Saving Me

The valet roared up in Eva’s Corvette and smiled when she handed him a ten and a wink. “Thanks Teddy.” He blushed violently. “Thanks Miss Eva. Have a good night.” She nodded and looked up at Gabriel. “Wanna drive?” His eyes lit up with boyish delight. “Really?” Eva nodded and slid into the passenger seat. Gabriel adjusted the seat and grinned wickedly. Eva sat back, tucked her feet up under her and buckled her seatbelt. He was so beautiful it was probably a sin. Those wicked eyes, and burnished whiskey accent were all sinful. But they added to the package, and he wouldn’t be the same without those things. He really was a devil disguised as an angel. He pulled away from the Oasis and headed into town. “There’s this little Italian place in town, have you been there?” He asked her as he shifted the gears and stepped on the accelerator. “There are two, which one?” Gabriel looked at her from the corner of his eye. “Bellisima.” Eva nodded. “Not in a long time, my grandfather used to take me there.” She smiled at the memory of him letting her drink sparkling grape juice from a wine glass. “It’s wonderful.”

Gabriel saw the wistful look on her face as she recalled the memories. “Would you like to go there?” His question seemed to throw her. “Yes. I would.” He frowned inwardly. She was used to having things decided for her. But who had done that? Certainly not Adrian, the man worshiped Eva like the baby sister he claimed she was to him. And she wasn’t used to men opening doors for her, or making her feel safe. What in the hell was wrong with these American men, were they all idiots? He pulled into a parking space right in front of the restaurant, and quickly got out before she could open her own door. She was going to get used to it he decided. She stood up and smiled an odd smile at him. “I’ve never met anyone like you before Gabriel.” She said quietly. He grinned playfully. “That’s cause I’m the only one of me.” She laughed. “Cheeky man.” “Most assuredly.”

He opened the door for her and let her walk into the dimly lit restaurant. He heard a gasp, and a rotund woman came bustling over to throw her arms around Eva. “Oh mi iho! Evangeline I’m so happy to see you.” Eva laughed and hugged the woman back. “Francesca. I missed you, how are you?” Gabriel saw the tears in the woman’s eyes. “I am fine, but look at you! I haven’t seen you in ages, you’re so beautiful, all grown up. And I saw you on television last year. I cried when you won, I was so proud! And now you’ve come back to see us.” Francesca just then noticed him looming over Eva. “And you’ve brought me a man.” The little woman said saucily. “Ah, no that one is for me. Franny this is my new skating partner Gabriel Hunter. We’ll be competing at nationals in the pairs division.” Franny’s hands flew to her face. “Oh, Oh mi iho, how beautiful. I always loved to watch the pair’s figure skating. And now I’ll get to watch you. Oh I’m so happy for you. It’s lovely to meet you Mr. Hunter.”

Gabriel inclined his head respectively. “Just Gabriel, please.” Franny looked to Eva with her brows raised, impressed obviously. “So polite, much better than that last pendeho.” Eva spluttered a laugh. “Franny!” She said in shock. “Oh and look at me, you’re here to eat not stand around. Come, come a table with some privacy.” Francesca De Marc led them to a secluded booth, draped with red curtains on either side of the plush seats. “I’ll bring you some wine…You are old enough now Eva aren’t you?” Francesca said sternly. Eva nodded gravely. “Yes ma’am, twenty one for nearly a year now.” Gabriel saw the laughter dancing in her eyes. When the older woman had left Eva smiled apologetically. “I practically grew up in Franny’s kitchen. She was our housekeeper and cook when my parents still lived in town. She opened this place when I was twelve.” He leaned his elbows on the table and looked intently at her. “You live here now, and yet she acts like she hasn’t seen you in years.” Eva looked down and smiled a small sad smile. “I haven’t seen her in…god six years? I only moved back a couple months ago. There are a lot of bad memories here, but more good ones too.”

