A Question of Love (5 page)

“Perfect,” he whispered.

She did not need to look to know he wore a satisfied smile. She clenched her thighs together as her pussy began to throb. Oh, Lord. What had he found? What had he chosen?

“Your collection has grown,” he said, clearly impressed. The mattress dipped, and denim brushed against her leg. “But I think for today we can settle on your old friend.”

Tina shivered. She knew exactly who the old friend was. Her trusted rabbit pal. Not the very same one Gabe and Connor had used on her before, but a close relative nevertheless. Moisture gathered between her legs, her body preparing itself for the exquisite torture she knew would follow.

A hand on her knee pushed her legs apart again. “Because sometimes,” he whispered, “it’s the old friends who bring you the most pleasure.” Something cool and wet brushed over her groin, and her muscles clenched. Then came the soft whirring.

Tina shuddered as a vibrating jellied tip touched her clit, sending sharp sparks of delight shooting through her. She groaned and then sagged as the rabbit was pulled away. The vibrations ceased, although the soft whir did not. Less than a second later her body convulsed as the tip touched her lower lips. The tremors tantalized her, leaving her achy and needy. She wanted more. Wanted the rabbit inside. She moaned and twisted her hips, and Gabe obliged.

He slid the toy into her channel, pushing and stretching her, teasing and taunting her. The gentle buzzing drove her crazy, sweet torment against the walls of her pussy. Sweet that was, until the vibrations increased in speed. And then need overcame her. She pushed back down on the rabbit, pushed against Gabe’s hand, wanting more, needing release.

“Ah, T.” Gabe’s voice felt like a million prickles down her spine. “Always so responsive.”

Another change. Different movement. He’d turned on the beads, and they rotated around and around, pulsating through her pussy, making her cry out.

“That’s it, sweetness,” Gabe urged. “Take all the pleasure you need.”

She clenched her muscles around the toy, squeezing as hard as she could, slowing the movement down. And then she relaxed again, giving the rabbit free rein. It was all she could take. Blood thrummed in her ears, her legs shook and an orgasm blindsided her, leaving her breathless.

“Ah, Christ!” Gabe sounded as breathless as she felt. “God, I love to watch you come. Love when…your pussy…shudders. Your clit…” He moaned. “Fuck, I want to lick your clit.”

Her hips buckled as he drove the rabbit higher, increasing the speed of rotation. Silver light ripped through her as the tiny quivering ears touched her swollen bud, and a fresh set of tremors shook her. Still he didn’t stop, just kept the toy whirring, kept her body flying until she turned her head and sobbed into her pillow, the pleasure too intense—almost painful. Just when she thought she couldn’t stand it anymore, he slipped a finger in her ass and bit the tender skin of her inner thigh.

Tina dissolved. She knew nothing but the torrents of wicked rapture flooding her veins.

***

Gabe sat statue still at base of the bed, forcing himself not to move. If he so much as breathed now, he would not be able to stem the tide of his desire. He would rip of his clothes, lunge at Tina and drive himself—unprotected—into the writhing depths of her pussy.

He clenched his eyes shut, bit down hard on his tongue and counted to thirty. Sweat beaded on his forehead and dripped down his back. His balls smarted with unreleased tension, his dick so hard the pain cut through him.

Christ, he needed relief. He needed to come.

Not here. Not now.

This was not about him. It was about Tina. About proving to her that even though he’d left her once, he was back now. Back to prove he would do anything, everything for her. He would shift the world if he could to please her. Move planets. Realign the stars.

A low moan snapped him from his reverie, and carefully, cautiously, he turned the vibe off and slid it out of Tina. She collapsed in a spent heap before him, her chest heaving.

Gabe inched off the bed and knelt on the floor beside the head of the mattress. Every action was a challenge. He ached so damn bad, spasms tore through his abdomen.

She turned to stare at him, her brown eyes enormous in her passion-glazed face.

“Earlier you wanted to know if I’d kissed you because I love you.” He growled in her ear. “The answer is yes.”

Confusion clouded her irises. “Wha…?”

“I do love you. I have since the day Connor introduced us.” As he spoke, certainty of his feelings pushed forward in his mind. Four years may have passed. They did not dampen the intensity of his love for her one iota.

