Page 14 of Just for the Holidays
“I’ve had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit in the past few years,” he muttered and wouldn’t even look at her as he talked. When they’d been together he’d confessed to her that his father had left their family during the holidays, and she wondered if that was what all this was about. Or if it had to do with...nope, not going there.
“Why are you being like this, Gael?” she asked, and his nostrils flared, his big hands twitching at his sides. She felt diminutive in front of him. His massive body towering over her. Gael had always been beautiful, but now he was Hollywood handsome. Almost too perfect. Skin polished, bright white veneers in his mouth, everything about him groomed to the maximum. Even in joggers and a sweatshirt there was something about him that made her want to stare. And that should intimidate her, because aware as she was of his perfection, she knew she was far from it. She was pretty; she knew that. And she appreciated her looks and knew what complemented her attributes. But she wasn’t movie-star beautiful and that was what Gael was around every day. People whose job description included achieving almost unnatural levels of physical exquisiteness.
And yet, there was no denying the heat in his eyes as he looked at her. It was almost menacing in its intensity, but she knew now, like she always had, that she would always be safe with Gael Montez. Well, at least her body would be—her heart was another story.
“I don’t want to talk about any of that, and I’m sure you don’t want to hear it,” he said, reminding her that she’d posed a question.
“Sure, why don’t you tell me how to feel, Gael? That’s always been a special skill of yours.” She knew that was not the way they would arrive at civility, but she was tired of his sulking.
She could see his jaw working, and a flush of pink working up his throat. She should leave this alone. This could not lead anywhere good. She’d already felt what his touch did to her. Already confirmed that the years and the distance had done nothing to temper her feelings for him, and here she was provoking him. Goading an answer out of him that would wreck her no matter what it was. And hewouldtell her, because Gael had never been a coward. And he’d already called her bluff once today.
He moved fast and soon she was pressed to a wall or a door, she didn’t really care, because all of her concentration was going toward Gael’s hands on her. His massive, rock-hard body pressed to her, and she wished, really wished, she had the strength to resist him. But all she did was hold on tighter when he pressed his hot mouth to her ear.
“I’ve told myself a thousand times today that I’m not supposed to want you as much as I do.” He sounded furious and if she hadn’t known him as well as she did she would’ve missed the regret lacing his words. He gripped her to him, and desire shot up inside her like Fourth of July fireworks, from her toes and exploding inside her chest.
“Wouldn’t it be something if we could make ourselves want the things that we can actually have?” she said bitterly. He scoffed at that, and she didn’t know if it was in agreement or denial of what she’d said. It was impossible to focus with his hands sliding over her like they were. She had never been able to put up much resistance when Gael had his focus on her. After a moment he pulled back. His eyes were bleak as he looked at her, and she dearly wished knowing he hadn’t walked away unscathed didn’t matter as much as it did.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” It. I-T. She had no idea what theiteven was. It could’ve been so many things. His father’s abandonment, their relationship and how it had been laid to waste. The years they’d had and lost, everything they could never get back. Two letters to encompass so much loss and heartbreak. There were things to say, so many. But she could not make herself say a word. The pain in his eyes wouldn’t let her.
He ran a hand over his head, like he didn’t know where to start. Like this was all too much for him, and for a moment she thought he would actually walk away, leave her standing there.
He kissed her instead.
Eight
He’d almost told her everything. About what his father had said the night he walked out on Gael, his mom and sister. Almost confessed the real reason why he broke it off with her six years ago. Truth was like an avalanche roiling in him. But that was his baggage to carry, not hers. He could not change what was, the way he’d hurt her or the fate of the men in his family. But he could make these days good for her. He could get all the way out of his feelings and focus on Perla. Hecouldtake charge and give them both a much-needed release. The feel of her lips on him had dogged him all day. And now here she was, perfect and soft in his arms. Kissing him with a hunger that set his blood on fire. He tried to think of something in the past six years that had felt this real, and he could not come up with a single one.
“I can’t stop thinking about your mouth,” he said, almost grudgingly, as she grazed his neck with her teeth.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better it’s definitely mutual,” she answered with a sexy little growl as she hooked her legs around him.
He’d told himself so many times after the breakup that she deserved better. Someone who could love her like she needed. Someone who could protect her heart. Told himself again and again that person couldn’t be him. That no matter how much he tried, he was destined to break her heart. That his feelings for her had just been fleeting, a passing infatuation. But his reaction to her now, the frantic hunger he felt for her, told a very different story.
“Can I?” he asked as he rubbed his thumb over a hard nipple. He was eager to see her reactions; he’d always loved how expressive she was. How she didn’t know how to hide her desire. She always showed him everything he made her feel. It had been like an addiction when they’d been together. He would spend hours exploring her. His hands on her skin, and his eyes pinned to her face, marveling at the way she’d squeeze her eyes shut, or let her mouth fall open from pleasure.
“Mmm,” she moaned as he circled one taut tip with his thumb. And his mouth watered with the need to taste all the places he hadn’t touched in so long. Perla had been...inexperienced in college. Gael had been her first everything. And even if he’d never admitted it, he’d fucking loved being the first man to ever see her fall apart in his arms.
“You like it when I touch you like this?” he asked, before dipping his head to mouth a nipple over her shirt.
“You know I do.” He smiled at how put off she sounded, but her gray eyes, which had been so cold only a minute ago, were glowing. Gael wanted to see her burning for him.
He liked his sex dirty. And this woman right here, she had his head full of all kinds of filthy things. And right below that urge, there was a much more dangerous impulse, but he smothered that thought before it could get any oxygen. He brought his focus back to Perla. To the way she felt under his hands, perfect.
Still, she looked a bit shy as she took his hand, guiding it under her T-shirt. It was a black, long-sleeved tee that had the words Gracefully Furious in pink font. He had to bite back a smile, because that was exactly how he would describe her. He’d always been drawn to her wit and that palpable fragility in her, but now there was a boldness there, too, and that made her irresistible.
Every thought other than touching her flew out of his head when he palmed the warm, soft skin under her shirt. She didn’t say a word as he ran the heel of his hand up her ribs and then to the slope of her breast. They were small and pert, and they were...bare.
“No bra? That’s different,” he said, voice dripping with want as he worried a nipple between his thumb and index finger, making her mouth open in a silent moan.
“I don’t like them. I never did. And now I only wear them if I have to,” she told him, her back arching as she pushed herself into his hand.
“That is a dangerous piece of information to have. How will I get through the next day knowing the only thing between my hand and these beauties is one layer of clothes?” He leaned in to kiss her, a quick glide of his tongue with hers, and she opened up for him hungrily. Her mouth hot on his as he took small nips of her bottom lip. God, he could devour her. “I’m going to put my mouth on them now.”
“Please.” The little sounds she made were driving him absolutely crazy. This woman begging for him was almost overwhelming. He applied himself to touching her, ran the pads of his thumbs over each of her nipples, tracing with his fingers the places he’d taste.
“There’s a rosy pink right under the brown of your skin, and when you’re like this it flushes. I want to see the other places where you’re a little pink, baby.” And there was no stopping his mouth.
“Oh, my God,” Perla moaned as she writhed in his hands. He bent his head and circled the hard tip of his tongue around the peaks of her breasts and when he flicked them with his finger...that got him another delicious sound of pleasure. With every touch, she pressed herself closer to him and now her legs were wrapped around him, so tightly that he could feel her heat through those sinful little shorts, and he was sure she could feel the base of his painfully hard cock.