Franny came back forestalling any more of his questions. She set down a bottle of wine that made Gabriel blink. That innocent looking bottle was worth two hundred dollars. “I’ve been saving this mi amore. For when you came back.” She said softly, her eyes were misty and she kissed Eva’s cheek. She sniffed and collected herself. “Now what are you hungry for?” Gabriel couldn’t resist asking. “What’s good?” Eva covered her mouth trying to stifle a giggle. “Everything.” Franny said flatly. “Do you still make that special chicken marsala?” Franny grinned at Eva. “Yes I do.” Eva nodded and looked to Gabriel. “I’ll have the same please.” He said with his most charming smile. And Francesca buckled under the brilliance of it. She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to suppress her own smile. “Sneaky is what you are, Gabriel Hunter. Are you good enough for my Eva?” Ah, he understood. Here was the dragon guarding the fair princess. “I’d better be hadn’t I?” She nodded once with approval. “Damn right.”

Eva’s mouth fell open as her friend walked away. “I can’t believe she just did that.” Gabriel was finding more puzzle pieces to Eva’s life. He needed to get the edges together first, and then fill in the rest. “So Eva, who was this other person that didn’t pass your dragon lady’s muster?” Eva’s head whipped up and he could see she didn’t want to talk about it. He saw her debate how much to tell him and then saw her decide. “The first boy I ever kissed. He was a local boy here, Martin Hastings. His father and mine were high school friends and when we came back here to live I developed this crush on Marty.” She smiled and let Gabriel pour her some wine. She took a sip and cradled the glass in her palms rolling it back and forth.

“Franny never liked him, from the first time he’d stepped foot in her kitchen. She thought there was something not right about him. Turned out she was right.” She made a face. “I though he hung the moon, he would always come to my skating practice and wait for me. Sit and watch me with this look on his face that never failed to make me want to see more of it. Want to do better just so he would look at me like I was special.” She laughed lightly. “I caught him one day, watching me though my window. He was sitting in a tree just staring at me with that same look on his face.” Gabriel saw the pain the memory evoked, but he knew she was on a roll. “How old were you?” “Fourteen. When I confronted him, he shrugged it off and said why shouldn’t he watch me? I was his so why not. He started to scare me, the depth of his obsession with me. Wherever I went I knew he was watching me. It got to the point where I didn’t want to leave the house, and I tried to tell my father. But he didn’t believe me, said I was imagining it and to grow up. Francesca was the only one who saw Marty for what he was.” Gabriel slotted another puzzle piece into place. “Is that why you moved away?” She shook her head. “No, Martin followed me home from practice one night and I ran; I was always faster than him.”

Franny came over and sat beside Eva, a hand on her arm. “Stalked her endlessly, the boy was unstable.” Gabriel saw the protective glare she sent him but Eva kissed the woman’s cheek. “He was, and he ended up dying because of it.” Gabriel saw the pain the two women shared. “He fell out of the tree he used to watch me from. It was a huge tree and I assumed he had been trying to climb in my room but he fell.” Franny shook her head. “The boy’s father blamed Senor Page, and Eva. But it was no one’s fault but Martin’s.” Eva smiled and he saw her throw off the gloom of those memories. An amazing thing about women, the ability to move out of the past that quickly and into the present. “It was tragic, but Martin’s parents never accepted that it was an accident, so my father moved us to New York, and I met Adrian there. And the rest it history as they say.”

A waiter approached with their dinner and Franny clapped her hands. “Enough of Martin, amore. It’s over and done, eat and talk about something else.” Francesca winked at Gabriel and left the table. He grinned at Eva and asked nonchalantly. “So tell me more about this strange way I make you feel?” Eva laughed, and the light returned to her eyes. “Lets not.” She twirled her pasta around her fork and ate delicately. “No, I insist. I must know what it is so I can keep making you feel that way.” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m still not going to sleep with you.” His smile widened wickedly. “Still thinking about it though aren’t you?” Constantly. She said to herself.

