ESTELLE
I had never wanted a man in my life more than I wanted Gabriel Linden. It was loud and clear how I was so drawn to him like I was a moth, and he was a flame.
No matter how I told myself this, whatever we had would only put me in so much trouble, but I only listened to his voice and sensed him close to me. I lost all my willpower.
This man lying next to me completely consumed me, but I couldn’t also ignore that he sacrificed something to take me to his bed.
We were still naked. Linden was tracing the back of his finger on my collarbone. His simple touch already hardened my nipple, and the ache between my legs began to spike again.
“What’s in your head right now?”
“You,” I admitted. “It’s ridiculous. I don’t even know you, yet here I am, lying next to you naked, letting you break all rules.”
“There are no rules to break, and you know you can trust me deep in your heart. Your mind, your body, and your heart know you can trust me with them.”
“You’re my undoing, Gabriel.”
“Is that a bad thing?” He pressed his lips against my shoulder.
“Very bad.”
“That bad, huh? It’s a compliment, Estelle.”
I blew a breath, trying to suppress and control my needy self. When his finger barely touched my nipple, I drew my willpower to resist him. “I should go. It’s late, and I have work tomorrow.”
“Stay.”
“I can’t.” I was about to get up when he placed his leg to hold me hostage.
“I promise to send you to work or home in the morning.”
“I had a great time, Gabriel, but I can’t stay.”
“You can’t or won’t?”
I sighed desperately. “We can’t do this.”
“Who said? Your father? Your future husband? Or it’s just your head. Your body and heart said otherwise.” His tone turned hard and accusatory.
“Don’t.” I groaned. “Don’t even begin something you don’t understand.”
“I do, Estelle. It’s no brainer.” He sat stark naked on the bed. “You like me, really like me, but you’re scared of losing your company. When your investors blackout, you can’t compensate for the loss. You’re not ready to settle down, but your father and your asshole boyfriend—”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” I cut in over him. My anger surged through me.
“And your-not-so-boyfriend-future-husband is blackmailing you, but you can’t resist me because I am awesome despite the fact that I am no longer looking for hookups, older than you, wiser, and willing to help you take control of your company, that you chose to decline. I’m still confused, Estelle. What’s really stopping you?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it.” I snapped even though I was not willing to this argument, but there were a lot of things he still didn’t know that I was not ready to spill on him.
“Well, I want to. That’s why you’re here over dinner. If you don’t wanna jump into marriage, I will wait. I just want to get rid of those obstacles, anything that stands my way to you, but I can’t do it alone. Unless your issue is because you’re richer than me, then I can’t do anything about that.” He shrugged. “I can’t just magically rub a magic lamp and wish to be richer than Elon Musk.”
“I’ve never fallen in love,” I admitted as I swallowed hard.
“That’s good. Is that what scared you?”
“Despite how I grew up in a dysfunctional family and how awful my father has treated me lately, I don’t want to lose him. I don’t wanna hurt anybody. When I started Star LLC, I only wanted to please people with Star Cosmetics and Star Activewear. It took me off guard how it grew fast from a ten million starter to one hundred million. Then, social media also greatly impacted me. It went 180, really. I couldn’t grasp what was going on around me. I was way over my head running a company with two lines at a young age. When my father advised me to expand and look for investors, I didn’t hesitate because I loved the feeling of being at the center of attention. I didn’t know he had hidden agenda over it.” I had to give him a different story, part lie, and part truth.
“Are your assets safe?”
“Yeah. When the blackmailing started, I fired the old legal team and hired the one I could trust. My father wasn’t so happy. I still want to enjoy my life, my single life, Gabriel.” I looked at him. I had to tell him why I didn’t want to jump into a relationship. “I still want to travel all over the world, jet-setting. I need room to grow. I’m not ready to be in a relationship, especially to marry someone like Klayton. And if I will allow you to help me, I will always be indebted to you. I already have enough trust issues. I will feel like I owe you something.”
“No.” He shook his head. Of course, he disagreed because he had good intentions. “The only thing you owe me is for you to live without those people trying to drag you down the mud. You don’t owe me anything.”
“It struck me hard when you told me you owed everything to Moses. His help getting you in the contract is documented, but you still owe him somehow. This is it. I can’t live with that. Do you understand me?”
