His teeth grazed against the dark flesh, causing her to whimper with need. Tongue swirling over the pointed bud, he suckled some more before releasing the flesh with a pop. Transferring the same hot massage to the other breast, his fingers found the last one and began to kneading the bud between skillful fingers.

Lips parted, head thrown back and eyes clamped shut from the sensous assaults on her body, she clutched the sheets when sucks and bites trailed a fiery part from underneath her mounds until they met the junction at her legs.

On instinct, she parted them voluntarily, panting from the promise of a loving ministration. Fingers parted her folds, revealing the nub of her sex that had grown aroused and erect from the different nerves that had travelled past it to her core earlier.

"You're so beautiful, Gina," he cooed, the action producing warm air that brushed against the sensitive organ, sending tingles all over her body, up to her tiptoes. "Let me worship your body."

She whimpered with need, wishing he'd get on with it before desire drowned her. As if in tune with the demands of her body, a wet tongue brushed against the nub, wreaking unfathomable emotions in her being. To increase the delirium, the action was repeated continuously with circling, up and down and random movements that had her breaths ceasing into pants at the electrifying feeling.

"Please." She arched her hips off the bed, or at least tried to, when strong arms wrapped around her waist tighter, restricting any type of movement. Once he was fully in control, he quickly set to work.

Leaving her nub alone for now, his tongue travelled lower before feasting on the parted folds. Biting, suckling, kissing and nibbling. It was ridiculous- she thought through the haze of pleasure- that he knew how to set her body on fire so easily. Fighting to not get swept up into the frenzy of passion easily, she reached over with her hands to push at the constraints, only to realise she was fighting a loosing battle.

To add to her torment, he pressed her waist down onto the soft mattress, locking her down before devouring her, drinking thirstily from her as if he was in drought, and she was an oasis. Slashes and zaps of electricity hit at her core warning her of the impending explosion threatening to occur inside her. She whimpered painfully from the magic his tongue wrought on her body, briefly wondering how you could hate something you craved some much in a matter of seconds.

"Gabbie." She didn't do pet names, not for him at least, but he needed to stop. Or not stop, she thought in sheer confusion when a slash of desire rang from deep within her. This was it, the wave had finally caught up with her, but she stubbornly refused to surrender.

Blind passion clouded her eyes, and she began to loose consciousness, her breath coming out in pants. She could hear the rushing of blood but the whoosing sounded like a drum from a distance. In a desperate attempt to fight against the wave, she grabbed the sheets tightly, waiting for the explosion she knew would definitely occur.

"Gina?"

The honeyed voice halted the expected eruption like a crash, dragging her forcefully out of her delirious passion induced dream. Feeling bereft, she fought against consciousness, trying to get back into the arms of the man who promised her lust like never before.

"Gina."

Purring like a cat, she snuggled into his warm body which were supposedly solid muscles on minute earlier but were now soft and mushy. Frowning at the change in structure, she dispelled the annoying disparity in detail away, trying to hold on to her lover desperately.

"Gina, wake up."

The voice came again, stronger this time, sounding rough, and definitely not as erotic as it had been minutes earlier, and since it wasn't what she craved at this particular moment, she ignored it and snuggled her pillow while burrowing deeper under the duvet, hoping to find her dark sensual lover in the reaches of dreamland.

"Wake up, sleeping beauty."

A finger ran through her corn rows, tracing the soft edges, and moving further down to her forehead, in a straight path past the bridge of her nose, to pause on the defiant snub on her nose.

Annoyed at the disturbance, she reached out to swat at it, only to meet mid air. After two unsuccessful reattempts, she peered her eyes open to glare at the amused glimmer in a pair of dark irises she was all too familiar.

"Go, away, Gabriel," she growled out, adjusting on the bed to pull the duvet tighter around her body before attempting to drift back into sleep.

"Only if you wake up," he reiterated, still tracing the outline of her face. His knuckles found her cheek, brushing against the skin in a soft caress. The touch was more soothing than evoking, and once he picked up on it, he gently withdrew his fingers.