After dinner, Eva drove back to the rink and sat for a minute, just looking at him. His eyebrows lifted. “Eva?” She blinked and felt herself needing to confess something else. She frowned slightly. “I’m a little afraid of you Gabriel.” The statement took him by surprise. “Why?” “Because you could turn my world upside down and I’d never recover.” Gabriel knew there was something important he was missing. “Good or bad upside down?” She smiled slowly. “Both. I can’t lie to myself and say I don’t want you, I’m afraid I’d loose myself in you.” He tilted his head to the side. “You’re afraid I’ll hurt you.” She leaned her head against the seat and gazed at him. “I know you will, not intentionally. But inevitably.” “That’s rather pessimistic of you sweetheart.” She nodded gravely, but there was still light in her. “I know.”

Then it hit him, like a god damn sledgehammer. The song, Saving Me. It was her; she thought it was her that wasn’t worth loving. Well bollocks to that. “At least you aren’t afraid to admit you want me. That’s good to know.” She yelped when he pulled her into his lap, a rather uncomfortable position in her small car. He kissed her, captured her lips and kissed her witless. “Cause I don’t just want you Eva, I need you.” He growled over her mouth. She whimpered when his lips found her throat and nibbled gently. She pulled back and found his mouth again wanting oh so much more. She made a decision then and poured everything she felt into him. “Do you need anything from your car?” She murmured against his lips. He lifted his head slowly, searing her to the soul with the fire in his eyes. “Why?” His voice was pitched deeper, his accent thicker, skated over her nerve endings and set them twitching with want. “Because I’ve changed my mind. I am most definitely going to sleep with you.” He searched her face and she saw the way he wavered for a minute, fighting some inner battle. But then his eyes changed into pools of liquid gems. “I don’t need anything from my car.” “Good.” She slid across and back into her seat without looking at him. Bloody hell.

Eva pulled into the driveway of a little red house, covered in ivy. It was completely Eva. She got out and he saw the way her hand shook when she opened her door. Despite everything that made her afraid, she still wanted him. Thank God. He followed her up to the front door and tensed when she turned to give him a guileless, sultry look. “Boldly go where no man has gone before.” It felt like she’d just doused him with ice water and she saw it, a small smile on her lips as she entered her sanctuary and started turning on the lights. He stepped inside and closed the door; she had never let a man into this house, or inside her body. He knew it down to his toes. “Eva, you don’t have to prove anything to…” She turned and he stopped mid-sentence. Something changed suddenly and the fire leapt in him again. She had the look of a confident woman who knew exactly what she wanted. The question in her eyes was did he want her? Hell yes! He walked to her and put his arms around her; she tilted her head and put her arms around his neck. “Why did you choose me?”

He barely recognized his own voice it was so hoarse. She smiled slowly and twined her fingers in his hair. Just that simple thing sent shivers racing up and down his spine. “I told you already, I’ve never felt so on edge, so free to be who I am.” She took his hand and put it over her heart. He could feel it pounding beneath her skin. “Because you make my heart pound with a touch, make me ache with a look.” Her eyes searched his. “Because you take my breath away when you look at me like you are now.” He felt the floor drop from beneath him, but he laid his lips to hers. A sweet kiss. “Eva, are you sure?” She stepped back taking his hands in hers and walked backwards, daring him to follow. “Nothing stands between us here Gabriel, and I’m not in the mood to be denied.” He laughed, then at ease just like that. “Far be it for me to deny you then.”

Her bedroom was a dark purple, a huge four poster bed on one wall with a plush gold, green and purple coverlet. He paid little attention, other than to locate the bed. She turned to do something, but he hauled her back against him, hugging her to his chest. She laid her head back on his shoulder and he nuzzled her throat. “You honor me Eva.” He murmured into her ear, feeling the shudder that ran through her. He set his hands under her sweater and slowly eased the material up. Her skin was like the finest silk beneath his palms. She raised her arms obediently and he pulled the blue fabric from her, dropping it behind him. He kissed her shoulder, her throat, the soft spot behind her ear. Reveling sinfully in her moan when he bit down gently. He slid the straps of her lacy red bra off her shoulders and trailed his fingers down her arms, capturing her hands and crossing their arms around her chest.

