Chapter Seven #2
Physically they seemed the perfect match. Was that why she was so comfortable doing this with him, even though every logical brain cell in her head was screaming out that she was crossing a dangerous divide?
She bucked and moaned as he continued to lave her nipple with his tongue, first one then the other, taking his time.
She could barely take any more. Then he slowly trailed his hand over her rib cage and along her stomach.
It was a light, feathery touch, but it moved on an inexorable path towards the wetness at her core.
He edged himself off her, and his mouth replaced his hand. Jennifer shuddered convulsively. Anticipation built higher and higher to the breaking point as he moved to position himself between her legs. When he gently parted her womanhood, she was on the point of exploding.
And yet she could scarcely breathe. She was as tense as a bowstring yet softly open to receive his questing mouth.
She tensed when his tongue flicked and found the tight bud of her clitoris.
She opened drowsy eyes and looked down at his dark head as it moved between her thighs.
The sight was so erotic that for a few seconds, she found herself holding her breath.
She closed her eyes, shielded her face in the crook of her arm and let herself move to the rhythm of his tongue as it continued to tease and flick and lick.
He wasn’t going to stop. He was going to take her over the edge, and she wanted that. She couldn’t have made herself stop even if she’d wanted to as the surge of hot passion inside her rose to unstoppable levels.
She cried out as an orgasm tore through her. She arched up against his mouth as her body spasmed uncontrollably. On and on it seemed to go, and she was as weak as a kitten when she gradually came down from a high she had never experienced.
‘I should have waited,’ she apologised when he’d straightened to lie next to her. ‘I’m not too sorry, though, because that was amazing.’
He manoeuvred her so that they were facing one another and smiled.
‘Quite the compliment.’
‘Don’t let it go to your head, Gabriel.’ But she smiled back, pulled him against her and kissed the side of his mouth.
‘I liked it as well,’ he murmured. ‘I liked seeing you lose control like that.’
‘Now it’s your turn…’ She reached down without taking her eyes off him and began to tease, building up a slow, steady rhythm and watching with satisfaction as he clenched his jaw against losing himself too fast in the pleasure of what she was doing.
When he tried to slow her down, she laughed softly and brushed his hand aside.
But he had ultimate control, even when she replaced her hand with her mouth, even when she positioned herself so that they were mutually pleasuring one another, when her body was raring to go again, aching to reach that place it had just visited.
The flick of his tongue on her as she tasted him was almost too much.
She squirmed off him but then stayed him when he began moving to get protection.
‘I’m on the pill,’ she said, ‘and it’s not because I’m all over the place on a thousand different dates, in a quest for Mr Right. I’m not. It’s to regulate my periods.’
‘That’s a lot of information,’ Gabriel responded, and he thought two things at once. The first was that he trusted her when she said that she was using contraception. If any other woman had said the very same thing, he would still have donned his own, because he was a very rich man and who knew?
The second was that, deep in a part of him he barely acknowledged, he was glad that she didn’t play the field. He never thought she had, but to hear her say it in that suddenly shy, stilted voice made something in him soar with unexplained pleasure.
He kissed her softly, tenderly, and this time they made love with less desperation but no less urgency.
He tried to go as slowly as possible, and he succeeded, but only just. As he thrust into her, felt the tightness of her around him without the barrier of a condom, it was all he could do to maintain control.
He moved gently at first, patiently waiting for her rhythm to match his.
Then he deepened and quickened his movements until there was nothing left inside him but the blinding roar of pleasure pulsing through his veins.
It exploded in something so wonderful, so powerful that he was utterly spent when he half collapsed onto her before rolling off to close his eyes, at last, for a few seconds.
They were both spent. Her body next to his was as hot and sweaty as his was, and lying in the darkness, staring up at the ceiling, he could feel her doing the same, staring up in the quiet room, waiting for a conversation to be had.
‘Well, that was very nice.’ She was the first to break the silence, turning onto her side and propping herself up on one elbow.
Gabriel relaxed and smiled without turning immediately to face her, just feeling a wave of relief that there was no awkwardness there. She wasn’t about to embark on a soul-searching conversation about the ramifications of what they’d both done.
