“He spanks you now? Still?”
“Sometimes, if I’m bad.”
“How many times a week are you bad?”
“It depends on Paxton. Sometimes he’s really busy with work.”
“Let’s hold up right there for a second,” Nick said as I anticipated my response.
Paxton was the one to get fidgety with an anxious tone. “Why? Some of us have to work real jobs in the morning.”
Nick ignored him, just like Mi would have. “Gabby just told you that you scared her. Did you know that at the time?”
“No, can we go on?”
“I think you’re lying. I watched your eyes gloss over and the expression on your face change as Gabby explained that day on the beach. I think that’s quite a bit of information for Gabby.”
Paxton stood, walking away from the camera, and to the banister. “I’m done here, Gabriella.”
“Paxton, we’re barely started.”
“It’s fine, Gabriella. He’s doing just what I expected him to do. Sleep on that tonight. Your assignment before I show you more is to communicate about that. About how that made you both feel.”
Paxton took it as a cue to shut him down. He closed the laptop and walked inside. For a second I was confused, unsure of what to do. I looked around the corner and watched him walk out the bedroom door. The heavy sigh was for how far we got. Nowhere. Nick was as crazy as Mi, maybe even more. He should have let me ask the questions. I was an expert at handling Paxton Pierce. I knew how to push the buttons without him thinking it was my idea. It didn’t matter how smart Nick was, or what degree he had, I knew my husband and his self-righteous ways. That wasn’t the way to deal with Paxton.
I heard the beer can tap before I heard him. Paxton had something going on inside him that permeated around him. I could feel how anxious he was.
“Let’s hear it, Gabriella. Tell me how much I scared you. You fucking knew it. You knew exactly what you were doing, and don’t say you didn’t.”
I blinked my eyes a couple times, trying to decipher his words. “What?”
Paxton took a step toward me, pinning me between him and the ocean. “You knew what fueled me. You picked that shit up almost immediately. Don’t play with me.”
“Maybe I did, but you know what? I don’t remember it, so you can’t use that against me.” I took the beer from his hand and chugged it, remembering right quick why I didn’t drink beer. “Blah, that’s nasty. Where’s my drink?”
“You know what, Gabriella? You think you’re the innocent one, the victim.”
I wasn’t about to have that. Not after I’d learned how he pimped me out to my drunk neighbor. “Stop, Paxton. This isn’t getting us anywhere. Let’s talk about something else for a while.”
“What, Gabriella? What can we talk about that will fix any of this? How the hell did we get so dysfunctional?”
“I’m not sure I had anything to do with that.”
“See, that’s what I mean. You think you’re a victim, and you’re not. You were never a victim. I took care of you; I gave you everything you wanted.”
“I can’t argue that stuff right now, Pax. I don’t remember it. Why can’t you understand that?”
Paxton dropped his head back to the sky and moaned in frustration. “Talk about something else.”
Because I was unprepared for a rebuttal, I said the first thing that came to mind. “I don’t think we should give Vander my room, I mean, you can still close it off and make a window seat, but Rowan’s the oldest. Don’t you think you should give her first dibs?”
Paxton frowned as I watched his exasperated expression turn to confusion. “I was only trying to avoid the bathroom situation. Wouldn’t it be better for the girls to keep sharing a bathroom?”
“I grew up pissing alongside the road somewhere. I think he’ll be okay. Rowan should get my room.”
I think both our walls dropped at the same time. I took a step toward him at the exact same time he walked to me. We swapped the same smile, sharing the craziness together. I fell into his arms as they enveloped me with a comfort that I didn’t understand.
Paxton kissed me as I looked up, and confided in me his silly concerns. “What if you don’t like him?”
“I will.”
“What if the girls don’t like him?”
“They will.”
“What if I don’t like him?”
“I’ll kick you in the nuts.”
Paxton smiled a half a grin and I smiled back, happy that we’d moved past that one for a minute. Jesus. Whiplash central over here.
“Tell me what happened next, Paxton,” I requested in a quiet tone.
“Let’s make love first.”
I chuckled, letting him take my hand and lead me to his bed. I would have followed the man to the fiery gates of hell, and he knew it. I don’t even know how to describe that night. Surreal. Paxton was so tender with me, no foreplay at all, nothing but pure sex. Raw and emotional.
“You didn’t do this when I fucked you before,” he whispered to my neck with a thrust of his hips, diving right into that spot.
I moaned, arching my back when he filled me. “Do what?”
“This, this sensual thing you do now when you’re below me. It drives me almost as mad as that day on the beach, when you were afraid of me.”
I whimpered again, hearing the lustful cries with my own ears. “You knew it, that I was afraid of you?” I was seconds away from an orgasm and Paxton wanted to talk about our homework from Nick. Now…
“Yes, I knew it. I fed off of it. You did something that Tatiana never did.”
The fight to be in two places at once messed with my mind. I wanted to hear every word he said, just not at that moment. “Hmm, right there, baby. What do you mean?”
“Like this?” he questioned as his hips swerved into mine, creating contact to my pulsating nub.
Yup, like that.
I no longer cared about anything. My past with Paxton didn’t matter. The way our bodies pulled this magical charge from both of us, creating this magnificent tension between us, that’s what mattered. Orgasms with Paxton were a whole body experience. It started in my head; endorphins rushing throughout my body, and then came the tingling sensation in my skin, prickly needles, piercing my entire body. Our mouths frantically worked each other over in heated passion while our bodies came together, causing incredible cosmic chaos.
“Roll me over,” I said through a gasp and a moan.
Paxton moved to his knees while twisting my hips in his direction. I moved from below him and pushed him away when he tried to move in behind me.
“No, not like that. I want on top.”
“I hate that.”
“No you don’t. Lay down,” I ordered as our lips met again. I took his manhood from his hand and stroked while our lips once again collided. We made out in that upright position, both on our knees, for what seemed like forever. Paxton fingered me with one hand while the other one sent loud cracks, echoing throughout the room, to my ass.
I’m not really sure what that was, but it was incredible. Maybe the sound of his hand coming in to contact with my ass, the sounds of our mouths devouring each other, the audible wetness between my legs, or maybe the scent of sex in the air. The combination caused explosive, euphoric passion to ignite between us.
Just when I was right there, on the edge of no return, I returned. Ugh. Paxton pressed me backward with his lips sucking hard on my right nipple. My feet folded behind me as my back arched. “I got you off like this once,” he explained as his hand ran down my chest, my stomach, and to my overzealous, pulsating button. His thumb circled it while a middle finger shoved in and out of me. “It was after that night that you refused to let me touch you back here. I was mad at you for making me look like an ass in front of Brant and Lane.”
Paxton was crazy. His voice was dark, yet soft, erotic whispers.
My feet were folded behind me and I was in an awkward backbend position. Seconds away from coming, and he wanted to walk down memory lane. I didn’t stop him only because I didn’t care. One thing was on my mind, and it wasn’t the past that I didn’t remember. Therefore I didn’t respond with words, only whimpers, begging for release.