Chapter 12
‡
Gabe was staring at Adriana’s hand and still couldn’t quite believe what she was offering him. It was as if he was looking in the eyes of the unicorn and seeing that it was real, but still not believing what his eyes were telling him.
This wasn’t his intention when he texted her. He’d just wanted to talk about Jonah. However just like everything this weekend, things had taken a very unexpected, very interesting turn.
Most guys would be jumping at the chance to take what Adriana was offering. Yet he was hesitating. He wanted more than that. No matter what the outcome with Jonah was, he wanted to be in Adriana’s life. He’d already thought just being friends with her would be difficult after just a kiss. If he knew the way her face looked when he was buried deep inside of her, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to ever think of her as just a friend.
It might be selfish, but it was true.
Still, she’d said she needed this, and he definitely needed this. It had been a long time for him too, and he’d never wanted anyone the way his body craved Adriana.
Gabe had learned the hard way that he couldn’t control the future and it was a waste to worry about the past. The only thing he could do was make the best decision about the moment he was living in. Right now, that decision was a no-brainer.
Lifting his arm, his hand enveloped hers and she sucked in a sharp breath. “Deal. But, remember, deals can always be renegotiated.”
A small grin tilted up on her lips and he waited for her to argue. When she didn’t he took one step forward and closed the distance between them. Everything inside of him was screaming to ravish her. To tear both of their clothes off and take her up against the wall. But he didn’t. If this was a one-night-only event, he was going to spend as much time on the undercard as he could before getting to the main event. Foreplay was the name of his game.
Lowering his head, Gabe stopped just short of kissing her. His lips hovered above hers, building the tension between them. He slid the tips of his fingers up and down her arms. She was vibrating with kinetic energy, so alive with it that touching her felt like touching a live wire. Every muscle in her body trembled with pent-up desire.
Finally, as her breaths began coming in short pants, his hands slipped to her waist, gripping her there as he pressed his lips against hers softly and slowly, taking his time with every movement of lip against lip. Fuck, he loved the way she felt. Every moment they weren’t together he was dreaming of this. Touching her like this. Kissing her like this. Being with her like this.
Everything about her drove every impulse he had to the brink.
Her eyes. The curve of her smile. The way her hair glistened. The fresh citrusy smell of her. Every detail brought his nerve endings springing to life. They tortured him with aching want for her.
He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth and ran his tongue along it, causing a needy groan to escape from her. That visceral noise nearly ended all of his lofty plans when it caused an uncontrollable lust to shoot through his veins, but he summoned up his will and stayed the course.
His life experience, both in the ring and out, had taught him discipline every bit as powerful as his raging lust for her was. So he wouldn’t give into those baser instincts. He would find the strength to harness his self-control.
With measured restraint, he kept kissing her gently as his hands moved up from where they’d been resting lightly on her hips and trailed up the side of her torso, forming an outline of her body as if he were sculpting her out of clay. His fingers grazed along her hour-glass figure, memorizing her shape and texture.
She was perfect. She was a masterpiece. There was nothing on this earth more flawless and effortlessly beautiful than she was.
A breathy moan sounded from the back of her throat and he slipped his tongue in between her lips and explored the wet, hot recesses of her mouth. Her tongue pressed back against his, and they twirled around each other in perfect sync. Meeting each other lick for lick.
What started as an exploratory kiss quickly ignited into a fiery inferno of need. Knowing that if he didn’t extinguish it things would quickly get out of control, he forced himself to pull back a little and let his eyes move across her face, taking in every detail like he was memorizing it.
He wanted to commit every last little piece of tonight to his long-term memory. He wanted to store it there, forever unchanged, so he could take it out and look at it whenever he wanted to. Anytime he wished to indulge in a replay of what was sure to be the greatest experience of his life, there it would be. Waiting for him.
“I’ve never wanted anything the way I want you,” he growled.
She let out a harsh breath as her eyes closed at his words and her head tilted back, exposing her elegant neck. A flush colored her skin, and he saw the pulse at her throat pick up speed.
His cock hardened at the realization that it was his words that’d had such a profound and immediate effect on her. It was the knowledge that he wanted her so much that had turned her on that deeply.
“Then take me,” she sighed in a ragged whisper.
Wasting no time, Gabe started to undress her with trembling fingers. They weren’t shaking from nerves. Far from it. He’d rarely felt more confident in his life. Maybe in the ring during those magic moments when he was “in the zone.”
