One Night with her Bachelor (15 page)

He buried his face in her breast, forcing his mind away from his eager cock. Away from the scent of her desire and the soft sounds of her coming back to earth. Away from the pliant, relaxed body so ready to take him in and give him succor.

Damn. He couldn’t escape her.

Her breath eased out in a happy sigh and she nuzzled him. Her arms came down and held him close. “That was a good start.”

He stiffened. Good start? That was everything. They wouldn’t be doing anything else. He’d tell her that, but that would require speaking, a skill that was beyond him right now.

He mustered the energy to roll away and sit on the edge of the bed, his back to her so he wouldn’t catch sight of her tempting breasts.

“Gabriel?” Her fingers flitted across his back, and he jerked. He was so close, too close, and any touch could lead to him embarrassing himself in ways he hadn’t since he was a teenager.

“We can’t.”
He
couldn’t. He forced himself to stand but made the mistake of glancing down at her and groaned. She’d sat up and her flushed breasts peeked at him from between her long locks of hair.

She blinked slowly and her languid grin faded. She glanced at his erection before meeting his gaze. “You don’t have condoms?”

He shook his head. That was one problem, and definitely the easiest to admit. How could he tell her he hadn’t been with anyone since the last time he was on leave from his final tour of duty, nearly two years ago? He didn’t even remember that woman’s name.

He was helpless to do anything but watch as she moved to the edge of the bed and glanced at the large, aching ridge in his jeans. “We could do other things.”

His heart jackhammered. He wanted to do those things—condom things
and
no-condom things. But while he’d tested his body’s ability to do everything from hiking to rappelling, he hadn’t tested other skills he’d once mastered. Skills like vigorous pelvic-thrusting while kneeling, or keeping his wits about him enough to hold his jeans up while she performed mind-blowing acts on him. That territory was uncharted, and he wasn’t ready to bare his scars to her. It wouldn’t be fair to her. She needed a good time, not another broken guy to worry about.

She hung her head and he felt like the biggest dick in the world. He’d wanted to take her mind away from her problems, not create more. But she looked so alone, sitting there half naked on the edge of her bed. So alone and so enticing.

You are a weak, weak bastard
. He sat down next to her and let his arm slip around her to tease the bare skin above the waistband of her skirt. “Tell me something you’ve always wanted to do.”

“You mean… sex-wise?”

“Yeah, though if you’d rather go skydiving I’ll see what I can do,” he joked. Another thing that used to be second nature but he hadn’t tested—his ability to land on his feet.

She cringed. “Scott took me skydiving once. I’m glad I did it so I never have to again.”

“Let’s scratch that off the list, then.” He nudged her with his shoulder. “Don’t think you can evade the question.”

“I’ve never been very adventurous. Greg—” She stopped herself.

“He’s the only one you’ve been with?”

She gave him an embarrassed half smile. “Sadly, yeah.”

Damn. Here he was sitting with the most unconsciously sexy woman he’d ever met, a woman who deserved far more than he could offer, and his whole body hurt as she revealed how little others had given her. He cleared his throat. “Are there things you know you like?”

Pink flooded her cheeks. He reached behind her to grab some useless decorative pillows and tossed them on the floor in front of them. Drawing a big circle around the two of them with his finger, he said, “This is our fortress. Right here, from those pillows to the other side of the bed. In this fortress, you’re not a mom. You’re not a schoolteacher. The crap we’ve dealt with in the past doesn’t touch us here. The pain, the disappointment, the responsibilities—they all disintegrate when they hit the force field. You’re not anything but a woman—a half-naked woman, I happened to notice—and I’m not anything but a man who wants to please you.”

Looking emboldened, she shifted back on the bed and kneeled. He had to twist to face her.

“How do you feel about going down on a woman?” she asked, her voice hesitant.

“All in favor.”

Her brows shot up. “Really? You’re not just saying that? Because Greg—”

Gabriel made a sputtering noise, then a realistic-sounding explosion. “Hear that? That was Dickhead’s name dying a thousand deaths when it hit our force field.”

