Author: Bella Andre

No man had ever talked to her like this, told her what to anticipate, promised her ecstasy if only she’d follow where he led. She was just pragmatic enough, had taken care of herself for long enough, to think that she shouldn’t like whispered promises from a man who clearly knew exactly how to drive a woman wild with wanting. And yet as his mouth traveled up her neck, alternating soft little bites with the warm press of his tongue over the small hurt, she knew the truth for what it was.

She loved it.

He pulled back and slid his hands from her hair, down her arms to take her hands, and that slow glide of the calloused skin on his palms across the inside of her elbow, her wrist, was just about as good as any orgasm any other man had given her.

Gabe threaded his fingers intimately through hers and even though she was already naked, even though she’d all but been begging him to take her up against the wall moments before, the feel of being held like that—like more than just a lover for the night—rocked all the way past her skin and bones, heading straight to the core of her heart. And, amazingly, even though he’d shifted away enough to easily take in her nudity, he never looked away from her eyes for a single second.

It was crazy for tears of emotion to rush at her and she tried to blink them away before he noticed, but maybe it was the hitch in her breathing that gave her away.

“You and me, we’re going to talk to each other tonight. You’re going to tell me when I make you feel good...or if I don’t.”

She licked her lips, knew he was right. They weren’t kids taking a tumble together. “It’s good so far,” she said in a soft voice. “Really good.”

“But?”

Any other man would have pushed past her obvious emotions, but Gabe was doing just the opposite.

“I expected hot.” She slid her thumbs against his palms. “I was ready for hot.”

His eyebrow quirked up at that. “Really?”

She shook her head slightly. “Well,” she admitted, “maybe not exactly ready for it, but I’m not surprised.”

“Me either,” he said, and then, “Tell me what’s surprising.”

She didn’t know how to put words to it, other than to say, “Everything else.”

His eyes darkened, his fingers tightening on hers. “I wish I were surprised,” he said in a low voice, raw with need and something else she was afraid to dissect. He lifted her hands to his mouth and managed to kiss them both at the same time.

Oh God, what this man was going to do to her...how would she ever recover from this night? she wondered helplessly as he slowly brought her hands back down and began to move them apart. If it were just hot sex, that would be one thing. But what if he were looking to seduce more than just her body?

What if he was going for her heart, too?

His eyes moved slowly from her face down to her breasts, and held. The seconds ticked by, one after the other, as he took in every inch of her skin. She couldn’t stop herself from following his hot gaze to her breasts, and both of them watched as her nipples puckered up hard, pulling her full breasts up higher on her chest.

“Touch me,” she begged, desperate to feel his hands, his mouth on her. “I need you to touch me.”

Gabe gave no indication of having heard her, nothing but the way he took their joined hands and placed hers on either side of his jean-clad hips. He didn’t rush as he slid his fingers from hers, and those painfully drawn out moments of waiting only added to her need.

And then—finally!—he was reaching for her, his fingertips feathering out across her stomach and then up her rib cage. She sucked in a hard breath at the intense pleasure of Gabe’s touch. He hadn’t even come close to her breasts yet, but already she felt insanely good.

She bit her lip as he continued his sinfully slow path of sensual destruction up her body.

“So soft,” he murmured, just at the lower swell of her breasts. “So pretty.” His palms shifted that final inch to cup the full flesh. “So perfect.”

There was no holding back another moan as his thumbs both moved across her nipples at the same time, not a chance of keeping her back from arching her chest further into his big hands.

But when he lowered his head and blew across one of her nipples, she nearly came right then and there. His eyes met hers, full of approval and unabashed pleasure at her reaction. “You’re sensitive, aren’t you?”

He rubbed his thumb over both nipples again, which completely forestalled her being able to answer him, as it was taking every ounce of her concentration just to keep breathing.

“Megan?”

His low voice urged her to answer him, just as he bent slightly to blow a hot patch of air against her other breast.

“Yes,” she gasped out as he followed up the breath with the sweet pinch of his thumb and forefinger over her tightly aroused flesh.

And then, before she realized what was happening, he was lifting her into his arms and carrying her over to the bed.

“I don’t want your legs to give out when you come for me,” he explained in a matter-of-fact voice that didn’t take away from the sensual promise even one little bit.

She had already pulled back the covers before he’d arrived, and he laid her down on the clean sheets. She wouldn’t let her hold around his neck go, wouldn’t give him any choice but to move onto the bed with her. Who knew how he’d tease her otherwise? Maybe he’d make her touch herself while he watched and that was when she’d come so hard, with his eyes on her, all the while knowing his hands, his mouth, his shaft would be there soon...

She forcibly stopped her imaginings on a shudder, but Gabe had already caught it all, her breasts peaking against his chest harder than ever as the naughty vision continued to assault her already lust-addled brain.

“Tell me what just got you so worked up.”

“You.”

