“Hello, I’m standing right here. I don’t need to go to the ER. I’m fine. It’s just a gash.”
“You have blood all over your clothes. You’re pale and your hand is bleeding again. You’re going to the ER and that’s final.”
“Fine, then let me call my mom and have her take me. It’s Christmas, Gabriel, I don’t want to take you away from your family.”
He sighed and looked back to his brother. “Thanks, Rafe, Dad. Don’t hold dinner for us. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
Rafe chuckled and got into her car.
“Wait! Gabe’s present is in the trunk.”
Gabriel stomped, yes, stomped, to the trunk and pulled out a huge bag. “All this? You went a bit overboard didn’t you?”
Her temples throbbed and nausea rolled through her. “No. Yours is on the top. The silver one. The rest are for your family. Have them take it all.” She reached out to grab the truck and Anthony rushed to hold her up.
“Honey, sit down. Let us deal with everything.”
Gabriel grunted as he picked her up like she weighed nothing and tossed her into the seat. “We can deal with presents later. You’re going to the ER right now.”
“This is dumb,” she told him when he got into the truck and pulled back out, heading into town again. “I’m fine.”
“I’m really angry right now so don’t make it worse. You’re pale and sweaty and bleeding. Shut up, damn it. I’m taking you and you’re not going to argue.”
“Pffft! I’ll argue if I want. I’m just sort of shaken by the whole thing. The cut on my hand isn’t even that bad and for heaven’s sake, the bump on my head is just a scratch. It’s Christmas, you should be with your family instead of carting me to the hospital.”
“What part of don’t argue with me did you not understand?” he grumbled but kept on driving.
Brian Taylor waited for them just inside the doors to the ER. He waved them over. “Hello there, gorgeous. Come with me, all right?” He seated her in a wheelchair while Gabriel kept close.
“Were you on duty?” Gabriel asked as Brian wheeled her around a corner and into an exam room.
“Nope. Belle called me to tell me Charity was on her way and I thought I’d pop in to check. It’s pretty quiet for Christmas so you didn’t pull me away from some lifesaving surgery or anything.” He smiled, trying to reassure her, she knew. “Anyway, I’ve got hospital privileges here so why not help family out?”
“My insurance stuff is in my purse.”
“I’ll get it to the nurse when I go to grab a suture kit. Sit tight.” He took the card and left the room.
Gabriel brushed the hair back from her face, happy to see some of her color returning and she smiled at him, apparently past her annoyance at him for taking charge.
“Okay then,” Brian came back into the room, “let’s get a look at you.”
Just under an hour later, they left. Charity had three stitches in her hand, some butterfly bandages on the cut in her forehead and some pain relief medicine that left her sort of giddy.
No concussion or shock, thank goodness, but she was sore and she admitted she had a headache. Brian told them both to keep an eye on it and to come back if the headache didn’t clear up in a few hours. Gabriel had wanted to punch that tractor driver in the damned face the whole time she had to be sewn up.
She looked over at him from her seat in his truck. “Can we stop by my house first so I can change? I hate being even more late to your family’s but I’m not exactly ready for company unless it’s Halloween.”
“Stop worrying about being late. You know they care more about you being all right than you being there on time. And you were not just fine, admit it. Ms. Three-stitches-in-my-hand.”
“You were right.”
He laughed. “You gave me so much shit and that’s all I get?”
“No. I’m perfectly willing to fix it in other ways to please you.”
Her pants and sweater were covered in blood and she was paler than normal. He wanted to scoop her up and carry her off to bed while at the same time yelling at her for not calling him first. He hated the helplessness he’d felt when she’d called him and hung up without telling him where she was. Hated the punch to his gut when he saw her car there cattywompus on the side of the road and then caught sight of her hand and the blood. Most of all, he wanted to fuck her until he could sate himself of her.
“Stop that. You’re hurt.” God, he didn’t sound the slightest bit convincing.
“Brian gave me good stuff for the pain. I’m feeling pretty darned good right now. And you look so very sexy, all gruff behind the wheel. Grrr, don’t get in my way tiny gas efficient car!”
“I’ve noticed you loosen up that nice girl thing when you’re tipsy,” he said with a grin.
“Perfect time to take advantage, Gabriel. I’m easy and tipsy and I have to change clothes anyway. It’s very economical. Also, you’re a very sexed-up man and it’s been about what, a whole fifteen hours since we had sex last?”
He pulled into her driveway. “You’re really okay?”
She hopped out and headed to her front door. “Fine. Come on, we’re late.”
He followed her into the house where she waited for him to tell her what he wanted. That sweet lure of her submission wrapped around his senses, filling him up, bringing an ache only she could fill.
“Let’s get you naked first and then on the bed. On your back, I’ll do all the work.”
“Oh, my favorite.”
She shed her clothes slowly and once they were in her room, he helped, kissing her skin as more of it was bared for him.
He froze when he saw the bruise on her shoulder near her neck.
She raised her hand to his face, moving his gaze back to hers. “Brian said the seatbelt might leave a bruise. I’m not glass, I won’t break. If you can use a crop on my ass and thighs, you can make love with me right now.”