Maybe.
No. His fingers were shaking because of the pure need pulsing through his veins. Still, even as adrenaline shot through him like a powerful drug, he wouldn’t allow himself to give in to it.
Neither of them had been with anyone for so long. For different reasons, of course, but somehow it felt as if they’d been waiting for each other. That kind of fate shouldn’t be rushed.
With each piece of clothing that Gabe removed from Adriana’s body, he felt just a little closer to her. There was an invisible ribbon threading around them as they held each other. Gabe could sense it. It was unseen but undeniably felt, and every time his bare skin touched against hers, and the heat of their bodies fused together, it wound just a little bit tighter, binding them together.
He liked that. He wished he could know for certain that it would never unravel. But that wasn’t how life worked. His past had taught him to live with uncertainty, and to, if not love it, at least accept it. To embrace the mystery of the future in order to fully appreciate the pleasure of the present.
He was never more grateful for that lesson than he was at that moment.
Gabe trailed hot kisses down her neck, his lips pressing against her soft supple flesh and leaving imprints with every fleeting kiss.
He could taste the silky saltiness of the sheen of sweat that now coated her. He could feel the throbbing hum of her racing pulse, and he could sense the tremulous energy that thrummed through every cell of her body.
They were in complete harmony. Each one of those things were mirror images of his own body’s responses. It was proof that she wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her. That was a hell of a high bar to clear.
Gabe continued his trail of kisses down her chest. She felt real under his hands and his mouth in a way she hadn’t before. He realized then that he’d subconsciously been thinking of her as an ethereal being up until now, but his perception had shifted with touch. She wasn’t an otherworldly creature anymore. She was Adriana. Flesh and blood.
Very, very sexy flesh. But still flesh. He was desperate to see all of it.
He slipped his hands around her back and slid his fingers under the clasp of her bra. He wanted more than anything else to have her standing there before him, totally naked. Nothing in between the two of them. He wanted to be able to look her up and down and take in the spectacular sight of her nude body. Every dip and curve, every elegant and sinewy muscle.
He needed more than just seeing her. He needed to touch her. Touch every inch of her. Press his body against hers with no barriers, and take his time exploring every inch of her landscape.
After tonight, he would know her like he knew the back of his hand or the streets around his house. He wouldn’t need a map to her body because he would have the topography memorized. Every flat plane and sumptuous curve would’ve become a part of him, absorbed into his muscle memory like the fighting moves he trained on day after day and year after year. They would pop into his brain with no more effort than recalling two plus two. Second nature.
Gently, using only the most delicate pressure, he ran his thumbs along her collarbone and pushed the straps of her bra down her arm. It dropped with a soft thud on the floor. He stood back, marveling at the creamy skin that was revealed underneath the garment—not to mention the stiff, deep red nipples that topped them.
“Damn, you are so perfect,” he murmured. There was no word other than awestruck to describe how he felt.
“Touch me. Please,” she pleaded, trailing her fingertips down the side of his arms.
The sound of her sexy voice snapped him out of the trance he’d been in and he realized that he had been staring at her, mesmerized, for several long beats. Her beautiful breasts had hypnotized him, but now he was free of that spell.
He immediately dove down, dipping his head straight to her nipples and taking them into his mouth. He sucked them hard. They were the sweetest candy he’d ever tasted and he had no intention of letting them out of his greedy mouth anytime soon.
Then, switching things up, he flicked them gently, gauging how each movement affected her by the reaction it elicited in her.
Swirling his tongue around her hard nub sent tremors all over her body, while nipping it with his teeth drew a tortured moan. His rapid up and down flicking caused her to throw her head back and arch her back forward.
Check, check, and check.
He filed all of that information away for future use. Hopefully a lot of fucking future use.
Finally, she fisted her hands in his hair and pulled his head back so that she was looking intently into his face. Then, an edge of desperate longing in her voice, she gasped, “I need to…I can’t stand up. My legs…”
He reached down and palmed her ass, cupping it as he lifted her up off the ground in one swift movement. When she felt what he was doing, she joined in by hopping up and wrapping her legs firmly around his waist, her arms around his neck.
Their kiss was frantic and desperate as he carried her back toward his bed. His tongue swept the wet recesses of her mouth, and hers did the same to his in their claiming kiss. The energy between them built in intensity with every step he took closer to his bedroom.