“I do, but I know what you are scared of the most, Estelle.” He looked directly into my eyes. “You’re afraid of a lifetime commitment, that’s why you put up some major walls.”
“That’s not true.” I sat on the bed, covering myself as I narrowed my eyes at him. Part of it, yes, but I would not admit that.
“You just said you’ve never been in love. You’ve only been committed to your employees, but none of them stay. You have friends, but they can stay or leave, while our relationship would last if we commit. You’re scared of failure, of letting people down. You’re scared of people leaving you. Your parents can’t even stand with one another. You’re afraid that it will happen to you one day, and you have to raise a kid or kids alone. And you realize how my line of work can be in danger.”
“Stop.”
“I’m not a rocket scientist, Estelle, but you’re afraid of losing the people you care about, which is human nature. We all die, leave the people we love, we turn to dust, but the only thing we can give back to the people we leave behind is the sweet memories that live on them.”
If he was right, one thing was I was afraid of failure and people abandoning me. Why did he have to be right all the time?
I rose from the bed but could still feel his eye on me. I picked up his shirt on the floor, and that was when he sighed. His bedroom was very masculine, minimalist, and neat.
I went down to his kitchen and peeked inside his fridge. This was better than mine for a guy living alone, and he lived a healthy lifestyle. I picked up the remaining of my souffle and went to take a spoon from his drawer.
I sensed him on the door, even if I didn’t have to confirm it. I leaned against his counter and started digging into the delicious dessert.
When he sensed me not minding him, he came to me and cupped my face. I almost dropped the cup when he savagely kissed me with one hard kiss. Air stuck in my lungs even if he already let me go. What was with this man I couldn’t say no to?
I still didn’t say a word. What he said earlier was still reeling in my brain. He grabbed a bottle of water and drank half of it. He then stopped before me, held my hand, and shoved the spoon in his mouth.
“You can have more of that if you have me.”
I rolled my eyes. “I could just buy a souffle restaurant and eat every day.”
“My souffle is made with love and attention, baby. You know that. You can taste my omelet if you stay till morning. I can taste and eat you again and give you more orgasms to remind you how good we are together.”
“Shut up.”
“I will.” He lifted me quickly as if I weighed nothing then he placed me on the island.
“What are you doing?”
“Eat.” With one word he said, I was already panting.
“Spread your legs.” He began unbuttoning his shirt on me.
“Gabriel, we can’t.” My protest sounded more like a plead.
“We can’t wait. Yeah.” He chuckled confidently. Damn, this man had a voracious appetite when it came to sex.
He wasn’t joking when he said he would eat me. The cup dropped on the island. My hands gripped against the edge. My head threw back, and I was staring at the lamp above us as I carelessly screamed his name.
“Stop. Stop.”
“Why?” I could feel his blazing gaze on me.
“Give me a break.”
“Ten seconds.” He went to the fridge and came back with a bowl of somewhat chocolate syrup. I watched him pick up the spoon, scoop the syrup, and pour it into my breast.
“God, it’s cold.” I giggled. The moment the sticky syrup rolled down my nipple, I began panting, biting my lip as it felt delicious, and my clit began pulsing. “You’re so dirty.”
“You are my dirty, dirty wild dreams.”
“Clean it off, Gabriel.”
“With pleasure.” He laved his tongue around my areola with determined strokes. All the pressure zinged down my core. It was too dirty and mortifying, yet I couldn’t stop him. It was wild how my lust drove me crazy and enslaved me.
I knew I was soaking with need. Then he sucked it hard, and I was already squirming on the countertop island, abandoning whatever restraint I had left.
“God.” I couldn’t do anything but stare at the ceiling. I felt like I was his decadent and exceptional meal, the way he licked me clean.
“Are you wet, baby?”
“God, yes.” Then his mouth was gone. I felt empty and exposed all of a sudden.
I was wrong when I thought his playtime was over, and all he meant was to make me admit it and leave me aching. I just felt the coldness of the syrup in my pussy. It felt so dirty and erotic, but it surprised me that I never felt embarrassed, and I didn’t know it could turn me on so freaking much my body was on fire.
“Yes!” A single word, the only word I knew in my head as he lapped me, ate me like his favorite dessert, licked me clean, fucked me with his tongue and fingers until I screamed as my orgasm rolled through me.