Tailor Made (69th St. Bad Boys Book 7) Read online

  When we were back inside, we stood in the lobby, looking at each other. I wanted to kiss her, but I didn’t know how she was feeling. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and make everything better, but that was difficult when I was part of the problem.

  “Come upstairs with me,” I said. “We can spend some time together and make all of this up.”

  “I don’t know if I want to,” she sighed. “I don’t know if I should.”

  “Do you love me?” I had enough, and I just came right out and asked the question. “It’s a simple question, Penny. Do you love me?”

  She paused for a moment, her eyes scanning wildly around the room. She wrung her hands together in front of her as if she was going to burst with anxiety. Then, she turned and looked me straight in the eye.

  “Yes, okay? I love you,” she said. “That’s why this hurt me so badly.”

  “Penny,” I said, trying to hold back the excitement I was feeling. “I need you to listen to me, really listen. I only did what I did to protect your relationship with your father. I love you too much to see your relationship with your dad turn out like mine. I see now that was wrong, but my intentions were good.”

  She stood there for a second thinking about the words. Slowly she lifted her chin, her face changing in front of me. The sparkle reemerged in her eyes and her brow relaxed. I looked back and forth into her eyes until finally, she took in a deep breath. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around my neck and leaned in, kissing me on the lips. At first, I was frozen, but then, feeling that she had accepted the truth in what I had said, I wrapped my arms around her and leaned into the kiss.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Penny

  I was absolutely breathless after kissing Gabriel so passionately, and I could barely keep my feet on the ground. He loved me, and I loved him, and that was the most amazing feeling I had ever experienced. I pulled back and looked around the room, grabbing his wrist and pulling him toward the elevator at the back. It was fancier than the others, covered in silver etchings and carvings. No one ever used this elevator since it was self-operation style, but I had heard that a ton of the residents would go there to have sex. I pulled him inside and pressed the buttons, allowing the doors to shut. I pressed the button to the top floor and waited until we started to move upward.

  “What are you doing?”

  I pressed my finger to my lips and shushed him, waiting until we were halfway up the building. I hit the stop button, bringing the elevator to a halt. There was no alarm, so we could sit there as long as we wanted. I turned toward him and stared, my body quivering from the want surging through me. Suddenly he leapt forward, taking my face in his hands and pushing me back against the wall. Our lips moved feverishly over each other’s and my heart sped up immediately. He threw his jacket onto the floor and dropped to his knees, pulling his sweater over his head. He reached forward and unclasped my belt, unzipped my pants and pulled them down, removing my boots along with them.

  I clasped onto the railings on the sides of the elevator and watched in the mirrored reflection as his head dove forward into my pussy. I rested my ass on the railing and spread my legs, putting one hand on the back of his head as he began to lick, suck, and pull at my wetness. I moaned loudly, feeling the excitement of making love in the elevator and watching us in the reflection. I leaned my head back against the wall and opened my eyes, seeing the muscles rippling across his back as he moved his mouth feverishly over my mound. I could feel the ecstasy blowing through my body as he reached up and plunged two fingers inside of me and began to finger me fast and hard.

  I screamed out, grasping onto the sides of the elevator and lifting my leg over his shoulder. He could feel my body tensing as the orgasm began rolling around in my stomach. My hips ground against his face and my hand held tightly to his hair. He leaned up and flicked his tongue quickly against my clit and I grabbed tightly, screaming out as pleasure exploded through me. He groaned, his mouth lapping the juices that dripped from my pulsing pussy. Immediately he put my leg down and stood up, pulling feverishly at his belt. He dropped his pants to the floor and turned me around, spreading my legs apart. I leaned forward and grabbed the railing, looking back at him as he clutched the shaft of his cock and moved toward me.

  I gasped as the tip of his cock slid through my wetness and plunged deep inside of me. Gabriel held himself there, his body pressed against my ass as he reached up and firmly grabbed my waist. I arched my back to give him better positioning and then looked over in the mirror to my right and watched his cock come in and out of me, glistening from my juices. I moaned loudly at the sight and concentrated on the feeling of every ripple of his body sliding through me. He growled loudly as I began to push back as he thrust forward, slamming our bodies together and pushing him deeper inside of me. I wanted to feel him come so badly.

  I pulled my body upward, and he walked forward, still inside of me. He pulled out and turned me back around, picking me up and putting my legs around his waist. My legs stretched behind him and hooked on the railings on the other wall and my back was pressed against the mirror. I leaned forward and kissed him passionately as he began to thrust, this time with need and want. I could tell he was getting close and with the feeling of his body rubbing up and down against mine, I could feel myself teetering on the edge as well. He pushed in and out of me, growling and groaning as our bodies meshed together. I screamed loudly with every push, feeling my body poised for another orgasm.

  “I’m gonna come,” I wailed.

  “Yeah, baby,” he said, tightly grabbing my ass.