Gabe tried to slow the pace, slow his pounding heart, slow the blood rushing to his rock-hard dick, but it was useless. Their connection and chemistry was too powerful to restrain. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt so alive. Being with her like this was so intense that it penetrated every cell of his body.
Her touch was electric. Any time he was around her, he felt it. He felt more like himself than he ever had. When he was with her, he was just Gabe. When she looked at him, he felt like she saw him for who he really was. So much of his life had been training for something. But with her there was no benchmark he had to achieve to win her, no unattainable goal that he had to work for so he’d be considered worthy of her time. He just had to be true to himself and true to her.
Those were the only two rules. That kind of freedom, for someone like Gabe who had never had it, was addicting.
He didn’t know if he could hope to give back to her anything close to what she’d made him feel since he’d laid eyes on her. But he was going to try. If he knew one thing about himself, it was that he didn’t like to fail, and he rarely ever did.
When he made it to his bedroom he made quick work of finishing the job he’d started. He pushed her jean shorts down her waist first and they fell to her feet. She stepped out of them and he laid her on his bed.
She lifted her arms up over her head, showcasing her bare breasts and his dick jumped behind its zippered barrier. With his fingertips, he trailed his touch on the outside of her leg starting at her ankle and ending at her hip. She watched his progression and squirmed beneath his attention.
Then, after hooking his fingers beneath the elastic band of her white cotton panties that were decorated with cherries, he slid them down over her feminine, curving hips and slender legs. When she was completely naked, he let his eyes travel over her slowly from head to toe, taking it all in, trying to wrap his head around how he’d gotten so lucky.
“Like I said, wars, monuments…intoxicating.” He repeated highlights of the sentiment from his Shakespeare moment and a catlike grin spread across her lips.
“Recycled poetry,” she pretended to yawn, even miming it by patting her hand over her mouth. “I thought you were better than that.”
He knew she was joking, but he took it as a challenge.
“Your breasts are so perfect they should have a shrine built in their honor.” His hand reached out and he expounded, cupping each one in his hand by turn. “It’s like they were made just to fit into my palm. Your skin looks so flawless, like you’re a porcelain doll. Yet when you touch it, it’s so warm and alive. You’re Grace Kelly, Cleopatra, and Helen of Troy all rolled into one. I want to worship your bo—”
“Okay, okay, enough,” she laughed as her eyes grew wide and she reared up so that she could cover his mouth with her hands. “I get it. You made your point. Stop.”
He nipped at the back of her fingers that were pressed against his lips playfully. She pulled her hand back and laughed.
Moving over her, he began peppering kisses on her collarbone and further down, speaking one word between each contact with his lips. He whispered against her soft skin, “Are you sure you want me to stop?”
“No,” she breathed.
Without hesitation, he lowered his head and began to kiss his way down her belly, leaving a swirling trail with his tongue as he moved further down her body.
“Don’t stop,” she groaned, all the levity immediately gone from her voice. “Please, don’t stop.”
He wouldn’t make her ask twice.
He pushed her knees apart, exposing her glistening womanhood. Just like with her breasts, he could’ve sat there for ages, just mesmerized by its beauty, but he didn’t allow himself that luxury.
Instead, he dipped his mouth immediately to her shining mound and engulfed her entirely, devouring her sweet juices as she arched her back and moaned.
*
Adriana’s hands flew above her head and she gripped the fabric of the pillowcases for all she was worth. She felt like if she let go of that crisp fabric she would lose her tether to everything that was keeping her grounded; like it was the only thing anchoring her to the earth. Everything in her felt like it was spinning into outer space.
As Gabe touched her body, heated up her skin, licked her and kissed her in the most intimate of places, it was almost too much for her brain to handle.
For so many years, she’d been focused on everyone else who needed her. She’d taken care of anyone and everyone except for herself. Not only had she not had any time to see to her own needs, but the idea that there would be another person in the world whose top priority was taking care of her, making her feel good, putting her needs above their own…was inconceivable.
Well, as much as she loved it, there was also a part of her brain that screamed, does not compute!
She knew she just needed to relax and enjoy the sensations washing over her. She needed to simply live in the moment and take this opportunity for all it was worth. She told herself that, again and again, ever more harshly as the moments passed and she just tensed up more.