Satisfied that he had given up, she let out a blissful sigh, only to follow it up with a longing gasp when warm lips met with hers in a gentle combination. Despite knowing better, she parted her lips and allowed him room to deepen the kiss, marvelling at the feeling a simple intertwining of tongues could evoke.

The kiss ended faster than she envisioned, forcing her to pout her lips, and groan at the sudden loss of contact.

The chuckle came deep, mocking her wanton behaviour, but instead of yielding completely to consciousness, she closed her eyes the more and turned on the bed to face the other side. Away from his kisses and caresses. Away from needing him.

"If you wake up now, I'll let you have my other credit card instead."

Speaking of a dream come true, her eyes flew open and she quickly sat up on the bed, to face a chuckling Gabriel who laid on his side of the bed, watching her.

"Promise?" Heaven knew how long she had been plotting on getting her hands on that card. These past two weeks of minimal spending had been hard on her, and a nagging reminder that she was quickly getting used to living rich, but she swore to curb the excesses right before her pregnancy period was over.

"Only if you get out of bed now and follow me outside. I'll give you the card after I show you something really important." He agreed with a nod.

Eyeing the soft mattress that called out to her with longing, she pushed the duvet away with regret and eased out of bed, as much as her growing bump the size of a medium-sized cabbage would allow. Their two weeks fun break brought about a noticeable increase in her belly region, and she could only coo and marvel at the amazing phenomenon.

Clothed in her red silk pyjamas with shorts, she hissed and eyed him, when he chuckled again at her grumpy frown, before reaching for her robe that lay on the chaise. Trailing after him, she paused halfway through the door to go grab her phone. Tapping on a few buttons, she pushed it to his face and demanded,

"Evidence of our agreement. Put it in recording."

Stunned by her astuteness, he chuckled again before repeating his earlier words clearly. Satisfied with the leverage, she walked past him out the door with her head held high, with an amused yet impressed Gabriel trailing behind her.

Once they were past the steps, he told her it would be surprise, so she reluctantly allowed him to cover her eyes with a cloth. His hand holding her steady, and guiding her the direction he wanted, her foolish heart began to undertake dangerous somersaults when her mind conjured up a diamond earrings for the surprise. Thinking it would be too cheap for him, she dissolved the image, and came up with a paid trip to Dubai. She agreed Gabriel would shoot down the plane at take-off if that were to ever happen. That he agreed on giving her freedom didn't mean a plane trip out of the country was in that budget.

Out of the blues, her mind imagined a four-wheeled device that made human movement relatively easy. Her breath caught at the same time his lips trailed her earlobe to whisper in a smooth, deep voice that almost had her purring.

"Surprise."

Biting her lips to contain her excitement, she waited patiently for him to remove the blindfold. Getting impatient when he took his time loosening the knot, she reached behind and yanked it off, nearly blinding herself in the process. The view before her made her jaw drop.

Contrary to her imagination, the image in front of her was a mocking caricature. She could make out a water fountain with green hedges hemmed beautifully round it. Behind that was an untrimmed lawn that stretched out, tapering successfully against the fence. For some reason, the area was not illuminated, and she frowned. Feeling weird at what she was seeing, she turned around to find a nodding Gabriel.

"Are you serious? This is the surprise you wanted to show me?"

He nodded, moving away to come stand in front of her, effectively blocking off her view of the ugly image. He smiled at her, looking pleased to have pulled off the surprise without a hitch.

"Do you see it, Gina? Take a look again."

Now that he prompted her, she was only happy to oblige, allowing her eyes to feast on what she wanted to see.

A selection of expensive cars coated with various dark hues lined up next to each other gleaming at her, as if beckoning her close in a mesmerising tone, and she itched to go answer. A swelling feeling of joy encompassed her when she noticed the new Camry car. It wasn't there when they got back on Saturday, and she had been too occupied since then to actually notice her surrounding.

Except for last night when Lilah claimed she had to tell her something incriminating about Gabriel. It had been complete balderdash anyway.

Shaking the thought away, she took in the new car.

"I can't believe you bought me a car!" She shrieked, laughing loudly at the prospect. Forgetting she was clad in shorts that barely covered her bum, she leapt up into the air, shouting at the top of her voice that she was gifted a car.