She chuckled, and every bit of his body throbbed as her breasts jiggled. Play time was over.

“Sit on your ass, legs forward,” he ordered.

She complied. He stood, grabbed her hips and slid her to the edge of the bed. Towering over her so she had to lean back and brace herself on her elbows, he nudged her long hair away from her breasts. “I want to see what happens to these beauties when I make you come.”

“Oh gosh.”

He gave her a mock ferocious look, an imitation of the expressions his technical sergeant used to give him for real. “The force field blocks morals and self-judgment, too. If at any point you feel like screaming out that I’m a bad-ass motherfucker, you do it.”

Her head fell back, leaving her long neck exposed to his lips. “This is
exactly
what I wanted from you tonight, Bad-Ass Mother-Effer.”

He laughed against her hot, flushed skin, his hands clutching her hips hard as he tried to control himself. “We’ll work on that. Now pull your skirt up for me.”

She lifted her head, never breaking eye contact as she slowly tugged at the fabric. Inch by tantalizing inch, she revealed herself to him, but he couldn’t stop staring at her eyes, at the determination that had flared within her to do something so difficult for her—to take a little selfish time.

Her throat flexed as her skirt hit the tops of her thighs.

“More, Molly.”

She pulled it the rest of the way up until she’d exposed silky black panties covering the bits of her he grew desperate to taste. He slid his fingers beneath the fabric at her hips, and she lifted her ass to make the job easier. Slowly drawing them down her legs, he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. Sweet, merciful God. She took his breath away. Her wanton, already-been-ravished-once pose made his cock so hard he was in real danger of exploding. “Molly, you’re so damn sexy.”

“You make me feel sexy.” Her words and her suddenly husky voice stole what remained of his self-control. He carefully lowered himself to his good knee on the floor in front of her. Gently pressing her legs apart, he slid his hands under her ass and pulled her to the edge of the bed. She was a delicacy, a treat just for him. He nuzzled her curls with his nose and breathed her in.

She exhaled a shuddering breath. “Gabriel.”

“You smell amazing.”

Her hands clutched the covers, and he realized she’d probably never heard that before. There was a good chance no one had taken the time to tell her how incredible her body was. Her breasts were lush, her thighs soft, and their apex… every word fled his brain except
heaven
.

His thumbs parted her and he took his first taste, teasing her with the tip of his tongue while her legs wrapped around his head, drawing him ever closer. He licked and sucked and ate at her with his mouth as his fingers slid inside. She was wet, so damn wet he nearly begged to be inside her. Her moans grew louder, more insistent. Her hips undulated and he clasped her cheeks, holding her ass still for his marauding mouth. Her breath caught in erotic gasps. She tipped her head back but stayed propped on her elbows so he could see her full breasts shivering with every shaky breath.

And then she broke apart.

“Gabriel!” Her whole body froze on a mouth-wide-open shout of release. Her inner muscles tightened, milking his fingers as he stroked and sucked her through her orgasm. A
long
orgasm. Longest orgasm he’d ever been on the giving end of.

When the waves stopped rolling through her, she collapsed onto the bed, her arms flailing, her hands covering her face as if she’d just survived the unsurvivable. She groaned, and he gentled his touch to help bring her down.

“Holy shit.”

He laughed, his breath hitting her silkiest skin. “Holy shit is right.”

On unsteady arms, she pushed herself up to half-sitting. Strands of hair clung to her glistening face and shoulders. “That was amazing. You have to let me do that for you.”

He hadn’t thought he could get any harder, but the thought of her on her knees, taking him into her sweet mouth… He pressed a palm against his erection in a futile attempt to ease the agony. “I’m good,” he said before his brain could catch up with his mouth.

I’m good?
He so wasn’t good. He wasn’t anywhere near good. He was at DEFCON 1 and about to explode. Molly’s shuttering expression told him she knew it, too.

But instead of addressing it directly, something she was probably too embarrassed to do, she said, “So our fortress only works one way?”

