One Night with Sole Regret 06 Tell Me (19 page)

“Come up on the porch in the shade,” his dad said. “You’ll bake your brain in this heat.”

By the time they made it to the porch, his mother had brought out a pitcher of iced tea and four glasses.

“So glad you stopped by
,” she said. “Even though my Gabriel only lives a mile down the road, I hardly ever see him.”

“You saw me yesterday,” Gabe reminded her.

“How’s Lady?” his dad asked. “Mom told me she was hit by a car.”

“I visited her this morning. She’s going to be fine.” It was a perfect opening to ask if they’d be willing to take care of her while he was on tour, but he reached for a glass of tea instead.

“That’s great,” his dad said. “Kathy made it sound like your dog was pretty banged up.”

“I thought she was,” his mom said. “Will she be okay by herself while you’re gone?”

Opening number two, gaping wide. Gabe took a sip of his tea and glanced at Melanie, who gave him an odd look.

“I wish I could stay and keep an eye on her,” Melanie said, “but I have to work.”

Opening number three slipped right by.

“Do you need someone to watch her?” his dad asked.

“Well…”

Melanie squeezed his leg beneath the table.

“I could probably use a hand with her,” Gabe said, “but I know how busy you both are.”

“Yeah, watching this grass
grow all summer keeps me overextended,” his dad said and then laughed.

“Aren’
t you doing research this summer?” Gabe asked.

“Did
n’t we tell you?” his mom asked.

“Tell me what?”

“Your dad is starting to hand off his unfinished projects to the junior scientists in the department so he can retire next spring.”

“Dad’s retiring?” Gabe sputtered. But only old people retired. Sure
, his dad was in his sixties, but he was far from old.

“I know we told you,” his mom said, patting his father’s hand. “We told him
, Luke. Didn’t we?”

“No one told me anything,
” Gabe said.

“We told you
on the phone months ago,” his mom said.

Gabe shook his head. He would have remembered that his father was retiring. It was sort of a big deal.

“Maybe we told Leslie and Jennifer and forgot to tell him,” his dad said, looking reflective.

“All anyone in this family ever tells me is what a huge disappointment I am,” Gabe blurted.

“What are you talking about, Gabriel?” his mother said sternly. “No one ever—”

“
He had such a promising future before he joined that rock band
,” he mimicked her exact words from the night before. “
Leslie is our MD and Jennifer our PhD and Gabe, well, let’s just say he turned out a little different from what we expected
.” He’d heard her tell some stranger that a couple of months before.

“We aren’t disappointed in you, son,” his dad said, “but you
are
a little different.” He chuckled at Gabe’s expense

“I’m glad he’s different,” Melanie blurted. “It makes him that much more wonderful.”

Stunned, Gabe glanced at Melanie, who covered her mouth with trembling fingertips and looked from one of his parents to the other, a horrified expression on her face. He couldn’t tell if she was about to cry or punch someone in the nose, but he could tell that she was upset. And once again standing firmly in his corner.

“I can’t believe you think we’re disappointed in you, Gabe,” his mother said. “I never thought you’d take my bragging the wrong way.”

“You have a right to brag about Leslie and Jennifer,” Gabe said, “they’re both everything you expected them to be.”

His mom reached over and patted his face
, rather harder than necessary. “You, hush. I was bragging about
you
. Every family has a doctor. Hell, ours has twelve, but not everyone can say they have a rock star for a son. But I still hate those damned tattoos. On. Your. Head. Gabe. Why did you have to get them on your head?”

Melanie giggled.

“The young lady seems okay with them,” his dad said.

The young lady seemed okay with everything about him. And for the first time in a very long time, he found he could relax in the company of his parents. He still didn’t quite believe that his mother actually
bragged
about him, but he almost believed that they weren’t entirely disappointed in him and hadn’t written him out of their will.

“So about that dog of yours…” His father prompted, giving him opening number five or number six. Gabe had lost track.

“Would you mind going to pick her up from the vet’s office tomorrow and nursing her back to health?” Gabe asked.

“On one condition.” His father lifted a finger at him, and he half expected him to require he get the dragon
tattoos removed from his scalp.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“That Beau stays here with her so she doesn’t drive me nuts with her constant need for attention.”

Gabe smiled, his love for the man squeezing his throat. “You have a deal.”

“Good,” he said. “Now I insist on Melanie telling me everything about herself since I already know all about you.” His dad winked at him and then turned his attention to Melanie. She soon discovered that she was the most popular rock star at this particular table.

Finding herself sprawled naked across Gabe’s bed once
again, Melanie touched the back of his head, her eyes closed in bliss. Sparks of pleasure danced along her nerve endings as he sucked at her nipple, apparently intent on making it as hard as a diamond.

“Do you think they like me?” she asked, still thinking about their visit with his parents.
She and Gabe had returned to his house less than ten minutes ago and before she could ask him if he thought things had gone well, he’d had her naked and moaning in his bed. His parents had made her feel welcome during their short visit, but maybe they were that nice to everyone.

“My lips definitely like you,”
Gabe murmured.