"Why would I buy you a car?" The incredulity in his tone was more than enough to slap her flat out into reality. "Besides, you don't need one when your transportation needs has already been covered. If you want a car, you can get it when all this is over. With your money."

She gave him the stink eye, wishing he would combust on the spot. "If you're not surprising me with a car, why then did you bring me out here?"

"To show you this," he murmured slowly, with a silky, smooth voice that had her horny in two seconds flat. Too much of Gabriel was begining to wreak havoc on her feelings, she deduced.

She followed his gaze, only to come to a crashing halt.

"Wait, let me get this straight," she began, wondering what horrible nightmare she had been thrown into. "You woke me up from a beautiful dream, dragged me downstairs blindfolded against my will, and brought me out here in this warm weather to come stare at overgrown bushes? Are you kidding me?!"

He chuckled at the horrified expression on her face, reaching out to touch her, which was a bad move as she moved away from his arms, eyes flashing furiously.

"I know this isn't what you were expecting, but if you'd just give me some minutes of your time, I can make it beautiful for you." He promised, and she pursed her lips to study him as he walked off in the direction of the lawn, with his arms stretched out.

Soon, he moved past the fountain and started to move inside. Tempted to stomp her feet in anger, and make a step in the opposite direction, her eyes widened when a cluster of lights, flickering yellow lights, began to dance on the grasses. For a split second, her heart soared when she recognised what it was, an ear-splitting grin covering her face.

She couldn't believe it.

The flickering grew, stretching out from a concentrated centre out towards the fence, and caressing the epicentre of the fountain.

"Well, how is it?" He shouted, breaking her out of her stupefied state.

A ridiculous laughter bubbled past her lips with the way he posed the question, and before she could comprehend it, she was up and running. He stood rigidly, arms spread out as she crashed into him, enveloping him in a hug.

"Is this surprise beautiful enough for you?"

Looking up into his glimmering eyes, she was blessed with a grin that beheld warmth, a side he was begining to let show this past weeks. It was like, if she wiped away their bitter history, he would just fill up the space of the man of her dreams.

"It's perfect."

Her excitement tingling in her limbs, she pulled away from him and went kicking at the grasses, watching in awe as the tiny creatures fluttered at the disturbance of a peaceful night, their flickering light betraying their annoyance.

"I can't believe this. There are so many!" Her voice held a child-like wonder.

"There was a time they used to blanket this compound on warm nights like this, before they terraced half of the compound to expand the garage. Back then, my siblings and I used to take turns seeking them out. Of course, our mother hated us getting our pyjamas dirty after dinner, but we'd still sneak out every once in a while."

"I missed chasing after them back when I was at home. Those days, my brothers and I will run out with the other kids to the village square, trying to trap them into bottles that served as lanterns for the night."

"I imagine it was fun."

She nodded, pausing to look at him. "Yes, it was really fun. It's memories like this that make me wish I never left."

"Why did you leave?"

"You know why. We needed to survive, and I'm glad I could help in any way I can. But now, with this surrogacy stuff, I could help them out even more."

He nodded at the hopeful look in her eyes, amazed at the resilience in her being.

"Will you go back home after this?"

She looked away now, kicking at the grasses, watching the fireflies with a pained look as they flew up. "I will, after I'm done with all of these."

After I'm done ruining you.

As if the joyous mood from earlier had been enveloped by a dark cloud, she let a chuckle to break the air, before commenting, "Gabriel Asika, I must say I'm impressed with this concept. I did not know fireflies would make me grin so hard more than a car could. You really are cheesy, and romantic."

"Eh, well, a man got to do what a man got to do." She giggled when he puffed his shoulders, winking seductively at her.

"Are you normally these romantic with all your pretend girlfriends, or am I just the first?"

"Pretend girlfriend? I need to do something about that." He chuckled at her stupefied expression before shaking his head. "To answer your question, no. My past girlfriends were too boring and I never saw the need to go the extra mile for them."

"What do you mean by boring?" It wasn't the word he used, it was the way he voiced it, like they were annoying bugs he couldn't tolerate.

