Page 28 of Just for the Holidays
“Ah,” she gasped as he touched her while he slid a muscular thigh between her legs until she was open to him. “Gael, please.” She had no idea what she was begging for; she just knew she ached for more of him. She needed him to make every thought evaporate from her mind.
“Mmm...I love it when you get like this.” His voice in her ear was as languorous as his hands on her body. He slowly slid one down her torso until he was at the hot center of her. He palmed her there, and she pressed into his touch. One of his fingers slid into her, and she instinctively tightened around him. “I love how you feel, so wet.” He sounded drunk with lust, and that only ignited her own desire further, until it was bubbling like boiling water under her skin. She made a desperate sound as he pushed a second finger in while circling her clitoris with his thumb. She was so open to him, completely at his mercy. His big body enveloping her as his hands pleasured her. Her orgasm was a frenzied, frantic force that rocked through her.
“Gael!” She screamed his name until she was hoarse and still he kept touching her, coaxing more and more sensation out of her until she was limp in his arms.
“You’re an excellent Christmas present,” Gael told her as he peppered kisses on her neck. He’d moved them so she was sitting against him, and it was pretty perfect.
“You’re not too bad yourself, Mr. Montez.” She pressed into the erection that was still hot and hard and looked up at him. “Are we going to take care of this?”
“Later,” he said, putting his arms around her. “That was just for you.”
“Are you trying to ruin me?” Perla asked, not entirely joking, eliciting a wounded grunt from Gael. She wished she could tell him that these past two days had made it perfectly clear why she never seemed to get past the first date with anyone else. Because he wasitfor her. A man with a hard body and clever hands was not all that hard to find. But someone who could own her body and her heart,thatshe’d only ever had with this man. Perla looked out the window and saw the bright blue sky that promised a clear, sunny day, and her heart fell. She’d have to leave him soon. She had so much more than she used to when it came to family and a support system, and yet she knew she’d feel his absence like a dark, gaping void.
“Looks like it should be safe for me to drive back today,” she told him, even as she tightened her arms over his. Forcing him to hold her closer.
“Hmm.” She felt the rumbling in his chest as he worked on what to say to her. “You could stay here with us.” Everything in her wanted to jump on that offer. The temptation to ignore the outside world and lose herself in this man and in his family was hard to resist. But this didn’t belong to her. It was a mirage. She couldn’t have any of it. He’d made that clear, and the longer she stayed the harder it would be to walk away.
“My sister’s waiting for me and I’ve imposed on your family time long enough.”
“Perla.” He sounded reproachful, as if she’d said something egregious. “My mother has spent the last day and a half telling you that you’re her Christmas miracle.”
She laughed at his grumpiness, but she couldn’t let him talk her into staying. This was about self-preservation. And as if the universe was in total agreement that she needed an exit plan, her phone started ringing.
“Leave it,” Gael said as he did delicious things to her neck, but as tempting as he was, she needed to start drifting back to her life.
“I can’t. It could be about the flight.” She leaned to grab the phone and confirmed she’d been right. It was from the crew. A thirty-second exchange informed her they’d been cleared to fly, and her private flight to Punta Cana would be departing the next morning. Needing a second to push down the disappointment and despair threatening to flood her at the thought of leaving Gael, she distracted herself with texting her sister.
Perla: All set for tomorrow. I’ll be there in the early afternoon. Will send details when I’m on the plane.
“Sounds like I’ll be trading chilly snow for sandy beaches.” For the life of her she could not make herself sound enthused about it and that only made Perla even more annoyed at herself. Because this had never been the plan. She should’ve already been in the DR with her family. Jumping in bed with Gael was just the cherry on top of the cake of bad choices of the last forty-eight hours. And yet, she didn’t regret any of it, not when he felt so solid and warm, not when he wrapped his strong arms around her and, without a word, soothed her frayed nerves.
“What are we going to do?” she asked. He grunted, then pressed a kiss to her temple. “I think you already know the answer to that question.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to say she had no clue what he was talking about, but her heart seemed to catch on before she did, racing in response to his words. Not just what he said, buthowhe said it. There was determination there. A conviction. Like he was ready to make promises.
“I’m not sure—”
“Yes, you are. You’re sure, like I’m sure.”
She stopped talking when he started moving, sliding out from behind her until he was standing in front of her next to the bed. And yeah, there was no way she could focus with Gael Montez in his full naked glory.
“I’msure?” she asked, the question more for herself than for him.
“I think you are,” he told her as he wrapped a gentle hand around her throat and tipped her face up to look at him. He was smiling pleasantly enough, but his eyes looked like they were working at boring right through her skull. “I’m not ready to close the door on what’s happening here,” he said as he waved a hand in the space between them. “I’m not sure what it’ll look like, but I can’t just let you drive out of my life.”
He was deadly serious now. But she could see the hesitation in his eyes. He didn’t know how any of this could work, not any more than she did. The difference was that right under his uncertainty she saw determination. He was willing to make this work.
“What does that mean?” she asked as anticipation, hope, lust and...love swirled inside her like the most intoxicating of cocktails.
“It means I finally understand that I was walking around with a giant piece of my heart missing.” Oh, God, what was he doing? “The way that you walked in here yesterday, with your head high, you’re so strong, baby. I don’t deserve this second chance, but I want to try and earn it.” She could see his throat working, and his eyes were shining with something that looked a lot like...no, she wasn’t even going to think it.
“Perla, you were the first amazing thing that ever happened to me, and you are still the best. I can’t give you up.” She had no words, but she didn’t need them because he pulled her to him, and for a moment, bent down to press their foreheads together. They took a few breaths in unison, letting the things he’d said sit between them. “I want to drive into the city with you. I...” He heaved a sigh, and she could feel the urgency rolling off him. “I want to spend tonight with you, just us. And I want to talk about how to keep seeing each other. And then you’ll go to the DR and I’ll go do my press tour in Asia and we’ll have a lot of phone sex for those two weeks. Then I’m going to kidnap you and take you to Hawaii for a week and we’ll do nothing but stay in bed and eat seafood on the beach.”
He was saying everything she wanted to hear, and she wished she could just snatch what he was offering. No questions, no doubt, but she was not the girl who’d trusted blindly in the love he had for her. She knew all too well how life could get between two people, no matter how much they loved each other.
“You don’t know how many times I dreamed of hearing you say this,” she told him honestly as he distractingly ran his thumb over her bottom lip. “But nothing’s changed in the last two days, Gael. You’re the same. I’m the same, and we’d agreed that it was too complicated.”
He didn’t shake his head, or even contradict her for a long moment. “That’s the thing, though. Everything seems to be the same, but Ifeeldifferent, and I see you now, here in my bed, with my marks on you.” He brushed two fingers over a little sore spot on her collarbone where he’d left a love bite. “And you look different to me, too. I know you feel it,” he said with certainty, and bent down to kiss her. It was bruising and thorough, like he was trying to make his final argument with the kiss itself. Like them together was all the evidence he needed to show her just how different everything was. He pulled back, leaving her panting, and she knew before she said it that she’d let herself believe in everything he was offering her, even if she was certain life would undo it all in the end.
