Gabriel's Rule Read online

  “Gabe,” she said so softly that he couldn’t help but turn back around to look at her.

  Her fingers were slowly pulling the top button of her blouse free. His breath hitched as she moved to the next one, then the third. Her eyes were fixed on him as she finished unbuttoning it and pulled the ends back to reveal the lacy black bra beneath. His gaze jumped back to hers and he saw the vulnerability there. He could end this now with a cruel word; one comment about her figure or lack of confidence and this would be over and he’d never have to worry about controlling himself around her again.

  “Drop the shirt to the floor.”

  Relief relaxed her features and her breath caught as she did what he told her.

  “Let your hair down.” She reached up to pull the hair tie free and he watched her breasts rise with the motion. Strands of silken hair fell over her, covering his view of the nipples that were starting to harden under the fabric. He itched to take over, but watching her do his bidding had ratcheted his desire up to a whole new level.

  “Pants.”

  He watched as she took a breath for courage and unbuttoned the pants. As she pulled the zipper down he said, “Last chance to end this Riley.” But she didn’t even hesitate as she took off the pants and dropped them to the floor next to her shirt. Bastard that he was, he was going to take what she was offering.

  “Bedroom, now.” If she was bothered by the coldness of his tone, she didn’t show it. Something inside him had switched on and he was tired of fighting it. As she passed, he put out a hand to stop her but didn’t actually touch her. “You remember my rules?” She nodded. “Go lay down on the bed and wait.”

  ***

  Riley took a deep breath as she heard the shower turn off. He’d disappeared into the bathroom a few minutes earlier, not even bothering to check if she had done what he told her to. Fear and anticipation fought for control of her body as she lay there in bra and panties on top of his bedspread. Offering herself to him had never even entered her mind when she had walked into his apartment, but when she saw the torture he was inflicting on himself with that weight bag, her heart had broken for him. Instinct told her that he wouldn’t share with her the specifics of what had happened with his mother so she hadn’t asked. But she also couldn’t leave him to face it alone.

  It had been a gamble to remove her clothes and she still wasn’t sure if his acquiescence stemmed from actual desire for her or the desire to control her. She couldn’t pretend to understand why he needed to be the one in control when it came to sex but it didn’t matter – he needed it and she would give that to him. Her gut told her he wouldn’t hurt her, but she suspected he would test all of her boundaries. She also knew that tomorrow would be a new day and whatever was about to happen would likely obliterate the fragile friendship they had started to build.

  He came out of the shower and into the bedroom and halted briefly when he saw her spread out on the bed before him. She guessed he had thought she would chicken out and run. Something flashed in his eyes and his whole body went tight. He was wearing just a pair of sweats and even her inexperienced eyes could see his erection through the outline of the thin fabric. She searched his eyes desperately for the Gabe she was already more than halfway in love with but he wasn’t there. This man was a stranger in Gabe’s beautiful body who looked at her as if she were some type of challenge. But Gabe was in there somewhere and maybe he would come back to her.

  He went to his dresser and pulled something out of the top drawer. As he rummaged around, her eyes fell on the tattoo that took up a large portion of his back. It was an old, gnarled tree with long, withered, leafless branches. The design was stunning and she could see that it had been positioned in such a way that if he was standing with his arms straight down, the tattoo he had on his bicep actually became an extension of one of the branches. After a few seconds of searching, he turned back towards her and when she saw what he was holding, she had to force herself to lie perfectly still. A belt. Long, black leather with a silver buckle. He approached her slowly; he was giving her a chance to back out. She stiffened when he dropped down next to her.

  “Put your arms above your head.” His voice was toneless, almost empty. She closed her eyes, hoped her instinct that her Gabe really was in there somewhere was correct, and lifted her arms.

  ***

  Something inside of Gabe softened when he saw her lift her arms. He’d had time to cool down in the shower as he washed the sweat from his workout away. Part of him hadn’t wanted to give her the time to rethink her decision, but another part wanted her to run. Seeing her laying on his bed so vulnerable had pierced something inside, but he’d stubbornly ignored it and fished out the only belt he owned.