"They were women my father thought I should date and marry, not necessarily women I wanted to date and marry. Since I didn't like them that much, I didn't see any reason to get invested in them."

"But one of them could have been the love of your life, your one and only, your significant other." She countered judiciously.

"Trust me, they weren't my significant other." He looked appalled at the mere thought. "Besides, I don't believe in that crap talk about women being a man's one and only. Any man who thinks ignorantly like that would die before his time."

"You sound embittered," she pointed out, trying to decode the meaning behind his words.

"I sound logical," was the quick retort. "I've seen from experience that women are sensual creatures who cannot be confined to just one man. They need to constantly string up the attention of every male around them. Women are dangerous, so I've learnt to protect my heart against them."

"Do you hurt them while protecting yourself?"

"Why do you ask that?" She could sense the curiosity in his tone, as though he wanted to know where she was getting her accusation from.

She had no basis for her argument, and she couldn't very well outrightly tell him who she was, so she looked away and shook her head slightly from side to side.

"It's nothing serious," she fibbed, trying to conjure how best to bring up this talk between them next time. "I was just being curious. Forget I even asked."

She made to turn back and start heading inside when he held her arm in a grip, preventing her from moving further.

"Hey, don't be like that," he pleaded, turning her head slowly so she could look at him. "You're carrying my child, and although I know this may be partly my fault, but I'd prefer if you didn't go through some sort of emotional stress worrying about certain things, especially things that seem to weigh you down." He looked away to stretch out his free hand, gesturing towards the still flickering lights. "That's why I did this. You need to laugh like you did this night all the time."

She gave him a bemused look. "I would look like a hyena."

He chuckled at her description. "I don't think hyenas can compare to your beauty, or your crazy, impulsive side, or your cheating moves at every game we've ever played." His wink was enough to get her laughing loudly as she reminisced their fun week.

"So, tell me," he demanded once humour had evapourated from their midst, "why you would think I'd hurt women. I may not like them, but I don't care that much about them either to actually hurt them."

"Well, I overheard the maids talking about a certain servant girl that used to work in this house. Her name was Amelia, and they say you guys were an item, and that you dealt with her as punishment for betraying you by sleeping with your brothers. Is it true?"

"You should probably stop listening to gossips, especially the ones told by the maids in my father's house," he pointed out, chuckling at what she deduced he thought was ridiculous chatter.

When he saw she didn't share in his humour, he sobered up quickly before replying. "Well, yes, we were an item for as long as she was pregnant. We both knew it wouldn't last though. I'm used to making long term commitments that yield actual results, like your case now, but she didn't know how to keep her own end of the deal, and ended up flickering from one brother to another like a butterfly in spring. It was bound to end badly."

"So you did hurt her then?"

"She didn't mean anything to me for me to hurt her, so, no. Truth was, the situation back then was complicated, and I can't say who's fault it was that things quickly got out of hand."

Curiosity was her constant companion. "What things? Tell me what really happened with that girl while she was in this house."

"With the kind of mess she created in this house, I can hardly tell you what really happened. It's either that I was deeply involved with her, enough to get her pregnant. Or that she cheated on me with one of my brothers and tried to pin the baby on me. Or maybe, there's the very slim possibility that neither I nor my siblings were responsible for her pregnancy, and she just wanted to sink her greedy claws on a millionaire's son. Either way, I know she got what she deserved."

When he saw her gaping mouth, he smirked before bending to stroke her parted lips, the action changing the awkward atmosphere into one of delirious lust in a matter of seconds.

"Don't give it too much thought, my dear, cause in the end what you heard was all it really was." When his thumb darted inside her mouth, she instinctively pulled it in to suckle on it, charging the atmosphere instantly.

"And what is that?" Her brain was on her short circuit, and her heart was craftily making a mess of everything when he held their gaze intently, and the only thing she could hear was the sound their hushed breathing.

"Rumours." And he covered the distance between their lips, effectively trapping hers in between his in a sealing kiss.

~~~~~~

Let's agree to disagree that Gabriel's explanation was not really an explanation at all.

I hate people who confuse you the more while claiming to simplify a matter.

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Thank you 😏😚