And it was true, Gabe was all she could think about, all she could feel, all that existed for the night. But he was quicker than that, could clearly scent her evasion.

“What else?”

His gentle but firm question, that small upturn of his beautiful lips as he watched her expression carefully, had her answering, “I was wondering what you were going to do to me to—” She swallowed hard, not having ever had any practice at talking dirty in bed. And yet, even though it was another thing she shouldn’t want, that sensual woman deep inside made her say, “—to make me come so hard.”

He shifted over her and she had to close her eyes at the wonderful press of his muscles into her, the feel of roughened fabric over her sensitive skin.

He lowered his head to the other side of her neck from where he’d licked before and pressed circles of pleasure against her skin with his tongue. Only this time, he didn’t stop there, thank God. Instead, he moved lower, the slow slide of wet heat over the upper swell of both breasts taking her breath away in a rush of sensation. Closer and closer he came to her nipples, licking shockingly soft circles over the soft flesh, heading in toward the peaks like a bull’s eye.

And then—oh God, please!—she felt him just brush up against the edge of her tightly puckered areola, and her hips were bucking hard into the taut muscles of his thigh as she tried to take herself over the edge he seemed so determined to keep just out of reach, when he lifted his head.

“And what did you come up with?”

No! He couldn’t do this to her now. Couldn’t stop when she was so close.

“I can’t—” She panted. “I need—”

But as her vision cleared, she could see that he wasn’t going to give her what she needed until she gave him his first.

“Tell me what you were thinking I would make you do.”

Desperate for even a small orgasm to take the edge off this crazy need coursing through her, she blurted, “You made me touch myself.”

His eyes lit with even more arousal at her surprising statement.

“And?”

“And—” She wasn’t really going to say this, was she? She couldn’t possibly give away such deeply held fantasies to a man who could never be anything more to her than just one perfect night, could she? Nonetheless, the words spilled from her lips. “And after you made me come for you, you made me come even better with your hands, and mouth, on me.”

She was rewarded with Gabe’s lips over the tip of one breast. For all his talk about slow, there was nothing easy about the way he suckled her, and she didn’t want there to be.

Megan threaded her hands into his dark hair and held him to her, loving the sweet suction of his lips and tongue and teeth over her shockingly aroused flesh. Nothing had ever felt this good. This right. And when he shifted his attention to her other nipple, even though she should have known how to prepare herself for the pleasure of his mouth, she couldn’t even come close. Not when the pleasure of being with Gabe continued to shock her from moment to moment.

His hands cupped and caressed her even as his mouth stole her every lucid thought away. It wasn’t just foreplay, wasn’t just sex...what he was doing to her was worship, pure and simple.

And through it all, she rocked and thrust herself against his thigh, her arousal growing to a fever pitch with every pull of his tongue against her, with every stroke of his fingers over desperately aroused skin, until she was right there, right on the edge of that orgasm he promised her she’d have.

The shock of cool air rushing over her skin hit her hard enough to have her eyes flying open as Gabe lifted himself away from her and off the bed. Before she could get her brain to cooperate, he was lowering himself into the chair in the corner.

“Show me, Megan,” he said in a husky voice. “Show me how you like to be touched.”

But she was already shaking her head, getting onto her knees to come after him and pull him back on to the bed with her.

“You already know.” And it would be so much easier, so much safer if he just touched her, instead.

But he wasn’t coming back toward her outstretched hand. “Let me watch this first time. Let me see you come apart with your hands on yourself.”

This was crazy. She shouldn’t even be considering doing this, should never have told him about her fantasy. Heck, she shouldn’t have had the fantasy at all!

But how long had she pushed away her own reckless urges? How many years had she forced herself to turn from adrenaline, to focus on always being safe, always taking the sure but slightly boring path before her. She wished she didn’t know the answer, wished she didn’t have to admit that even before she’d lost her husband, as a young mother she’d been playing it way too safe.

For one night, could all rules be off?

For a handful of hours, could the sky be the limit?

And could she trust not only Gabe, but herself enough to take off the reins and run free for just a little while?

The answers came from somewhere deep inside—three yeses that actually seemed to come with more relief than fear—and she found herself moving back onto the bed while Gabe watched her from across the small room.

“You still have all your clothes on,” ended up being her only remaining protest as she settled back against the pillows.

“You belong naked,” he told her.

“You do, too,” she said in a hoarse voice, knowing without having to guess just how beautiful he was going to be without his clothes on.

His mouth moved up into a smile at her words, but the smile never reached his eyes, couldn’t do a thing to extinguish the fire in them.

She tried to be comfortable with her nudity, tried to act as if lying there on the bed before him with one hand over the curve of her breast and the other on her stomach was a normal thing for her to be doing.

But it wasn’t. Not at all.

Utterly unable to hold anything back from Gabe until now, she found this moment was no different. “I don’t know how to do this.”