Since her hand was wrapped, she couldn’t really get to his buttons easily so he did it for her until they were both skin to skin.
She was so warm and alive against him he simply breathed her in for long moments before breaking away to touch more of her.
He caressed the long line of her neck, kissing over the darkness of the bruise there. “Lay back.”
She got on the bed and looked up at him in that way she had. Between them there was no pretense. Nothing but them and he couldn’t hide behind anything because she knew him right to his soul.
“You could have really been hurt today.” He massaged up one leg and then the other, avoiding her pussy for the time being.
“I wasn’t.”
He smoothed over the softness of her belly, the curve of her waist, a whisper of touch over her breasts.
“We’re going to be late.”
He laughed. “Doesn’t matter. I’m taking my time anyway.”
She started to argue but he raised a brow and she shrugged, giving in.
He kissed along the edge of her jaw, across her mouth, down her neck. She touched him with her uninjured hand, kneading his muscles, sifting through his hair. Gentle and seductive all at once.
Her nipples hardened against his tongue and she writhed a bit, gasping, when he bit just the way he knew she liked.
“God I love that. I love when you do that,” she whispered as gooseflesh raised on her body beneath his lips.
He licked down her belly, delivering three sharp nips to her belly button. She widened her thighs to admit him as he moved down and set about making her feel even better.
He craved her and he knew as he moved back up to slide into her pussy that he’d never be the same. Never recover from the way he felt when he was with her.
Her legs wrapped around him, her eyes locked with his as she met his thrusts. She was the perfect everything, the perfect shape, the perfect size, smart, funny and he never wanted to let her go.
She looked up into his face. “I love you, Gabriel.” It just fell from her lips, she hadn’t
intended to say it yet but the way he’d held her hand as he’d cleaned her wound up, the way he’d been so worried she could hear it in his voice, the way he touched her just then, all gentleness and ferocity at once—she’d been unable to hold back.
He swallowed hard and blinked as he continued to thrust into her body. “I know. I love you too. I shouldn’t. We shouldn’t.”
“We shouldn’t? Whyever not?”
“You knew what this was from the start. Just because I love you doesn’t change that.”
“You’re seriously making this way less sexy,” she grumbled and he laughed.
“Concentrate then. My cock inside you. That’s what matters. You and me here right now.”
She wanted to hit him. The über romantic moment of the I love you and he says he shouldn’t love her? Total fail in the romance department.
She sighed and arched up, wanting to argue but it wasn’t the time.
After the sex, which was lovely as always, even with the confession, they re-dressed and headed back out to his family’s house for dinner. Still, she felt distance rather than closeness which annoyed her after the day they’d had. He’d been there for her when she needed him, darn it! He’d taken care of her, showed up, taken charge, stayed by her side through stitches and made love to her with a depth of tenderness that nearly brought her to tears. And yet he still seemed skittish.
His family had hovered around her, making sure she was well fed and comfortable even after she’d reassured them all a hundred times she was fine. There was no distance there, no skittishness, they’d taken her in completely. She was already sort of like family but now she truly had felt like one of them.
She’d been very careful with her gift to him, not wanting to spook him further. A rugged but very nice watch he could wear all day at work and it wouldn’t get dinged up. His old one had stopped working just a few days before so it had been perfect timing. Other silly stuff like sweaters and a gift certificate for a massage because she thought he needed some TLC when he doled it out to everyone else all day long. He’d blushed when she said it and she’d seen the love in his eyes for her.
So why did he have to make it complicated when it was simple?
He’d given her a beautiful platinum chain, simple which was what she preferred, but with a delicate charm, a dragonfly, one of her favorite things in the world. And cashmere gloves because her hands were always cold.
It had been very late when she finally decided to go home. She was tired and her head hurt and her heart was heavy.
She kissed Beatriz and Anthony, hugged everyone and made her way outside.
Gabriel held her good hand and opened her car door. “Are you going to sleep over?”
“I have to be up at four and you don’t until eight. Go home and rest up. Get rid of that headache. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He kissed her so very gently.
“Thank you for today. For everything. I love you, Gabriel. If you just opened up and let this be, we could work.” She didn’t say anything else but got into her car and drove away.
She didn’t even cry until she got into her own bed. Alone.
Chapter Ten
The day after Christmas was nearly as busy as the day before Christmas Eve. The shop was packed from the minute they opened up at nine thirty until they finally locked the doors at six.
Charity had been rushed off her feet. Too busy to leave for lunch, too busy to think on what had happened between her and Gabriel the day before. Not too busy to notice he hadn’t stopped in at all, or even called, and she’d checked her phone several times just in case.
She drove home, exhausted but looking forward to a shower and hopefully some quiet time with Gabriel to work through whatever the hell was blocking him from accepting their happiness.
She left him a voicemail and jumped into the shower, careful to keep her hand dry. She took her time, letting the warmth wash away her anxiety and the stress of the day and by the time she dried off with a fluffy towel, she was smiling again.
Until she checked her voicemail.
