Fraud

I’m torturing myself as much as I’m torturing him.

My hands work slowly to unbuckle his belt, that green stare pi

“What would you do to me if you could use your hands?” I lift my eyes to him and melt to see the curve of his grin.

“Unlock me and find out.”

With his belt loose, I work on the button of his pants next. “Would you grab my hips?”

A low sound rattles in his chest because I know Gabriel well enough to know just where he likes to take control of me.

My voice is a purr of sound. “You like my hips, don’t you? All round and soft, the perfect place to hold onto me when you’re getting what you want.”

I glance up to see his lips have curled more, pure heat blazing behind eyes of liquid emerald. There’s a warning in that stare, and it forces my thighs to clench together, an ache between my legs that only he has the power to cause.

My hand slips beneath his briefs to find his erection long and hard. Staring up at him as I wrap my fingers over the thick shaft and flick my thumb across the head, I shiver at the growl that crawls up his throat, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.

“Unlock the damn cuffs, Ivy.”

I pump him once, a slow pull up and back down. “Or what?”

“Fuck...” he breathes out, his eyes clenching shut when I pump him again, harder this time, faster.

Pulling my hand away, I slip my fingers beneath the sides of his pants and tug them down over his hips. The buckle of his belt slaps against the floor, the cotton of his briefs slipping down his legs next as I drop to my knees and take him into my mouth.

Gabriel jerks when my tongue slides over the head, my lips closing down on the shaft to take him deep into my mouth.

Above me, the chains rattle again, his muscles going taut as I work his cock with my mouth and savor the taste of his skin.

His voice is a deep growl when his hips buck, the chains rattling again. “Undo the cuffs, Ivy. I won’t tell you again.”

Ru

Slowly, I lift my eyes to meet his, and a tremor courses down my body at the way he stares at me, the force of it as violent as an earthquake.

“What will you do if I don’t?”

His eyes flash with sparks, the heat so consuming that I melt at his feet and lose the ability to continue playing.

“Okay.”

I’m on my feet and pulling the key from a side table where we’d found it earlier today. My hands are shaking as I go up on my tiptoes, barely able to reach with my arms fully extended. Somehow I manage to unlock one, Gabriel’s hand slipping free.

He grabs the key from me and unlocks the other, his fingers fisting into my hair as soon as he’s free, his body leaning down and his mouth locking over mine as he kicks the pants from his feet.

Gabriel must have kicked them across the room a little too hard because a loud bagawk sounds, his mouth smiling against mine when he growls, “What is it with you and chickens?”

I’m laughing for only a second, the humor completely lost to maddening desire when his hands take aggressive possession of my hips and he lifts me up so I’ll wrap my legs around his waist.

Mouth crashing against mine, he bites down on my bottom lip as a punishment, his tongue flicking out a second later to slide against mine.

I hear fabric ripping as he walks me out the room, his shoulder colliding against one wall as he walks blindly, our tongues tangled and teeth grazing before I have to pull away to breathe.

He only steals the opportunity to slide his mouth down my throat, his teeth nipping at my pulse point, his tongue hot where it tastes my skin.

I worry briefly that Ta

It must not matter to him, though.

Once in his room, he yanks at my dress again, and it falls to the floor as a flutter of scrap, my bare breasts pressed against his chest, the contact enough for both of us to release a deep sigh of relief.

Gabriel’s fingers fist my hair as he drags my head back and runs his teeth down the line of my neck to bite down on the soft spot at my shoulder.

When I think he’ll drop me on the bed, Gabriel stills, one hand palming my ass while the other tightens in my hair. It worries me that my weight is too much, but he doesn’t struggle to hold me up, his biceps tight beneath my palms as I slide them up his arms and over his shoulders.

His mouth becomes soft as it grazes up the line of my neck, his lips wet and warm when they press against my ear.

What he says surprises me, so much so that my eyes clench shut, the tips of my fingers playing through the loose waves in his hair.

“I’m sorry.”

I almost don’t answer, because what is there to say? What is there to apologize for? But I have to respond, have to acknowledge the utter vulnerability in the two words I’m not sure I’ve ever heard Gabriel say to anyone in his life.

Sure, I wasn’t around him constantly, he may have apologized to a million people before me, but somehow this feels...

“For what?”

His hand releases my hair to close around my chin in a tight grip that turns my face to his, our mouths brushing together, my eyes opening to witness the glimmer of liquid emerald shadowed by guilt.

“For hurting you. For not seeing you.”

He pauses, our breath dancing together, hot and fast.

“For lying my entire life that you haven’t always been mine.”

His fingers tighten on my chin, a flash of exquisite pain before he drops me on the bed without warning.

Fisting his cock in his hand, Gabriel stares down at me, his gaze molten, his body hard, his shoulders hidden beneath the white dress shirt and loose tie he still hasn’t peeled off.

Arrogance arches one of his brows and the slow pump of his hand draws my eyes down.

“But I know it now, don’t I?”

Raw, masculine possession edges those words. It drags my gaze up again, a tremor coursing through me when he finally peels his shirt away to drop it to the floor. His hands lock over my thighs, my legs forced apart, his stare ru

Fuck...

I warned you in the begi

Warned everybody.

Gabriel isn’t just the friendly, beguiling smiles and easy charm he’ll have you believe.

He’s not the smooth words and the pretty lies, the colorful peacock feathers that lull you into a happy, comfortable easy friendship.

He’s this.

A man just as dangerous as the rest.

A man just as cu

A devil who stares out at you from behind the eyes of an angel while he tears your world apart.

He’s a tempest storm with the rolling warning of thunder and the whip crack of lightning, with the violent wind that rips at your hair and the stinging rain that pelts your skin.

Most of all, he’s right.

I am his.

Always have been.

And it’s about damn time he stops lying to both of us and finally accepts what I’ve known all along.

With one hard tug, he yanks my body to the edge of the bed, his own leaning over to capture my mouth in a soul-searing kiss, his tongue conquering mine, his teeth nipping at me playfully. But then his hands fist my hips, his mouth pulling away just as he flips me over and lifts my ass up so that my knees crush down against the mattress, his large hands claiming mine and directing them to lay flat on the bed.