“But you…you left us. You left…me.” Her voice was breathless.

“Because you were with him first. I couldn’t have you.” He bit back his resentment. Connor wasn’t to blame for the course of events that had pushed him away from Tina. Their code of honor was. If not for Connor he’d never even have met Tina.

“You did have me, Gabe. You and Connor—you had all of me. I loved you both. So very much.”

Glass cut at his heart. The erection that had been plaguing him died a sudden death. “You loved us…both?”

She closed her eyes on a sigh. “With everything I had. You two were my life.”

The glass sliced deeper. Her love was a mixed blessing. How could he make her his own if she’d loved Connor as well? “I couldn’t share you.” Gabe’s voice was hoarse. The words scraped his throat. “Not once I knew I loved you.”

“Gabe…”

“Every time Connor was with you I wanted to tear him apart, one limb at a time.” The last time they’d made love to her, he’d hated Connor with every cell in his body. Every time his friend touched Tina, Gabe had seen red. It had been the most agonizing sexual experience of his life, being with the woman he loved and watching his best friend fuck her at the same time. “I had to leave, T. It was either that or knock Connor unconscious.” He clenched his fist at his side.

Her gaze darted to his hand. “Y-you…never said anything.”

Gabe shook his head. What the fuck could he have said that wouldn’t have destroyed his and Connor’s friendship, or Tina and Connor’s relationship?

He made a concerted effort to relax the muscles in his hand and straighten his fingers. “We had our rules. I couldn’t breach them. I couldn’t betray Connor that way.”

Tina scooched up the bed and dragged the covers over her naked body. She clutched the doona tight around her breasts while laughing cynically. “Oh, so it was okay for Connor to break the rules to be with Maggie, but not for you to break the rules to be with me.”

“Maddie,” he corrected and squeezed his eyes shut for a second. Shit, his explanation had come out sounding all wrong. Instead of clearing up the circumstances with her, he’d made it worse. “Connor never broke the rules. I did.”

She frowned at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“When Connor realized he had feelings for Maddie, he tried to walk away. He did it because of the rules. He did it to save our friendship.” Gabe hesitated. “I wouldn’t let him.”

“
You
wouldn’t let him?” Again with the reproachful stare.

“I’ve been there, T. I know what it’s like to walk away from the woman you love. I fucked up with you. I wasn’t about to let Connor make the same mistake with Maddie.”

Tina flashed him a sweet smile. “Ah, Gabe, what a hero. Gosh, Maggie and Connor must be ever so grateful for your self-sacrificing ways.”

Gabe considered correcting Tina for the third time, but one look at her face told him the use of the wrong name was intentional. She knew good and well what Maddie’s name was. “I didn’t just do it for them,” he confessed. “My intentions were selfish.”

She eyed him with suspicion.

“Seeing Connor and Maddie together? It brought back all the old feelings. Reminded me, again, of how damn much I loved you. I didn’t want Maddie. I wanted you.” He shrugged, although there was nothing blasé about the way he felt. “I always have.” His heart pumped overtime, and a cold sweat formed on his back. “I came to tell you that, came to see if there was any chance you could reciprocate that love.” He swallowed, terrified of her response.

Tina’s expression turned hard. “You’re about four years too late, don’t you think?”

“I know it’s been a while.”

She snorted. “A while? You classify four years as a while?”

“I classify it as a fucking eternity. Forty-eight months. Or, in our case, forty-nine months, two weeks and one day.” And not one of those days or weeks or months had passed without Gabe missing her. “But who’s counting?”

Her shoulders seemed to sag. “Obviously you are.”

“I’m not kidding about this, T. I love you. I’ve been in love with you all this time.” Gabe almost laughed out loud at the irony. How was it possible that a mere slip of a woman could wield such power over him? Could hold his happiness in her hands?

“So why did you wait so long to tell me?” She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you come back ages ago?”

“God knows I wanted to.” Gabe jumped up. “So much. It killed me, knowing you lived so close and I couldn’t have you.” He began to pace. “I left Sydney for a while. Six months.”

Tina’s gaze followed him as he paced the length of the room. “Where did you go?”

“Europe.”

“What about your job?”

“I resigned. Gave up the lease on my house too.”

“To get away for me?”

“You and Connor,” he corrected.

