The ride to the hotel on the beach was quick, and soon we were in our suite at the top of the building, with a sweeping turquoise view of the Atlantic. Nothing but the sky and water surrounded us.
The moment I stepped out on the balcony, a stiff ocean breeze blew my hair into my eyes. I needed to get it cut, but Gabriel liked to tangle his hands in it and tug me close when we made love, and I couldn’t deny it was a fucking turn-on. The sliding glass door opened, and he appeared, shirtless and smiling, with two glasses of champagne from the bottle the management had gifted us. He handed me a flute and kissed me, before brushing the windblown strands off my face.
“To you. And reaching the resolution you want.”
Nerves replaced desire, and I gulped the champagne without enjoyment. “I’m still not sure if this is the right thing to do.”
“You have to do something. It’s killing you inside, and I hate seeing it. I won’t let you continue to beat yourself up.”
I stared out at the panorama of blue but barely heeded its beauty. An artist would be caught up in translating the beams of sunlight playing silvery on the waves, but all I saw was the gray ugliness of my ten-by-ten prison cell. Here I was in paradise, with a gorgeous man who loved me, and I was thinking about the past. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. If I’d learned anything from my parents’ deaths and the years locked away, it was to take nothing for granted and live in the moment. I set my glass on the table.
“I don’t know anything anymore. I’m numb.”
Warm lips moved across the back of my neck and traveled along the edge of my jaw. “Then let me make you feel.”
I turned around, giving myself over to his touch, clinging to him as his mouth settled, so beautifully familiar, over mine. More heat than any sun could ever provide burst through me. We stood chest to chest, the hard thrust of his erection pressing into my stomach.
“If you don’t stop, we might give the seagulls a show.” I held him by the neck and took his lips again in a kiss against which all other sweetness would forever be measured and come up short. Gabriel was a craving I’d never grow tired of, and I needed him.
Now and forever.
“Come with me.” Gabriel gave me one last kiss and took me by the hand.
Once inside, he stripped me naked, then rid himself of his shorts. We lay on the bed, and he sucked at my neck while stroking my cock with his large hand. I was on a hair trigger, ready to explode with a single touch.
“Fuck me,” I gasped as he teased his fingers along my hip bones. “Please, Gabriel.”
“I will. But first I need to know for sure.” His eyes shot golden sparks, holding me mesmerized.
“Know what? That I want you more than anything? That I love you the same way?”
“For good, right? Because I was thinking that since we’re forever, maybe we don’t need this.” He held up the foil-wrapped condom, and adorably nervous, bit his lip.
God, what he did to me. I didn’t think I was one of those sappy in-love-with-love types, but something about the way Gabriel held my hand when we crossed the street or the reverence with which he traced my scars beneath the tattoos on my arms made me feel so cherished. So loved. The ache in my chest had been replaced with peace and light. Gabriel had chased away all my darkness.
I said, “I’ve seen the worst and come out on the other side of hopelessness. For years I had no direction, no path. I was walking along a road without knowing where I was going, and ended up where I belong. With you. So yeah.” I kissed his fingertips, took the condom from him, and tossed it away. “I don’t need anything between us.”
Those sparkling eyes glowed. “I love you, Ronan. Before you I had nothing. Now I’m looking forward to a lifetime of everything.”
I pulled him down to meet my lips, and our kisses grew fierce, harsh and demanding, each of us striving for dominance. His dick rubbed on mine, both of us pulsing out precome, and we rolled over each other, growing stickier and more turned-on by the second. He gripped us both, and it felt so fucking good, I moaned from the pleasure racing through my blood.
“I want it all with you. Please…”
I was on fire, skimming the surface of the sun when Gabriel finally sank inside me. Skin to skin for the first time, I burst into flames. My fingers dug into the bunching muscles of his shoulders as he continued to pound into me, and we grew slippery from the sweat pouring off our bodies. The friction of his hard abs against my dick was all I needed, and when I wrapped my hand around my shaft, I saw stars.
“Gabriel.” I screamed out my orgasm as it ripped me into a thousand pieces. He followed me a moment later, burying his face in my neck as he came deep inside me. I held his trembling body close and pressed my lips to his damp hair.
Several minutes passed before we were able to move and Gabriel slid out of me. “How do you feel?”
“Amazing.” I cracked open an eye. “But don’t think because that was the best sex I’ve ever had, it means I have to sleep on the wet spot.” I rolled over and snuggled close. My body was open and sore but more alive than ever. I couldn’t wait to feel what it was like to be inside Gabriel bare, and I rested my cheek on his broad chest.
Gabriel’s fingers trailed up and down my arms, careful not to press into my scars.
“You don’t have to worry. They’re completely healed.”
“Do they ever hurt?”
I shook my head. “It feels weird, though. On the surface, the skin is kind of numb for the bigger ones. But they did a good job.”
