Freeing Her (34 page)

“
Yes,” they both
said.

“
Good. Let’s go,
Gabs.”

She got up and headed toward the door. Her
mind churned with how she could delay him, to wait for Kolson. But
Danny was armed—Kolson wouldn’t be. She didn’t want to risk Kolson
getting injured. When they got outside, she tried to stall.

“
Where’s my bodyguard? And
my driver?”

Danny laughed. “One shot and they dropped
like flies.”

“
Oh my God! You killed
them?”

“
You don’t need to worry
about them. Come on.”

He grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and
clamped down, pushing her along. When he turned down an alley and
slammed her against the side of a building, Gabby’s legs weakened;
she stumbled. He squeezed her neck even harder, pulling her up. She
was so dizzy with fear, Danny’s face moved in and out of focus.

He laughed and her skin prickled. “I can’t
wait to get inside you again. To hear you tell me how much you
missed my dick.”

She spit in his face. The action took him
off guard and he stepped back. One chance … that’s all she had, so
she forced her fear aside and took it. She raised her knee and
rammed it squarely into his crotch. Then she ran. Back to the
restaurant and right into Ovaltine as he was rounding the corner,
bleeding from a gunshot wound in his side. She screamed with all
her might, which got the attention of bystanders.

Kolson pulled up and jumped out of his car.
“Gabriella!”

“
He has a gun!” she
hollered over and over again.

Kolson spun around and ran inside,
practically carrying Gabby.

“
Call the police. Now!” he
yelled at the first person he saw.

He tried to hand Gabby to Cara, but she
wouldn’t let him go. She didn’t say a thing, only trembled, and
latched on to him. Cara and Sky ran to Ovaltine as he staggered
into the restaurant.

“
Kea, you’re safe here.
Let me go find him.”

“
Noooo! He has a gun.
He’ll kill you.”

“
No, he won’t. I won’t let
him.”

“
Noooo, don’t
go.”

Her fear stopped him. He couldn’t walk away
from her when she needed him.

“
I’m here. I’m not going
anywhere.” Her fingers dug into the flesh of his back, but he
didn’t say a word. He kissed and petted her hair, murmuring softly
to calm her.

In minutes, the place was swarming with
cops. Cara and Sky had called Case and he showed up as well. Gabby
still wouldn’t release her hold on Kolson. The police questioned
the three women and Kolson. Max was found in an alley next to the
building and both he and Ovaltine were transported to the
hospital.

Case took one of the detectives aside and
had a long chat with him. They wanted Gabby to come down to the
station, but between Kolson and Case, they were able to persuade
them to defer it until the morning. Kolson gathered up Gabby and
drove her home. She was a mess.

Once there, he poured her a glass of
whiskey. He tucked her into bed afterward, and in the morning, they
went to the police station. It was then, with Case and the attorney
present, that Gabriella gave her formal statement. Charges would be
filed against Danny for, felony assault and battery with a deadly
weapon, and attempted kidnapping. Because of the witnesses at the
restaurant, and the attempted murder of Ovaltine and Max, it looked
like Danny would be facing a lengthy prison sentence.

Kolson and Gabby then went to the hospital
to check on their friends. Both Ovaltine and Max were in stable
condition. Max had been shot in the shoulder and Ovaltine in the
side. Sam was with Ovaltine, along with the rest of their family.
Gabby couldn’t shake the guilt—this was all her fault. If these men
hadn’t been guarding her, none of this would’ve happened.

“
You have to stop thinking
that way. They were doing their jobs. Our men do this for clients
all the time,” Kolson explained. His eyes were warm as
honey.

This was different. Danny could’ve killed
them and if that had happened, she would’ve felt responsible.

Kolson noticed how she clung to him. It was
odd, for she craved her independence. That had always been the one
thing she’d emphasized to him. It was why she wouldn’t stay with
him as much as he wanted her to. She needed that feeling of
freedom. But he guessed now she needed security, so he vowed she
would have it.

Throwing his arm around her shoulders, he
said, “Let’s go home, shall we?”

