Page 145 of Gabriel
I still can’t wrap my head around seeing her out like this. And on a date.
There's a whole mess of feelings swirling around my head, but anger is the one punching hardest through the noise.
She’s out with some random guy when it’s only been a handful of weeks since she broke things off. What the hell is going on? Does she want a relationship now?
Jesus—fuck.
Is she seriously considering being with someone who isn't me?
Just the thought of her with another guy, letting him touch her. It's like a volcano erupting inside me. I can't wrap my head around why she would do this to me.To us.
CHAPTER 44
CECILIA
Gabriel's entrance into his house is like a sudden clap of thunder, his voice a crackling lightning bolt of fury. "What the hell were you thinking?" he snaps, barely allowing me a moment to breathe.
“Why are we here?” I counter, looking around the room. “Why didn’t you take me home?” The remnants of my panic dissipated on the ride over to be replaced by a potent cocktail of equal parts humiliation and irritation.
I feel exposed, vulnerable, as if every wall I've carefully built around myself has crumbled to dust.
I can’t believe I completely locked down like that.
I was making progress. Things were getting better.
Dammit.
One look at Austin in that house, and suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. If I’m honest, I was losing my shit even before that. Seeing him just made things worse.
When fear hits you like that, you’re supposed to go into fight or flight. But all I did was freeze, and he watched me. Wordlessly drinking his beer like I was his favorite fucking show.
Gabriel bares his teeth at me, his body vibrating with anger as the door slams behind him.
I jump, and he immediately curses.
“Fuck. I’m sorry.” He huffs out a breath and visibly pulls himself together, reining in some of his anger.
“Why are we here?” I repeat the question, my words echoing in the tension-laden air.
Gabriel's gaze bores into me, stripping away any semblance of defensiveness. His silence is a palpable force, pressing down on me like a suffocating weight.
"Gabriel?" I prompt again, my voice laced with uncertainty.
"Because you’re being reckless," he finally responds, his tone edged with frustration. "And obviously need somebody to talk some sense into you. What the hell were you thinking going to Zeta Pi tonight? Do you have any idea what could have happened to you?"
My spine stiffens, my breath catching in my throat. "Of course I know what can happen," I retort, my voice rising in defiance. "It’s already happened before!"
"Then why were you there?" he shouts back, his voice cutting through the air like a blade. This isn't the Gabriel I know, the one who never raises his voice, never loses cool.
Not with me.
Part of me recoils at the sight of him like this, his anger a raw, unfamiliar presence. But another part—the part that craves his attention, his intensity—revels in it. In knowing that I'm the reason he's like this, and that for once, he isn't treating me like a fragile piece of glass, ready to shatter at any moment.
Gabriel only ever yelled at me once—when we first met, before he knew everything that's happened to me. I was afraid of him then. But I’m not afraid of him now.
I stand my ground, meeting Gabriel's fiery gaze with my own defiant stare. The air between us crackles with tension, thick with unspoken words and unresolved emotions.
"Why were you there?" he repeats, his voice softer this time, but no less intense.
