Chapter 15
Once they made it to the room, they toweled off as best they could. Emmy squeezed out her sopping hair and took off her ruined
shoes. Gabe wrung out his jacket and hung it over the shower wall then removed his shoes and socks. All the while, Emmy was
acutely aware of his every move and every beat of her heart.
They met back at the foot of the bed, and a sudden shyness fell over them. As if having time to cool from the sprint through
the rain brought their senses back online. But when Emmy met his eyes, he was still staring at her with the same hunger as
before.
“Emmy,” he said softly, and her nervous heart trilled at the sound. “I don’t want you to think I came here with any expectations,
but I am prepared. I have condoms.” He nervously watched her and bit his bottom lip as he waited for her reaction.
Emmy stared back at him. The air between them thickened and strained. Her heart beat in every cell down to her fingertips.
Knowing he was prepared broke something loose inside her. A deep, dark well of desire that had always been there but bound
up and buried. She hadn’t had expectations either—in fact, she was mildly in shock over it all still—but staring down the
opportunity, she knew there was no chance she wasn’t going to sleep with this man.
“Thank god,” she said, and reached for him.
He smiled when she kissed him. “Glad we’re on the same page,” he slurred against her lips.
“Very much. Same page. And I’m totally healthy.”
“Me too.”
“Good.” Her words became broken and hurried.
Now that she knew where they were headed, she couldn’t get there fast enough.
She pressed herself against him, hungry for more of what she’d felt outside.
Hungry to chase the pulse pounding in her chest, her throat, between her legs and threatening to consume her whole if she didn’t answer its call immediately.
But Gabe had other ideas. He reached up and gently removed her hands from where they’d clawed into his wet hair. He pressed
them between his own and held them in front of her to kiss her fingertips. “Slower. Please. If we’re only going to do this
once, I want it to last.”
The heated look in his dark eyes melted her bones. She trembled with anticipation at the promise in his velvety voice. God
help her, she was going to have sex with Gabe Olson, and it was going to be good.
She slowly nodded.
He nodded back and hooked his fingers under her jaw to tilt her mouth to his. The slow, deep kiss spread through her like
ink dropped onto parchment, seeping out to her every edge as she greedily absorbed it. He had her spinning, sparking with
thrill, and he’d hardly even touched her.
Correction: she was going to have sex with Gabe Olson, and it was going to be fucking amazing.
They kissed for a sublime eternity. It turned out that smart mouth of his was even smarter when he wasn’t using it to talk.
He swept her tongue with his and used his teeth to graze and nip. He sucked her lips and alternated between feathering his
fingers over her jaw, her throat, her chest, and squeezing her nape and tangling her hair. His chest, warm even through his
wet shirt, pressed into hers and put his heartbeat close enough to feel. His arms found their way to her waist, bracing her
back, holding her tight. His firm thigh moved deliciously between her legs.
Gabe Olson kissed with his whole body, and it was divine.
A moan escaped her throat, and he mistook it for impatience. Or perhaps it was his own impatience that prompted him to step back. She’d felt the bulge in his pants pressing into her. “Enough of this?” he asked, cupping her face in his hands. He smoothed his thumbs over her swollen lips.
Speaking felt foreign after using her mouth for other purposes for so long. “No. Just more of the next thing, please,” she
said, and reached for his collar.
Her fingers were still damp from the rain and their wet clothes. She helped him unbutton his shirt, and when they got it off,
she took a moment to appreciate the landscape of his chest and abdomen. It was just as defined and tanned as she’d imagined
it under all those cool shirts. Firm and toned with a smattering of dark hair that gathered into a little trail disappearing
into his waistband.
“What you expected?” he playfully asked when he caught her staring.
“Better,” she said, desire filling her as she reached for his pants. She caught the matching desire in his face as he leaned
forward to reach behind her for her dress’s zipper.
When they got them undone, they each stepped out of their respective garments and stood to face each other.
Emmy felt a pang of embarrassment when Gabe’s eyes popped wide at the sight of her.
“Good lord, what are those ?”
She looked down and realized he was staring at her Spanx. “Oh. What, you’ve never seen shapewear before?” she asked with a
hand on her hip like she was modeling them.
“Uh, not of this industrial grade, no. How have you been breathing all day?” The look of genuine horror on his face made her
laugh.