He rolled so that they were both facing one another.
‘Very nice?’ he queried. ‘Can we do better than that?’
‘Nine out of ten.’
‘What accounts for the missing point?’
‘What accounts for the missing point,’ Jennifer said gravely, ‘is that ten out of ten would mean perfection, and there’s no such thing as perfection. That’s something I always tell my pupils.’
Lying there next to him, Jennifer heard the light teasing in her voice and knew, instinctively, that this was the right approach to what had just happened.
Inside there was a tumult of emotions swirling around, destabilising, confusing, disturbing emotions. Those would have to be dealt with later, in the privacy of her own bedroom, where she could inspect them and pick them apart and then try and put them back together in a way that made sense.
Right now, it was important to remember that what was destabilising and confusing and disturbing for her would not be the same for Gabriel.
He was a man of the world. This would be unexpected for him, but at the end of the day, he wouldn’t be torn apart with conflicting emotions and would certainly not be interested in handling an agonising question and answer session about what had just happened between them.
She, on the other hand, whilst having dated any number of guys, was remarkably green round the ears when it came to sex. It was a big deal for her. Huge.
Keep things light, she decided now. Be the adult he thought he was, even though she knew differently. The important thing to take away was that this was lust, and lust had an end date.
Make things weird and uncomfortable and it would be the end of their friendship.
‘So…’ She circled his bare chest with her finger and then flicked her eyes to him. ‘You know what I’m going to say next, don’t you?’
She could almost feel him stiffen. Did he think that she would suddenly turn into the sort of clingy woman who might try to pin him down just because they’d slept together?
She was here because he thought she knew the score, and the score didn’t involve clinginess.
‘What?’ he asked.
‘Mistakes happen,’ she returned, cool, composed and controlled. She shrugged. ‘I say we move on and chalk it down as a good old-fashioned one-night holiday stand.’
This, Gabriel thought, was exactly what he wanted to hear. A one-night stand. Atmosphere getting the better of them. Two consenting adults giving in to temptation. It happened.
‘A one-night stand?’ he echoed with a frown.
‘Absolutely.’ She began easing herself off the bed while Gabriel watched in mounting dissatisfaction.
‘Wait. Where are you going?’
‘Back to my bedroom.’
‘Why?’
‘What do you mean, why? Because it’s where I sleep?’
‘Come back to bed,’ he said gruffly.
‘Gabriel, we both know that this should never have happened, but it did, and there’s no point talking about it. We…you’re…we’re friends, not…’
‘Lovers? Funny, but that’s not what my body’s telling me. Is that what your body’s telling you? That we’re just friends?’
‘I’m not talking about this.’
‘Come back to bed.’
‘Why? Why?’
‘Because I still want you.’
The roughly spoken words hung in the air between them, shimmering, alluring and dangerous.
Gabriel looked at her in brooding silence. He wanted to snatch her up, hold her close and settle her right back in his bed, next to him, and he had no idea where that urge was coming from. When it came to women, he always travelled light. Jennifer was a lot more than any other woman, but even so…
‘This isn’t about want.’
‘I can’t focus when you’re standing there trying to find your clothes. I want to make love to you all over again.’
Jennifer felt the dampness between her legs again as her mind filled with erotic images, as she remembered the lightness of his touch on her and the way her body had responded.
He wanted her, and just the way he’d said that, his voice low and demanding and husky and unsteady…
She’d tried to lock forbidden thoughts back in their box, but now the lid was open, and they were everywhere. Her eyelids fluttered, and she drew in a shaky breath.
‘You’re being a spoiled brat, Gabriel.’
‘I know. Come back to bed and tell me all about it.’
She shot him a jaundiced, frustrated, impatient look, but he was patting the space next to him on the bed, and she so desperately wanted to return to occupy that space.
Plus, she was feeling a little ridiculous standing there, clutching some of her clothes, completely naked in front of his lazy, hungry gaze.
But mostly, she just wanted him so badly, still.
‘I’m not… Okay, I will, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to…to…’
‘To…? To…? To make sweet, sweet love until we’re too tired to carry on? To turn each other on until we can’t think? To do that sort of thing over and over again?’