She quickly learned that screaming at herself to relax was possibly the least effective method imaginable to achieve relaxation. Stressing out about stressing out just added one more layer of tension to the already massive ball of pressure building in her stomach.
She made a quick decision. She just wasn’t going to judge herself. That was it. She would just accept right then and there that whatever she was supposed to be feeling in any given moment was correct. It was perfectly fine, and she would just feel it. Nothing else. No judgements, no analysis. Nothing. Just feelings.
If she felt nervous, then she was supposed to feel nervous. If she felt wound as tight as a Jack-in-the-Box about to spring open, then that was okay, too.
And if she felt waves of electric pleasure buffeting her like a tsunami from the incredibly skilled and attentive attentions that Gabe’s tongue was paying her between her legs, well, then, yes. Definitely. Without question. That was what she was supposed to be feeling.
Amazingly, as soon as Adriana decided to let go in this sense, her body completely calmed down and her emotions quickly followed suit.
Suddenly, she was awash in a sea of good feeling and her brain was simply switched off, as if someone had unplugged it. There was no more cognition, only sensation and emotion.
It was heaven.
Her fists unclenched and her shoulders rolled back into the pillow. She felt the bed swallowing her up like a big marshmallow.
Then, in the absence of that tension, the biggest miracle of all happened—she started to feel, really feel, what Gabe was doing to her. Being stretched piano-wire tight inside had numbed her to all but the broadest strokes of feeling that Gabe sent through her body, but when she relaxed, all of the nuances washed over her in wave after wave.
She felt the out-of-control pressure in between her legs where he focused the majority of his attention, but it was more than that. So much more.
There were the alternating washes of consuming need and contented pleasure that traveled the length of her body all the way from her scalp to her toes. Then, there was the gentle tingle that spread through her belly like the barest brush of butterfly wings.
She could feel every stroke of his tongue and brush of his finger in places on her body that he wasn’t even in contact with. He flicked her between her legs and she felt it in her nipples. He tightened his grip on her waist and she felt it in her core.
She let go completely and surrendered to him as he had claimed her body as his territory.
As he continued to swirl his tongue around her stiff pleasure nub, he pushed two fingers inside of her. He moved them back and forth and up and down, doing his best to stretch her out completely. Every time he moved his hand, she felt an achingly beautiful pressure spreading out from her core to the rest of her body. The flames burned brighter and hotter, threatening to overtake her, until she knew that there was only one choice. She couldn’t take it any longer. She needed him. Right then. Waiting was no longer an option.
“I need you, Gabe. Inside me. I can’t wait.”
He raised his head and looked into her eyes, and cocky smile formed on his lips. “I am inside you,” he teased.
“You know that’s not what I meant,” she shot back. Her voice deadly serious. This was no time for games.
“Not really,” he continued. “I think you need to tell me. I think you need to spell it out for me.”
She groaned in frustration and fisted the sheets in her hands. “Gabe, please.”
Rather than inspiring sympathy for her plight, the plea seemed to amuse him further. The smile painted across his face grew even wider at her frustration.
“Hey, if you’re so desperate, there’s an easy way out of it. Use your words.”
She took a deep, shuddering breath. Talking explicitly wasn’t something she’d ever done. It pushed her boundaries and took her out of her comfort zone. Still, if that was what it took to get Gabe inside her, then she was going to have to try.
As she opened her mouth, she couldn’t deny the flutters of excitement that overtook her belly as her brain tried to form the word she was about to say. Apparently she liked being pushed out of her comfort zone. It was hot.
A blush spread hotly across her cheeks as she spoke deliberately. “I want you to fuck me, not with your fingers.” She reached between their bodies and covered his erection with her palm, squeezing it firmly and his eyes grew dark with desire. “With this.”
A low hiss fell from his lips. “All you had to do was say so.”
She couldn’t help but wryly shake her head.
He stood and undressed there by the side of the bed. She lay still and watched him. His movements weren’t calculated to arouse. This wasn’t some sort of Magic Mike moment. Nevertheless, just watching each piece of clothing come off of his gorgeous body was more enticing than any intentional striptease. She felt her inner walls clench tighter with each article of clothing that he tossed to the side, exposing wide swaths of his naked skin.
By the time he’d stripped completely, she was halfway to an orgasm from the Kegel exercises he’d inspired.
Gabe reached into his nightstand drawer and pulled out a condom, tearing the package open with his teeth. He pulled out the small and translucent rubber disc and then unrolled it onto his dick in one smooth movement.
