Gabriel releases a long breath, but remains silent.
The decision doesn’t come without a cost, though. It leaves me raw and vibrating, a live wire with nowhere to ground.
“What now, rich boy?”
Gabriel shifts his position, stretching one leg out in front of him. “Whatever you need.”
“I don’t know what that is.” The admission costs me, each word pried loose from pride’s grip.
“That’s okay.” He tilts his head back to expose his throat in a display of trust I didn’t ask for and don’t deserve. “We can figure it out.”
There’s that word again.We. Open-ended and uncertain.
My thighs tense as the pressure starts to build again. “I need an outlet. Cutting gives me a release. Fighting gives me a release.”
“Sex?” he offers.
I flinch. “I’m not letting you on top of me.”
“Okay.” Gabriel crawls forward. “You can have control. I’ll bottom.”
Heat surges through my veins, blood rushing south so fast it leaves me dizzy. He’s offering his body. Offering to let me take what I need without having to ask for it. The possibility of release, not from pain but from pleasure, opens before me like a door I never expected to find.
I stare at him, searching him for signs of hesitation and finding only certainty.
“You don’t understand what you’re offering,” I warn, rough with desire.
“I think I do.” He rises from the floor in one fluid motion, closing the distance between us withmeasured steps. “I’m choosing this. Take what you need.”
My restraint snaps like a wire pulled too tight. I surge forward, hands finding his shoulders, pushing him back against the wall hard enough to rattle the framed Rockwell print beside his head. My mouth crashes into his neck, teeth scraping over skin, not quite biting but testing the give of flesh beneath them.
Gabriel tilts his head, granting access without resistance. His hands hover at my sides, waiting for permission to touch.
I grab his wrists, pinning them to the wall above his head in one hand. “Don’t move.”
His pupils dilate, black swallowing hazel. “Okay.”
My free hand tears at his buttons, popping several free in my haste to reach skin. The expensive fabric parts, revealing the smooth plane of his chest, the defined ridges of his abdomen, and a black tattoo over his left pec. My palm slides over heated flesh, tracing the curve of the clock and gears.
Gabriel doesn’t strike me as someone who would ink his skin, but it suits him. My thumb finds his nipple, and his pulse leaps beneath my fingertips.
“Too many clothes,” I growl, releasing his wrists to yank his shirt down his arms.
Gabriel shrugs out of the torn fabric and lets it fall to the floor. His hands return to his sides, patient and still as I unbutton his jeans with clumsy, urgent fingers.
The denim slides down his thighs, taking the black boxer briefs with it. His cock springs free, already hard and flushed dark with blood. I drop to my knees, pulling the clothing past his ankles, tapping each foot to lift so I can remove his pants.
When I rise, he stands naked before me, vulnerability and strength combined in the lean lines of his body.
“Bed,” I order, pushing him toward the mattress in the center of the room.
He moves without resistance, climbing onto the bed and positioning himself on hands and knees without being told. The sight of him waiting, back arched, sends a fresh wave of heat to my aching groin.
I finish stripping, tossing my clothes aside without care for where they land. The nightstand drawer yields a bottle of lube, half-empty and sticky around the cap. I squirt some onto my fingers, and the cold liquid warms to match my body temperature.
Gabriel’s breathing quickens as I position myself behind him, one hand spreading him open while theother circles his entrance with slick fingers. The tight ring of muscle twitches under my touch, resistant but yielding as I push one finger inside with minimal preparation.
He tenses, a small hiss escaping between clenched teeth, but his hips rock backward, taking the intrusion deeper. A second finger joins the first too fast for his body to adjust, stretching him with more speed than care. His muscles clench around the invasion, fighting the burn even as he spreads his knees wider in silent invitation.
