His smile returned. “Please?”

“Do you want me to beg? Does that sort of thing turn you on?” I asked coyly.

He let go of my hand and stood up, the dining chair scraping on the polished concrete floor. “Everything about you turns me on, Chloe.”

Oh. I loved his honesty and I suddenly felt shy. I bit my lip and took another sip of my tea because my throat felt dry.

He came around to stand beside me and held out a hand. I set the mug down on the table and slipped my fingers through his. A flash of memory came to me. The night of my twenty-first birthday party and the casual way he had taken my hand and led me over to the piano. The excitement, the anticipation, but it had also felt easy and right from the start.

I let him tug me to my feet and he pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me. Lips, soft and sure, had me melting against him with a sigh.

He lowered his head and nibbled at my ear. “I would love to hear you beg for more, though.”

How could I feel so full of bliss when my chest was so tight and my body was on fire? It was an intoxicating combination.

“Come on.” Gabe tugged my hand.

I let him lead me to his bedroom, a sense of peace settling over me despite my body’s heightened state. Being with Gabe like this just felt right.

In the bedroom, Gabe switched on a bedside lamp and the soft light made the large, open space feel warm. There wasn’t much in his bedroom. A modern-looking king bed and a couple of nightstands, but that was it. A door led to what I assumed was the master bath, and another to a dressing room. The main features of the room were the massive windows overlooking the coast.

Gabe followed my gaze. “No one can see us up here, don’t worry. We’re miles from the main road.”

The creepy text messages and images popped into my mind, but I pushed them away. He was right. It was private up here.

Gabe tucked a curl behind my ear. “You sure about this?”

He was so thoughtful, which confirmed my decision to lose my virginity to him, but it was time to put an end to his doubts.

I removed my T-shirt and let it drop to the floor. Gabe watched, entranced, and the dark need in his eyes gave me the courage to keep going. I slipped off my bra then undid my jeans. I liked this, I realized. His hungry eyes roaming over my body, as if he couldn’t get enough.

I turned so my back was to him and made sure to hook my thumbs through my panties as I lowered my jeans. I smiled to myself when I heard his intake of breath as I pushed my jeans lower, lower until they were at my feet. I kicked them away and turned to face him again.

Gabe’s chest was rising up and down as if breathing was an effort.

“I’m sure,” I said, and waited for him to come to me.

Except he didn’t. He remained fixed to the spot staring at me as though I might not be real. The reverence in his gaze was what did it.

I’m in love with you, I thought, the words whispering through my mind, but I didn’t say them. I didn’t want to ruin this moment. This perfect moment where this beautiful man gazed at me like I was a treasure to be cherished.

“You don’t seem so sure,” I whispered, and bravely took a step forward.

Gabe’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as I stood mere inches from him. It was like he was scared to touch me. I’d have to do something about that.

“Can I touch you?” I placed a palm on his chest.

He nodded, his eyes fixed on me.

“Good,” I said. I ran my hand across his torso, feeling the muscle through his T-shirt. When I got to the bottom I used both hands to push it up over his shoulders, over his head, and let it drop to the floor.

“That’s better.” I swallowed and looked down at his jeans. He was still watching me, transfixed. Hell, I might as well just do the rest. I reached for the button of his jeans and he caught my hands.

“I’m sure, Chloe. Hell, I’m so sure.” His voice was rough. “But I don’t know if I can control myself and I want to be gentle.”

“You will be,” I promised him, because I knew this man would do everything he could to look after me. “But I’m not a doll. You can’t break me.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “You’re killing me.”

“Why? What do you want to do to me? Show me.”

He closed his eyes.

“Gabe,” I said, my voice firm. “Show me.”

His eyes snapped open and in an instant I found myself against him, skin on skin, and I shuddered.

“This,” he whispered in my ear. “I want to do this.”

His hands slid down my back, across the curve of my hips, and one slipped around the front between my legs.

I grabbed onto his shoulders as his fingers found me wet. I slumped against him as he found the spot, circling it, then he dipped a finger into me and I arched back, holding on as best I could.

He kissed me, long and deep, then released me, his teeth grazing my lip. “I want to hear you.”

I could no longer speak and he sensed my need for him to take over. He slipped out of me and guided me to the edge of the bed.

“Lie down.”

I scooted back on the bed and he put a knee on the edge of the bed to climb on.

I found my voice. “No. Take your jeans off. I want to see you.”

