Friends and Lovers: Always and Only You

“I thought you might leave,” Maya said quietly as she stepped out of her dress. She let the soft material pool on the floor next to her feet.

“I couldn’t,” Gabe replied. “And you didn’t want me to.”

He was right. She had not wanted him to leave, but it irked her that he’d actually said it. He’d told her to tell him to go. Maya had known that Gabe would take off if she’d said the words. So, she hadn’t spoken them. She had not wanted him to go, but she shouldn’t want him to stay.

“What do you want, Gabe?”

“You.” He hid none of the stark truth in his answer to her question. “I want you, and you know that.”

“You can’t have me,” Maya stated in a defiant tone. She took off her heels and stood before her mirror in nothing but her lacy lingerie set and jewelry. “I don’t belong to you.”

“Ai, Maya. Yes, you do.” Gabe had moved to stand behind her. “Mitawa, Maya,” Gabe said as he crowded her against her dresser. “Mitawa.”

He was so close, too close to where she truly wanted him to be. Maya could feel the heat from his body at her back. It wrapped around her as surely as if he had enveloped her in his strong arms. She clenched her hands into fists and fought against the urge to lean back into him and the urge to give in to his words and what they made her feel. She knew what he’d said, understood the words spoken in the low, halting cadence of his Siouan ancestry. Mitawa...MINE.

“Don’t say that.” Maya’s words were barely a whisper this time.

“It’s true,” he asserted.

Gabe moved even closer to her. His front was touching the back of her. He put one arm around her waist and trapped her next to him. He dipped his head, nuzzling her neck before he spoke into her ear.

“You are mine, Maya. It does not matter how many times you deny it. It doesn’t matter how long we are apart or who you’re with or what…things keep us from each other. You are mine. Waciŋ niye. Ohiηna, Maya. Nothing will change that.”
******
Maya Childe and Gabriel Ben have been a lot of things to each other over the years – childhood friends, confidantes, young lovers. What they are now is barely speaking. Maya has made it a point to steer clear of Gabe, which was easy until he moved back to town and demanded her attention. Gabe is not interested in letting Maya continue to run from her feelings for him, and even less interested in denying what he wants - her. Gabe is determined to have Maya, to get back what they lost years ago. That task is easier said than done given the obstacles between the - the fact that he fathered a child with another woman and a secret that threatens to hurt them all.

Gabe has realized that love is everything. But what does a man do when love may not be enough?

Warning: This book contains strong language and explicit sexual content.