Chapter Seven #2
“You’re allowed to rest. To heal. To figure out what you want.” She pitched her voice to a whisper. “You’re allowed to just stand in a ruined bookshop with a woman who doesn’t know what she’s doing next either.”
His hand lifted without a command from his brain, and he slid his fingertips into the wave of hair at her ear that he’d been dying to touch all day.
He realized his lips were hovering mere inches from her sumptuous mouth. When had that happened? One second he was fixing shelves while chatting. The next he was close enough to see the tiny blue-green flecks in her eyes.
She didn’t back away. She flicked a quick glance at his mouth, then back up to his eyes.
His heart thumped hard. “Felicity.” His voice sounded like a groan, a question and a warning wrapped into one husky word.
“Gabe.” She pushed onto her tiptoes and crushed her lips to his.
He froze just long enough to make sure this was real. Then everything in him surged to life.
He cupped the back of her neck, angling his head to deepen the kiss. She made a needy sound that sliced straight through him, fisting the front of his shirt to keep him where she wanted him.
He kissed her slow at first, savoring the give of her mouth, the faint taste of mint and a flavor uniquely her. She moved with him, learning his pace and matching it with her own demands.
When he traced the seam of her lips with his tongue, she opened for him with a soft gasp. Heat flared, and he gripped her by the waist and yanked her against him.
She fit like she was made for him.
Then she was tugging off his ball cap and raking her fingers through his hair. He groaned into her mouth, instinctively turning her away from the front window into the shelter between bookcases.
“Gabe!” She tugged at his shirt, fumbling with his buttons, issuing a little sound of frustration when they didn’t concede to her immediately.
He chuckled against her lips and caught her hand, stilling them on the button. “Easy,” he murmured.
“I don’t want easy, Gabe. Not with you.”
“Christ, Felicity.”
Her voice trembled. “Tell me you feel this pull too.”
He groaned. “I feel it. I want you. More than I’ve let myself admit.”
She laughed, her lips open near his.
He couldn’t control himself anymore—he plunged his tongue into her sweetness and they crumpled to the floor among the fallen books.
* * * * *
For a blink, Felicity didn’t know which way was up.
One moment she was standing with her fists bunched in Gabe’s shirt. The next the world tipped and she went down with him, landing safely in his arms on the spot of floor they just cleared.
A laugh bubbled up—half shock, half disbelief that this was happening—but he smothered the sound when he crushed his mouth over hers again.
God, he kissed like he meant it. Like he’d been holding back for longer than they’d even known each other and the dam finally cracked.
Like he meant to do all the things to her that she fantasized during long, lonely nights.
She stretched her hands across his broad, chiseled shoulders and dragged him closer. The floor was hard beneath her, but all she cared about was Gabe’s hard body locked against hers and the way he braced himself on his forearms so he didn’t crush her.
He was a gentleman, even while kissing her like a man starved.
Her heart pounded into her ribs, and every nerve inside her buzzed with desire. She hadn’t done this in so long. Flirted, sure. Accepted the odd dinner date and even tried a dating app, yes. But this—this wild, unplanned, undeniable collision?
This was new. This was terrifying.
This was everything she’d been trying not to want since she set eyes on him.
He was helping her during a difficult time. She didn’t want him to mix up obligation with desire.
As he slanted his mouth over hers, she moaned, her insides gripping as his tongue brushed hers. Heat shot through her, pooling low, turning her bones to liquid. He plunged his tongue deeper, and she arched into him with a gasp.
He responded with a growl low in his chest that she felt in every little needy spot on the way down her body.
“Gabe,” she whispered against his lips, unsure what she was even asking for.
“If you want me to stop…” His voice was rough and frayed.
She curled her fingers tighter in the muscle of his shoulders, holding him to her. Stop? Now? When her body felt like a live wire and he was the only one who knew what to do with the current?
Instead of answering, she slipped her hand into his open flannel shirt, coasting her palms over warm, steely muscle. With one hand, she flicked the final button that had bested her moments before.
He stilled as she stroked a hand down his rippling abs. Each muscle seemed to tense under her touch. Staring up into his eyes, she traced the line of his abs, over the ridge of an old scar.