Satisfaction flared in his eyes and he unbuttoned his jeans, removing them while not taking his gaze from me.

My mouth opened in a round ‘o’ to see him standing in front of me. Lean and sculpted, everything about him was taught, much like a finely tuned instrument. My eyes fell to one particularly finely tuned part of him and I bit my lip.

He grinned, suddenly boyish. “Don’t worry, I promise I won’t hurt you.”

“It’s not that. It’s . . .” I love you. I cleared my throat. “You’re beautiful.”

If he minded being called beautiful he didn’t show it. “And you’re good enough to eat.”

He climbed onto the bed and before I had a chance to gather my wits, his face was between my legs and my hands found themselves in his hair.

I moaned, wondering if I’d ever get enough of him doing this. I gripped his head as I writhed beneath him, caught somewhere between pain and pleasure.

“Please,” I breathed. But I couldn’t finish, my body quaking uncontrollably. “Gabe, please. I want . . .” And again, I lost my power of speech.

Gray eyes danced just above my stomach. “You want more?”

“I want you. Please, Gabe, I want you inside me. Now.”

It was an ache I couldn’t explain, a need for something greater than myself that burned from within.

Gabe’s expression turned serious and in one swift movement he hopped off the bed and went to his nightstand. I watched as he rolled on a condom, hoping that I could do that for him another time.

Then he was back on the bed, hovering above me.

“I’ll try not to—”

I put a finger to his lips. “Just be you.” It was all I wanted. Him. Only him.

Two lines appeared between his eyebrows, some emotion I couldn’t identify, then he lowered himself onto me. It felt so good to be pressed skin to skin with him like this, but it still didn’t feel close enough.

The tip of him pressed against me and I wrapped my legs behind his hips easing him in an inch. It felt tight, but good.

His eyebrows shot up. “I’ll go slow.”

I was done with slow. I was twenty-one and it had been way too long as it was. But now I knew what I was waiting for. Who I’d been waiting for.

I smoothed my hands along the curve of his back, down to his ass. I pressed myself up against him, using my hands to guide the way. The tightness grew sharper, more intense.

“Jesus, Chloe, just let me take a breath so I don’t hurt you.”

Beneath the sting of him entering me was something else, something I inexplicably recognized. It was the sensation of being filled and I wanted more of it.

“Just do it, Gabe, please.”

My fingernails dug into his skin and Gabe’s restraint was gone. He released a breath and pushed into me and the sharpness snapped, stung, and disappeared. I held tight to him waiting for what came next, which was when I discovered the need for him had only grown stronger.

I tipped my hips to let him enter further and he moaned, the most delicious moan. I wanted to hear it again and again.

“Chloe, are you OK?”

“Fine,” I said happily. “Now, don’t we do something like this?”

I moved my hips beneath him so the length of him stroked me from the inside.

I whimpered and Gabe stilled. “OK?”

God, yes. “More.” Who knew I could be so needy?

He eased back so he could see my face and we started moving together, a silent rhythm only we could hear. With each beat of us coming together I drew him deeper, pushed him to go harder. I was so full, but not full enough.

Our rhythm became faster and more desperate, and we weren’t silent anymore. The sound of our flesh meeting, me panting, the bed moving. The shy part of me would normally be embarrassed but I was caught in the spell of Gabe’s song.

There was no pain now, only the sweet seduction of the music we were making together and it kept rising, rising toward a crescendo that was just out of reach.

Without a word, Gabe slipped a hand between us and stroked me as he continued to thrust into me.

I cried out in shock or joy, I didn’t know which. My body bucked and fought this new rhythm and it was too much, too intense, to be filled both inside and out like this. I felt like I was going to break or burst, and just when I thought I couldn’t survive Gabe’s onslaught, warmth from my center swelled and crashed over me.

I let out a high-pitched moan, a melody of sorts, and Gabe followed me, his release pulsing inside me, wringing every last drop of pleasure from me.

Gabe collapsed on top of me and he went to slip out of me, but I held him down.

“Don’t. Stay.”

Gabe relaxed and rested his head on my shoulder. “OK?” he asked.

I smiled to myself. “You know, I didn’t think it was possible.”

“What?”

“To be a human instrument.”

Gabe frowned and eased up to look at me. “Huh?”

“You’ve got rhythm, Drumsticks,” I told him, using Faith’s nickname. “You can play me anytime.”

He grinned and collapsed back onto me, and we lay there together for a long time.