Eva felt cherished, so safe in his embrace. She turned and pressed herself into him, rising up onto her toes to get a better angle on his lips. His fingers searched for the hooks of her bra. “What the hell?” He growled, frustrated. Eva stepped back and laughed easily. She reached for the tiny hidden clasp between her breasts and let the red lace fall to the floor. She wasn’t shy at all about being half naked while he was still fully clothed. In fact she was empowered by the way his breath hitched. She tugged at his shirt once and it was gone, making her smile in anticipation. He pulled her back to him, hissing with pleasure when their skin touched. Eva felt like she’d just been thrown into a furnace, heat poured from Gabriel in waves. She loved the feel of his hands on her back his lips at her throat, she was so immersed in his hands she forgot his lips. She gasped when he pulled her nipple into the wet heat of his mouth. Then moaned when he suckled strongly, her stomach tightened and she arched back, pressing closer to his mouth. He pressed a hot kiss between her breasts before attacking her other one. Her hand tangled in his hair and she let her head fall back, drowning in the pleasure. He bit down on the skin just below her ribcage and she snapped back out of the haze with a breathy gasp. He took her lips again, hungrily, devouring her.

She didn’t even realize they had moved until her legs hit the edge of her bed. He pushed her back with a gentle hand on her throat, reaching down to pull off her shoes and send them flying. He came down on top of her, slid his arms under her hugged her to him like a treasure. She murmured her approval at the weight of him crushing her. He rolled then and pulled her astride his lap, reaching around to tug off his shoes even as he kept kissing her. Eva felt it then, the huge ridge of his arousal pressed against her core. She widened her knees and sank lower on him, smiling when he cursed against her lips. She wiggled experimentally and Gabriel’s breath whooshed out on a groan. “God Eva.” She set her lips to his pierced ear and nuzzled him before nibbling on his skin. His hands tightened on her jean clad hips, hard enough that she knew he would mark her in more ways than one. “Goddess Eva.” She corrected wickedly. He laughed and flipped her back over. “You minx.” He accused attacking her lips, swallowing her throaty laugh.

Gabriel stroked his hand over the front of her jeans until she arched into his touch. Only then did he unzip them and ease them down her hips. He tossed them away with a whimper. “My god, do you always wear underwear like that?” She was wearing red lacy boy shorts that made him harden further. She looked down. “Why, you don’t like them?” He looked up into her eyes and let her see how much he liked them; she shivered in response, her nipples furled into tight buds begging for his touch. Which he was more than happy to give. He set his teeth and lips skating over her breasts as he eased those devil red panties down her hips. He moved up and kissed her senseless, trying so hard to go slow. His blood was pounding in his ears, all his manly instincts telling him to take her before she changed her mind. But he kept his snails pace with iron control. He rubbed his hand over her belly and dipped lower, delving between her slick folds for the treasured pearl. Her heat burned him, seared him to the bone. Slowly he pressed his fingers deep into her body, shuddering at the sleek wetness he found.

Eva whimpered and arched into his hand, she needed more. He was going to slow! She tried to tell him so, but his tongue slipped into her mouth, mimicking the movements of his hand and she lost the thought she was sure she had. She wrapped her arms around his back and pressed into his hand shamelessly. She felt the tension building in her, the tightening in her thighs, it worked its way up to her belly and Gabriel lifted his head. Watching her face as he pressed his thumb against that most sensitive spot. He watched as her eyes glazed over gasping as he flung her over the cliff, into an unknown sea of pure bliss.