He dropped his forehead to hers, breathing hard. “You’re going to kill me.”
“You started it.” Her response came out breathless.
He kissed her again, long and deep and so damn thorough that her panties flooded. When he pulled back, his eyes were hooded. “I’m pretty sure you kissed me first, bookshop.”
She had been the one to close that last inch, to take what she wanted, to stand on tiptoe and crash into him like the last wave in a storm.
Or the first.
She pushed upward, closing her lips softly over his bottom one and giving it a small tug that brought a rumble to his throat. As he deepened the kiss, he splayed his fingers just beneath the curve of her breast through the fabric of her sweater.
Her body lit up like he’d flipped a switch. How? He hadn’t squeezed her breast or pinched her nip—
“Ahhh.” She moaned louder as he did just that, gently clamping his thumb and forefinger over her taut bud. There were too many layers of cloth between her body and his hand.
She ran her hands up his chest to his shoulders, pushing his shirt off. He never broke the kiss as he braced himself on first one arm, then the other, to shed his shirt completely.
She looked at him. Really looked at him.
“My god. Your body is amazing.”
His grin stole the air from her lungs. She’d seen Gabe crack a smile or two, but this…was sunrise on a dark land.
“Let’s see more of yours.” His rumble lit her on fire. In a slow glide, he eased her sweater up and over her head. She didn’t have on sexy undergarments—just her everyday nude bra and panties she bought in bulk because it was practical rather than enticing.
As his gaze raked over her, the light in his eyes told her he didn’t care about lacy lingerie. He just wanted her.
She arched, reaching beneath herself to navigate her bra clasp, and his fingers met hers, rough and slightly unsteady. Her bra loosened around her ribs, and he ducked his head to her breasts, stubbled jaw scraping over her skin…her senses…her everything.
He trapped her hard nipple between his lips and gave a small, sucking pull that yanked a needy gasp from her. She dug her fingers into his hair, holding him, eyes slipping shut on the sensation of his heated mouth doing things to her that she never imagined.
Her pussy squeezed and juices soaked her panties. She slid one leg up to hook over his hip, dragging him closer. And oh god, the hard length of his erection pressing into the V of her thighs just about sent her over the edge.
She went for his waistband. He went for hers too. Of course she had to wear her houndstooth trousers today. They were her favorite, but they had a fussy closure with a hook, a button and a zipper.
He gazed down into her eyes while trying to figure it out without looking. Finally, he shook his head. “I’m lost.”
“I got it.” She tore her fly open and pushed her pants down her hips. Her panties came with them, but who cared? She had no intention of stopping until they were both satisfied.
“Jesus, bookshop. You’re…stunning.” He groaned, and it sounded like a warning and a plea wrapped in velvet. “Last chance.”
She searched his handsome face and saw the strain around his eyes that told her he was reining in something powerful.
She gently cupped his face. “I don’t want you to stop.”
A light in his eyes flared, and his mouth came down on hers again. The kiss turned hot, carnal. He stroked a hand over her breast, tweaking her nipple lightly and pulling a cry from her on his way down, down, down her body.
Her insides clutched when he cupped her pussy, just holding her, his breathing hard. Then he eased a fingertip up the seam, burrowing into her soaking folds and blowing her mind.
Liquid heat met his finger as he pushed it inside her.
“Christ. You’re so damn ready for me.”
“More!” She rocked her hips, meeting the thrusts of his finger. When he added a second, stretching her, burying deep and curling against her G-spot so she flooded, she yanked him in for a kiss.
Their tongues tangled as he fingered her, deep, deeper, taking her higher with each pass. When he pressed down on her clit with the pad of his thumb, stars shot across her vision.
“Yes…yes!” Her core tightened to the snapping point.
His gaze intensified, and he watched her face as he took her to a new planetary system. Hell, maybe a new dimension. Her body bowed. Her pussy throbbed.
When the wave struck, she gripped him hard, and his mouth crashed over hers, stealing her moans of bliss. Tingles shot through her body with each pulsation that went on and on.
He slowed the kiss, flipping his tongue almost lazily across hers. As he met her gaze, he pushed his fingers inside her clenching heat again, making her eyes roll back in her head.