When he was all suited up, she held out her arms to him and he climbed on the bed to join her, accepting the intimate invitation.
He knelt over her and leaned down to press his lips against hers, kissing her gently. His lips felt so soft when he used them this way. The raging desperation that she’d felt just a moment ago subdued. A little bit, at any rate.
As he kissed her over and over again, it became enough just to lay there with him, skin to skin, and revel in the heat of each other’s bodies. Her arousal mellowed to a low, romantic hum as Gabe gently caressed her body.
Lust began to build in her belly again, slowly at first, but then all at once. In what seemed like the space of just a few seconds, she was consumed by that raging fire again, and then it wasn’t enough to just be near him, to just be kissing him, to just have his hands traveling over her body like she was a piece of rough plywood and his palms were sandpaper.
Nope. She needed to feel him inside her, pumping in and out of her, creating the most intimate bond that it was possible to create.
As if reading her mind, he pulled back and looked into her eyes. “Are you ready?” he asked, genuine concern evident in both his voice and face. She was touched by how much care he showed her. She knew that she would look back on this moment later and treasure it, use it as a mental example of what a truly goodhearted man he was.
However there was no time for any of that right then. Her priority was just getting him inside of her, because that was what her body was screaming for.
“Yes, I’m sure. I’m ready. So ready. I’ve never been this ready.”
He smiled down at her and chuckled at her enthusiasm before lowering back down and pressing his lips to hers again. This time, it wasn’t the same soft and gentle style from before. These kisses would never be described as gentle, or soft. These were rough and demanding kisses. They let her know exactly what he wanted from her, and exactly what he was going to take.
She flung her arms around him and responded in kind, letting her lips communicate to him exactly what she needed and expected. Her fingernails dug into his back but she didn’t care if she was hurting him. All there was was the moment, and in the moment, she needed him. Bad.
He lifted his pelvis up a little bit and positioned himself at her opening.
As much as she’d been asking—be honest, Adriana, begging—him to push himself into her, she had a sudden strong wave of disbelief that it was about to happen. She’d resigned herself to many more years of celibacy.
Even before her brain had finished firing the synapses that would let that train of thought complete a circuit in her mind, though, Gabe pushed his hips forward and his thick, hard girth spread her tight walls wide. A pressure like she’d never felt enveloped her from deep inside. It was as if her entire lower belly was filled to the brim.
She loved it. It was more than just feeling stretched wide. It was feeling filled up.
In a flash of understanding, she realized what Gabe had meant when he said that he felt like her breasts had been made specifically to fit in his palm. That was what she felt as he moved his steel shaft in and out of her tight canal—that her velvet walls had been made specifically to accommodate him, and his hard member had been created for the sole purpose of filling her up.
It took the concept of “made for each other” to a new level.
She dug her heels into the mattress and thrust her hips upward as he pounded into her. She wanted to feel him as deep inside her as he could possibly get. She didn’t want to feel that there was even a corner that wasn’t filled with him.
She clung to him as he moved in her, she gasped as her body shook involuntarily. She never wanted this to end, but at the same time she felt an overwhelming base-level need to drive it to its climactic conclusion.
Gabe slid his hand down her sweat-slicked torso and used his thumb to rub small circles as he kept thrusting in and out of her. That took the whole “study in contradictions” thing and threw the equation way out of balance. Suddenly, there was no more tension between wanting the encounter to last and wanting to drive it toward the explosive end. There was no more choice. The release was happening, whether she wanted it to or not.
Luckily, she wanted it to, more than anything in the world.
Every muscle in her body contracted and squeezed around him, drawing an animalistic moan from him and enhancing her own pleasure.
She shivered and shook, all of her body trembling as she crested the top of the mountain that she and Gabe had climbed together.
As soon as the ecstasy began to subside, she began to move out from under him. The last thing that she needed was to develop real feelings for him, and she was scared that was exactly what she was doing.
He held her in place as he rested his forehead against hers, “Where are you going?”
Her heart was still beating rapidly against her chest and she wondered if he could feel it. “We said one time.”
“We said one night,” he started kissing her neck and she felt powerless to stop him. “And tonight is not over.”
By the time he made it down to her collar bone, her body was already coming back to life and it silenced any thoughts of leaving now. Gabe was right, they’d agreed to one night and it wasn’t over.