“I said we’ll talk. Go and enjoy some time with your brother.”
“Gabriela,” a woman comes over, cautiously glancing at me. “We should wrap this up. This surprise has been a lot on Gabe. I think he should rest.”
“Okay. Let me just say goodbye.”
The woman nods and Gabriela slips away, hugs her brother and whispers something in his ear. When she walks back toward me, she’s carrying two paintings. Well, they’re more of a child’s drawings on canvas.
“Gabe made these. This one’s for me and this one’s for Alex. I promised I’d take it to him.”
I just look at them because what can I say?
“He’s asking why Alex hasn’t FaceTimed him lately.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I lied. Said Alex was probably busy.”
“I’m sorry you had to do that.”
I know from the way she’s looking at me something’s up. Not sure what, but something.
After waving goodbye to Gabe, I walk her outside where she stops me before we get into the car. I notice when she scratches the back of her head, she winces.
“What is it?” I reach to touch it.
She pulls away. “Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. You’re acting strange,” I say, putting my fingers to the spot, feeling the bump there. “And this isn’t nothing.”
“I hit my head during the chase.” She shifts her gaze away.
I cock my head to the side, trying to work it through. “How did you hit the back of your head?”
“I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt and was turned around. I hit it against the passenger side window.”
I study her, trying to figure out how that could physically happen. But why would she lie to me? She has no reason to.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“No, it’s not. Not at all. How can you think it can be? Where were you this morning? What meeting did you have? And is that the only reason you brought me? Because you were coming anyway? I thought we were coming for Gabe. I thought we’d see him together.”
“We did see him together.”
“It’s not what I mean.”
“We’ll talk at the hotel.”
“No, we’ll talk now.”
“I understand that you were scared. But you’re safe now. I’m not going to let anything happen to you again.”
“You’ve told me that before Stefan. You’ve said those exact words. You can’t keep me safe. Don’t you get it?” Her voice climbs up an octave. “Being around you is dangerous for me. It’s dangerous for my brother.”
I close my hand over hers, count to ten as I squeeze it.
“I said we’ll talk at the hotel, Gabriela. Am I not clear enough?”
“You’re perfectly clear, Stefan.”
She turns to the window, and we ride in silence to the hotel. Once we’re in our suite, she walks directly into the bedroom and would slam the door shut if I didn’t catch it.
“What the fuck is going on, Gabriela?”
She spins on her heel, stalks back toward me. “Why don’t you tell me?”
“It’s been a long fucking day.”
She opens her mouth, but closes it again, and I feel like she’s full of words, full of seething, burning anger.
“Talk to me,” I tell her.
“Leave me alone. After everything that’s happened, I don’t feel much like talking to you. Just go.”
I snort. “Are you dismissing me?”
“Yeah. I guess I am. Get out. I mean it.”
I go to her, walk her backward to the wall, press my chest to hers to keep her pinned.
“I’m not going anywhere. Now tell me why you’re acting like a spoiled little bitch.”
“Fuck you!”
I slam my hands into the wall on either side of her head and she jumps.
“Fuck off?” I ask.
“Let me go. Get away from me.” She shoves at my chest.
“Say it again,” I order.
Her gaze burns.
“I dare you. Say it again.”
“No.”
“No?” I ask, reaching to undo my belt, my jeans. I watch her as her eyes flit downward, as her breathing comes in short gasps. “But I want to fuck you. I want you to say it so I can give you what you want.”
“That’s not—”
I grip her hips, lift her off the ground. With my chest against hers, I keep her there as I reach to push the crotch of her panties over.
“Let me go,” she says, her tone weaker than it was a moment ago.
She digs her nails into my back, the shirt I’m wearing too thin to offer much protection.
I brush my fingers over her wet pussy. “I don’t think you want me to let you go.”
“I do.”
I rub two fingers over her clit, and she closes her eyes, hands in my hair now, pulling at it.
“Liar,” I tell her.
“You’re the liar,” she accuses as I thrust into her.
“Am I?” I ask, taking both legs and pushing them up toward the wall, opening her, pulling out to spear her again.
“Let me go,” she gasps.
“You’re mine. I’m not letting you go anywhere,” I say, shifting one hand to grip the hair at the back of her head, seeing her wince when I force her head backward. “Tell me something, how do you get a bump at the back of your head when you’re in a car chase? If you were turned around, you’d have hit the side of your face. Not the back of your head.”
“Let me go.” She pushes against me.
“I already told you. I’m not letting you go.” I thrust, draw out. “I’m never letting you go.”
I bring my mouth to hers and kiss her and she bites my lip hard, drawing blood.
I pull back, keeping her impaled while I wipe the blood with two fingers. I smear it across her lips then kiss her again, deep and hard, the way I’m fucking her.
Taking her hands, I intertwine my fingers with hers and draw them up over her head, pulling back a little to look at her, feeling her wrap her legs around me, feeling them tighten.
“You make me crazy you know that?” I say, tasting my blood on her when I kiss her again. “I should pull out of you. Not let you come. I should force you to your knees and come on your face and make you stay there like that, watch you on your knees with my come all over your face.”
“I hate you,” she says through gritted teeth, moving with me, taking her pleasure.
“You love me,” I say, and there’s a moment, a split second where we both stop. Where we’re suspended in time. And I look at her sea-foam colored eyes and I think it’s true.
“I’ll never love you,” she says, her voice strange as she wraps her arms around me, closing those eyes, burying her face in my shoulder and grinding against me. “Never.”
“Liar.”
I thrust deep inside her, carry her to the bed and lay her on her back and I fuck her so hard that when she comes, she’s not whispering my name. She’s screaming it.
25
Gabriela
Before we leave the next morning, I find myself alone with Rafa in a corner of the lobby.