Chapter 24

The room glows in a soft firelight, the flames dancing in Isabella’s eyes. We haven’t said anything for the past ten minutes, just exchanging slow kisses.

They were tentative at first, like she’s not sure if this is really what she wants.

So I’m letting her lead for now, knowing that I’m responsible for a lot of our current situation and that Bella is a woman who likes to be in control of her own destiny. This time, I’ll let her decide where this goes, even if it’s her to one bed and me to another.

But words aren’t needed any longer when she reaches up and pulls off her shirt, shrugging it off and freeing her breasts from the simple bra she wears underneath.

Each apple-sized handful sways back and forth as she traces her stomach with her fingertips before lying back on the couch.

“Show me,” I whisper, and Bella bites her lip, her hands cupping her breasts before she teases her nipples, pulling on them until her tits are nearly pyramided up from her body and making her gasp in pain and pleasure before she lets them go.

While she kneads her right breast, I run my hand down her body, caressing her soft skin. She writhes, her belly sucking in as I move to the waist of her jeans. She nods, giving me silent permission, and I slip the button free and unzip them, pushing them over her hips. She lifts, helping me get them off, her panties coming off at the same time.

And then she’s bare before me.

Beautiful, trusting, good. Too good for me, but I can’t stop myself from worshipping her body, tasting her kind heart.

I spread her knees, one to the back of the couch and the other at the edge of the couch, but Bella sets her foot on the floor to open more for me. I can see the gleam on her sweet sex, already puffy and slick with need.

I take her hand, kissing her fingertips and then directing her to her core. “Touch your pussy. Finger fuck yourself for me, Bella,” I command, pulling my shirt off as she traces her slit before rubbing her clit with feather-light strokes. She moans, her eyes never leaving me as she slides two fingers deep inside herself, pumping them in and out slowly.

My cock’s rock hard, watching her lips cling to her fingers and knowing that soon, my cock will be lodged deep inside her and feeling the same sucking kiss.

“I... I can’t help it,” she mewls, her hips lifting to meet her fingers as she speeds up a little. “Gabe, I need you. Take me. Fuck me, please.”

Her words make me speed up, and I stand to strip off my jeans, my cock aching to be inside her. Bella sobs in want as I pause, and she pulls her fingers out, wrapping them around my shaft. She strokes me, coating me in her honey and driving me wild, but I keep a tight grip on my control.

She needs me, needs this, but I can’t go too hard on her. Not right now. She doesn’t know it, but she needs some tenderness right now, with her heart and with her body.

That I’m even getting the chance to be with her this way is a gift, one I won’t waste or cheapen. Already trembling on the edge of no return, I pull my hips back. “Bella, I’m too close. Need to be inside you.”

Her breath hitches as I hover over her, holding myself up so I don’t put my weight on her. She reaches between us, guiding me to her entrance, holding me still.

“Do you feel that, Princess? That’s you and me. No lies, only truth, only us. No matter what,” I promise, taking her free hand and entwining our fingers. Bella nods, releasing my shaft, and I press deep inside her, filling her with all I have.

She whimpers, stretched even after her fingers have been plunging inside her. Her fingers tighten in mine, but she doesn’t protest, trusting me completely.

I press into her, our bodies grinding together, and I can feel her clit rub against the base of my cock. Her pussy gushes over my shaft, and I pull back, pausing before stroking deeply again, leaning down to kiss her as I push her into the couch cushions.

I pump slowly, relishing every clench of her body around me as I drive into her, pinning her underneath me. I can see the look in her eyes, pleasure and pain and worry and trust swirling in her mind, released in every gasp.

“That’s it, Bella,” I rasp, speeding up until our hips start slapping together. “Come hard on my cock. I’m here for you.”

I pound her, speeding up, but my arms give out, needing to feel her body pressed to mine. I lie over her, hip to hip, chest to chest, my arms wrapping around her. She responds by wrapping her arms and legs around me too.

I bury my nose in the crook of her neck, inhaling her lavender scent as I listen to her moans and mewls in my ear. She gets louder, crying out, and I lift slightly to look at her. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes widening more and more.

“Right there, Gabe. Fuck.”

