Sweet Charity (8 page)

She held back a laugh, not only at how her brother looked at the moment but at the thought of Gabriel thinking anyone believed he was into diapers.

“Well, gosh, you know, they make them in adult sizes now and since you knew, I guess it’s not that big a secret.”

He looked at her, his eyes widening in horror until she burst out laughing and then he socked her in the arm.

“I’m sorry, I had to! It is a sex thing yes, but it’s not particularly weird and certainly not in the realm of diapers. I worry about your exposure to public schools, Jason, if this is what you’re thinking about all day. Does Gina like this sort of stuff?”

“You suck. I’ll get you for that. And for your information, Gina and I broke up.”

“Oh no! Because of the whatsherface thing?”

“No. Mom was right. But don’t tell her that. She and I just weren’t right for each other although the sex, the non-diaper sex, was great, there was nothing else. I want to settle down too. I’m knocking on thirty years old in just a few months, I want a family of my own. She wasn’t ready.” He shrugged.

They walked back into the house, laughing, and she felt a lot better.

He’d wanted her to stay until he had to get up to work but hadn’t asked. He knew he’d hurt her but he was desperate to keep distance between them. Especially after the way she’d been with him, so beautifully open and accepting, so sexual and exciting…he lay there in his bed and found himself falling for her in a way he’d never expected. The power of that scared the hell out of him.

She hadn’t called or shown up that whole day. He knew her shop was open until one on Sundays so she could have come by any time after that. Of course, he could call her or drop by. They were friends. He’d done it before.

He made up his mind and headed to his truck, only to stop at his parents’ house when he caught sight of her car out front.

“Hey, fancy seeing you here,” Charity said calmly as he entered his mother’s kitchen. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she had on an apron. She stood at the table with his mom and sister, kneading bread and laughing.

“I think that’s my line.” It came out sharper than he’d intended and she physically reacted, her eyes meeting his and he didn’t fail to catch the flash of hurt there.

Slowly, she stepped back and wiped her hands.

“I’m going to get going now. Just let my mom know when you’re done with the trays and Jason will come by to get them.”

His mother looked at him but couldn’t make him feel any worse than he already did.

“Charity, wait. I didn’t mean it the way it came out,” he said, following her as she tossed the apron on a chair and headed outside with her coat and purse clutched against her body like a shield.

She moved pretty fast but he had her blocked in.

He caught up to her at her car. “Wait, damn it. I’m sorry.”

“I want to go.”

He heard the tears in her voice and gently, he tipped her chin up so he could see into her face. A face so familiar to him he wouldn’t know what to do if it wasn’t part of his life.

“I didn’t mean for that to come out that way. I was on my way to your house when I saw your car here. I’m sorry.” Not able to do anything else, he brushed his mouth over the curve of her bottom lip. “Don’t look that way, baby. I didn’t mean to make you sad. Will you let me take you to dinner? To make up for it?”

She nodded and he pulled her close, happy when she hugged him back.

At the little Thai place near the campus, she sat across from him at a rickety table and he was suddenly aware of just how many people stared at her. She didn’t have a lot of makeup on and she wore a pair of jeans and a black sweater but still, something about her drew a man’s eye.

“You were really on your way to my house or did you just say that because you thought I might cry?” she asked, using chopsticks like a pro while he’d already given up and began using his fork.

“I really was on my way to your house. I hadn’t seen you all day. I thought I’d see if you wanted to grab some dinner. I hadn’t expected to see you kneading bread in my mom’s kitchen. It just took me by surprise.”

“A bad surprise?”

No, a good one. He’d
liked
how she looked there, her face lit with laughter as she’d worked next to his two favorite women in the world.

“No. Why would you say that? I was on my way to see you, why would seeing you be a bad thing?”

“Okay, okay. You’re just so touchy! I didn’t know. I don’t want to eat anymore. I want to have sex.” She turned those green eyes his way and he felt it straight to his toes.

He nearly choked to death on his pad thai as she calmly asked for, and received, boxes for their food and packed it away.

