Chapter Five
Shane was someone else’s to command—and for the first time in his life, he liked it that way. He liked that Gabby scarcely looked at his deluxe high-rise apartment when they reached it. He liked that she stepped inside its tastefully lit ambiance without hesitation or awe or pretend coyness. He liked that she wasted no time pinning him against the nearest wall and kissing him. He liked that she felt free to let her hands roam while she did so.
He liked everything about being with her.
Except the inevitable end of being with her.
Beginning, middle, end
, Gabby had said earlier.
You can’t skip parts
.
Stunned to have even considered the future under hotter-than-hot circumstances like this, Shane pushed away the thought of their one-night liaison coming to an end and focused on kissing Gabby instead. In his arms, she felt like heaven on earth—like knowing he was wanted and needed and accepted.
That’s how Shane knew that, no matter how real and necessary this felt tonight, it was only an illusion between them. Because he’d never been wanted and needed and accepted. Not in the way he’d longed to be. But now, with Gabby . . .
He
knew
he could please her. He fully meant to do so.
For the next several hours, that’s all that mattered.
“Take off your shirt,” Gabby commanded breathlessly. Her words reminded him of their conversation about the chain of command—and set him aflame, too. “I want to see you. Right now.”
Evidently, Shane hesitated a heartbeat too long, because Gabby didn’t wait for him. Lunging forward for another kiss, she grabbed twin handfuls of his T-shirt hem and yanked upward. He felt her knuckles graze his midsection, sensed her becoming distracted, broke off their kiss to find her stroking his abs.
“You should
never
cover all this.” Eyes alight, she stripped off his shirt. Without looking, she tossed it aside. The Chihuly freeblown glasswork on his coffee table served as an impromptu butler stand—doubtless not what Lizzy had intended when she’d decorated with it. “You look
incredible
.”
Shane shook his head. “I feel even better than that.”
Her smile quirked upward. “I
bet
you do.”
At her provocative tone, he almost laughed. “No, I mean—”
I feel even better than
that . . .
because I’m with you
.
He couldn’t say that. It was too vulnerable, too open.
On the other hand, that’s why he was here.
“I mean I feel even better than that,” Shane told her as he pulled her against him again, “because I’m with you.”
“Ah.” Again, Gabby didn’t take him seriously. “Just wait. Things are going to get even better between us. Like this.”
She kissed him again, and the feel of her mouth against his took his breath away. Struggling to remain in control, Shane found that he could not. All he knew were the sensuous glide of Gabby’s mouth, the arresting feel of her hands stroking his shoulders, the delicate fullness of her breasts pushing against his chest. He needed . . .
everything
from her, and he needed it now.
Otherwise, he didn’t think he could stand it.
Growling as much, Shane turned them around. He maneuvered Gabby as far as his apartment’s dining table before losing all sense of space, time, and direction. Lifting her onto the long, polished tabletop, he stepped between her spread thighs and kissed her again. Her hair felt like silk in his hands. Her moans of pleasure poured through his apartment’s serene air, displacing all the temporary newness installed as part of his upcoming “fix” and infusing the whole place with possibility.
“Touch me.” Gabby took his hand, then placed it on her bare thigh. “Right here. More.” She kissed him, then let her head loll back, exposing her long, pale neck. “Higher. Do it.”
Willingly, