There wasn’t a damn thing they all wouldn’t do for each other. No questions asked. Anytime. Here he had the kind of friendships he never imagined.
His next call was to Chad to let him know about the photo. Gabe had a feeling the picture belonged to PJ. He’d ask her about it as soon as she woke up, but in the meantime, he wanted to see what Chad had found.
“Let me know as soon as you talk to PJ about the picture. We need to know if it’s hers—and if it is, where she kept it. This asshole’s close to her,” Chad said, and Gabe could tell from his voice Chad was taking this personally…. If Gabe cared for PJ, then Chad would, too. It was that simple with his friends.
“Listen, Gabe,” Chad went on. “Did you know Ellis White was adopted? His family adopted him when he was twelve, after he was passed around to a lot of different foster homes. Apparently, his biological mother left him at a mall when he was eight years old.”
“Pru never mentioned that. I wonder if she knows. I remember her saying Ellis and Lydia are siblings, and she didn’t always like the way Lydia treated Ellis. I don’t remember her mentioning adoption, though.”
“Whoever’s doing this sounds angry, Gabe. Angry and vindictive. And, they’ve had a lot of access to PJ,” Chad said.
“You think it might be Ellis?” Gabe asked, knowing the answer, but dreading the idea of going to Pru with that theory. It would tear her up to think one of her team could be behind this.
Gabe spun at the sound of Pru’s small voice behind him. “It’s not Ellis.”
She shook her head at Gabe, one hand over her stomach as if he’d just physically cut into her with his accusation. “It’s not Ellis. Our families have been friends for years. And you don’t know Ellis like I do. He’s kind and gentle. There’s no way he’d do something like this.”
“I’ll call you back,” Gabe said, and set his phone on the counter before crossing to Pru. He pulled her in close for a hug, her small frame fitting snugly against him.
She pulled back, but not as if to pull away. She leaned back and looked up at him. “It’snotEllis,” she repeated.
“I want to believe that too, Pru,” he said, “but we need to look at the facts and not dismiss anyone without considering everything carefully. Whoever is doing this is close to you. It’s most likely going to be someone you trust. It may even be someone you love. But, it’s almost certainly someone close, Pru.”
She bowed her head a minute and took a deep breath, before lacing her hand behind Gabe’s neck and pulling him down into a heated kiss that threw Gabe completely off balance and curdled his brains.
On some level, he knew it was wrong. Everything in him was screaming to stop, to not allow her to do this when she was in such emotional turmoil. But, his body utterly overrode anything his head knew.
He was instantly hard as a rock, his cock pressing against his pants for release as his hands wrapped around her waist, lifting her to the counter.
He knew she was probably just trying to forget, just trying to slip away from reality for a short time before her world came crashing down, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop her.
He felt her tremble as his mouth devoured her, her moans driving his mouth down her jaw to the small spot behind her neck that seemed to cause her body to bow, arching into him. He’d never felt a hotter, faster burn in his body than the fire Pru set loose in him.
He pulled open the sheer white blouse that had been tempting him for hours, exposing her incredibly perfect breasts. They weren’t large by any means, but to him, they were everything he’d ever wanted. One hand traced the outer edge of her breast softly, almost reverently, as he dipped his head to suck the nipple on her other breast, drinking her in.
She rewarded him with a quick intake of breath as her nipples pearled and a moan began deep in her throat.
* * *
PJ’s head reeled as Gabe assaulted her with more feeling, more sensation than she’d ever felt. She had wanted to forget, to think of something other than fear and betrayal and loss for just a short time. He was giving her that and so much more.
She was wet and swollen and ready for him when he slipped his hand beneath her skirt and roughly pulled her panties to the side, sinking his fingers into her. Her whole body tightened around him as his thumb circled her clit, and she was lost in an instant. Utterly lost to the feeling of him touching her, of his mouth on her breasts, of all of him devouring her with such complete––
A small part of her heard the buzzer of the front gate, but Gabe’s mouth sucked hard on her nipple at the same time that he added just slightly more pressure with his thumb…at the same time that he found the precise spot inside her and set off a cascading orgasm, drenching her in pleasure she’d never felt before.
She was weak and spinning when he pulled back and lowered her dress. His voice was gravelly and low when he spoke.
“Go to my bedroom,” he said, slipping her off the counter. “If I don’t let Zach in soon, he’s going to let himself in.”
It took PJ a minute to grasp what he’d said as he gave her a gentle push toward his bedroom door.Zach. Zach was coming over.“I’ll be there in a minute, Pru.”
Why was Zach coming here?
PJ didn’t know why Gabe had called Zach here. Worse, she didn’t know what Gabe thought about what they’d just done. She could feel the heat burning her cheeks as she remembered the way she’d cried out his name as she’d orgasmed in his arms moments before. One minute they’d been talking and the next, she’d jumped on him. And, he’d brought her to orgasm in seconds flat.
Oh, god. He must think she was such a whore. In the last few days, he’d learned more than she’d ever wanted him to about her sex life with Kurt Tolleson, and he’d heard about her losing her virginity to a man who was twenty years her senior.
And now, she’d spread her legs for him and come in an astonishingly fast fashion for him. Would he think she was a complete slut? It was almost laughable, given her lack of experience with men, but she still felt embarrassed at how forward she’d been.