Convincing Lina: A Bachelor of Shell Cove Novel (The Bachelors of Shell Cove Romance Book 2) (26 page)

“I told myself that the next man who professed to care about me would have to carve his feelings on a stone tablet in blood.” She gave a soft laugh. “I’m breaking my own rule for you.” She curled her fingers into the soft material of his shirt, stroking his chest through the fabric. “Don’t break my heart.” She pleaded. Fear warred with hope inside of her.
 

“I won’t. My love for you is constant as the sun rising and setting.”
Love.
He pushed into her mouth once more and coherent thought fled. Lina felt him pull away before she drank her fill. She sought his eyes questioning why he’d broken their kiss.
 

“I love you, Lina.” She gasped. He’d said the three words she dared not dream of him saying to her. Not even Troy had said those three words to her. Gideon was different from the men in her past. He’d kept her safe. He expected them to spend time together, beyond the bedroom. He’d brought her home to meet his family. Couples that stayed together did those things. Made connections. Blended their lives together.

“I’m ready.” She hoped. When he opened the door to the warmth of the cabin, she followed when he took her hand.
Closing the door on the outside world, she crossed the threshold to her future.

Tonight he would claim Lina as his own. Every touch she graced him with was akin to erotic torture.
 

More than he could bear, not enough for him to stop. Lina tried to commandeer a room to store her things when they entered the cabin. She wanted him. He could see it in her eyes. Yet she fought the attraction between them. After their night together in Shell Cove and her admission of wanting him, retreat was not on the menu. He loved her. The woman he would spend the rest of his life with. The woman who would give him children.
 

Neither one of them felt like eating after they walked the property surrounding the cabin. Gideon grabbed a bottle of white wine, and a couple of glasses from the cupboard. He piled grapes, berries, and cheese onto a platter. He rejoined Lina on the sheep skin rug in front of the fireplace. The sound of crackling wood infused the air. She looked vulnerable curled on her side staring into the flames. Her head propped on her hand, she looked up as he placed the platter on the leather chest near her head.
 

Lying down beside her, he fused the front of their bodies together, hip to hip. Gideon threaded his fingers through her hair. With his lips mere inches from hers. He trailed a thumb across Lina’s kiss swollen lips. He loved her. Told her as much. They would be one tonight, but there was still a wall between them.

“Who am I to you?” He asked.  

“You are my lover.” There was no hesitation in her answer. Not a hint of tremor laced her words.
 

“Will I ever be more than your lover?” She moved to turn away. He captured her chin between his thumb and forefinger.

“Yes, it is possible.” The gleam of hope flashed in her eyes and a peace settled over him.
 

“I have one last request for tonight.”

“What is it?” She asked, a hint of a smile on her face.
 

“Say that you want to stay with me. That we will be together.” This wasn’t manipulation. He would do anything in his power to keep her happy.
 

“I’m with you now.” Lina replied.
 

“I want you now and for always.” He leaned in nuzzling the area between her neck and shoulder. A low moan escaped her lips.
 

“Gideon.”

“For always, Lina” He licked her earlobe, and she shivered.

“I’ll stay,” came her whisper. To him it sounded like she shouted from the steeple down to the cathedral.
 

“Good. We are going to seal our deal, starting tonight.”

“What do you have in mind, Doctor?”

“A whole lot of nurse-doctor role play.” He touched his lips to hers.
 

“I’m going to taste every inch of you.”

“Sounds like a challenge.” Her warm breath skirted across his chest and every muscle in his body tightened.
 

He rose to his full height, taking her with him.
 

“Take your clothes off.” Her eyes stretched wide in surprise.
 

“A bossy doctor in and out of the bedroom, shocking. I thought Marines took orders.”

“Only from senior officers, sweetness. And I’m the commanding officer when we’re making love,” he teased.
 

“Let’s see if we can change that.” And she opened her gingham print shirt. He only caught a glimpse of her red silk bra, before she released the clasp and the bountiful swells of her breasts filled his vision. He sucked in a breath. Sweet heavenly dove, the blood to his brain shot to his groin.
 

“Asymmetrical warfare?” He questioned with a raised brow. “Bring it on.”
 

He unbuttoned his fly, and his erection sprang free. Her eyes filled with heat and the pulse in her neck drummed with the intensity of a KISS concert. He was rolling commando and his erection sprang free when he released the button on his jeans.
 

“What else you got under all those clothes, my naughty nurse?” Every cell in his body was standing at attention. His hands shook with the need to plunge into her. Mark her with his scent. Claim her as his own.
 

“I can’t believe I’m getting X-rated in your family’s cabin.”
 

“You believe I want you?” She nodded. “Words Lina, you’re not the shy type.” He knew where he stood with Lina except in this one area. When he told her he loved her. She’d pulled her
avoid the subject
maneuver. This time it was too important to their future. He would have his answers.
 

“Men wanting my body was never an issue. Will you keep me?” She stood bare before him. Her breasts were pools of milk chocolate with dark chocolate centers. He reached out, swirling his fingers over her breasts. She strained forward, pushing her soft flesh against his hands. The nipples beaded with the lightest stroke of his knuckles.
 

