Addictive Read online

  “Well, if you’re sure, babe, then I’m happy for you.” And I know she means it. Her voice drops to a soft whisper when she asks, “What about Aldo? Is he…all right?”

  I have no clue what game those two are playing. I’ve been so wrapped up in dealing with my own shit I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything else. Guilt floods me at the realization that I’ve been a horrible friend, but when I say as much to Carmen, she insists it’s not true and tells me I’ve lost my mind.

  “You know, you could always call him yourself to find out,” I finally answer her question after she’s finished lecturing me on our friendship.

  “I could, but I’m already on the phone with you, so why not just tell me.”

  Groaning in frustration at my best friend’s stubbornness, I relent. “He’s fine. He wasn’t hurt last night.” I hear a relieved sigh come through the phone and push forward. “But it could have ended differently, Carmen.” Her sharp inhalation lets me know I struck a chord. “I don’t know what’s going on with you guys, but from how he acts, I get the impression he’s not happy with the way things are going.”

  “We were just having fun, Marley, that’s all it ever was.”

  My brows furrow at the uncertainly in her voice. “You sure that’s all he thinks it was, honey?”

  “I’ve made it pretty damn clear. You know me, Marley. The last thing I’m looking for is to be tied down. I like my life. I like to have fun. I don’t want anything serious.”

  My gut is telling me there’s more to the story, but I know if I push, she’ll just change topics. I just have to know one thing before I let it go. “You know what you’re doing?”

  “Not really,” she tells me with a self-deprecating laugh. “But I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually, right?”

  For her sake, I hope she doesn’t wait to figure it out until after it’s already too late.

  After hanging up, I head inside and watch Jane as she flitters around the kitchen. “Would you mind taking a plate to Carlo, honey?” she asks me, sliding a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of me.

  “Sure thing.”

  “Mr. Bertozzi said he’d be back in time for dinner and someone’s coming to replace the carpets that were stained last night.” When Jane arrived earlier this morning, and was filled in on the night before, I was slightly shocked by her lack of reaction. She simply gathered all her cleaning supplies and went about scouring the tile floors until they could be eaten off.

  “Okay, that’s good. I don’t think I could stomach having to look at all that blood for much longer,” I reply, grabbing the plate for Carlo and heading for the door.

  “You and me both, darling,” she says with a laugh. “Oh, and the interior decorator should be here this evening.”

  I stop and turn to look at her. “Decorator? For what? Is Gabriel redecorating?”

  She doesn’t even turn from her cooking, as she answers, “Oh no, honey, for the Christmas tree. She’s in charge of decorating the apartment every Christmas. Lord knows how much he pays that woman for something he could easily do himself, but who am I to tell him what to do? Not like it’s my house or anything.” She’d gone off on a rant and is now talking more to herself than she is me. But as I leave the kitchen to take Carlo his food, I’m struck with a thought.

  I’ve never had a Christmas tree before. And I’m instantly hit with a feeling of intense excitement.

  “Mr. Bertozzi, you have a Ms. Hollister here to see you,” the front desk manager’s voice comes through the speaker of the phone in Gabriel’s office.

  “Great, send her up,” he says before disconnecting.

  I place the book I’ve been reading face down on the brown leather sofa I’ve been lying on, and turn to Gabriel. “Who’s Ms. Hollister?”

  He stands from behind his desk and strides toward me. Grabbing my hand, he pulls me to my feet. After we finished dinner, he told me he still had some work to do, but he didn’t want to be away from me. I let him lead me into his office where I relaxed on the sofa, entertaining myself with one of his many books, while he went about doing whatever it was he had to do. That was an hour ago.

  “She’s my decorator. I’ll introduce you. I’m sure you’ll love what she’s come up with for the apartment.”

  Gabriel leads me down the hall and around the corner into the living area where I come to a sudden halt. With my jaw dropped in awe, I take in the massive tree being positioned in front of the floor to ceiling windows by three men. I can’t remember ever seeing such a beautiful tree before. “Oh wow,” I breathe out.

  “You like?” Gabriel asks me with a smile.

