Unbound

Chapter 51

"Please talk to me," I whispered. I was kneeling on the floor in front of Gabriel, who had dropped down onto the couch and had been holding his head in his hands since we'd gotten inside. His breathing had slowed, and his fingers were no longer gripping fistfuls of his hair. I rubbed his arms. Finally, he lifted his head.

"I shouldn't have lost my temper," he admitted. "I wasn't prepared for that much opposition."

"They wouldn't have reacted so harshly if they didn't care about you or respect you as a leader, you know," I insisted. I moved up to sit beside him and held his hands in my lap. "Look at me for a minute."

He sighed heavily then turned towards me.

"I don't want you to feel pressured to do this. I can be happy with us the way we are. Now that I understand, I can accept you taking space from me when you need it." I squeezed his hands gently. "We can make this work for us."

"I don't want our future to be about just making it work. I owe this to you, and to myself."

I nodded. "I'll support whatever you want to do."

Gabriel pulled his hands out of mine so that he could cup them against my cheeks. He studied my eyes fiercely, with the kind of eye contact that in the past would have made me drop my gaze. Now, though it still made my heart race, I couldn't bring myself to look away if I wanted to.

"There's a reason I could feel this through the magic. What we have is too strong to stay as it is. The risk is great, but the reward will be greater." He punctuated the sentiment with a long kiss that I felt all the way to my marrow.

And just then, with his lips pressed against mine, I realized just what this meant. How big of a deal it truly was. Gabriel chose to be bound because he put his pack above all else. Now, he was putting us first—both himself and me. Without a second thought, he'd defended this decision to the people he valued most. I breathed him in and wrapped my arms around his neck, deepening the kiss fervently.

"Let's not talk about this anymore," Gabriel murmured against my lips. "I just want to feel normal tonight."

When I nodded, he stood and lifted me up off of the couch. I hooked my ankles together behind his back and wove my fingers up into his hair, tugging it out of the bun he'd tied it in for the Council meeting. Without breaking the kiss, he carried me to his bedroom and we fell together onto the bed. He pushed me onto my back and his body followed quickly, always sure to keep contact at several points.

He sat up for a moment, just long enough for us both to pull our shirts off quickly, then settled himself between my legs. I traced my fingertips along the lines of Gabriel's muscular frame, savoring the feeling of heat radiating from his skin. The contours of his body, so familiar yet endlessly enticing, ignited a fire within me as my hands moved across his shoulders. His back. Down his arms. Our lips met again in a searing kiss that sent waves of pleasure cascading through me.

He moaned into my mouth; a low, hungry, needful sound. I dropped my hands and fumbled first with my button, then his. He smiled against my lips.

"Anxious, are we?" He teased.

There was no hiding it. "Yes," I breathed.

"Tell me how to make you feel good." His breath against my neck was warm when he whispered the words between a trail of kisses that ended just below my jaw.

"I need to feel you," I gasped, arching my back to press even tighter against him. He ground his hips against mine slowly—painfully so. "I need you inside of me."

It wasn't until that moment that I realized how desperately my body craved his, how badly it had been affected by our separation. It should have frightened me, the intensity of our connection. It didn't, though. It felt safe and right.

Gabriel reached down and guided himself into me and the sensation of being filled by him sent my nerve endings into a frenzy, firing on all cylinders. My hips jerked up instinctively and I sank my teeth into his shoulder. His deep growl nearly sent me over the edge before he even began thrusting into me.

Opening my legs wider, Gabriel rolled his hips against mine rhythmically. As we moved together, I tried to stay with him in the moment and ignore the weight of uncertainty that hung in the air. But each touch, each caress, was infused with a bittersweet urgency, a silent fear that this might be our last night together. Neither of us dared speak those words aloud, though, for fear that voicing our doubts would make them real.

What began as a slow dance quickly became heated and passionate as the room filled with a symphony of whispered sighs and gasps. We moved together, seeking both comfort and ecstasy in equal measure. Gabriel gripped the pillow on either side of my head, eyes shut tightly. His moans were nearly as loud as his wolf's rumbling growl.

Desire surged through me, intensifying with each passing moment. I reached up and pulled him down, his body dropping onto mine so that I could kiss him and sweep my tongue into his mouth. I wanted to taste him.

"Fuck Kiera," he groaned. "Fuck you take me so well."

His words sparked electricity through me and my walls clenched around him. I was close, so close, but I didn't want this to end yet. I forced him to slow his movements, to draw it out. He trembled with the effort it took not to slam his hips against mine.

"God, Kiera," Gabriel growled. The desperation in his voice and his movements made my toes curl and my breath shudder. His did, too, and at the peak of one of his ragged inhales he cried out, entire body stiffening. His pleasure sparked my own and I held him inside of me for just a second longer until I finally let myself climax and our bodies convulsed in unison, washed over by waves of pleasure.

In the calm aftermath, we laid entangled, our breaths synchronized, our hearts slowing together. Caged in his arms, I clung to this moment of bliss. Gabriel rolled me onto his chest and drew lazy circles on my back.

"Can I tell you something?" There was hesitation in his voice. I lifted myself off of him so I could see his face.

I nodded and brushed a finger across his cheek. "Anything."

"I love you."

My heart shattered into a million pieces; this time, exploding with a happiness that was almost too much to bear. A pressure bloomed inside my ribcage and I couldn't help the big, stupid grin that spread across my face. Gabriel watched me expectantly, worried that his sentiment wouldn't be returned.

I pressed a deep kiss to his lips, then another to his forehead before I pulled back to look into his eyes again.

"I love you too."