Quiver (Revenge Book 1) (18 page)

Gage eyes went to a deeper place. “You know I don’t love her.”

Veda cursed her body’s instant reaction to those words. She hated how much her mind eased. How much her heart warmed. How much her body
cared
, even as she begged it not to.

Gage leaned in and angled his nose to hers. “Do you trust me enough to let me have all of you?”

He turned his lips to hers, and Veda answered with the kiss she seared into them. She kept her eyes open as he breathed into the kiss, clapping one arm around her waist and pasting their bodies together, his eyelashes jammed against his cheeks as he disappeared in their embrace.

The jiggling of the door handle drew them apart, their lips smacking in their retreat.

Then a bang on the door.

“You’re not allowed to lock this door!” a voice rang out from the other side. “Hospital policy!”

Veda and Gage shared a look as more banging came through.

They both recognized the voice.

“Coco,” Veda said, trying to speak clearly past her pounding heart. She started for the door but Gage caught her forearm halfway there, turning to gaze at her over his shoulder.

“Tonight,” he said.

“Tonight.”

Only when that whispered word left her mouth did he release her, turning to the cubbies and pulling one open, pretending to rifle through it—even though everyone in that hospital knew he didn’t have one.

Veda went to the door. When she opened it and caught sight of Coco on the other side, hands on her hips and looking irritated, she smiled. It amazed her that she didn’t even have to force it.

“Why was the door locked?” Coco asked, so loudly that it caught the attention of the man leaning against a doorframe across the hallway.

Veda already knew who the man was before he turned his head, thanks to the bun tied at the back of his neck.

Still, when Detective Lincoln Hill looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with Veda, she found herself momentarily frozen.

She swallowed thickly while closing the door to the on-call room behind her, breaking her gaze from Linc’s while lacing her arm in Coco’s. “Hey, friend.”

Coco stumbled backward, looking confused as Veda closed the door. But, true to form, that word
friend
made everything in her world move to dust.

“Hey, friend,” Coco said, her voice breaking. “I was just going to take a quick nap for my lunch break. Totally exhausted.”

Veda seized her arm tighter and pulled her down the hall. Away from Gage.

But even more than that, away from Linc.

“Come to the cafeteria with me instead,” Veda said. “It’s Jell-O day and I wanted to get in line before the green apple sells out.”

Coco was next to her without question, tugging on the sleeves of the lime green shirt under her scrubs while talking Veda’s ear off about something or another.

Veda shot another look over her shoulder and saw Gage peeking out of the on-call room. He caught her eyes and waved.

But Veda didn’t wave back.

Her stomach had gone sick.

Because Gage didn’t see Lincoln Hill watching him from across the hall. Watching as he emerged from the same locked door that Veda had been behind just moments earlier.

He didn’t see Linc look down the hall, lock eyes with Veda, and smirk.

—

Gage slid the key into the lock and hesitated. He heard the tremble of his lungs, living on the breath he heaved in through flared nostrils. His eyelashes hit his cheeks, and he took a much-needed moment before he jiggled the key and unlocked the door to Veda Vandyke’s apartment.

From the foyer, his eyes dashed across the open space. Empty. His heartbeat picked up. Was she avoiding him for the third day in a row? The question sent his already thumping heart into overdrive.

Or would she be there, like they’d agreed? Perhaps waiting for him on the bed?

He couldn’t decide which was scarier. Losing Veda…

Or having her.

When she sauntered out of her bedroom in a red silk nightie, the answer became clear as day.

Having her.

Having her was definitely scarier.

But not scary enough to stop his dick from growing semi-erect just seeing her. Not scary enough to make him leave. Not scary enough to ignore the debilitating urge to cross the room and take her in his arms.

Her eyes met his across the room and ate him alive. He always wondered if she had any idea how honest her eyes were.

Smiling, she stepped out of the dark hallway, lifting her hand. Handcuffs swung from her fingers, her other hand hidden behind her back.

Gage smiled, and he couldn’t help stepping toward her. They met in the middle of the living room, the air growing thicker every second their eyes remained locked.

He dropped his briefcase to the floor and seized the cuffs, letting those clatter to the floor too.

“Not a handcuff guy?” Veda asked, her voice soft. “Too intense?” Her eyes were even bigger close up, when she was forced to crane her neck to meet his, and it took everything he had not to flower her face with kisses.

She brought her hand out from behind her back with an alternative.

Gage felt his eyebrows tighten when the anal beads came into his vision.

“I figured these might be a little advanced for you,” she said. “But since you’re not into the cuffs….”

He took the beads from her, unable to stop himself from shaking his head at her before dropping those as well.

Veda shrugged as the beads bounced between their feet. “It’s our first time together without a condom. Don’t you want it to be exciting? Do something different?”

Gage reached out and pushed one strap of her negligee off her shoulder. He watched it fall down her arm, letting his fingers follow it, stroking her soft skin before he used his free hand to remove the other strap as well.

The silky fabric tumbled down and caught on her pert nipples. Gravity, however, won over, and in the next moment it plummeted to pool at her feet with no further prompting, leaving her completely naked.

Gage drank in her plump breasts, rising and falling heavily. Her puckered brown nipples, taut with her arousal. Her clenched fists, rosy cheeks, big eyes, and her parted lips.

Those
lips.

He took his time exploring her body, and by the time his eyes met hers again he’d already unknotted his tie, pulling it from around his neck. The buttons of his shirt were next, and he peeled it off, his heartbeat tripling when her gaze fell to his revealed chest, rising and falling with just as much fervor as hers. She reached out one hand and his dick jumped at the innocent stoke of her fingers on his pecs, the throbbing head yearning for a brush of her soft fingers as they circled his nipples.