Eddie dropped them off. When they got up to
the penthouse, Kolson said, “I think it might be best if you took a
few days off.”

“
But my patients
…”

“
Won’t benefit a bit from
you when you’re this upset.”

She hugged herself.

He pried her hand loose. “Come.” The last
time he saw her this upset, a bath in the large tub relaxed her
immensely.

When they reached the bathroom, he said,
“Take off your clothes while I fill the tub, kea.” He poured in
bath oil from a fancy bottle and she disrobed. He held her hand as
she stepped into the warm, soothing water.

“
Join me?”

He did as she asked, moving behind her.
“Lean back on me. Let me and the water take the edge off your
worries.”

She draped her thighs over his and felt a
rush of bubbles between her legs. “Mmm.” She squirmed against him
and his erection blossomed between them.

“
I didn’t mean for this to
be about sex, but if you’re going to squirm like that, then I won’t
be held accountable for my actions.”

“
Kolson, sex with you
makes me forget my name. Why in the world would I not want to have
it now?”

“
Lean back, then.” He
lifted his knees, causing her legs to spread further. The rush of
the bubbly water was hitting her in all the right spots and
arousing her even more. He took some body wash and put it on a soft
cloth, bringing it to a foamy lather. Running the cloth around her
breasts, she arched her back as the nubby cloth rubbed her nipples
to a peak. With his other hand, he extended them into shiny pearls,
tugging and pinching them until she was writhing against his
hand.

“
Have you ever had an
orgasm from just this, Gabriella?”

“
No,” she
moaned.

“
I think I may have to
give you one some day. You are so responsive when I do
this.”

Sliding his hand down to her hips, he moved
the cloth in a circular pattern, trailing it over her hipbones and
pelvis as she tilted toward him.

“
You’re going to have to
stop moving, Gabriella. Or I may do something you’re not quite
ready for. That sweet ass of yours is torturing my
dick.”

She gasped as his words sunk in.

He didn’t mean
that
, did he?

As if he read her mind, he said, “Yes, I’ll
fuck your sweet ass. Now don’t move like that.”

He resumed his motion with the cloth, taking
it between her legs. When he reached her core, she let loose a
long, loud moan. The nubs on the cloth hit her clitoris with the
perfect amount of pressure as he massaged her to an intense climax.
Right as she started to come, his hips lifted her up and he slid
into her.

Gabby came alive, as Kolson lifted his hips
up and down, up and down, while his hands moved her to match his
rhythm. The pleasure was unbearable. She leaned forward, holding
onto his thighs as he slowly fucked her.

“
I wish you could see
yourself right now. You’re beautiful, my Gabriella. Your skin is
flushed and rosy as it glimmers from the hot water. I could look at
your naked body all day long. So damn perfect.”

Gabby looked down to where they were joined
and cupped her hand around the weight of his sac. His answering
groan pleased her. Then she felt his finger run down her crack
until it found that opening, and he pushed against it until the
pressure eased.

“
Ahhh,” she
cried.

He stilled until he felt her impending
orgasm subside and then his motion picked up again, but very
slowly. He inched in and out of her with a torturous pace. She
tried to speed things up but he held her down with one hand on her
shoulder. “If you try to move, Gabriella, I’ll stop.”

“
Please. Let me
come.”

“
Patience.”

His movements began again, and Gabby found
exquisite pleasure. Her nerve endings tingled as fire burned in her
veins.

“
Kolson.
Please.”

“
You’ll come when I think
you’re ready.”

“
But …”

“
Hush.” He leaned forward
and took the velvety lobe of her ear and drew it into his mouth,
tugging it with his teeth.

“
Huuuh,” she gasped at the
rush of pleasure.

Instantly he shifted and began thrusting
harder, faster. Gabby felt stretched to an impossible width and
depth. He touched upon places inside her, kissed her so deeply that
there was a moment if she wondered if one could die of ecstasy.

Her climax ripped through her, wrenching a
scream from her lips, and then his name. If he hadn’t grabbed her
around the waist, she would’ve slipped under the bubbly water.