  “I love. It’s huge!”

  “Gabe, honey! So good to see you again!” I turn at the voice coming from behind us just in time to see a stunning, curvaceous blonde launch herself into Gabriel’s arms. The excitement I was feeling moments ago twists into something much less pleasant as I watch her press her bright pink lips against his cheek, far too close to his lips for my comfort. After kissing him, she pulls back, and with a familiarity I wouldn’t have expected between an interior decorator and her client, she uses her thumb to wipe away the lipstick she left behind, slowly brushing the finger along his bottom lip. I think I might be sick.

  Stepping from the woman’s embrace, Gabriel clears his throat uncomfortably and uses the back of his hand to wipe away any lipstick this woman might have missed. Reaching for my hand, he pulls me to his side and possessively wraps his arm around my waist.

  “Cassandra, meet my girlfriend, Marley. Marley, this is my interior decorator, Cassandra Hollister.” As I turn to look at Cassandra, I see her eyes widen in stunned disbelief.

  “Girlfriend?” she asks, spitting the word out like it’s left a nasty taste in her mouth. It’s been all of thirty seconds, and I know with absolute certainty, I do not, and will never like this woman.

  Gabriel’s body stiffens next to mine, and I know he’s caught on to the underlying hostility currently filling the room. “That’s correct. Girlfriend. Is there a problem?”

  Although he’s posed it as a question, his tone brooks no room for argument whatsoever.

  “No, of course not!” Cassandra answers with fake excitement. “I was just surprised, is all.” She turns to me with a saccharine sweet smile that makes me want to scratch her eyes out. “Our Gabe here isn’t really known as the commitment type, as I’m sure you’ve heard.” She laughs brightly and gives me a wink like we’re both in on a secret. I can’t help but wonder just how much longer I’ll be subjected to occasional run-ins with Gabriel’s laundry list of fuck buddies before I finally get fed up with it.

  “My Gabriel seems to be handling it just fine,” I reply with an equally sweet, equally fake smile. His arm tightens around my waist and when I tip my head up to look at him, I see his lips twitching like he’s trying to suppress a smile.

  Cassandra’s lips curl into a sneer before she gets control of herself and schools her features back to polite indifference. “How lovely for you.”

  “We’re looking forward to seeing what you’ve come up with this year,” Gabriel tells Cassandra, putting unnecessary emphasis on the ‘we’re’, making me melt just a little more into his side.

  “Well, let’s not keep you waiting then!”

  With an enthusiastic clap, she leads us to the couch. On the coffee table in front of it are three poster boards with pictures of how Gabriel’s apartment will look.

  “I thought we’d go with an all-white theme this year,” she starts as I look down at the boards in front of me. She’s not kidding. Everything I’m staring at is white. Stark white. The tree is covered in ornaments of all different shapes and sizes, the only commonality being their color. The only hints of color I see on the pages are the greens of the tree and the garland she shows hung across the mantel and throughout other places in the living room. While I’m sure some people would love her design, as I stare at it, all I see is…bland, boring, and lifeless. It has more of a showroom fe
el to it than what I was expecting.

  I’ve never had my own Christmas tree before, or been able to decorate my house the way I wanted, but that’s never stopped me from imagining how I’d want my home to look. I’m excited I finally get to experience something like this—especially with Gabriel—but I always imagined the room to look warm and inviting. These pictures in front of me are cold. They don’t scream Christmas. They scream showpiece. And there’s a part of me that feels greatly disappointed.

  “What do you think, my bella?” Gabriel asks from beside me.

  “They’re…pretty,” I respond, not wanting to look up at him and risk him seeing the displeasure behind my eyes.

  “I want to know your opinion, baby. Do you like it?”

  “I think it’s lovely,” I answer diplomatically.

  “That isn’t what I asked, Marley.” I can hear the warning in his voice, and when I finally allow my eyes to meet his, I can see he’s already cottoned on to my evasiveness. “Do you like it?” he asks again.

  “No,” I answer bluntly, truthfully, ignoring the affronted gasp that comes from Cassandra.