  When he was with clients, he had always made them bring their own restraints, whether it be nylons or scarves or even lengths of rope – the anticipation of carrying around the very device that would take away their control increased their desire tenfold before he was even in the room. His routine also included what he had told Riley to do – lay themselves out on the bed. He usually made them undress themselves completely, but a part of him had wanted to finish undressing Riley himself. He figured he could stray from his script a little and still give Riley what she so badly needed.

  He wrapped the belt carefully around her wrists and fastened it tight enough that she couldn’t free her hands, but not so tight that it would cause any damage to her soft skin. He didn’t have any way to actually tie the belt to the headboard so he leaned down and whispered “leave them there” against her ear, then skimmed his fingertips down the undersides of her arms. She sucked in a breath and trembled. His fingers pushed back the long strands of blonde hair that partially hid her breasts from his view and then grazed her nipples before traveling down the rest of her length. He paused and studied her body for a long time.

  She was curved in all the right places and her pale skin felt like silk against his fingers. Running his hands back up to her breasts, he tested their weight and then played with her nipples through the bra. He smiled when he remembered how sensitive she was there. He dropped his head and gently laved each one with his tongue, then tugged the right one into his mouth. She bucked up against him and moaned.

  “Do you trust me Riley?” He knew he shouldn’t have asked her that, he was in control and it didn’t matter if she trusted him but he was lying to himself and he knew it. All those other women had trusted him because they had paid to know they were safe. Riley had no way of knowing that for sure.

  “Yes.” His muscles relaxed because he could continue. If she’d said no or she’d said yes and he suspected she was lying, he would have had to stop. He reached into the nightstand next to his bed and pulled out a pair of scissors. Her eyes widened at the sight of them but she stayed still. He supposed it looked odd to have them in there but they were there by pure chance. He’d been using them to cut up the mattress filling that had been ripped out when Abby and her unknown friend had trashed his apartment.

  He used the scissors to cut the straps of Riley’s bra on each side and then once down the middle. Since his customers were usually already naked when he tied them up, it hadn’t occurred to him to remove Riley’s bra before he’d put the belt on. So much for straying from the script. After dropping the scissors back in the nightstand, he returned his attention to the remnants of the bra. He stripped the pieces away and dropped them to the floor. When he saw the dusky, pink nipples harden more under his gaze he gave up trying to go slow and dropped his head to taste them.

  ***

  Riley arched up at the feel of his mouth closing over her nipple. He sucked it into his mouth and licked the tip and then did the same to the other. She twisted against the restraint that prevented her from touching him. As his tongue licked down between her breasts and to her abdomen, she closed her eyes and tried to just feel because watching while he did things to her was too overwhelming.

  “Open your eyes,” he said harshly and he stopped touching her until she did as h
e said. His dark head was bent over her abdomen, his full lips hovering just above her bellybutton. When he was satisfied that she was following his instructions, he dipped his tongue into her navel, then continued to travel down towards her panties. She expected him to slow or stop but he didn’t; his expert hands just stripped the panties off as he went, his mouth leaving her only long enough to work the fabric over her feet.

  He spread kisses over the skin of her hip and then trailed his mouth over her pubic bone. She saw him look up to make sure she was still watching and his eyes darkened before he stroked his tongue over her clit. She cried out but kept her eyes on him. One of his hands lifted her hips so he could press his lips more fully against her and the other hand captured one of her breasts and tweaked the nipple. Her vision started to dim as sparks of electricity began to shoot through her. He must have sensed she was already close because he pulled his mouth from her and released her breast. He chuckled at her cry of frustration, the air from his breath brushing over her sensitive bud.

