Falling For My Ex's Dad by Oma Green

Chapter 193: Suppressed Desire

Gabriel POV

I stood in my office, fuming-or at least, that's what I told myself.

But the moment our eyes met, the fire in my chest shifted into something else.

Clairessa stood across the desk, arms crossed tightly, her lips pressed into a furious line.

She didn't speak. She didn't need to.

Her silence said everything.

And still... I couldn't concentrate on the anger in her expression—because all I could see was how damn beautiful she looked.

Her hair was still damp from the shower, soft strands clinging to her cheeks, framing her face with an effortless kind of beauty that didn't feel real.

I wanted to run my fingers through the tangles, smooth them back, drag the ends across my skin... just to see if they still carried that familiar hint of vanilla.

God, I used to love that scent.

Sweet. Warm. Hers.

Or had she changed it?

I couldn't tell from here, and it pissed me off that I even cared.

My eyes dropped before I could stop them.

She wore oversized joggers that swallowed her legs, but even beneath all that fabric, I could still trace the shape of her hips.

My body remembered.

How they felt pressed against me.

Wrapped around me. Moving with me in the dark.

My throat tightened.

Then my gaze climbed to that worn sweatshirt clinging to her frame. Too thin to hide the swell of her breasts.

My jaw clenched.

She wasn't wearing a bra.

I didn't need a second look. I just knew.

And damn me—I wondered... if I reached for her now, slipped my hands beneath that fabric, cupped those perfect mounds again—would her body still respond to me the same way?

Would her back arch the second my fingers brushed over her nipples?

Would she moan-soft and breathless-eyes fluttering shut like I was still the only man who knew how to touch her?

Fuck.

my hair, trying to shake it

warn her-to make it clear she'd never pull that stunt with me

to challenge me. Not here. Not under my

on my

all the fury I'd been clinging to had dissolved-melting away piece by piece into something

Suppressed desire.

spent weeks trying-and failing to

low and hard, causing a brutal

her

inch of her

her like she still belonged to

deep inside her, she'd have no choice but to

and

broke

hell is wrong with

my gaze up from her neckline to her

furious-and

confusion. My voice came out smoother than

are you

stopped me from leaving. Pulled that macho stunt right in front of him. What the hell

I could've answered. Should've.

standing-so close, chest rising with

something." "You think just

back against the wall, lips curling into a

remember signing it. That means I do own you. And you don't get to walk out

but she didn't flinch-she never did. Instead, she crossed the room, shoved a finger into my

one does. And I can walk away from you-or anyone-whenever the hell

hand shot out and caught her wrist as I pulled her

slammed into mine. The contact

of torture. Weeks of distance, of watching her, wanting

this close, under the same roof, and not being able

now she was in my arms. Her breath brushed

it.

spent weeks denying stared

I missed her.

the way she

the sound of her

Her laughter.

Her rage.

way she glared at me like she wanted to both kill me and kiss me

breath.

home after midnight,

would dull whatever this was between

But I'd been lying.

help. Not even

left

met her eyes, saw the fire burning behind them—and felt it

chest.

slid