  As my body tensed, and juices exploded inside of me, he yelled out in chorus with my orgasmic moans. Stepping forward, he pushed up inside of me as far as he could go. He closed his eyes and moaned, feeling my body pulsate around him. His hips moved ever so slightly as pleasure flew over him and his hard cock found relief. I clamped my fingers down on his shoulder, my breath elevated and the ecstasy still pushing hard against my chest. Slowly Gabriel’s muscles began to relax, his body exhausted from the orgasm that had hit him like a brick. He held tightly to me as he pulled away from the wall and carefully sat down on the floor with me still wrapped around him. He leaned forward and laid his head on my chest as I stroked my fingers through his hair.

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  “I love you too,” I said, kissing the top of his head.

  For several moments we sat there, each recovering from the passion we just experienced. It was intimate and quiet, and I felt warm knowing this was a moment just for us, that no one else could share in it or take it from us. He leaned back and looked up at my face.

  “Am I forgiven now?”

  “Yes,” I laughed. “You are forgiven.”

  “There is something I want to do for you,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about it since our second date.”

  “What?”

  “I want to give you the money to get you and your team into a real office, with all the equipment you need,” he said.

  “What? Are you serious?”

  “Yeah,” he chuckled. “You have this amazing dream, amazing product, and amazing motivation. You deserve to have an office so that you can begin to make all this a reality”

  I stared at him, not fully comprehending or believing what he was offering me. This was the break my company needed. There were so many things that we wanted to do but we couldn’t because we were all in different spaces. With this building, we could set up any and all programs so that we can be putting out a new product every six to twelve months. That is an unbelievable advantage over the competition. I never was good at taking things from other people, but I just didn’t know how to turn this down.

  “I can’t take that,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Yes, you can, and you’re going to,” he said, sternly.

  “Fine, but only on the condition that I will pay you back,” I said, negotiating.

  “No way,” he said, shaking his head. “Don’t you know what a
gift is?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “That is the only way I will accept. I need to know that I have covered all the debts in my life. I can’t take that much money from you.”

  “Fine,” he finally said. “You drive a hard bargain little lady.”

  I laughed and leaned forward, kissing him deeply before standing up and finding my clothes. We laughed and giggled as we attempted to get dressed in the elevator. When we were finally dressed, I leaned in and kissed him again, feeling like I was finally finding my way through this whole mess. I was still unsure of what to do with my father, but I had straightened things out with Gabriel and that was really important to me. On top of that, the software would be launching in less than two weeks, and I could start looking for buildings to run my new technology company from. Instead of selling this product to a competitor, I was going to create my own brand and take it to places I had never imagined before.

  I knew this motivation came from a place of emotion, but it was the kind of motivation that could change the world if everyone believed in it. Gabriel and I were in love, and that was the greatest gift I could have imagined. I just hoped that we were done with all the secrets, because I was ready for the simple life.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Gabriel

  The day before had been amazing on so many levels. I was able to get Penny to calm down and listen to me, we confessed our love for each other, and then we had the most passionate and erotic sex I may have ever had. The way our bodies moved over each other was uninhibited and without fear. I could feel our love for each other taking the sex to the next level and it was beyond anything I could have imagined. Afterward, Penny had come back to my apartment and spent the night with my arms wrapped tightly around her. It made my morning much better, waking up next to her and kissing her softly on the cheek before leaving for work.

  Still, there was something nagging at me, making this whole thing not quite complete. Penny and her father were not on speaking terms, and that was really hard for me to swallow. I needed things to be okay between them, and I knew that Penny needed that too. No matter how happy I was to have her there with me, I couldn’t ignore the fact that things were not okay between her and her father. She had good reason to be angry with him, but that didn’t mean she should be forever.

  Randall had made some very poor decisions throughout his career, ones that put his family’s future on the line. Still today, with Randall having invested in her software, she was running the risk of losing everything. There had to be something that I could do to make sure that she and her father’s relationship was okay, and that I was not somehow getting in the way of that. If I ended up being one of the reasons Penny didn’t forgive and make up with her father, it could really turn out bad for us in the long run. I was not willing to take the chance again by making the wrong decision. If Penny and I spent our relationship with the underlying fact that I was keeping her father from her life in the back of our minds, it would almost certainly result in resentment later on down the line. I never would want Penny resenting me or thinking that I would ever keep her from her family. Her mother was not coming back into her life anytime soon, so Randall was all she had. I knew that she was angry with him, but I also knew that she loved him very much.

  I couldn’t let things continue in this way. I put down the files I was working on and made a couple of phone calls. When I was done, I pulled out my phone and texted Penny, asking her to meet me at the Lovehouse for dinner. She was more than happy to and replied almost immediately. As much as I would have loved to have this be a romantic dinner for the two of us to celebrate our relationship, the situation between she and her father needed to be taken care of first. I picked up the phone and dialed Randall’s number.

  “Hello?”

  “Randall, it’s Gabriel,” I said.