I pull back and drive hard, hitting a spot deep inside her that lights her on fire, until she shatters with a wail, writhing underneath me. I ride her through it, letting her pussy’s contractions push me higher and higher.

I tremble, pulling back and thrusting once more before I go over as well. I pull out as I come hard, my cock spewing over her pussy and belly as I mark her, painting her satin flesh with my seed.

Bella sleeps like the dead,barely moving a muscle save for her parted lips occasionally pursing as she snores softly. Like a creeper, I watch her sleep, unable to relax myself. Even with a nightly check of the perimeter and the alarm, I feel like there’s too much at risk, too great a danger to let my guard down.

It’s barely dawn when I finally get out of bed, figuring I should go ahead and start the coffee for the day. I am sipping my second cup, looking out over the water, when I hear Bella padding around.

I feel her enter the room, her warmth reaching me even from the doorway. Or maybe it’s just that she makes me warm inside, thawing a heart I thought had been irreparable and a soul almost certainly irredeemable.

“I made coffee,” I tell her, taking a drink.

“Don’t move,” she whispers.

Instantly, I’m on alert, turning to look out the window but seeing nothing other than the rising sun in the sky. “What’s wrong? What do you see?”

She laughs lightly. “You. Stay, just like that.”

She runs off, and I hear her shuffling around before she reappears with her laptop. I only let her bring it because I knew she couldn’t get Wi-Fi without my help, and it would help her calm down. “I want to draw you. The light is magnificent.”

She sits across from me, telling me how to pose and basically putting me back how I was when she walked into the room. She works quietly, looking back and forth from me to the screen.

“What are you doing, exactly? Is this going to be Picasso-esque and I’ll have to smile politely and act like I get the deeper meaning of abstract art? Or are you more a realist and I’m suddenly going to be paranoid about the size of my nose?”

Her smile is soft, but her hand never stops moving. “I’m more of a realist if those are the only two choices, which they aren’t. But I’ve played with all sorts of styles. I love it all—paints, canvasses, pencils, charcoal, and of course, digital. And each medium lends itself to a different feel.”

“Is that why you’re going to school for graphic design? To be an artist?” I ask, wanting to know everything about her. Not just the dry facts on paper, but the meaning behind her choices, her thought processes as she decided her future.

Her shrug is one-sided so as not to disturb her drawing. “It’s a way for me to do what I love and make money. Right now, it’s mostly typography-type things. Like I designed the logo, did the menus and boards for The Gravy Train. That was a labor of love, but I also want to do other things. Book covers, maybe, or even video game design? Mia is a major gamer and always begs me to play. The play itself isn’t my favorite, but I love seeing how the graphics change and the artist creates the different scenes. It’s just like a painting, but digital. I’m not sure yet. I just love art and want to be able to create for a living.”

The passion with which she speaks is inspiring, making me wish I had something as pure and beautiful that I believed in. Once upon a time, I hoped that, even in the ugly things I did, I could find some balance. Dark for light, evil for good, make wrong things right.

But I can see the truth now. Bella has shown me that.

And I know that I’ll never return to my previous life. I can’t. It means I may never get the answers I need about Jeremy’s death, and while I’m not sure I can let that go without the retribution I promised, I can feel down to the last shredded tatters of my soul that I cannot kill in cold blood again.

Well, except for Blackwell. But killing him wouldn’t be in cold blood. My heart would be pumping fast and hard to have a chance to take him out, my blood heated with fury for the opportunity to insure Bella’s safety once and for all.

Bella taps the screen of her laptop a few times in quick succession, breaking my heavy thoughts. “What do you think?” she asks, turning the computer around.

It’s me. But not.

She’s captured a side of me I don’t think exists. Or if it does, it’s only in her mind. Is this how she sees me?

It’s a profile picture, the sun improbably shining brightly behind me, giving a halo effect. But my expression is dark, my jaw clenched. There’s a tightness to my eyes, a sad beauty highlighted by the single solitary tear trailing down my cheek.

I am every bit a Fallen Angel.

But when I look at her, seeing the hope that I like her painting lighting her eyes, I think maybe I could be redeemed. If anyone can save me, it’s her. And if anyone can save her, it’s me. It’s a match made in heaven. Or hell, depending on the outcome.