His belt and zipper came undone under his eager fingers. By the time he found himself pushing his boxers down to his ankles, holding her hooded eyes, the air in the room had thickened so much from the heat of their heavy breathing that they were forced to pant in each breath.

He stood tall, just as bare as she was.

Neither made the move to break the silent barrier.

Her eyes, ever expressive, helped Gage see the exact moment when Veda seemed to realize what this was.

Without a word, without touching or even being touched, his shaft tightened, like Pop Rocks exploding under his skin. He felt the veins of his dick protruding, one by one, as if
they
wanted to reach through the tight air and stroke her flushed cheeks. Kiss her button nose. Clench her supple skin.

He licked his lips as his dick rose, and only when it was at full attention, a dot of precum threatening to drip to the floor, did he step forward. He cupped her cheeks.

She sucked in a breath.

He leaned down and her shoulders rose. It wasn’t until he brushed the softest kiss on her lips that they relaxed. Only after she’d given in did he allow his eyes to flutter shut, his lips spreading wide over hers.

The deep kiss went on, growing heavier by the moment. They eased closer with each peck. When she snaked her arms around his shoulders, the brush of her wet tongue meeting his, he burned for the only other part of her that was as soft as her mouth and tongue.

He bent down and swept her off her feet, smiling at the adorable squeal that warmed the space between their lips.

As he carried her to the bedroom, he wondered how he managed to walk on his shaky legs, breathe past his sealed lungs, or see past the emotion burning his eyes.

The intensity he felt in his own eyes made hers fall. He nudged her button nose with his, asking for her gaze, but she hid her head in his neck instead, dragging soft kisses down the big vein in his neck. Her hot tongue on his skin sent shock waves straight to his dick. He involuntarily hugged her body closer, his erection bobbing in the cool air of her bedroom, desperate for the toasty comfort of her pussy.

He lay her in the middle of the bed and stood tall. She wiggled against the red sheets. The sight of her—smiling up at him from where she lay on her back, hard nipples begging to be licked, lips plump from his kiss, and pussy swollen with promises yet to be delivered—drove his hand to the throbbing head of his dick. He covered it with his palm, sucking in a sharp breath at the thought of her walls snug around it, with no barrier.

She reached for him with a smiling whimper, her fingers clawing as if they were jealous of what filled his, snatching at the open air.

He couldn’t heed her reach, and when he spoke, the words were grainy. “I don’t think you have any idea how happy you make me.”

She pushed herself up on her arms, then onto her knees, crawling over to him with her bottom lip trapped between her teeth. He couldn’t help smiling back as she stopped at the edge of the bed, taking his hips in a gentle hold.

His dick twitched at her scent, the warmth of her breath teasing the swollen head—her very nearness. As her nimble fingers traveled over his hips and along the deep V at his waist, drawing a tingling path to his twitching erection, he was sure he’d never coveted a touch so badly in his life. Distantly, he worried he might finish in her hand off one stroke alone.

When she took the aching head in a firm hold in one hand, cupping his balls softly with the other, and licked her lips for a taste, Gage grabbed hold of her wrists and pulled her hands away. He almost had.

He’d almost come in her hand.

She didn’t even have time to give him the look of confusion working its way between her eyebrows before he’d climbed on the bed, letting his size and strength return her onto her back. Her big curly hair blossomed behind her like a crown as she lay back down. She grasped his jaw, biting her bottom lip again.

“I may not last very long,” Gage admitted, still holding her wrists, lowering his eyes when he felt a blush burning his cheeks. “Without a condom. It’ll feel too good. And on top of that… it’ll be
you
….”

She reclaimed one of her wrists and reached up, grazing the backs of her fingers along his jaw.

“It might go fast.” He swallowed thickly. “But only on the first round. I promise.” The burn in his cheeks turned to an explosion, and the redness traveled down his neck and his chest.

The smile on her face nearly ended him. “I want you inside me,” she whispered.

Those five breathy words made him feel like he was flying. He felt the crimson evaporate from under his skin. When he braced his hands on either side of her head, however, his heart rebounded with a vengeance, ramming hard enough to fracture his ribcage. He moved between her splayed legs, spreading them wide with his weight.

The smile vanished from her face.

She took his shoulders in a firm hold. She nudged.

Gage knew what the nudge meant. She wanted him on his back. She wanted to get on top. She wanted the emotion he could feel staining his eyes below her, not above her.

She pushed again, and he saw her eyes change when he didn’t relent instantly, the way he usually would. He saw them widen when, instead of yielding, he gave her more of his weight, forcing her tiny thighs open as far as they would go, his hardness cradled on her lower stomach. Even that tiny contact, his dick stroking her heaving stomach, made so many sparks of pleasure shoot through him that he was forced to fist a huge chunk of the bedspread to maintain control.

Veda turned her head and kissed his wrist. He strummed up what little control he had left and covered the top of her head in his hand. He let his fingers disappear into the spirally curls at her crown, holding her still, just firm enough so she couldn’t move her head from him. Move her eyes from him.

His thirsty gaze searched hers.

Veda tried to wiggle her legs out from under him. To change their position. To turn her back to his chest, he presumed, so he could have her from behind. But he kept hold of her head while shaking his own at her.

Tiny lines grew between her eyes, sinking deeper with each second he brushed the tip of his nose against hers.

He breathed in her scent, and only when she stilled did he allow his eyes to flutter closed and his lips to lower to hers.