One corner of his mouth quirked upward. “You are just full of surprises, Miss Melanie.”

He clipped a metal clamp to her free nipple and turned up the voltage. She couldn’t decide if the shocks hurt or felt good, but there was no doubt that they turned her on.

“Ah f**k,” she groaned and rocked her hips to ease the building need between her thighs. Every pulse of energy at her breast travelled down her belly and to her pu**y, making it clench with need.

Her hand moved between her legs. She dipped her fingers into heated wetness and then rubbed herself to release using rapid strokes against her clit. She shattered, pleasure coursing through her body as her thighs clamped shut over her hand and she quaked with bliss.

“Fuck, you’re sexy, Mel,” Gabe said.

She forced her thighs apart, still rubbing her clit slowly to ease herself gently back to earth.

“Mmm,” she murmured, but her relief was short lived. The stimulation to her br**sts was already moving her toward the point of painful arousal once again.

Gabe used both hands to push her trembling thighs farther apart. He was kneeling between her legs on the bed. She’d been too lost in sensation to know when he’d joined her, but her pu**y throbbed with excitement as she stared at the thick c**k standing rigid between her open thighs.

“I want you,” she said, her voice thick and low.

Gabe’s belly visibly quivered. “I love the tone of your voice when you’re turned on. Tell me what you want, Mel.”

“You,” she said.

“How do you want me?”

“Inside me. Slow. Deep. Your thumb rubbing me here,” she said, massaging her clit in gentle circles.

He grabbed a pink object off the bed and inserted his thumb into it. He moved her hand aside and stroked her the way she’d asked, except his rubbery thumb attachment added stimulating pulses of vibration to an already pleasurable experience.

“I was going to use this on your sweet pu**y,” he said, lifting the oddly shaped phallus she’d seen earlier. He lowered it and rubbed the tip against her opening. “I was going to shove it inside you and f**k you with it until you begged me to stop.”

She whimpered, suddenly aware of the emptiness she felt deep inside.

“But I’m feeling a bit selfish at the moment.” He tossed the tool aside and crept forward. “I need to feel that hot pu**y around me.”

She groaned in admiration of his so-called selfishness.

“Lift your hips for me, baby,” he said.

Her butt rose off the bed, and he shoved a pillow under her lower back to help her maintain the angle. He stared down at where his thumb massaged her clit and watched his c**k penetrate her one agonizingly slow inch at a time. His mouth dropped open a little more with each inch he claimed and his green eyes glazed over with pleasure. Melanie’s fingers dug into the mattress beneath her as her inner walls clenched rhythmically around his thick cock, drawing his fullness deeper. Deeper. Good God, Gabe, fill me. Fuck me.

“Stretched around me like that, your pu**y looks fantastic,” he murmured. His eyes drifted closed and the muscles of his face twitched. “And it feels even better.”

He began to move inside her, maintaining the slow rhythm she’d claimed to desire. But the pleasure and pain rippling through her ni**les and the vibrating pulses coming from the thumb massaging her clit soon had her pleading for more.

“Faster, Gabe. Please.”

He massaged her clit faster, but his deep, slow thrusts never lost their unhurried cadence.

“I think I’m coming,” she gasped, surprised by the intensity of her pleasure. There were no accompanying waves of release, just a building of ecstasy.

“You’re not there yet,” he said, changing the direction of his massaging thumb. The motion sent even more waves of pleasure spiraling through her core.

By the time she finally let loose, she was screaming his name.

He pulled out unexpectedly and straightened his body to rise above her. “Watch,” he said.

Her eyes sought out his slick cock. He gave it two sharp tugs that sent cum shooting across her lower belly. She’d watched him come for her during their video chats, but feeling his load splatter across her skin added a level of eroticism she had not expected. She reached up to pull him against her, squashing his hand and c**k between them.

“God, you make me hot, Gabriel Banner.”

He chuckled. “The feeling is mutual, baby,” he said in her ear. After a moment, he shifted away slightly. “So what do you want to try out next? We have all day to continue with our experiments.”

She blindly groped the mattress beside her and picked up another of his unidentifiable toys. “This thing,” she said. She wasn’t sure what it did or even where it went, but if Gabe had designed it, she had no doubt she was going to love it.

~ ~ ~

Melanie had relished her morning of being Gabe’s sexual test subject, but there was something soul-satisfying about just hanging out with him in his cozy kitchen. When they’d found the strength to join the living world—ravenous hunger had driven them from Gabe’s bedroom—they’d made a trip to the store and purchased enough perishables to make a large lunch. They worked well in the kitchen together. Well, he spent most of his time on the deck grilling their steaks and ears of corn while she tossed a salad and baked potatoes, but even though they weren’t in the same room, she felt like part of his life when she was in this house.

“Medium rare,” he said, placing a rather bloody plate on the counter. “And well done for the lady.” He deposited her steak next to his.

“Smells delicious,” she said.

“I’m a much better cook when my mother isn’t breathing down my neck.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “It’s been a great day, hasn’t it?”

It had. There was only one small dark spot on all her joy. She still hadn’t heard from Nikki. On their way to the store, Melanie had called the hotel in New Orleans and they’d patched her through to Gabe’s room. Nikki was supposed to be staying there, but she hadn’t answered. Recognizing Melanie’s distress, Gabe had taken pity on her and had sent Adam, who was staying in the same hotel, to knock on Nikki’s door. She hadn’t responded his summons either. Maybe she’d decided to go back to Wichita after all. It would have been nice of her to let Melanie know that.

The steaks were delicious. The company was delicious. But Melanie’s sense of dread was unsavory at best.