Page 85 of House of Scarlett
I expect his expression to shutter, but he doesn’t close down. In fact, for the first time since I met this intensely private man, I feel like I can see every emotion travel across his expression.Hesitation. Hope. Yearning.
“I never let myself think about stuff like that, or at least, I didn’t.” His lids lower, and I lose his eyes, but he keeps going. “Jorie and I were planning on having a couple, after she made it and got a record deal. She would talk about them like they were real. When I lost her, I lost all of that, and never thought I’d get it back.”
He lifts his chin, and that blue gaze burns with feeling. “I probably shouldn’t want kids. I don’t come from good stock. I shouldn’t want to pass along my genes to another generation, but I know I’d be a damn good dad. My kids would want for nothing. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect them. They’d never wonder if they were loved.”
Tears burn in my eyes, obscuring my vision as I blink them back. The waves of emotion rolling off Gabriel are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever witnessed.
“I agree. You’d make a great dad.”
He grins at me. “And you’d make a hell of a mom. The best kind.”
I suck in a breath to steady myself so I don’t lose my control as those tears are desperate to fall. “I hope you’re right, because it’s really important to me. My mom was amazing. The best. I couldn’t have asked for more. I always wanted to be part of a big family, but there were no little brothers or sisters for me when I was young. And, well, you know about my dad ...”
“You’ll get what you want, Scarlett. You deserve everything.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to say,“I want it with you, so please tell me we’re on the same page here.”
But, instead, I go with, “I should clean up. Want to shower with me?”
He jackknifes up in bed. “I’d be a fucking idiot to turn down the chance to have you wet, naked, and slippery.”
* * *
“Ohfuck.”
The shower started innocently enough, but somehow my palm found its way to Gabriel’s dick, and those blue eyes of his heated with lust.
I couldn’t keep my words to myself. “I loved watching you jack off in the shower. It was so fucking hot.”
That led to him turning the handheld sprayer on a low, pulsing setting, and using it to drive me wild. Which brings us to now, and my hands pressed against the tile as he powers into me from behind.
“Jesus fucking Christ. You’re going to strangle my cock. Fucking beautiful.”
He fucks into me until I come one more time and my knees go weak.
“I got you. Lean back on me. I won’t let you fall.”
The words are so simple, but to me, they mean everything. I’ve never had someone who I could trust to always be there for me and hold me together when I’m falling apart.
I loop an arm backward to cup the back of his neck as he finishes us both off. “Oh my God! Gabriel!”
His harsh indrawn breath fills the shower before he roars and spills inside me. He pulls out, letting the spray wash me clean.
We both stumble back a few steps until he braces on the wall of the shower, holding us both up with his muscled forearms. “Goddamn. I feel like I’m eighteen again and can’t get enough of you. You tell me to hold off if it gets to be too much, okay?”
With the water from the other showerhead beating down on us, I belly laugh until my chuckles fill the shower. “I’ve got years to make up for, but yeah, I’ll make sure to tell you.”
He presses a kiss to my cheek. “You make me really fucking happy, Scarlett. Thank you for that.”
I turn in a slippery circle to press my breasts to his naked chest. “You do the exact same thing for me.” I soak up his heat for a beat, and my stomach growls again.
“Time for dessert,” Gabriel says.
I smile mischievously at him. “You mean fuel up for another round? Sounds like a great plan.”
Fifty-One
Legend