Charity, it’s me. I’m going away for a few days. I-I need to think long and hard about us. About what’s going on and where this is going. I can’t do that with you here, confusing the situation.
I will be back. I’m sorry if this hurts you. I do love you. God help me I do and you deserve more than a man like me. Don’t you see that?
And then he’d hung up.
Oh no he did not.
She pulled clothes on as quickly as she could and rushed out to his place but it was empty. Rafe pulled his truck in behind hers before she could leave.
“Where is he, Rafe?”
He sighed. “I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m sorry. Honey you’re going to get sick being out here with wet hair. He’s just gone off to think. He’ll be back.”
“Well good for him. Who says I’ll be waiting? Does he think he can just call all the damned shots? So I let him take over in um, well certain things, but that doesn’t mean he can just walk all over me! I’m not a doormat. If he can’t see what’s right here in front of his eyes, he’s a fool and he’s right. He doesn’t deserve me. Now move your truck so I can leave.”
Before she could say anything else a sob escaped and Rafe was hugging her tight. “Aww, honey. I’m sorry. He doesn’t think you’re a doormat. No one does. He loves you. He doesn’t know what to do with that. He’s all hard and rough around the edges and you’re so soft and pretty, he thinks that’s bad for you.”
“He’s a halfwit. I waited for him for eight years. Eight years. I love him. He’s always been inside me. But I can’t do this. If he doesn’t want to love me, he’s right, he doesn’t deserve me. I’m a good woman. I’d make a good wife for him. And that’s what I want. I don’t want to just be the woman he dates. I want to be his woman, his wife. I’m not willing to settle.”
Rafe sighed and set her back a bit. “If I find out where he is, I’ll tell you. You need to set him straight. Please don’t give up on him yet.”
She nodded and got into her car, waiting for him to move.
The next few days passed by in a haze. Belle came to visit several times. Marta brought over lots of movies and ice cream. Beatriz even stopped in at the shop to urge her to keep her head up and her heart open for Gabriel.
He loved her. She knew it, she felt it. He cared, he was gentle and thoughtful and liking it hard in the bedroom had nothing to do with that. But she’d said so and he still clung to it, so right then, things felt a bit hopeless.
In the end, she couldn’t make him see it unless he wanted to. It wasn’t that so very complicated and so she had to think he wanted a reason to hold back. In that case, what could she do?
She didn’t just want to have great sex and this wonderfully deep connection with him if he couldn’t enjoy it. She was his friend. How many people in love could say that? She knew him.
But if he didn’t want to be known, what could she do?
Gabriel sat back at the bar and looked out over the room. He’d holed up in a hotel in Sacramento. What an idiot he was. Not a single woman in the room could hold a candle to Charity. He’d gone out to San Francisco for a few days. Toured the wine country. Went to movies. He’d even gone to a few sex shops to remind himself what he was and what she wasn’t.
But he’d stood there in the aisle, staring at the toys and all he could think of was how good she’d look in the wide wrist cuffs, how she’d look with the heart imprint on her ass from the specially made paddle. And then, worse, how she’d looked each time she submitted, the way she looked up through her lashes, knowing what it did to him. That power exchange had been real. She knew what she was doing.
In short, she’d been open and loving, she’d taken all he’d offered and loved it. She’d given him her submission willingly and he’d taken it. A bond had been there already through their years of friendship and love and real love had just been waiting for the right moment.
He scrubbed his hands over his face as a w
oman approached. Barely dressed, too much makeup, hair overdone, drunk as hell. He sighed.
“Hi. I noticed you were alone.” She dragged a chair next to him and sat, giving him quite the show in the process.
“I’m with someone.” He smiled. “You’re lovely and all, but I have a woman.”
She leaned over him, her breasts nearly spilling from the top of the dress. He grabbed her arm to halt her progress and to keep her from falling. “Come on, tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. Who’s gonna kiss you when the clock strikes twelve?”
“Yes, who?”
He looked up, his heart nearly jumping from his chest at the sight of Charity there, ferociously angry, hurt and pretty scary. Her hair was loose around her face, those green eyes of hers caught the light just right and seemed to glow. Goddamn she was beautiful.
“What’s it to you?” the woman trying to jump in his lap asked. Big mistake.
“What’s it to me? Bitch, you best back your skanky, bare ass off. That stupid prick you’re shoving your obviously fake boobs at is mine.” Charity took a step forward and Gabe’s cock nearly burst through his jeans. Her lush, gorgeous breasts swayed and he caught a slice of her belly where her sweater and pants met.
“Well he’s not with you right now. He’s with me.”
He turned back to the woman who’d at least gotten back into her own chair. “Look, I told you…” but before he could finish the sentence Charity had tossed a drink in the woman’s face.
Gabriel stood and put a hand out. The woman sputtered but stayed seated. “Baby, calm down. Nothing is going on. She threw the pitch, I didn’t swing. She’s drunk. Come on.”
“Are you defending this skank? You want a drink in your face too?”
Wow, this was one of those unwinnable things he’d seen on television or with other men and had laughed about. He’d never seen her like this. He was sorry to have made her so upset but, and he’d never say it out loud, it was hotter than hell.