“I mean your parents.
Do you think
they
like me?”

His head popped up
, and he stared at her, his long nose crinkled in displeasure. “Please tell me you are
not
thinking about my parents right now.”

She couldn’t help it.
Meeting them had been a big deal to her. “I just didn’t expect them to be so friendly.”

Gab
e dropped his forehead against her chest. “I can’t believe you’re actually thinking about my parents right now.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Please continue.”

She grabbed his head and directed his mouth back to her nipple. His warm, wet tongue traced the sensitive tip and she shuddered.

After
she enjoyed another moment of his tender assault on her breast, the thoughts racing through her busy brain still refused to quiet, so she asked, “Why are you always so tightlipped about your home life? Whenever I ask you questions about yourself or your family, you change the subject.”

He
bit her nipple,
hard
, and she sucked a breath through her teeth.

“Is it because you’d always had your family’s approval and now you think you don’t?
”

“Maybe,” he said.

“That really bothers you, doesn’t it?”

Gabe sighed loudly.
“This calls for some assistance,” he said and rolled off the bed.

She lifted her head and watched his
sexy ass flex with each step he took toward his armoire. He was after his toys again.

“I’ll be quiet,” she promised. But she really wanted to talk about
his reluctance to share his personal life. Maybe he’d be more open to conversation after he took care of the raging hard-on he was currently sporting. There were times to be nosy and times to shut up. She’d completely missed the mark on this one.

“Too late,” he said. He scooped armloads of gadgets against his chest
, carried them to the bed, and dropped them on the mattress beside her. “Maybe, I have a gag in here somewhere.”

“I’ll be
quiet
,” she said again.

“I don’t want you to be quiet. I want you screaming. But not about my parents.”

He lifted an oddly shaped phallus from his collection of implements, inspected it, and then set it aside. She wondered what it was for and whether he’d just placed it in his use-it or his reject pile. He held several gadgets up to her breast, added them all to the pile that included the intriguing phallus and then he lifted a very long, slender rod. He tested its flexibility against his palm before setting it aside. As he reached for the next tool in his arsenal, Melanie slid the discarded slender rod into the growing assembly of inventions she assumed he planned to use.

Her pussy tingled and throbbed as she anticipated the variety of pleasure
s Gabe was undoubtedly about to bestow upon her.

He finished fiddling with what looked like a small saddle with two holes in it and again studied his piles of toys. He frowned at the
relocated rod. His head jerked up and his gaze settled on hers.

S
he smiled timidly. “I thought I might like that one.” Even though she had no idea what it was for.

“I guess I’
ll just have try out everything,” he said, “since I can’t decide what will make you scream my name the loudest.”

“I don’t mind experimenting,” she said.

He grinned, and her heart stumbled around in her chest like a lame antelope.

“All i
n the name of science,” he said.

“I have a feeling this is going to be a Nobel
Prize-worthy discovery,” she said, fingering a wide, flat piece of red latex and wondering what the hell it was for.

“I don’t think they have a Nobel Prize for production of the greatest female orgasm.”

“Only because they’re afraid you’ll win every year.”

He touched a finger to her
lip. Must be time to stop talking and start screaming.

“Today we’ll start our experiment with your lovely nipples.”

He tried clamps that squeezed, nubs that vibrated, and pinchers that released mild shocks. She enjoyed all of the sensations, but Gabe seemed unsatisfied with her soft gasps and moans of pleasure. He next chose a harmless-looking cup that covered more than half her breast. Something inside the cup rubbed, massaged and pulled at her nipple until she had to squeeze her legs together to keep from coming.

“Oh God, Gabe,” she cried.

“I think we have a winner,” Gabe said. He located the device’s twin and placed it over her exposed breast.

“Wait!” Melanie gasped, knowing she wouldn’t be able to stand having
both nipples stimulated by his ingenious invention. “Something else on that one. Something that
hurts
a little.”

One corner of his mouth quirked upward. “You are just full of surprises, Miss Melanie.”

He clipped a metal clamp to her free nipple and turned up the voltage. She couldn’t decide if the shocks hurt or felt good, but there was no doubt that they turned her on.

“Ah fuck,” she groaned and rocked her hips to
ease the building need between her thighs. Every pulse of energy at her breast travelled down her belly and to her pussy, making it clench with need.

Her hand
moved between her legs. She dipped her fingers into heated wetness and then rubbed herself to release using rapid strokes against her clit. She shattered, pleasure coursing through her body as her thighs clamped shut over her hand and she quaked with bliss.

“Fuck, you’re sexy, Mel,” Gabe said.

She forced her thighs apart, still rubbing her clit slowly to ease herself gently back to earth.

“
Mmm,” she murmured, but her relief was short lived. The stimulation to her breasts was already moving her toward the point of painful arousal once again.

Gabe used both hands to
push her trembling thighs farther apart. He was kneeling between her legs on the bed. She’d been too lost in sensation to know when he’d joined her, but her pussy throbbed with excitement as she stared at the thick cock standing rigid between her open thighs.

“I want you,” she said, her voice thick and low.

