Page 31 of Scoundrel for Sale
He reached out, tucking a curl that honestly was not wayward behind her ear. Any excuse to touch her. “You’re welcome.”
He was pleased when she leaned into his hand. He trailed his fingers down the side of her neck and was rewarded with a shiver. By the time he traced her finely sculpted collarbone, a becoming blush had flooded her cheeks.
“Gabe,” she burst out, “could I ask you a question?”
“Of course.” He continued his ministrations, stroking across her shoulder and down her arm.
“It’s probably a stupid question,” she muttered, ducking her chin.
He was reminded that, widow or no, there remained a gulf of experience separating them. He made sure his face was solemn as he replied, “There are no stupid questions.”
She couldn’t meet his eye as she asked, “Is it possible for a man to make love with a woman more than once in a single night?”
Gabe couldn’t help it.
He smiled.
“Why, yes, Abbie,” he said, dipping his hand beneath the satin counterpane she had tucked up under her arms and teasing her already-hard nipples, “it is absolutely possible.” He used his other hand to stroke his chin as if deep in thought. “Perhaps it would be best if I were to demonstrate.”
As his lips descended upon hers, she was smiling, too.
Chapter 14
One could be forgiven for expecting that, in the moment Gabe was about to make love to the woman he’d pined after for the last nine years, his feelings would be somewhere along the continuum between excitement and elation.
And he did feel those things. But his joy was tempered by the knowledge that this would be his one and only night with Abbie.
She grabbed his arms, trying to push him back onto the bed, but he stopped her. “Wait,” he said, breathing hard. They had so little time together, so he wanted to do something truly special for her.
To give her the memory of a lifetime.
He seated her upon the edge of the bed but didn’t join her there. She must’ve felt exposed by the position because she wrapped the sheet around her body.
Gabe crossed the room in three steps and seized a cheval mirror. He brought it over to the bed, placing it directly before her.
“Gabe?” she asked uncertainly.
He knelt behind her on the bed and leaned forward to whisper seductively in her ear. “I want you to have an unimpeded view. You’re going to remember this moment forever. Tonight, I’m going to worship you like the goddess you are, in the way that you deserve.” He pressed a kiss to her ear, then added, “And you’re going to watch me do it.”
She seemed shy about looking at herself, so he gently took her chin in his hand and raised it. She finally met his gaze in the mirror, her eyes guarded. “Look at yourself, Abbie,” he murmured. He traced his hands up her arms, across the delicate arch of her collarbone, then up the delicate skin of her neck. He caught sight of himself in the mirror, and the admiration was plain upon his own face. Good. Let her see herself through my eyes.
The sheet slipped to her waist, and Gabe was pleased that she made no move to catch it. “Look at how beautiful you are. How perfect.” He cupped her breasts in his hands, savoring their sweet weight, and could not suppress a groan. He pressed his body against the delicious softness of her bottom, and his swollen cock pulsed, begging for some attention. “Do you feel what you do to me? How much I want you?”
Abbie’s gaze was now transfixed upon the mirror, her initial shyness having dissolved into thin air. “Yes,” she breathed.
He kissed his way down her neck, reaching around to suckle first one ripe breast, then the other. He lingered, teasing her there until her breath was coming in pants and her hips began to squirm from side to side, searching for some friction. That was his cue to delve lower with his hand, beneath the sheets and between her legs. She cried out at first contact and tried to lie back upon the bed, but he held her upright.
“Stay right there.” He unwrapped her fully, then came around to stand in front of her. He kissed her deeply, then breathed in her ear, “You bring me to my knees.”
He dropped down before her, ready and eager to worship her. The bed was high, and kneeling, he was at the perfect height, his face level with her most intimate parts. He spread her petal-soft thighs and groaned at the sight of her, all pink and perfect and slick, just for him. The flush on her creamy skin betrayed her self-consciousness, but when he started kissing his way up the inside of her thigh, she didn’t tell him to stop.
He breathed deeply, wanting to remember every second of this, from the way she looked in the candlelight to the sweet scent of her. He pressed his lips against her core, tenderly, reverently.
But Abbie was having none of it. She was far enough gone that she immediately threaded her fingers through his hair and guided his mouth directly to that sweet little spot hidden within her folds.
He chuckled against her petal-soft skin. “All right, minx, I’ll give you what you want. On one condition.” He tilted his head toward the mirror. “You have to watch.”
Abbie nodded, her eyes shiny. And then Gabe parted the sweet curls at the juncture of her thighs and delved in with his tongue. He didn’t tease her but immediately experimented with light flicks versus circles versus massaging her with the flat of his tongue to see what best pleased her. Receiving the most encouraging response when he started light suction, he continued with that, gradually ratcheting up the intensity until Abbie’s legs started to tremble and she screamed his name.