He managed to pay and not get into an accident on the way back to her place and thankfully, she stayed over on her side of the truck so he could halfway think.

“I liked seeing you in my mom’s kitchen tonight, your hands in the bread, a bit of your hair had escaped the ponytail and you blew it out of your face. You even had a spot of flour on your cheek. All in all, pretty damned hot.” It wasn’t candlelight and romance but she deserved to know part of what she did to him.

He pulled into a parking spot and she scooted over, sliding into his lap to face him. “You know, I can be so mad at you one minute and then you make me all melty the next.”

“I’m about to make you a lot more melty,” he said in a low growl. “Let’s go.”

“Do you really want to? You know, you’re not the only one who has a bit of kink in his laces.” She leaned back a bit and ran her hands up her torso, over her breasts, giving in to a little sigh of satisfaction as she touched her nipples. All he heard was his struggle for breath and the white noise of what was most likely an impending stroke.

“Oh yeah? What else have you got then?” he asked her, watching her every move.

She pulled her sweater up and off, facing him, those luscious breasts barely covered by a lacy bra.

“Show me your breasts. Touch your nipples for me.” Hell, his voice sounded hoarse even to his own ears.

He heard her swallow, but then she obeyed, leaning into him to reach around and unhook her bra, sliding it down her arms, her breasts jiggling a bit with the movement. She wet her fingers, her eyes locked on his, and played her thumb and forefinger against her nipples, churning her hips over his cock.

The scent of her body filled the cab of the truck.

“I wish you had a skirt on. I’d have you finger yourself right here in the open. But since you don’t, pull your sweater back on so I can get you inside. Then we’ll continue this.”

She moved, slow and graceful, to get her sweater on. Once that was done, he simply grabbed her about the waist and hauled her from the truck with him and headed to her front door.

She stood, waiting for him to lead her and it nearly felled him.

“Get naked for me.” He moved to sit on her couch, turning on the lamp and watching her expose every beautiful inch of her skin. When she was done, she released her hair from the ponytail and he shivered at the sight of it falling around her shoulders.

He leaned back. “Come here, sit on my lap.”

She knew what he wanted, sat on him, spreading her thighs outside his, her breasts just inches from his mouth. He caressed up her thighs, into the curve of her waist, took the weight of her breasts, thumbing over her nipples until she made soft sounds at the back of her throat.

“I love the way your pussy smells. Almost as good as it tastes.” He circled her clit with his middle finger and then traced over her lips before kissing her.

“Every time I even think of you, you make me wet,” she whispered against his mouth as he moved from the kiss.

“Christ,” he hissed. The mixture of her, of Charity, sweet but with this naughty side got to him, dug under his skin. “Touch your pussy. Make yourself come for me.”

He couldn’t look away from the descent of one hand down her belly. He sucked in air as she spread herself open enough to play against her clit with her middle finger.

Her breath caught at the bolt of pleasure.

“L-like this? Shall I stop?” His eyes on her, the way he looked at her like she was the best thing he’d ever clapped eyes on, fired some inner strength. She felt like a goddess up there on his lap. Sexy. Powerful.

“Yes, just like that. And don’t stop unless you want to kill me. Make yourself come. And then we’re going up to your bedroom.” He laced his fingers behind his head and relaxed back against the pillows, just watching.

She tugged on her nipple and brushed the pad of her middle finger from side to side over her clit, her hips moving as orgasm stole toward her, blurring the edges of the world outside the space she and Gabriel inhabited.

His body was warm beneath her, the sound of his breath as he watched her echoed against her own. It wasn’t like she’d never masturbated before, but in front of someone took a level of trust she never could quite work up. But she’d done it with him without even thinking. Even the week before after he’d brought her home from the bar.

Her head tipped back right as she began to come and the world exploded around her as he held her throat with one big hand. Not suffocatingly, not rough, but enough pressure to collar her that way. Never in her life had she felt anything like it. Trust that he wouldn’t hurt her, excitement that he’d hold her that way. Her entire system lit up as she moaned.