Gabe’s belly visibly quivered. “I love the tone of your voice when you’re turned on. Tell me what you want, Mel.”

“You,” she said.

“How do you want me?”

“Inside me.
Slow. Deep. Your thumb rubbing me here,” she said, massaging her clit in gentle circles.

He grabbed a pink object off the bed and inserted his thumb into it. He moved her hand
aside and stroked her the way she’d asked, except his rubbery thumb attachment added stimulating pulses of vibration to an already pleasurable experience.

“I was going to use this on your sweet pussy,” he said, lifting the oddly shaped phallus she’d seen earlier.
He lowered it and rubbed the tip against her opening. “I was going to shove it inside you and fuck you with it until you begged me to stop.”

She whimpered, suddenly aware of the emptiness she felt deep inside.

“But I’m feeling a bit selfish at the moment.” He tossed the tool aside and crept forward. “I need to feel that hot pussy around me.”

She
groaned in admiration of his so-called selfishness.

“
Lift your hips for me, baby,” he said.

Her butt rose off the bed
, and he shoved a pillow under her lower back to help her maintain the angle. He stared down at where his thumb massaged her clit and watched his cock penetrate her one agonizingly slow inch at a time. His mouth dropped open a little more with each inch he claimed and his green eyes glazed over with pleasure. Melanie’s fingers dug into the mattress beneath her as her inner walls clenched rhythmically around his thick cock, drawing his fullness deeper. Deeper.
Good God, Gabe, fill me. Fuck me.

“Stretched around me like that, your pussy looks
fantastic,” he murmured. His eyes drifted closed and the muscles of his face twitched. “And it feels even better.”

He began to move inside her, maintaining the slow rhythm she’d claimed to desire. But the pleasure and pain rippling through her nipples and the vibrating pulses coming from the thumb massaging her clit soon had her pleading for more.

“Faster, Gabe. Please.”

He massaged her clit faster, but his deep, slow thrusts never lost their unhurried cadence.

“I think I’m coming,” she gasped, surprised by the intensity of her pleasure. There were no accompanying waves of release, just a building of ecstasy.

“You’re not there yet,” he said, changing the direction of his massaging thumb. The motion sent even more waves of pleasure spiraling through her core.

By the time she finally let loose, she was screaming his name.

He pulled out unexpectedly and straightened his
body to rise above her. “Watch,” he said.

Her eyes sought out his slick cock. He gave it two sharp tugs that sent cum shooting across her lower belly. She’d watched him come for her during their video chats, but feeling
his load splatter across her skin added a level of eroticism she had not expected. She reached up to pull him against her, squashing his hand and cock between them.

“God, you make me hot, Gabriel Banner.”

He chuckled. “The feeling is mutual, baby,” he said in her ear. After a moment, he shifted away slightly. “So what do you want to try out next? We have all day to continue with our experiments.”

She blindly groped the mattress beside her and picked up another of his unidentifiable toys. “This thing,” she said. She wasn’t sure what it did or even where it went, but if Gabe had designed it, she had no doubt she was going to love it.

~ ~ ~

Melanie
had relished her morning of being Gabe’s sexual test subject, but there was something soul-satisfying about just hanging out with him in his cozy kitchen. When they’d found the strength to join the living world—ravenous hunger had driven them from Gabe’s bedroom—they’d made a trip to the store and purchased enough perishables to make a large lunch. They worked well in the kitchen together. Well, he spent most of his time on the deck grilling their steaks and ears of corn while she tossed a salad and baked potatoes, but even though they weren’t in the same room, she felt like part of his life when she was in this house.

“Medium rare,” he said, placing a rather bloody plate on the counter. “And well
done for the lady.” He deposited her steak next to his.

“Smells delicious,” she said.

“I’m a much better cook when my mother isn’t breathing down my neck.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “It’s been a great day, hasn’t it?”

It had. There was only one small dark spot on all her joy. She still hadn’t heard from Nikki.
On their way to the store, Melanie had called the hotel in New Orleans and they’d patched her through to Gabe’s room. Nikki was supposed to be staying there, but she hadn’t answered. Recognizing Melanie’s distress, Gabe had taken pity on her and had sent Adam, who was staying in the same hotel, to knock on Nikki’s door. She hadn’t responded his summons either. Maybe she’d decided to go back to Wichita after all. It would have been nice of her to let Melanie know that.

The steaks were delicious. The company was delicious. But Melanie’s sense of dread was unsavory at best.

When a familiar ringtone began to blare from her purse in the living room, Melanie paused mid-bite.

“That’s Nikki,” she said and scrambled from her chair, her heart racing.

She pulled out the phone and answered just before it went to voicemail.

“Nikki?” she said. “
Where the hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick.”

The only sound Melanie heard was a
sniffle on the other end of the line.

“Nikki?”

“Can you come get me?” Nikki said, her voice strained.

“Where are you? Are you still in New Orleans?”

“Y-yeah.”

“I’m in Austin
, hon. I can’t come get you until tomorrow.”

“He hurt me, Mel.
”