The Plan (Off-Limits Romance, #4)(17)

My dumb, drunk ass fell down the stairs! I start to laugh and whimper instead.

Oh, God. My breath hitches on a pained sob. I might die here like those poor souls who choke to death on gum in lonely houses.

I push myself up, so I’m sitting, and pain shoots through my head. “Oh, hell.” I lean over, resting one still-shaky arm on my knee.

Something scuffs behind me. “Marley?”

I swing my gaze around to find Gabe crouching down beside me.

“What the fuck just happened?” He sounds pissed off.

I blink up at him with bleary eyes, but I can’t see him in the dark. “I fell down,” I say thickly.

“Down the stairs?”

I give a soft laugh. “Yeah.”

Gabe shifts closer, close enough that I can smell him, see the outline of his frown. “Well—are you okay?”

“I’m okay.” I wobble to my feet and grab onto the stair rail. God, I’m dizzy. Really dizzy.

I look up the stairs.

“Why don’t you let me help you up?” I feel his hand on my elbow and try to step away. Except my knee gives out. As I grab for the stair rail, Gabe scoops me up, carrying me in front of him like a husband carrying his bride over the threshold.

I blink up at him. Shove him. “Let me go!”

“You can’t even stand up on the ground, Marley. You want to fall again?”

“I wouldn’t.”

Sparkly tingles fizzle through me as I feel his lips against my hair. “You smell like a bar.”

“The most good-smelling bar,” I say in a drunk half-sigh, even as I try to wriggle free. He ascends a few more steps before I grab his shirt collar and tug. “I’ll have you know…I’ve been walking for…thirty-three…well, something.” I giggle. “Thirty years or more, I’ve been walking. Put me down, you big dickface!”

I swat him and feel his chest shake. Futhermucker laughing at me… I’m set on my feet, but Gabe won’t move his arm; it’s trapping me against him.

I turn around to face him, my ass brushing the arm that’s still wrapped around my hips. He looks like he’s smirking, so I shove him in the forehead. “Pork-chop stealer. You can go now.”

“Yeah? I’ve got permission?”

“Yes, you pompus dickface.”

I hear Gabe chuckle—and I feel it, too. He feels so warm against me. Warmer than the chilly air. He’s like a pillow. I blink at his face and pet his shoulder as I try to comprehend this moment.

“This is not the way it’s meant to be.”

He smiles a little, and I flick one of his stupid curls.

“I don’t need you or want you around.”

He laughs again, and I can feel his hand holding my hip. “Maybe I deserve that.”

“Trust me, you do. Let go of me, and watch this.”

I climb the next two stairs, proud of how I keep my balance even though the world is spinning. Then I feel his arms come back around me from behind. I smell his smell-good man stuff—stupid man stuff—and I want him. My vagina wants his penis. He’s so solid, tall, and warm, and Gabey.

“You can let me go!” I feel him right behind me. God, I want to feel him hard behind me, and that’s not, not good!

“Let me pick you up, Mar. I’d feel like shit if you fell back down.”

“Oh,” I cry as he lifts me. “You’d feel like shit. Well then! That would be a motherfucking shame!”

I attempt to roll my eyes, but they fall shut instead. As Gabe carries me up the last few stairs, I feel like I’m sailing through space. And maybe time as well. His body against mine is pleasantly familiar. The moment he gets to the top, he sets me on my feet, keeping his arms around me like a cage.

“Do you have your keys?” I feel his breath on my temple. It smells like mint.

“I don’t know. Why don’t you find them, hero? Heh. It makes me laugh to call you hero. What I really mean…is like, zero…”

I feel his chest expand as he inhales. I watch as he lifts my purse, still hanging diagonally across my chest, and delves inside. I make a grab for it.

“Don’t snoopy…snoopy.” God, I’m fucking funny when I’m drunk.

I can feel him watch me as I fumble in my purse. “Oh no! They’re not here!” I look down the stairs—so many stairs. “Ah, hell. I think I had them…when I fell.” My words sound slurred. I laugh again, because I’m stupid. Drunk and stupid.

“I’ll check underneath the stairs.” Gabe starts to help me sit, but then he scoops me back up, tossing me over his shoulder as he descends the stairs.

“Whoa—you’re like Godzilla here…” I giggle.

“What?”

“Big steps, boom…boom.”

He sets me on the bottom step, then disappears behind the staircase. I can see his back as he bends over, sifting through the grass.

“The famous Gabriel McKellan,” I boom.

He leans around the stairs, looking confused. I kinda like the way his curls are sticking up.

I laugh. “Oh, carry on. I like to see you bending over.” When he looks again at me, I give him my best smirk. “It’s 2017, babe. Time for you to be objectified. And you whoa—I mean, you know what, Gabe? You know what? I really like the way your ass looks in those shorts. Are those even shorts?” I pull my phone out, struggling with the flashlight as he comes back around in front of me, holding my keys.