Closer
by: Kaia Bennett
Loose Ends #2
Publication Date: March 31, 2015
Synopsis:
After a whirlwind week of hot sex and growing affection, Nicole and Gabriel were forced to part ways and to return to real life. For a while they danced around each other, meeting up when they could, the distance between them rivaled only by their desire to be together again.
Author's Note: This book contains strong language and sexual content with dark elements, some of which readers may find uncomfortable.
Chapter 1
It was around three o'clock in the morning when Nicole heard
her phone ring. She tried to block out the noise by throwing her pillow over
her head, ignoring that niggling voice of common sense that said a phone call
this late could be about something important.
A gruff masculine voice next to her said, "Nicole, get
the... who the fuck could be calling... ?"
She heard a deep sigh, felt the bed shift and a warm body
stretch across her back.
"Hello?" he grumbled. There was silence for a long
moment, then a huff. "Yeah, hold on a minute. Nicole?" He shoved her
shoulder twice. "Nicole, wake up. It's for you."
His next words brought her into full consciousness.
"Some dude named Gabriel. Says it's important."
Nicole peeked out from underneath the pillow so fast Travis
blinked in sleepy surprise from under his mussed black hair. She wiped a hand
over her face, pushing her hair out of her eyes, and sat up on her elbows to
take the phone. She was embarrassed by how anxious she must appear, which was
reflected in the look Travis gave her as he handed her the receiver. What if
something horrible had happened? Gabriel wasn't known for calling her in the
middle of the night for something unimportant. That's what emails and texts
were for.
"Gabe?” she blurted. “Is everything okay?"
"Hey, Nicole! I'm so sorry I'm calling this late!"
he yelled. She immediately sat upright her, heart pounding in her chest.
Gabriel's voice always had that effect on her.
"No, Gabriel, it's fine, but what's going on? Did something
bad happen?"
"No, no! Nothing like that, sweetheart," he said
in that deep, raspy voice, and the familiar term of endearment sent a rush of
warmth over her skin. "It's all good news, but I couldn't wait to tell you
till tomorrow."
About a year and a half had gone by since that incredible,
sex-filled week when she visited her sister and he caught her masturbating on
his bed. In that time she'd graduated college, moved from Austin, Texas to New
York to be closer to her sister Jackie, and gotten a job. But when it came to
him, nothing had changed. She was still the girl who found herself getting wet
at just the sound of his raspy voice, the girl who had yet to find a man that
measured up to him.
They'd managed to keep in touch, even after he moved out of
her sister's place to start really pursuing a music career full time. He'd set
his sights on traveling and touring, which he and his band Fool the World had
really started to do just a few months before she finished her last year of
college. When they could – when he and his band were playing a gig she could
make, or when he was in town for a while – they would get together and see just
how much their bodies were still in sync. But the reality was they were on two
separate paths and a real relationship wasn't going to work. They'd never
talked about it in too much depth, since technically they were never a real
couple. But they both agreed it was the right decision to keep things from
getting too heavy.
That didn't mean it hurt any less for her.
It had been months since they'd been in the same city, let
alone gotten to spend time with each other. Moments like this were what she had
to hold onto now instead of him.
There was commotion on the other line and she could hear him
walking, the sound of wind whooshing through the phone. She started to say
something but was distracted by the lamp on at the other side of the bed
flooding the room with warm light. She turned around quickly to find Travis,
who was truly nothing more than a friend with benefits, staring at her with
those dark blue
eyes. He looked between her and the clock as if to say,
<em>Who the fuck is Gabriel?</em> <em>And why is he calling
at three o'clock in the morning? </em>
"Hold on a sec, Gabe, I gotta go in the other
room." Nicole threw Travis an apologetic look, covered the phone with her
hand and whispered, "He's a really good friend, I'm sorry, it won't take
long, so you can go back to sleep."
The look on Travis' face made her think his mind must be
channeling Biz Markie’s song “Just A Friend”. Well… Gabe was just a friend. A
very, very good friend with exceptional benefits.
She made sure Travis couldn't see or hear her, then she
sighed and rolled her eyes as she padded into the living room. He was sweet,
fun to catch a movie or have a beer with. They had an understanding and she
enjoyed spending time with him, but it never once occurred to her they could be
anything but the occasional distraction to each other.
"Hey, sorry about that," she said stifling a yawn
and rubbing at her eyes.
"Did I interrupt... you know, you and the guy that
picked up the phone?" She heard him clear his throat on the other end. One
of his few nervous ticks.
She nibbled at her lip and spared a glance over her
shoulder, as if she expected to see Travis standing there watching her. The
golden lamplight from her room was shining into the hallway, but that was the
only indication he was still awake and possibly listening to her.
"Um... yeah, I mean, no. We were asleep but... it's
okay. What's going on?"
She heard silence for a moment, and then, "I'm sorry
I... sorry I woke you guys up. I wasn't even thinking straight. Typical, right?
But I wanted to—"
There was the sound of loud voices cheering in the
background that muffled out part of his statement and made him laugh. The sound
sent an involuntary shiver through her body, as if she had recorded his laugh
into the very marrow of her bones.
"Sounds like you had a great show. Are you celebrating
or something?" she asked with a weary laugh. Rising into the foreground of
all the commotion was the sound of Jonny Beckett’s voice, who was the lead
singer, along with some girls that were giggling like giggles were going out of
style.
"Yeah, we are," he said, the excitement in his
voice returning full force. "A music exec for Phantom Records saw us play
again tonight. He said he was feelin' our music and he wants to meet with us at
the end of the week. Do you know what that means?!"