Kolson’s orgasm burst out of him and Gabby’s
inner muscles squeezed every last drop, until he was weak from the
effort of it all. But he wasn’t too weak to lift her off and turn
her in his arms.

“
You are amazing. But I
missed this.” His lips brushed hers, his tongue tracing their
outline, before taking the lower one between his teeth. “I love
taking you that way, but I miss seeing your beautiful face. I’m
going to have mirrors installed on the walls surrounding this tub,
just so I can watch you at every angle.”

“
Why haven’t you paddled
me lately?”

The question caught him off guard. The truth
was he’d wanted to. Bad.

“
I thought perhaps it’d
been too much for you.”

“
Did I give you that
indication?”

“
No, but then you didn’t
beg for it again, either. I decided you are too important to me and
I don’t want to scare you off with my needs. And with what you’re
going through with Danny, I thought it might be too much. So I’ve
held back.”

She sat up and straddled him. Framing his
face, she said, “I trust you not to hurt me. Don’t hold back.”

He leaned in to touch his lips to hers.
“Here’s the thing. Those needs of mine aren’t important to me
anymore. Do I want to see you tied up with your ass all pink? Yeah,
I do. But I also want to see your head in the right place too. I
don’t want you to do something just because you think it’s what I
want. I want you to do it because you want it too.”

“
But I really liked it,
Kolson. It was wicked fun. And I want to do it again.”

He ran his tongue across his lower lip then
flashed her a sexy smile. “You always surprise me, kea.”

“
I do?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, you do.”

“
I love you, Kolson. I
want you to be happy.”

“
Having you here makes me
happy.”

“
But I want you to have
your other things too.”

He clasped her hands and gave her a solemn
look. “When you and I didn’t speak for five days, it was the worst
time in my life. So if we only have this kind of sensational sex
that we’ve been having, I’ll die a happy man. You’re more important
to me than anything, any need or compulsion I may have, and I’d
sell my soul to the devil for you.” He squeezed his eyes shut and
began to speak. “I never intended for you to fall in love with me.
You’re too good for me, kea.”

Giving her an imploring look, he held up his
hand when she tried to break in on him. “Let me say this while I
have the courage, Gabriella.” So many emotions flashed in his eyes,
and Gabby recognized them all: anger, pain, shame, disgust, but the
most prominent was fear. “The fact is, you have such a pure heart
and soul, and mine are irreparably damaged … I’m a lot more fucked
up than you can imagine and I know you’ve seen it all in your
profession. You ask why I don’t talk to you about my past. That’s
one of the reasons. Don’t get me wrong. I know you’ll never judge
me. But I also know that it might scare the shit out of you too.
It’s pure selfishness on my part, and that’s not being fair to you.
I should’ve ended it with you before it got to this point, but I
couldn’t. I couldn’t stay away from you. You brought me hope for
the first time. You were like a light to me, leading me out of my
darkness.

“
But that day—” he
swallowed and stared at her for a moment—“that day I went to pick
you up, and you were at the women’s shelter. I saw the way you held
that little girl in your arms and there was something so beautiful
about everything you did, I knew then I could never let you go.
From that moment, every time I looked at you I saw perfection and
kindness and charity, and I’d never seen anything like it before.
And that’s when I knew I wanted that. From you. I wanted you to
hold me like that. And shower me with that kind of love. I’m sorry
for not being honest with you about myself. My intentions. You’re
being cheated in all of this. I’m too fucked up to even qualify as
damaged goods.”

“
Can I speak
now?”

“
Yeah.”

“
I think I need to decide
how fucked up you are, but I can’t because you won’t discuss your
past with me. So, I’ll go with what I see in front of me here.
Issues? Yeah, you have them. So do I. As does everyone else in the
world. No one is created perfect. Oh, you say I am but that’s
bullshit and you know it. I’ll piss you off and that perfection
thing will fly out the window and you’ll scratch your head and ask
why the fuck you ever said it in the first place. Go ahead and
laugh, but it’s true. Now, I’m super happy with what you said about
me. And the way you felt when you saw me with that little girl,
well, it makes my heart sing.