“Women only need eightypercent of the oxygen men need. Didn’t you know that?”
He reached for her hips, smoothing his hands over the tight spandex spanning from her thighs all the way to under her strapless bra. “How do we get them off? Are we going to need scissors?” He twisted her side to side with a serious look on his face like he was trying to solve a puzzle.
Emmy sniggered. “No, but since they’re wet, I might need some help.” She shoved her thumbs into the top band and began to
peel the Spanx down.
“Happy to be of assistance,” Gabe said, and dug his fingers in to pull.
They got them down to her hips, her lungs joyously refilling to fuller and fuller capacity with each breath, before they really had to tug. It was a hundred times worse than a wet bathing suit.
“What’s the point of these things?” Gabe asked with a grunt and a yank. He’d sunk to his knees for better leverage, leaving
his breath warm against her bare belly. “I’m not a fashion expert, but I think your shape is perfect without them.”
Emmy blushed and wiggled her hips side to side with another shove. “Thank you, but since my sister picked out unforgiving,
shows-everything satin for her bridesmaids’ dresses, I needed something to help smooth everything out underneath. If I wasn’t
wearing them, you’d have seen my underwear all day.”
“You’re wearing underwear under these things too?”
“Yes.”
“That’s unfortunate,” he said with a cheeky grin. “Almost there.”
Emmy leaned forward to shove them over her butt right as Gabe yanked hard on the front. The force of both made her lose her
balance and fall forward over his shoulder into the perfect fireman’s carry position.
“Ah, well, this is convenient,” he said as he hooked his arm over the back of her thighs.
She squealed when he stood with her body draped over his shoulder. The room turned upside down, and her wet hair dangled down
his back. “Put me down!” she said through a laugh.
“Gladly.” He dropped them both onto the bed and finished pulling her Spanx from where they’d landed at her ankles.
He was down to his boxers—a pair of tight gray shorts that clung to his muscular thighs—and she, her underwear and bra.
Everything was still soaked. “Much better,” he said, and crawled up over her.
He supported his weight in a way that flexed his triceps into rounded bulges Emmy could not resist reaching up to squeeze.
She let out an appreciative moan that was equal parts lust and relief for finally getting full access to her secret obsession.
Goddamned sculpted arms . Gabe smiled at the sound she made when he leaned down to kiss her.
She pushed her hands into his wet hair and kissed him back. Her heart pounded that she was kissing Gabe Olson in her underwear
on a bed. As if reaching to calm it, he trailed his fingertips over her chest. Really, it did nothing to calm her but only
made her heart race faster. He traced her collarbone and the swell of the tops of her breasts before he moved his palm to
cup one. He brushed his thumb over her bra. Her nipples were already hard peaks thanks to the rain, but his touch made them
stand at attention in a different way.
“All your clothes are so restrictive today.” He slid his hands under her back to reach for her bra’s clasp.
“You have no idea,” she said, and arched up so he could undo it.
The release of the tight elastic felt heavenly. Emmy inhaled the deepest breath she’d been able to take since that morning
and was so relieved she forgot she was now topless in front of Gabe Olson, and he was staring at her bare chest like he’d
fallen into a trance.
The reflex to throw her arms over herself hit her, but the reverent look on Gabe’s face stopped her. He looked like he wanted
to devour her whole.
“What you expected?” Emmy managed to ask in a steady voice.
He grinned, and it filled her with radiant confidence. “ Way better.”
She grinned back. “Always have to one-up me.”
Gabe sank his mouth over one of her breasts, circling her nipple with his tongue, and any remaining sense of shyness vanished. They both wanted this, and even if it was a onetime thing, it was going to be worth it.
They pushed down the sheets and rested against the pillows. He lay at her side and kissed her, deeply, while they explored
each other with their hands. The dips and grooves of hips, the firm planes of thighs and stomachs, the soft swell of her chest
and the length of him growing increasingly hard between them.
Once she was dizzy from making out, he slipped his hand between her legs and pressed against the silky fabric of her underwear.
“Tell me what you like, Emmy,” he whispered like it was a secret he desperately needed to know. The sound of his voice fizzed
through her like champagne.
She canted herself into his palm, nearly trembling at his touch, and fully giving over to him. “I like it when you say my
name. My first name.”