She couldn't speak, her brain was having trouble
functioning. Phantom was an indie label a lot of their favorite bands were on.
She used to lie against him in bed after he moved out of Jackie's, listening to
the music of bands that Phantom execs had gone to see one night and plucked out
of obscurity. Was he talking about a record contract, a chance to be one of
those success stories?
"Are you saying...?"
"He wants to sign us, Nic! We meet him and the heads of
the label this Thursday and if everything goes the way it’s supposed to with
the contract—"
Even before she could speak her face was breaking into an
exuberant smile. "Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me!?”
"Nah, sweetheart! Fool the World is gonna have a
fucking record deal!"
"Oh my God! Oh my God!!" she screamed into the
phone, jumping up and down, squealing and listening to the sound of his
laughter on the other end, completely oblivious to anything else in the world.
"Look, I know it's late and all, and I'm sorry, but I
couldn't wait to tell you. Just couldn't wait." The soft edge in his
voice, made her heartbeat stutter in her chest. "You were the first
person I thought of – well you and Jackie and Ian, but she
would’ve kicked my ass if I called her this late," he quipped with a
chuckle.
She wished she could wrap her arms around him and show him
just how happy she was for him. She wished she could say something more
eloquent than ‘Oh my God’. She wished she could hear his voice because his lips
were by her ear, instead of through the receiver of a phone. She wished she
could taste his mouth, his neck, his chest, lick and nibble her way down those
twin tribal tattoos on his sides...
She hated going down that line of thought. It was bad enough
she still fantasized about him, but to know it wasn't meant to be and she still
felt as strongly as ever killed her. She wished she could just forget him
sometimes, that Travis or someone else could be enough. But just when she
started getting used to the idea that they weren't going to be together, he
would call, he would come into town, or she would listen to one of his songs
and think of him. She would find herself transported back to the times they'd
hooked up, and then back to that one glorious week when she'd had him all to
herself, a secret tucked away. But it didn't do any good to think about that
kind of thing now. She forced herself to listen to him, to cheer him on as he
talked about continuing to move on without her.
"I'm so ecstatic for you and the guys, Gabriel. You
have no idea. I can't wait till you get it down in writing so I can start
bragging about how I know a bunch of rock stars. I'm going to have to tell all
my friends. They're gonna freak!"
He laughed, started to say something, and once again his
words were blocked out by the background noise.
"Can't even fucking hear myself think!" he
grumbled good-naturedly. "Listen, we're gonna be back in town in a couple
days so we can get ready to meet with the label. If you're not busy we could
meet up," he paused and again cleared his throat. "You can bring your
boyfriend, unless you've got plans or some—"
"Oh, no, Travis isn't my boyfriend," she said
quickly, wincing at the excitement in her voice and how she must have been loud
enough for Travis to hear it. "We're just... we're just friends." She
wasn't exactly sure how to explain why a male friend was lying in bed with her
when he called, so she decided to hop right over that bit of awkwardness.
"I'm not busy this week. I can see you whenever you get back and you can
tell me everything."
"Cool," he said, and once again she found her body
thrumming. It was rare that she got to see him, but when she did, she knew
there was a good chance she would get to feel him inside of her again.
"I'll give you a call, we'll go out and eat or something, really celebrate
and catch up. Just the two of us."
"Okay," she managed to whisper, swallowing hard.
She almost groaned at the prospect of spending an entire evening with him for
the first time in months. "Congratulations, babe. I'm so, so proud of
you."
He yelled his thanks over the ruckus around him, laughing.
"I'll let you get some sleep. Night, Nicole."
She smiled softly. "Night, Gabriel."
She clicked the phone off, cradling it against the
butterflies in her stomach and processing his voice, his great news, and the
fact that in a few days she'd be able to show him just how happy she was for
him. Then she heard a zipper and turned.
Travis was leaning against the doorjamb zipping up his
jacket, then he reached down and grabbed his motorcycle helmet off the floor.
She was going to ask him why he was leaving, if he was upset, but the look in
his eyes made her not even bother. It was obvious he'd been listening to
her conversation. She didn't blame him for not wanting to
play second fiddle, for not being able to spend the night.
He was still sweet. He gave her a kiss and told her to call
him whenever. But when he left she couldn't help but feel a hollow sense of
defeat. Travis was the kind of guy a girl was lucky to actually date, and here
she was pining for a voice on the other end of the phone. A voice couldn't keep
her warm at night. A voice on the phone couldn't hold her and make her feel
safe and special, not in the way she wanted to feel.
But it wasn't just anyone's voice. It was Gabriel's. That
voice carried the memories of nights when he had kept her warm, when he'd made
her feel like the sexiest and most beautiful woman in the world. She couldn’t
let go of that. Not even when holding on caused her to watch a good guy's back
as he closed the door on what might have been.
Other Books in the Loose Ends Series...
#1 Crush by: Kaia Bennett Loose Ends #1 Publication Date: December 1, 2014 Genres: Contemporary, Erotica, Romance Amazon - Nook - Kobo - Smashwords
Synopsis: Nicole Langley’s #1 Crush has always been Gabriel Roberts, but settling for being a friendly acquaintance has had to be enough.
Gabriel has always seen Nicole as his good friend’s very pretty, but extremely off limits baby sister.
Then a hot summer day and an even hotter discovery pushes them over the lines of friendship, over the lines of unrequited desire, and into each other's arms.
Will they indulge and move on? Or will this crush turn into something more, something deeper? Something that leaves loose ends begging to be tied…
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