“Gabe!” she gasped out.
“You’re so responsive,” he murmured like he’d just opened a gift.
His mouth trailed along her jaw and neck, leaving a streak of fire in its wake. Then he went for the spot just beneath her ear that made her toes curl and her back arch.
“That’s…that’s…”
“Good?” he rumbled against her, his laugh turning into another scrape of his teeth. Leaving a spot that she’d feel later.
His mark. Hidden beneath her hair. A secret between them.
The thought sent a dart of new heat through her. She met his fiery stare and ran her hands down his muscled spine to grip his carved buns through the jeans he still wore.
Her throat went dry. “I want you.”
His eyes gleamed. “I want you more than you can possibly know.” He pushed onto his knees and reached into his back pocket, withdrawing a bifold wallet. He flipped it open and removed a single condom.
“It’s been in there a while. Hope it’s not out of date.”
“I’m sure it’s fine.” Her mouth felt desiccated, and she darted her tongue across her bottom lip.
She stretched on the floor, the wood warm under her now, and made a move she never thought she’d do—she parted her thighs in invitation.
His chest heaved, and his eyes slid shut, then he opened them to pierce her in his stare as he shucked the rest of his clothes and boots.
As soon as her gaze landed on his thick, hard cock, her insides gripped again. “It’s been a while for me too.”
His lips pulled tight over his teeth as he jerked the condom on in a slow stroke. Easing over her, braced on his muscular arms, he met her gaze. “We’ll find the path together.”
Her heart flexed at his words. Then he sank between her legs, the mushroomed head of his cock pressing into her opening.
Inch by slow inch, he filled her until he was seated fully inside her. Her inner walls clutched him, and those shooting stars were back, arcing across her vision.
She clamped her thighs around him. “Gabe.…you feel…so…good.”
He twitched his hips in answer, and then they were moving, slow at first but that didn’t last long. Soon, their bodies were slapping together, and their mouths catching each other’s groans of ecstasy as he drove her to the final cliff.
He slipped his arm beneath her, lifting her off the floor to meet his every hard, jerking thrust. This wasn’t boring sex. Far from it. This was hard and hot and wicked and teasing and heart-bending all in one tangled knot.
She didn’t want it any other way. Not with Gabe.
He thrust deep, his tongue mirroring the action in her mouth. She wrapped herself around him and let him take her over the edge of that cliff.
With a cry, she came, rocking into him and felt his whole body stiffen and bow in her arms. His hips churned with his own release, and a primal growl escaped his hard lips.
“Yesss!” His body twitched inside her, and she cradled his jaw, kissing him back with all the feelings racing through her on repeat.
The moment stretched for endless heartbeats. She listened to her heart settle from pounding to normal and finally issued a satisfied sigh.
He rolled half to the side but cloaked her body with his, burrowing his face in her hair. “My god.”
“You can say that again.” Her voice was a rasp. “I’ve never done anything like that before.”
He lifted his head, eyes shining with amusement. “You never had a fantasy about having sex in your bookshop?”
She nibbled her bottom lip, which made him laugh. “I did. But I thought it would be in the romance section. Not the cookbooks.”
Laughing, he pressed a kiss to her temple, and she shook in his arms with her own mirth.
“This might be a little like that scene from His Honor, Her Ruin.”
Her jaw dropped. “You read that?”
“Some guys in my platoon were joking about a video where a guy talked about how men should read romance to learn how to woo women. My brothers thought it was hilarious, but I figured why not take it straight from a woman’s fantasy?
Then one day I was in Decker’s room—when he was still in the program—and that book was in his collection. ”
He brushed his lips over hers once…twice…with such extreme tenderness that her heart fluttered.
Her shop was still wrecked. The exit was still closed. Her future was still a giant question mark.
But right here, in the circle of Gabe’s arms, she didn’t feel alone.
She turned her face into his chest, inhaling the warm, cedar scent of him, and let herself linger in this moment between them. This one wild, reckless moment on her bookshop floor.
She curled closer, tracing a small, thoughtless pattern on his skin, and shivered as his hand slid up and down her back in slow, soothing strokes.
If this was what it felt like to fall…maybe she wasn’t afraid of the landing anymore.