  She felt his fingers probing her and then the blunt tip of one pushed inside her. As he thrust another finger in she felt a sting of pain which quickly turned into something else, something warm and throbbing. Her neck ached from trying to maintain the angle so she could watch him and she finally gave up and dropped her head back on the bed. She felt his fingers pull back and then suddenly one of them brushed over the puckered skin of her anus. It felt foreign and forbidden but the more he caressed her there, the more her legs lifted and spread to give him better access. She could feel that he was rubbing the moisture from her own body against the opening and she held her breath when he pushed the tip of one finger into the tiny hole. She tensed at the burning sensation but he didn’t press any further.

  “I’ll take you here someday,” he whispered softly before dropping his mouth over her clit again. He stroked the bundle of nerves over and over again and she felt his finger sink deeper inside her. A tingle started in her spine and began spreading out every time his tongue drew a slow circle around her. She cried out in frustration when he stopped.

  “Gabe, please!” He tensed briefly when she called his name but a second later he pressed his tongue inside her. As he plunged his tongue in, he pulled his finger out of her hole and then pushed it back in when he withdrew his tongue. The tension inside her kept building as he maintained a steady, even push and pull motion. Her hands searched for something, anything to hang on to because she wanted so badly to reach down and hold him to her. He gave her one last stroke with his tongue and pulled it out of her.

  When he pulled his finger out too, she felt empty and she wanted to beg him to fill her up again. Before she could speak the words, his tongue was working her clit voraciously and two fingers sank into her vagina, her tight heat sucking him in. Within seconds she was coming and she screamed his name as the orgasm ripped through her. Her body bucked and thrashed and she felt one of his hands reach up to clamp down on her arms which she must have started to move. As the climax began to recede, he carefully pulled his fingers from her body and gave her clit a few soothing strokes.

  As he moved up and over her to get a condom from the nightstand, she tried to catch his eyes, but he wasn’t looking at her face. Her passion started to turn cold as she watched his now mechanical moves. She’d been too lost in the orgasm to see if he’d been with her through it, but now she could see for sure that the Gabe she needed wasn’t there. He stood up and stripped off his sweats and rolled the condom down his length. He looked huge to her and she started to panic when she thought about how much this part had always hurt in the past and Paul hadn’t been anywhere near as large as Gabe was. Gabe still hadn’t met her eyes and when he muttered, “turn over” a piece of her died inside.

  ***

  Riley’s screams of pleasure reverberated in his ears over and over as he rolled the condom on his aching cock. She had clamped down so hard on him that he’d nearly come on the spot and that had just been with his fingers. Her beautiful clit had throbbed against his tongue and when she moved her bound arms to grab him, he had actually hesitated a second before he reached up and stopped her. Probing her anus hadn’t been in his plan, but when he spotted the puckered skin he couldn’t resist.

  His control had completely shattered when he pushed his finger inside that hole, her own arousal his only lubricant. He was shaken to the core – he wasn’t supposed to be taking physical pleasure from this; it was supposed to be about Riley. He just needed to get inside her and finish this – he could give her more but he just needed to hang on a little longer. He would not come inside her, he told himself over and over again as he ordered her to roll over. He couldn’t stain her with his darkness.

  Before he’d even given her a chance to position herself, he was over her and doing it for her, his arms rolling her.

  “Gabe…” The desperation in her soft voice caused his eyes to flip to hers. “Gabe, I need you to come back to me.” He hesitated and looked down at her body. He’d rolled her on her side, her hands still bound. He needed to take her from behind, but what he saw in her eyes stopped him. What did she mean, she needed him to come back to her? He was here, he was taking care of her. But he hadn’t been, not really. He’d been so focused on pulling back that he’d scared her. She was new to this; her only prior experiences had been painful ones. What had made him think he could just lump her in with all of clients, experienced women who knew exactly what they were asking for?

  He may have told himself at the beginning that she was just another fuck, but he knew that wasn’t true. Nothing about Riley was anything like his clients and nothing had prepared him for her. Could he give her more and still keep himself separate so that he’d be able to let her go in the morning? She was staring at him, not afraid, but not excited either. He expected she would have taken him however she could get him and that humbled him. He could give her more, would give her more.