“And when you came back? Three and a half years ago?” The accusation was implicit in her question.

Gabe stood still and looked at her. “I still loved you.” He brushed a hand over his face. “I wanted to come to you the day my flight landed. The day Connor told me you and he had split up.”

“So why the hell didn’t you?”

Gabe stared at her for a long time. “I did. That night.” Armed with a massive bunch of roses and a keen willingness to beg her to love him.

“Gee, Gabe, I think I’d have remembered if you’d shown up at my doorstep.”

“You weren’t home,” he told her tonelessly.

“Ah.” She nodded. “So you tried once, had no luck and gave up. It never occurred to you to come back the next day? Or the day after that?”

“You weren’t here, but your sister was.”

Tina narrowed her eyes.

“Seems Leanne and Michael were staying here for the week.” It hurt just to remember. Christ, he was turning into a pussy.

Tina nodded as her eyes filled with comprehension. “Their place was being painted. They moved in while I was away with…” Her voice trailed off.

“With your new boyfriend,” Gabe supplied. The boyfriend Tina was head-over-heels in love with. The boyfriend who Leanne was quick to point out, was sure to become the fiancé. The boyfriend who put a stop to all Gabe’s whimsical fantasies about Tina, although the two men never met.

“Grant,” Tina said, voicing the name he never wanted to hear again.

“I would have come back,” Gabe told her. “Every night if need be. But your sister said you were happy, said he was the real deal. It wasn’t fair for me to interfere.”

“So you left,” she murmured, more to herself than to him.

“So I left,” he agreed and let that hang between them for a while. “Is he the same guy?” Gabe asked after a moment.

She looked confused. “Same as what?”

“Is he the one you kissed in the coffee shop today?”

“God, no.” She wrinkled her nose. “No, Grant and I didn’t last more than a couple of months.”

“And the one this morning?”

“Less than that,” Tina said. “He wasn’t right from the start.”

Gabe stood up and paced the room, gritting his teeth to stop from swearing. He’d given Tina up for a relationship that had lasted a few fucking months? If the wall had been closer, he would have banged his head against it, hard. Fuck, what a waste of time. He could have had her for the last three and a half years. Instead he’d taken Leanne’s advice and walked away. Pretended to be the hero. And wound up lonely instead. He’d felt uprooted and alone in a city he’d lived in his whole life.

Instead of fighting for Tina, like every instinct had dictated, he’d thrown himself into creating new roots. He’d bought a flat. The first property he’d ever owned. And he’d begun his own private practice rather than working for someone else. The new home and the practice had helped provide him with some stability, but they’d never eased the ache or the loneliness of not being with the woman he loved.

“I don’t get it.” Tina looked at him, puzzled. “Why did you walk away three years ago when you found out I was with someone else, yet you hung around today after seeing me kiss Anthony?”

“Because three years ago you were happy.” Or so Leanne had said anyway. “Today you looked miserable. I couldn’t just leave.” Ah hell, why not just tell her the full truth? “I didn’t want to leave. Not again. I wanted to see you, speak to you. I wanted another chance.”

Tina dropped her head in her hands, covering her face. “Why are you telling me all this now? What do you want from me?”

Once again Gabe dropped to his knees beside the head of her bed. “I want everything, T. I want to be with you, just the two of us. No one else to complicate our relationship. I want another chance to prove you can fall in love with me and me alone.”

Tina shook her head. “Stop!” She threw out a hand to punctuate her plea and turned to him with tear-filled eyes. “Please, stop. It’s been too long, Gabe. Too much has happened. I… I’m too angry with you to go down this road.” She took a deep, rasping breath. “You l-left me. You left us. When I was with you and Connor I was so happy. You became my life, my rocks. And y-yes, I loved you then, but it’s not quite as simple as that.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I loved you b-both. Together.” She wrinkled her nose in concentration. “I can’t separate you from Connor, and I can’t separate my feelings for you from my feelings for Connor. When I think of you I think of Connor, and when I think of Connor I think of you.”

She drummed the palm of her hand against her forehead in frustration. “You destroyed that. When you walked out on Connor and me you destroyed our threesome. You broke up my life and you tore out my heart. Connor and I couldn’t go on without you. We weren’t whole anymore.”