Page 18 of Scoundrel for Sale
“But, Abbie, I promised. I promised your brother I wouldn’t—”
She ran her thumb over his lips. “Hush. I don’t want to hear what you promised my brother. It doesn’t matter, anyway.”
His breath was ragged. “It matters to me.”
“You will not be putting your hands on me. I will be putting your hands on me. Because that is where I want them.” She took his hand and guided it to her breast. As reluctant as he’d been, he moaned, and couldn’t resist palming her fullness.
She caressed his face, forcing him to look at her. “Hart had no right to ask that of you. I’m his sister, not his property. The only person who has any say in who gets to touch me is me. And if we are only to have this one night together, I want absolutely everything you can give me.”
Gabe’s face looked pained, but he nodded, cradled her face in his hands, and kissed her.
After having denied himself for so long, Gabe couldn’t seem to get enough of her. His hands were everywhere, and—oh! Unfettering him had been the best decision, because gracious heavens, Gabriel Davenport was good with his hands. Abbie would not have thought that having her nipple pinched would be pleasurable, but it felt exquisite, almost unbearably so.
Gabe broke off their kiss and began working his way down her body. He groaned at the sight of her breasts filling his hands but didn’t stop touching her. “I’m going to hell.”
“No, you’re not,” Abbie protested.
“It will be worth it,” he murmured before his lips closed over her nipple.
While he worshipped her there, his hands continued their explorations, caressing her neck, finding a sensitive spot behind her ear, then creating a shower of pins as he threaded his fingers into her hair so he could massage her scalp. All the while, his mouth teased one nipple and then the other, and he soon had her writhing on the bed, all but sobbing with a potent mix of pleasure and unmet need.
The only problem was that Abbie had no idea what it was that she needed. She had never felt this way before. But she felt quite certain that if she didn’t get this thing, whatever it was, she would die.
Just when she was on the cusp of begging him to help her, his hands drifted down her body, past her breasts, across her stomach, which was rising and falling in fast pants, then over her hips.
He caressed her thighs, then pressed them open. She was far beyond the point at which she might feel embarrassed to have him gazing upon her most intimate spot. Being here, naked in Gabe’s arms felt like the most natural thing in the world.
“God, Abbie.” His eyes were fixed upon the juncture of her thighs, rapt. He leaned forward and breathed in. “You even smell like heaven. You can’t know how I’ve dreamed of this.”
“You—you have?” she asked breathlessly. “I never imagined you thought of me this way.”
He pressed a kiss to the inside of her thigh. “That’s what I wanted you to think. But the truth is, I’ve dreamed of this moment a thousand times—the moment when I finally taste you.”
“Oh, Gabe, I’ve dreamed of this moment—wait.” She frowned, rising onto one elbow. “What do you mean, taste me?”
He paused from trailing kisses up the inside of her thigh. “You said earlier that you wanted everything I could give you.”
“I… I do.”
He looked up at her, his green eyes sparkling in the candlelight. “Do you trust me?”
“Well, yes.” She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. “But surely you don’t mean to kiss me on my, um…”
“Let me show you.” He brought one thumb to her core and delved between her most intimate folds. Finding the spot he sought, he began gently circling his thumb. Abbie stilled.
It felt… she wasn’t sure how it felt. It felt almost… too good. Because surely it wasn’t right, the way her legs were trembling, the unladylike sheen of sweat that had broken out across her chest, and the urge to crawl out of her own skin.
Gabe’s gaze was knowing. “You feel that.”
Abbie couldn’t seem to stop squirming, so urgent were these strange sensations. “I—I’m not sure. It feels good, but am I supposed to feel… desperate?”
“That’s exactly how you’re supposed to feel.” And with that, Gabe replaced his thumb with his mouth, and oh! That felt decadent and wicked, like eating bonbons for dinner. Now there was no hope that Abbie could lie motionless on the bed. Gabe brought his hands to her hips so he could hold her still enough to pleasure her.
He started with teasing flicks with the tip of his tongue, studying her closely all the while to gauge her reaction. As the storm within Abbie built, his pace quickened, as did the pressure he used, so that by the time she was crying out mindlessly, he was laving her with the flat of his tongue.
Just when Abbie thought she could not possibly bear any more, he sealed his lips over the little knob that was the center of these beautiful sensations and started to suck. And as her thighs began to shake and she bit her own wrist to keep from screaming, Abbie knew instinctively that this was it, this was the thing that everyone talked about. Divine pleasure overwhelmed her like a river flooding its banks, a sensation that was simultaneously the best and worst thing that had ever happened to her. The best for obvious reasons, but the worst because this would be her one and only night with Gabe, and she knew she would never experience anything like this ever again.
Her eyes were closed, and she was still only marginally aware of her surroundings when she felt Gabe come up beside her and take her into his arms. He was so warm, and his skin was surprisingly soft, like satin over the hard planes of his muscular frame. And pressing into her stomach, there was steel.