  Gabriel’s gray eyes sparkle just a bit as his lips tip up into a smile at my honesty. “I didn’t think so. Now, what is it you’d like?”

  I tilt my head in confusion, thrown by his questions. “I-I don’t know. I’ve never really decorated anything for the holidays.”

  His face softens at my admission and I’m hit with a tremor of embarrassment at my admission to never having had something as simple as a Christmas tree.

  Gabriel refuses to allow me to hide when I duck my face to conceal it behind a curtain of hair. “If you could decorate the apartment however you wanted, what would you do, baby?”

  “Gabriel, it’s your apartment. Seriously, if this is what you want,” I say with a wave of my hand over the pictures, “then this is what you should do.”

  His fingers on my chin grip just a little tighter. “Don’t be difficult. First of all, it’s our apartment,” he tells me earnestly. “And secondly, I want whatever you want.”

  That warmth I was feeling earlier spreads from my belly to my chest, and throughout the rest of my body. No longer even thinking about the other woman in the room with us, I lean into Gabriel and place a kiss on his appealing lips, needing to show him how much his words mean to me.

  “Okay,” I whisper against his mouth with a smile.

  Cassandra clears her throat loudly, pulling our attention to her. “Well, Marley.” She tries to hide her derision behind another forced smile. “If we aren’t going with a lovely, white Christmas theme, what is it you suggest we do?”

  I’ve had just about enough of this bitch and her attitude, but I’m determined to push through and make Gabriel’s home beautiful.

  “It’s not that your design isn’t pretty,” I tell her, trying my hardest not to stoop to her level of cattiness. “It’s just that, it’s a little…formal,” I say, choosing my words carefully. “I’ve always pictured something warm, you know? I’ve always liked the idea of a tree being decorated without a theme, just full of ornaments that have personal meaning.” The more I think about it, the more excited I get, and before I know it, my mannerisms become animated as I describe what I’ve envisioned in my head. “It doesn’t have to be cohesive. What if we purposely made it eclectic? Like a hodgepodge of different things?”

  When I finish, I turn to Gabriel and his bright smile mirrors my own. I can see in his eyes that he’s enjoying seeing me like this. And I have to admit, I love feeling this way. It’s been so rare in my life for me to be openly excited about anything. “I think that sounds perfect.”

  A scoffing laugh pulls me out of my enthusiastic ramblings. “I’m sorry, but I can’t attach my name to something like that. I have a reputation to uphold, and while your suggestion seems…homey enough, it’s just not what my design firm is about.”

  Before I can get a comment in, Gabriel stands from the couch, gathers up the poster boards, and shoves them at Cassandra. “Then we won’t be in need of you or your firm.”

  Her mouth drops and her eyes widen. “Gabe,” she addresses him on a personal level. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Oh, I’m quite serious. Clearly, you aren’t able to do what Marley wants, so we won’t be in need of your services. I’ll pay your firm for the hours put in to this point, but please consider all future business cancelled.”

  At the look of shock on her perfectly tan, wrinkle-free face, I have to cover my mouth with both hands to quell my laughter. Obviously, a woman of Cassandra’s pedigree isn’t used to being shot down on every single level by a man she has her eyes on. If I didn’t dislike her so intensely, I’d feel sorry for her.

  Snatching her drawings from Gabriel’s hands, she turns to leave, throwing her hair over her shoulder, and starts for the door.

  “Oh, and Cassandra?” Gabriel calls after her. She pauses and turns on her sure to be insanely expensive heels, narrowing her eyes at us. “If we’re ever to cross paths again, I strongly suggest you refrain from acting like a raging fucking bitch to my girlfriend. You won’t like how I react.” Everything about the tone of his voice indicates he’s dead serious. If I were Cassandra, I’d probably be shaking in my designer shoes. “That’ll be all,” he says dismissively as he turns back to me, not even bothering to grant her a second glance.

  “Wow,” I tell him, still stunned by how he just treated Cassandra, all because she was rude to me. “I can’t…that was…I’d be crying right now if I were her.”

