldn’t have been less appealing, and it had nothing to do with their looks. It was because of Em. The
one
woman on the planet that I couldn’t seem to have, and she had to be the one woman my dumb ass wanted above all others. 

Life was cruel like that.

I walked into the hotel’s lobby, about to head for the elevator, when I spotted the mop of artfully tousled dark hair I’d recognize anywhere. But that’s not what stopped me dead in my tracks. It was the slut bucket attached to his side, pressing her tits against his arm as she whispered in his ear.

Well, that didn’t take him long. And here I thought he’d be nursing a broken heart. Looked more like he was nursing a whiskey, and probably a hard-on.

My gut twisted at the sight. All the things he’d said… Were they just words? Had he not meant a single thing?

No. That couldn’t be. I’d seen the tortured look in his eyes before I left. Something that painful couldn’t be faked.

Then why is he with her?

I couldn’t ignore the nagging voice inside my head any longer. Stalking across the lobby, I didn’t stop until I was beside them. “Can I talk to you?”

Gabriel glanced up, surprise crossing his face before he turned neutral. “Go ahead, I’m not stopping you.”

“
Alone?
” My eyes darted over to the woman, who was staring daggers at me. She could glare at me all she wanted, but this was one fight she would not win.

He shrugged out of her touch and took my hand in his, leading us out of the bar. I looked back over my shoulder, seeing her stand there, shocked at his apparent dismissal. I had the overwhelming urge to stick my tongue out at her.

Alone in the elevator, Gabriel said, “Talk.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, watching our distorted reflections in the gold elevator doors. “You’ve made your point, okay?”

“Someone’s jealous.” I didn’t have to look at him to know he was smirking. I could hear it in the tone of his voice just fine.

“
Admit it
,” he said, backing me up to the wall as his arms caged me in. “It bothers you to see me with someone else.”

I glared up at him, hating the way my body responded to being this close to him. “
Yes
, okay? It does. But that doesn’t change anything.”

The muscles in his jaw twitched. “That changes
everything
. You have feelings for me.”

“And you
said
you had feelings for me, but that’s not how it looks when you’ve got Barfly Barbie wrapped around you like you’re some kind of fucked-up Ken doll.” The elevator doors slid open and I pushed past him, stalking out into the hallway.

Gabriel’s hand wrapped around my upper arm as he hauled me back. His lips were pressed into a hard line as a deadly calm settled over him. “For the record,
she
approached
me
. I haven’t slept with anyone since Virginia, and I’m sure as hell not about to start now.”

“You haven’t?” I’d kind of assumed he’d been doing it all along, just not in front of me anymore. 

He looked disgusted that I’d even had to ask. “
No
. God, Em—” His fingers stabbed through his already messy hair. “I’ll never be able to touch another woman without thinking how much better you feel. You’ve
ruined
me.”

Swallowing, he tilted my head up and leaned down, his lips brushing mine in a silent question. I answered by wrapping my arms around his neck and parting my mouth, meeting his tongue’s caress with my own.

My lips tingled as I broke away and fisted the sides of his shirt. I touched my head to his chest, closing my eyes as I breathed him in. “I’m scared.”

“I am, too.” He stroked my hair and kissed the top of my head. “But we can do this. We can be happy together, if you’d just give me a chance.”

I wanted to. I wanted to believe that everything would work out this time. 

My hands drifted to his chest, feeling the hard muscles beneath his designer suit. “I think I need more convincing.” I covered his mouth with mine and made quick work of his buttons, my breathing heavy between kisses. 

He groaned and grabbed my ass, lifting me up as he carried me down the hall. I kissed along his jaw and nipped at his neck as he fumbled with the room key. “Come on,” he growled, his lips leaving mine so he could peer around me at the lock on the door. “Why the hell isn’t this working?”

I grinned as I stared at the room number behind his head. “Because it’s not our room.”

“What?” His eyes jerked up from the lock to the room number. “
Son of a
—”

He twirled us around and had the door open in seconds, his mouth reconnecting to mine like he needed it to breathe. We stumbled into the room as he kicked the door shut, then set me on the nearby table. His jacket hit the floor as I undid his belt, shoving his pants and boxers down as he ripped off his shirt.

I stared at the flawless specimen before me, running my hand down the hard ridges of muscle to grip his cock, standing thick and proud between us. He hissed in a sharp breath as I stroked him, his head tilting back as my thumb ran over his slit. “I need to see you,” he said, leaning me back as he gripped the bodice of my dress and ripped it away.

I had a brief second to mourn the loss of my cute dress before he grabbed me behind the knees and yanked me to the edge of the table, spreading me wide as his eyes perused my naked body. My bra and panties were still on the floor somewhere from our last tryst…

“Goddamn, Em.” 

The awe in his voice had my walls clenching, and I felt myself growing slick. I needed this, needed to be carried away and lost in him. Leaning up on my elbow, I reached for him, trying to guide him into me. “Please,” I breathed.

I watched him sink into me, and we both groaned at the sight. His taut muscles flexed as he withdrew and pushed into me again. “You feel incredible,” he murmured, his eyes sliding closed as he pumped in and out. 

“You feel better,” I said, bracing myself on the ledge of the table. 

“Im-fucking-possible,” he grated, accentuating each word with a thrust of his hips.

His hips swung freely as he gripped me behind the knees, the table shaking underneath me. “You see this?” he asked, his voice straining as he looked down at where our bodies met. “You see how beautiful we are?”