He pushed himself to his feet. “Lie back on the pillows.”

She hesitated a second before complying. He sat next to her, the foot of his bad leg still on the floor while the rest of him stretched out on the bed. He took her arm and tugged until she snuggled against his side, her arm slung over him. “You’re right. The fortress is for both of us. And the thing I want most right now is to hold you.”

It wasn’t a total lie. How long had it been since he’d had the pleasure of a naked woman pressed to his side? Longer than he could remember. And a naked Molly? Never.

But it wasn’t the complete truth, either. He wanted a hell of a lot more than a snuggle, but he wasn’t ready for the talk they needed to have first. And if he lost control with her now, he’d end up blurting out far more than she needed to hear.

He’d parachuted into battlefields before, treated gravely injured men while bullets zipped past his ears. He’d literally been on fire once.

None of that was as tough as cuddling naked, eager Molly and keeping a grip on his self-control.

He deserved a Medal of Fucking Honor.

‡

T
he sound of
a ringing phone made Molly jerk awake. The room was dark, and her half-naked body pressed to Gabriel’s fully clothed one. He was asleep, his head tipped to the side and his breath softly ruffling her hair.

The phone rang again, and Molly realized it was her cell. She carefully extracted herself from Gabriel’s embrace and crawled off the bed. She’d dumped her purse on the bedroom floor when Gabriel had carried her in. She crouched on the floor so her neighbors couldn’t look in the window and see her wearing nothing but her skirt. By the time she finally found her phone, it had stopped ringing. She pressed the screen.

Lily.

She called her back. “Hey, Lil. Sorry I missed your call.”

“I hope you were too busy having fun.”

“Sleeping, actually.” Naked sleeping. With Gabriel.

“Bummer. Josh looks like he’s about to crash out, too, so I thought I’d bring him home. That okay?”

“Yeah, sure.” Crud. Lily lived five minutes away. Gabriel looked comatose. The only thing she feared worse than her son seeing Gabriel in her bed and getting the wrong idea was Lily seeing him and getting the
right
idea. “Are you okay getting him in your car?”

“Yes, Mom,” Lily deadpanned.

“Cool. See you soon.” She hung up, dropped her phone and scrambled for the bed. “Gabriel. Gabriel, wake up!”

“Huh?”

She found her bra and slipped her arms through. “Lily’s bringing Josh back. You have to go.”

His sleepy sexy expression melted away. He rolled onto his butt and watched her throw her clothes on in a panic. “They already know we went out tonight.”

“I know, but I stupidly told Lily I was sleeping, and if she sees you here she’ll know what happened. Or what almost happened. What had the potential to happen.”

He looked as confused as she felt. “You don’t want Lily to know.”

“Of
course
not! It’s private.” Sex was always private. She hated it when her friends overshared details of their own sex lives. Then again, that might’ve been because she’d had nothing but lukewarm, unsatisfying memories to contribute. “Dang it, where are my panties?”

He stood and fished them out of his pocket, dangling them in front of her nose. Kneeling in front of him, she felt her cheeks flame. “You…you want to keep them?”

His face hardened. “I’m not perverted. It’s not like I’m going to wear them.”

“I know.” She was oddly touched that he’d put her panties in his pocket. Touched and a little aroused. “It’s okay if you want them.”

He glanced away, bunching the panties in his hand as he held them out to her. She took them and tossed them into the open hamper in the corner. He was closing himself off more and more with every passing second, and she couldn’t bear it. Lily’s call had shattered their force field—or maybe her need for secrecy had. Either way, Gabriel was morphing into the distant man he’d been that horrible day in September when she’d first arrived at his cabin. She hated watching him tuck away the warmth and kindness, replacing it with coolness. Desperate to bring that man back, she reached out and brushed her fingertips against his knee, but he jerked and hastily stepped back. Something was wrong, something beyond the fact he was acting as though he couldn’t bear her touch. Something felt strange and weird and really not right, but her brain wasn’t firing properly and she couldn’t figure out what.