  Gabriel’s head tips back as he lets out a deep rumble of laughter. “She’s a bitch,” he tells me casually.

  “Yeah, but still, that was harsh. Even to watch.”

  Grabbing my hand, he pulls me up so my body’s pressed firmly against his. “That was nothing,” he says against my lips. “I’ll never tolerate anyone treating you badly. She got off easy because you were here.”

  “What would you have done if I hadn’t been?”

  “That’s not something you need to think about.”

  Knowing not to ask any more questions, I wrap my arms around his neck and stand on my tiptoes to press my lips to his. “I love you,” I whisper.

  “You have ten seconds to get to our room and get naked,” he tells me on a growl.

  “Then what?” I tease, already feeling his cock hardening against my belly.

  “Then you’ll spend the rest of the night showing me exactly how much you love me.” He slams his lips against mine in a brutal, possessive kiss. “Any way I want.”

  I wake with a deep yearning coursing through me. My eyes flutter open, adjusting to the darkness still enveloping the room. After a few seconds, my senses return and I realize what brought me out of my deep sleep.

  With a raspy moan, I reach down and grab Gabriel’s hair.

  “I was wondering how long it’d take you to wake up.” He lifts his head from between my spread thighs, and I see his sinful smirk in the moonlight shining through the windows.

  “Don’t stop,” I plead, my voice still scratchy from sleep.

  Burying his face in my pussy, Gabriel devours me like a starving man. His tongue lapping at my outer folds before he shoves it inside me, licking every inch of me he can reach. “Yeah, baby. Just like that,” I coax, rocking my hips against his face, trying to get him even closer.

  He removes his tongue, quickly replacing it with two fingers as he moves up slightly and begins to suck at my clit. I feel my climax rising higher and higher as he sucks and licks at me. My hips begin moving in rapid, jerky circles. I’m panting and moaning unintelligibly as he takes my body to the very brink. Just as I’m about to explode, he slows the thrusts of his fingers, causing me to whimper in distress.

  “Quiet, my bella.”

  “Please don’t stop,” I beg. “Make me come, Gabriel.”

  “Don’t worry, baby. You’ll come,” he tells me as he pulls his fingers from my drenched pussy. “Who do you belong to?” he asks as I writhe bene
ath him.

  “You,” I reply automatically, not even hesitating in my answer.

  “Good girl.” He places open-mouthed kisses along my inner thighs as his fingers brush over my sex with feather light touches. “Every part of you belongs to me.”

  “Yes, Gabriel,” I breathe as I buck my hips, trying to get his fingers back where I need them. He’s teasing me to the point of insanity.

  “Every inch of your body is mine,” he says as his wet fingers circle my clit, but he doesn’t apply any pressure. I’m so frantic to come I’m close to tears.

  “Everything, Gabriel! Everything is yours!” I shout, my chest rising and falling with my harsh breaths. “Please, I need you. I need to come.”

  Without another word, he shoves three fingers into my pussy, stretching me until I’m deliciously full. He sucks my clit between his lips and bites down just hard enough to send me careening over the edge into a climax that has me screaming his name until my throat hurts. Tears fall from the corners of my eyes, leaving tracks into my hair as I buck and thrash against the onslaught of an orgasm so intense it’s almost too much.

  Before I’m able to catch my breath, I’m flipped over onto my stomach and my hips are jerked up at the same time Gabriel thrusts into my sensitive sex. I let out a shout as his cock pounds into me. One of his arms snakes around my waist, pulling my torso up so Gabriel’s chest is against my back. He wraps his free hand in my hair and yanks it hard, pulling my head to the side so he can run his tongue and lips across the sensitive part of my neck just before his teeth nip at me.

  “Do you have any clue how fucking perfect your pussy is?” he grits out against my ear as he fucks me as hard as he can. “Goddamn, your cunt was made for me, baby.”

  All I can do is whimper and moan, too consumed by what he’s doing to me to say anything. Releasing my hair and waist, Gabriel grabs both of my hands, lifting them and curving my fingers around the top of the headboard as he continues his powerful pace.

  “You want to come again, my bella?”