Slowly, he relaxed his grip and shifted to put his arms around her, hugging her tight. She fell forward against him, breathing hard, wondering that he’d found yet another way to push all her buttons.

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured against her hair. “I didn’t scare you?”

She snuggled into him with a satisfied sigh. “No. It was…unexpected. I’ve never felt anything like it. I…well obviously it worked for me.”

He picked her up as if she weighed nothing, holding her against him as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

“Let’s go see what else works for you,” he said as he took them both upstairs and into her bedroom.

“Hey, um, would you be interested in helping me get a tree?”

Gabriel looked up to see Charity standing on his doorstep looking very festive in a red sweater and white jeans. His heart contracted at the way she looked and the way he’d missed her, and the sight of her made him happy. He’d never relied on a woman in that way before. Never counted on one to make him happy or fill him up the way she did.

She ducked her head a moment and looked up through her lashes. “I can ask someone else. I just thought since I was here already I’d stop and ask you. So then I can watch your muscles flex and stuff.”

He laughed and kissed her. He’d simply accepted that he liked to touch her and did. His mother had invited her to dinner several times and he’d be going to a huge pre-Christmas brunch at her grandparents’ house the following day.

She was suddenly just in his life. Not that she hadn’t been before but he’d ached for her and pretended he didn’t. He pretended she was just one of the gang. Now he didn’t have to pretend. She was more than a friend, she was…a girlfriend? Um, no, not that. He wasn’t right for her, nope. Now he had her in his bed, in her bed, wherever and whenever and she responded to him in ways he’d never imagined. That’s what it was and he’d think about the rest after the holidays.

“Why do you wait so long to get a tree?” He opened the door wider to let her in. “Come in for a second so I can turn the computer off and get my boots on.”

He sat in the chair nearest the door but before he could, she’d picked up his boots. She knelt and laced his boots quickly and efficiently. But it left him speechless. She did these things to him,
for
him and it touched some part deep inside. Things she didn’t have to do, things he didn’t need her to do but that she did them for him, took care of him left him off balance and unsettled. He didn’t want to feel so deeply for her, damn it, he could not have her.

Instead, he drew his fingertips over her collarbone and she looked up, smiling. “Thank you.”

She shrugged. “Anyway, I like waiting until two days before Christmas to get a tree. It’s more fun that way. And it’s not like I’m home on Christmas day at this point. So I have a tree for myself and enjoy the trimming.” She blushed and took the hand he offered to help her up. “Would you like to stay for dinner after we get the tree? Help me trim it?”

“Yeah, I’d like that. We can order a pizza and watch those DVDs you rented.” He grabbed his keys. “I’ll meet you back at your house to drop your car off.”

She laughed. “Um, no car. My mom came over. She brought my grandma to visit with your grandma. I rode over with them. I was hoping to throw myself on your mercy. You’re very good at taking me in hand when I need it.”

He took a steadying breath. “Be careful there, missy.” He swatted her ass, only slightly playfully.

“I don’t want to be careful, Gabriel,” she said seriously as she got into the truck.

She stood back and watched him negotiate and load the tree into the back of his truck, all while she sipped the hot cider he’d insisted on buying her because he told her he hated to see her shiver.

The day before he’d shown up at the shop with warm sweet rolls and coffee. He’d insisted on fixing a loose board on her deck. He was a good man, good to her and those people he loved.

She hid her smile behind the cup, inhaling the fragrant steam and feeling very taken care of.

“Okay, all ready.” He opened the door for her and she hopped into the truck.

Back at her place, he backed into the drive and waved her inside. “Get out of the cold, babe. I’ve got this. Just be ready to slide the stand with fresh water under the tree.” Absently, as he began to untie the tree, he kissed the side of her mouth.

Gabriel sat, snuggled up on her couch, Charity tucked against his side. Christmas music played low on her stereo, the lights on the tree lit the room nicely along with the fire dancing in the fireplace.

“That was very good pizza. I hadn’t tried that place yet. Nice call,” she said lazily, her head on his shoulder.

“Glad you liked it. The tree looks good.”