  He settled her on her back and then kneeled between her spread legs so he could reach up to where her arms rested. Releasing the belt buckle, he carefully pulled her wrists free and rubbed them to make sure the blood was flowing well. He dropped his eyes to hers and saw her disappointment.

  “We’re not stopping,” he said. He placed her arms so they were still above her but this time they were on each side of her head rather than straight above it. “Still the same rules,” he said gently as he released his hold on her arms and shifted back. She nodded and relaxed her hands so the palms were open, but she didn’t move her arms.

  Gabe dropped his mouth to her neck and kissed her slowly, his lips working their way down to where her neck met her shoulder. He lowered his body so that her hips cradled his cock and shifted so they were even closer when her thighs opened further for him. He closed his hands over her breasts and used his thumbs to tease her nipples. They hardened almost instantly and he felt her relax into the mattress when his lips joined his hands to play with her. He spent several minutes working her body until she was once again pulsing with desire. He could feel her wetness bathing the tip of his cock which he was rubbing up and down along her entrance, the tip just barely touching her clit on each upward stroke.

  He dropped one hand to her clit and then lower to check if she was ready for him. Desire licked each of his nerve endings when his fingers came away soaking wet. He bent one of her legs up and pushed the head of his cock inside her. Her body was like a vise on his length and he was barely even inside her. He brought his eyes up to meet hers and saw that she was watching where their bodies were connected. When she saw him watching her, she held his gaze as he started to work himself further into her welcoming warmth. As her lips parted, he could hear little whimpers coming from her every time he pushed further into the depths of her body.

  “You are so beautiful,” he whispered brokenly. He felt her inner muscles tighten at his words and he couldn’t stop himself from plunging all the way inside her. He groaned as she automatically lifted her hips higher to meet his and he found himself s
uddenly gripping her wrists in each of his hands, not to hold her still but because he needed her to ground him. When he was seated as far as he could go, his balls pressed against her ass, he asked “Are you okay?”

  She seemed to be too overwhelmed for words but he saw no pain or discomfort. When she nodded, he pulled out and slid back in. The wet glide of her body welcomed him and he did it again. She dropped her head back on the bed and began thrusting her hips up to meet his strokes. He could feel her fingers stroking his and he was surprised to see that he had gone from holding her wrists to intertwining their fingers. The contrast of their skin was perfect, light to dark, soft to hard. She was perfect. And he wasn’t. He was going to end up hurting her like all the others in her life had and he couldn’t stop it. She had already connected to him, he could feel it in her touch, in the way her body pulled his in.

  Gabe felt a chill settle over him and he knew he needed to finish this before she became aware of what was happening to him. He started pounding into her over and over, his hard thrusts pushing her body up towards the headboard. She pulled one of her hands free of his hold to push against the wood above her head to give herself more leverage. He took the hand she had released and stroked her clit mercilessly to match his thrusts. He had gotten control of his body and emotions again and he focused everything on her release. He forced himself to ignore the tears that slid down her cheeks as he plunged into her one last time and pressed down hard on her clit. As she came apart in his arms he stilled and watched her body give in to the pleasure that overtook her. When she had quieted, he carefully pulled out of her, his dick still throbbing with need. Her body was sated and her eyes drifted shut as he left her and disappeared into the bathroom.

  ***

  Riley noticed his missing warmth immediately but knew he was probably getting rid of the condom. She felt boneless and was about to drift off to sleep when she heard a muffled sound from the bathroom. Slipping out of the bed, she found one of Gabe’s sweatshirts on a nearby chair. She slipped it on and went to the bathroom. She lifted her hand to knock but stopped when she realized what she was hearing. He was moaning and she heard what sounded like skin slapping against skin. She carefully opened the door and tried to make sense of what she was witnessing.