Eva barely felt him move away, she was so dazed, she felt cold for only a moment before he was covering her body again. Blanketing her in his tremendous strength. He rolled with her until they were twined around each other in the middle of her bed. He pulled the covers down and laid her against the cool sheets. He nuzzled and kissed her temple tenderly. “What do you want Eva?” he whispered. Eva felt the thick pulsing length of his erection against her belly and quivered in need. She looked up at him as she moved her hands over his fully naked body. Over his hips, over his thighs feeling the powerful muscles tremble beneath her touch. She kissed him lightly, rubbing her lips over his and then nipping gently. “I want more, more of you. All of you.” She saw how her words affected him, the passion she invoked in him. His lips curved in a devilish smile and he dipped his head down to kiss any lingering nervousness away as he rearranged her legs to accommodate him.

Gabriel settled between her thighs and lay there, content with just feeling her body under his. The way it felt, so right, almost as though they had been carved into a statue, into one being and then separated. He braced one arm over her head, and scooped the other under her hips lifting her as he pressed slowly into her. His speech became guttural, his accent thick with lust, with need. But still he eased slowly into her; she was so small, like a molten vice that surrounded him promising ecstasy. She whimpered and he kissed her brow. “Easy love, almost…” He encountered no resistance, had expected none, but still he knew she was uncomfortable being stretched so wide. He lifted her hips more and nudged in to the very last inch and his heart stopped from the unbelievable pleasure. He stayed there buried to the hilt, his breath coming in ragged pants. And then she moved a sinuous rolling of her hips. His breath exploded out of his chest. “God, wait Eva I don’t want to hurt you.” He opened his eyes to see her face blossoming with the newfound sensations. “You won’t.” Her murmured words, filled with trust pulled at his heartstrings. Making a low chord of perfection.

Eva felt like she was drowning in him. So surrounded by his body, so full of him she didn’t think it could get better. But then he eased back, the friction was incredible and she moaned low only to cry out in bliss when he pressed back into her. She brought her knees up and felt him slide even deeper, bumping against something that sent sparks shooting through her. His muscles bunched, she could see him straining to keep the steady pace. But it still wasn’t enough, she needed more. She moved her hands down his back, gripping his hips as she wrapped one leg around him; bracing with the other she pushed up against his thrusts and…yes, there! She gloried in his low cursing, as he pressed harder, rocking her hips off the bed with the force of it. He pressed against that spot inside her, over and over until she was near mindless with the pleasure. He leaned down and bit her shoulder, hard. She cried out, her spine arching off the bed like a bow as she exploded into a thousand shining stars. She heard his hoarse shattered cry, and then felt his muscles falter as he fell down over her.

Gabriel felt her wrap her arms around him, stroking his back in slow soothing motions. His head rested on her chest, and he heard his own harsh breathing and the sound of her heart thundering in his ear. Her fingers found his hair, brushing it away from his forehead. He had never had such explosive, mind blowing sex before. She took the term to a whole new level. He raised his head and looked down into her eyes. Drowsy and sated with pleasure. She smiled at him, catching her bottom lip in her teeth. “Are you alright?” She asked him. He grinned. “Better than alright, did I hurt you?” She shook her head and he moved his hands to hold her cheeks as he kissed her gently. “Thank you Eva.” She raised a brow. “What for?” He nuzzled her throat. “For sharing this with me, for the most mind blowing sex of my entire life.” She laughed and he moaned when her sleek muscles clamped down on his shaft. “Entirely my pleasure.” He eased out of her and pulled her over so they were lying on their sides facing each other. Gabriel tugged the sheets up around them and settled her into his body. She slid her thigh between his legs and snuggled closer, tangling her legs around his. “You better rest while you can Eva, I am far from done with you.” She tilted her head back and grinned impishly. “I sure hope not.” He chuckled and closed his eyes when she tucked her head under his chin. “I’m not done with you either.”

Gabriel held her while heir bodies cooled and Eva couldn’t help but whish she could fall asleep like this every night, wake with him every morning. But not yet, there were still things they needed to know about each other. Things left unsaid.