Palming her breast in his hand, he kneaded the responsive flesh until her throaty moans filled the room. He experienced a touch of masculine pride, when she sank to her knees before him. He pushed her back onto the soft rug, stretching his long body over hers. With deft movements, he undid the button of her jeans. He heard her hiss of breath as he released the zipper and worked her legs free of her pants and panties.
 

He didn’t believe it was possible, but the pulse in his pants increased, and he got harder. He might die of an erection overload before he ever got inside of her.
 

“I’m not most men. I sure don’t want to hear about other men when my junk is on display and you’re a visual feast laid bare for me.”

“I know who you are, Gideon. There’s no danger of me comparing you to another man.” She sat forward, gathered the hem of his shirt, and pushed it up, gliding her hands along his torso. Unabashed appreciation shone in her eyes as she slowly divested him of his shirt.

“You believe I love you?” Her hands stilled on his skin. Her nails dug into his chiseled abdomen. She gave a head tilt or maybe it was a nod. For all he knew, she was scratching her ear with her shoulder. No way would he leave his love for her open to interpretation.
 

“Open your mouth and tell me you believe I love you.” Silence.

“Lina, say it or this stops.”

“I’m butt naked by the fire. This is our first time having sex, and you’re threatening to hold out on the Cricket?” He made quick work of removing his pants and boots.

“Now were both butt naked by the fire.” When her eyes zeroed in on his bobbing erection, he about lost his load. The look in her eyes said she knew the truth.

“I can tell you, this is a bad plan.” She placed an open mouthed kiss to his abdomen. He shuddered when she gently sucked his skin between her teeth, licking in rhythm with his breaths. A deep groan filled the room. He felt her lips stretch into a smile. His plan would indeed, fail.
 

“I can promise you I would be incapable of holding out with you naked in my bed every night. With you in my life, I’ll never be limp enough to be paired up, rolled into a neat ball, and tucked away in a sock drawer. I have no idea what the term cricket pertains to on your body, but I know I’ll love it. Because I love you.”

“Stop saying that you love me.” She pushed, but he would not budge.

“I can’t and I won’t. I love you and if you can’t accept my love for you we will never get to where I want to take you.”

“I think you have the skills to take me all the way, Gideon.”

“No joking, sweetness. I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work.” It was the hardest thing he had to do, literally. He lifted his weight off Lina and rolled onto the carpet beside her. Before he could chastise himself for being the stupidest man on the planet he reached over and pulled Lina into his lap. Taking her chin between his fingers, he lifted her head until their gazes met, “Why don’t you trust me?”

“I do, Gideon.” He searched her face. Something held her back and it was beyond the boundaries of her man-fast. “I need you.” Lina looked miserable at the admission. She didn’t want to need him, Gideon realized. Tonight would be a demonstration in trust for both of them. He reached under the sofa cushion and withdrew a condom.
 

“How did you know that was under there?” She asked.
 

“I stocked the cabin with more than food and water,” he grinned at her. “Lie down and open wide for me.” She scrambled off his lap. The speed of her compliance told him she was as eager as he.
 

He stroked his tongue over her right nipple before cupping her full breast. Taking the taut bud into his mouth. He felt Lina’s arm around his neck, pulling him forward, pushing her breast deeper into his mouth. He suckled the hard peak until Lina writhed beneath him.

She moaned, when he lavished equal attention on its twin. He licked his way down to her bare mound leaving a trail of wetness on her skin. When Gideon cupped her sex, easing two fingers inside to test her readiness, she released a low hiss of pleasure.
 

“Yeah, sweetness. You are ready for me.” He couldn’t hold out much longer either.
 

He tangled his hands in her hair. He pulled her forward, surging into her mouth. The thrusts of his tongue in sync with the fingers stroking her moist channel.
 

When her legs fell open wider of their own accord, he pumped into her heated core, until she trembled with desire. Her sultry cries for more entered his psyche fueling his own need.
 

“Gideon, please. I need you.” Her voice was throaty and filled with sexual tension.
 

“I need you more.” He withdrew his fingers and she moaned against his mouth.

He reached down positioning his condom sheathed erection at her entrance. He buried himself inside her in one fluid motion, sinking deep into her drenched sex.
 

Gideon threw back his head, lips parted in ecstasy. The slow roll of Lina’s hips, pulled him deep in to an erotic abyss of friction, heat, and bone deep pleasure. The divergence of soft and hard as he surged into her was the sensual ride of his life. And he was determined to savor every hill and valley until they toppled over the precipice together. Soft sucking noises mixed with the crackling of fired wood. Lina’s hoarse cries of pleasure stoked his passion and he began pumping into her in long, deep strokes. He wanted to leave a permanent reminder on her body.
 

He looked down, Lina’s eyes were glazed with sexual pleasure. He moved lower, leveraging his weight, pressing her in the rug, his sweat mingling with hers. Their combined scent drove him to push harder, deeper, and faster.
 

Dozens of pulsations flooded her quaking sex muscles.
 

“I feel you getting ready to come, Lina.”
 

He bent her leg suspending it with his forearm opening her impossibly wide and plunged into her silken lining until he couldn’t distinguish her body from his.

“Gideon,” her tone was unsure, almost panicked.

“I’m with you, Lina. I love you.” Staring deep into her eyes, he watched, waiting to see her release. Witness her fly apart because of his lovemaking.