Page 24 of Plunge into Obsession

After such a horrid night, I wanted to take comfort in his presence. I shouldn’t want that, but it felt like I could finally breathe for the first time tonight, only because he was there.

And I…

I’d missed him.

It hadn’t been that long since I’d last seen him, but after our little moment in the hallway and he didn’t show up the next day, I had felt out of it.

And I questioned every little thing I had done at that moment, wondering if it had turned him off and if that was why he stayed away.

We stopped by the dressing room to grab my stuff, and I pulled out my phone and texted Kaia so she wouldn’t worry.

She had texted when she was forced to leave the club, and she and Piama were waiting at a nearby bar.

I felt a little bad, and I debated asking Gabriel to drop me off at the bar, but then he looked back at me, his brown eyes glinting in the light, and I forgot about everything except being in this moment with him.

He reached behind and grabbed my hand.

Electricity formed where we touched, traveling up my arm and straight to my chest, pinching my heart.

We walked out of the strip club in silence, and though it wasn’t too cold outside, we were getting ready for fall to hit, so there was a slight chill in the air. I had Gabriel’s jacket, but my legs were bare. Gabriel looked at me, then down at my legs, a hard expression overtaking his face before he gently pulled me into his arms.

I tried hard to control my erratic heartbeat from his closeness.

I failed.

I could only hope he didn’t notice it.

“Come on,” he said, leading me to his car.

It was black and expensive.

That was all I knew about it.

I didn’t know what model it was or how much it cost, but I was sure a man like Gabriel had more than enough money to buy a car worth some people’s houses.

I wondered what that would be like.

To not have to worry about money.

I was in a better place than I had been years before — financially speaking — thanks to working at Decadence, the strip club. However, I was very aware that this job was temporary and how easy it would be for me to fall below the poverty line.

Gabriel opened the door to the passenger side and turned to me, holding out his hand.

I was almost intimidated to get into his car.

I didn’t want to get it dirty. I wouldn’t be able to afford to get it cleaned. And though I wasn’t exactly dirty, something about seeing the fancy black leather seat made me feel like I wasn’t clean enough for it. I looked down at my own getup, with his jacket around the costume I wore.

But Gabriel must have mistaken my hesitation for something else because he said, “I won’t hurt you.”

I nodded and grabbed his hand.

He waited until I was fully inside before he closed the door gently and walked around the front of the car to the driver’s seat.

He closed the door behind him, encasing us in the car that smelled like him, but was now much more prominent because he was inside.

It was comforting.

I loved the way he smelled.

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