Page 257 of Her Reluctant Hero
Gabe reached into his pocket for a condom, not moving from his position, blanketing her body.
“I want to be on top,” she whispered.
He let her up and rolled onto his back. She straddled him and he sucked in a sharp breath in anticipation. She played up her own pleasure, as the insides of her thighs brushed the outsides of his, the roughness of his hair focusing her senses. She guided him to her and sank onto him, hugging his hips with her knees.
Finding her rhythm didn’t detract from his pleasure. He slid his palms over the smooth skin of her back before framing her hips. She gasped when he shifted beneath her, and her breath shuddered.
Peyton wanted nothing like she wanted Gabe and she bent to pull his head up to hers, sucked on his lips and tongue, scraped her teeth over his ear. He smelled of smoke and man and she wanted to feel him come inside her.
So she threw her head back and rode him until his breathing went ragged, and he moved beneath her, inside her in his quest for climax.
His search lead to her own orgasm and she dropped her head to his shoulder and turned her mouth against his throat to hide her cry of release.
“My God, Peyton,” he murmured when his body no longer trembled from the power of their joining. “My God.”
She buried her face into the curve of his throat and tried not to cry.
Gabe stroked his fingers up and down Peyton’s arm as she slept beside him. She was so soft. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d touched anything so soft. He pressed a kiss to her hair, sniffed her fruity shampoo.
Would it always be like this, would he always be drawn to her like a magnet, like he had been last night? After Jen’s bombshell, and then the deaths of the firefighters, he’d been staggered with the painful thoughts of what might have been. Only thoughts of Peyton cleared the haze, of her directness, her softness, her courage, even when he’d said those hurtful things to her.
Almost made him forget about her husband. Did make him forgive her for it. She hadn’t tried to change him because she didn’t approve of him. She tried to change him to save him. How could he fault her for that?
If he stayed with her, she’d want the same from him, especially since her worst fears had come true when Dan died. And for the first time in his life, he might have found someone he’d walk away from this life for. Could he walk away altogether, leave this life? Would Peyton accept anything else? Maybe if he didn’t go out on the fire line, but worked toward a position in command, like Jen had always wanted him to do.
Goddamn. He itched to pull back, but he didn’t want to wake her. Jesus, he’d never thought about leaving the job for a woman, about leaving the job, period. What was it about the woman beside him who made him consider it? Her vulnerability or her toughness? Her compassion or her determination? He’d only known her for a few days, but the idea of saying goodbye made his stomach plummet, like jumping out of a plane.
He wished he could offer her more than cheap motel rooms. He hadn’t wanted to give a woman more, and the idea shook him. When he’d been with Jen, leaving hadn’t occurred to him, but she was from the community and being in the firefighting world was enough for her. Peyton was from another world entirely, and he wanted to be able to offer her something from her world, something outside of firefighting, something she understood. He just wasn’t sure he was capable.
He turned onto his side and pulled her close. She accepted his touch and nestled against him, sliding her hands over his chest to his shoulders. With her eyes still closed she raised her face and nuzzled his chin.
She wasn’t asleep but she wasn’t fully awake. Gabe hadn’t done the dreamy lovemaking thing and his body responded to the silent suggestion.
He lowered his head toward her and she captured his mouth with hers unerringly.
Her lips moved idly over his, her tongue moved into his mouth, probing gently, and he glided his hands over her back, letting her set the pace. The warmth of the kiss flowed through him. He hadn’t known this slow lazy lovemaking could be so powerful. He reined himself in from rushing forward, though it was torture when she floated her fingertips over his body. He clenched his teeth as he fought for control.
“I love your body,” she whispered, coursing her palms up his thighs, looking at him through sleep-dazed eyes.
She was so beautiful as she rose up over him, her hair tousled from his hands, her features sleep softened. But when he kissed her, the ache in his heart matched the ache in his loins. He didn’t want to hurt her. He cradled her face in his hands and kissed her cheeks. He rolled her beneath him, worshiping her body.
She bowed against him, clutching both his hands in hers as he came into her.
“I love you,” she murmured, stretching up for him.
His heart seized at the words, though his body didn’t stop delving into her warmth. She loved him? How could she? Did he deserve—?
He didn’t mean to let go so soon, and he groaned, in a mixture of pleasure and regret. Maybe it was the powerful foreplay, but he knew it was those three little words.
He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. Peyton smoothed her hand over his pounding heart. After a moment he leaned over and kissed her hair, tilted her head back and kissed her mouth softly, searchingly.
With all the love he’d rediscovered.
He couldn’t say the words, not yet, but he could show her.
“Do you still want to interview me?” he asked, his own rough words surprising him when his heart rate approached normal once more, when the sweat had mostly evaporated from his body.
She sat up, her earlier languor gone, her eyes bright. “Do you mean it?”