  “What do you want?”

  “Look, I think it’s time you and I hash this out, if not for us than for Penny,” I said.

  “All right,” he replied. “Where would you like to meet?”

  “Come to the Lovehouse tonight for dinner,” I said. “I’ll be there at six thirty.”

  “Fine,” he replied. “I’ll see you then.

  I hung up the phone and sat there thinking about what I just had done. Neither one of them knew that the other was going to be there, and I had Randall meeting me thirty minutes prior so they didn’t end up walking in together. This was going to turn out one of two ways: either Penny was going to be livid with me and storm out of the restaurant, or she was going to sit down and talk to him, finding whatever peace she could from the encounter. If it didn’t work, at least I would know that I’d tried.

  When I got to the restaurant, Randall was there waiting. They showed us to my normal table and we sat there for several minutes in an awkward silence. I had to tell him that Penny was coming so I could at least give him a small head start to think about what he was going to say to her.

  “I didn’t just bring you here to talk to me,” I said. “Penny is on the way.”

  “Does she know?”

  “No,” I said, looking down. “I knew she wouldn’t come if I told her. The two of you need to squash this and move forward.”

  “I agree,” he said, looking tired.

  As soon as I told him, Penny walked into the front doors and the hostess showed her to the table. Her smile quickly faded as she approached, and she refused to sit down. She glanced over at me angrily and then back at her father.

  “Penny,” he said. “Sit down. There is no use in running away.”

  “Fine,” she said, taking a seat but clutching her purse.

  “Don’t be mad at Gabriel,” he said, smiling. “He just wanted to give you the chance to talk to me. When we are through, if you never want to see me again, I will respect that.”

  “That’s fair,” she said, taking a deep breath. “What do you want to tell me?”

  “That I love you,” he said. “I could sit here and try to defend my choices, but it would just be excuses and I owe you more than that. I made some stupid decisions and I am sorry for that. I would never have done it if I had only stopped and thought about the repercussions of my actions. I love you more than anything in this world, and I don’t want to lose you.”

  “I love you too, dad,” she said, relaxing a bit. “I just don’t understand.”

  “I know,” he said. “And you probably never will because my choices were not made with reason, they were made with emotion. Fear, primarily. Fear that I would lose your mother, which I ended up doing anyway. Fear that I wouldn’t be able to provide you the kind of life you deserved. And fear that I wouldn’t ever be good enough in the business world.”

  “Are you going to stop?”

  “Of course I am,” he said. “I already put in my resignation with the board. I was given a golden parachute to leave, so money won’t be an issue. From there I am going to figure out what else I’m good at.”

  Penny put her coat on the back of the chair and turned around in her seat. She looked content with those answers and she took her father’s hand and smiled. She didn’t give him a response or an ultimatum, she just accepted his candor and believed him when he said he was done. We then spent the rest of dinner talking and laughing, me getting to know Randall on a level I didn’t, and Penny getting to feel the satisfaction of having us both together. That was all she wanted in the beginning, but everything else had gotten in the way. Now, we were finally able to be there like a family.

  I could tell there was still some tension between them, but I also knew with the way they loved each other, that tension would eventually recede, and she and Randall would find themselves back in a loving father and daughter relationship. She reached over and took my hand under the table, squeezing it and smiling at me. My heart fluttered in my chest and I knew that she had calmed down enough to see that I had done this for her. I truly felt comfortable knowing that I could have a relationship, a real one, with Penny and not have to worr
y about lies, secrets, and drama tearing us apart. She was the woman of my dreams, someone I never thought I would find, and I wasn’t going to ever let her forget that.

  Things may have started out rocky, and Randall and I may never have a great relationship, but all that mattered to me was that Penny was happy. She was the most important person in my life now, and I didn’t see that changing anytime soon. I could feel all the walls just wash away as I sat there thinking about my future with this beautiful woman.

  Epilogue

  Penny

  I looked in the mirror as I pulled the curling iron through my hair. It was considerably shorter than before, but with everything going on, I needed a change, so I cut it up to my shoulders. It made me look a bit older, but I was twenty-eight and didn’t really need to look like a teenager anymore. I applied my eyeliner, listening to Gabby on the speakerphone telling me about her day. She was going through some crazy stuff at work and I was getting to be a listening ear for her for once.

  “So, anyway, my boss is a dick,” she said. “That’s the short of it all.”

  “You should have just stayed at the café,” I joked.

  “Yes, I got a seventy-thousand-dollar college education to serve rich dicks coffee,” she laughed.

  “Hey, I buy coffee there,” I said, looking down at the phone.

  “My point exactly,” she said, sarcastically, then giggling.

  “That’s not nice,” I laughed. “Besides, I’m not rich.”

  “No, but you will be soon,” she said.

  “Hopefully,” I laughed. “Otherwise I’ve spent my blood sweat and tears on a cute little project funded by my boyfriend.”