Lifting my head, I bit my lip and nodded, seeing his thick shaft sliding in and out of my pink folds. Every time he pulled back, I saw the sheen of my arousal on him, and I thought in some small way, it was like I was leaving my mark on him. The sight mesmerized me, pushing me higher up that cliff until my eyes squeezed shut so tight that I saw little white starbursts behind my eyelids.

He leaned down, hovering over me as he muttered, “Oh, God,” and drove into me, pushing my back into the unforgiving wood of the tabletop. 

I reached up and placed one hand on the wall, trying to steady myself, as the other went around his neck, anchoring him to me as I came apart underneath him. My nails dug into his shoulder as my orgasm ripped through me, making my ears ring until the sound of the table thudding against the wall was nothing but a faint background noise.

Gabriel dipped his head into the crook of my neck, his breathing fast and heavy against me, as he said, “I love you, Em.”

His words pierced through my fog, but before I could react, he tensed, his thrusts becoming jerky as he eventually stilled and filled me with his release. I clutched him to me, wrapping my legs around his waist as I slowly ran my fingers through his hair, hoping my body could tell him what I felt, but just wasn’t ready to say.

“Are you sure you have to go back to that stupid meeting?” I gave Gabriel my best pout as he adjusted his cufflinks. “I’m gonna be so lonely in this big bed by myself,” I said, letting the sheets fall back to expose my breasts.

His eyes lingered on my chest as he slowly frowned. “How am I supposed to leave with this?” he asked, pointing to the tent forming in the front of his pants. 

I laughed and sat up, reaching for him. “You’re not. You’re supposed to stay here with me,” I said, stroking him through the fabric.

He cursed as his eyes rolled back, then seemed to regain some of his willpower and stilled my hand. “As much as I would love to sink into that pretty pussy one more time, I simply can’t.” A smile tugged on his lips as he brought my hand up to his mouth and placed a soft kiss on my knuckles. “I honestly think my dick might fall off from overuse at this point.”

Truth be told, I was a little sore from all the “convincing” he did—on nearly every surface of this hotel room—but I didn’t care. I just didn’t want him to leave.

Sitting up on my knees, the sheets fell away as I scooted over to the edge of the bed, my lips brushing against his. “I’ll be gentle.”

He cupped my face in his hands, growing serious. “I love you. I just…wanted to say that when I wasn’t inside you. So you know that it’s real.”

I placed my hands over his, turning to kiss his palm. “I never doubted it.”

He nodded and dropped his eyes, then leaned in to kiss my forehead. “I’ll be back in a bit to check on you. Get some sleep, okay?”

“ ’Kay,” I said, frowning at his odd behavior. He’d seemed…sad. But why?

I got back in bed, pulling the covers up as I heard him leave. The look on his face gnawed at me as I tried to fall asleep. The door opened several minutes later, and at the sound of his feet on the carpet, I rolled over and said, “Did you forget—”

The words died in my throat when I saw Michael and two unknown Feeders standing at the foot of the bed. 

He tilted his head, looking me over like I was some kind of science experiment. “Hello, crossbreed.”

Panic arose when the two men closed in on me, and out of nowhere, I realized the strangest thing: I’d missed my chance to tell Gabriel that I loved him, too.

Chapter Forty-Seven

GABRIEL

I walked into the conference room a king. Emily was mine.
Mine
. I still couldn’t believe it.

Sitting down in my seat from yesterday, I looked around the room for Michael. There was still a few minutes before everything started, so I didn’t freak out when I didn’t see him immediately. 

The leather chair next to me creaked as Helen sat down. “Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” she drawled, grinning at me like the cat who ate the canary. “I take it things went well with your girl.”

My girl. 

I tried to bite back my smile, and failed. “Yeah. You could say that.”

Panic started to set in thirty minutes into the meeting when I realized Michael still hadn’t shown up. It wasn’t like him to be late, especially not to something as important as this three-day conference.

I pushed my chair back and stood, pulling out my phone as I scrolled through my contacts, to Emily. The man at the projection screen, going over detailed maps of Healer colonies, faltered when he saw me head toward the exit. 

“Excuse me, where do you think you’re—”

The door slamming shut behind me cut off the rest of his words. I held the phone up to my ear as I stalked down the hallway, the ringing on the other end only adding to the sinking feeling in my stomach. 

The phone would’ve woken her up if she was asleep…

So why isn’t she answering?

“Gabriel!” My uncle’s voice boomed down the corridor, but I didn’t slow down. I didn’t have time for his stupid power-play bullshit, not when I had the feeling that something was wrong. Very fucking wrong.

“You can yell at me in the elevator,” I called over my shoulder, just as her voicemail picked up. I cursed, taking off in a sprint down the hallway and through the lobby, swinging around the corner as I dove for the closing elevator doors. My hands shot out, prying the doors open, much to the chagrin of everyone else on board. I got a lot of eye rolls and glares as I hit the button for the fourth floor, thankful that no one else was stopping at one through three. The
last
thing I needed was any sort of delay.

Philip slid through the doors as they were closing, earning grumbles from those around us. 

“Fucking deal with it!” I barked, stabbing the “doors closed” button repeatedly.  

Everyone hushed. Philip cleared his throat and straightened his tie while I stared at the row of buttons, watching the numbers light up as we passed each floor. 

Come on, come on, come on—

The elevator dinged as the doors slid open, and I took off down the deserted hallway, vaguely hearing Philip’s footsteps behind me.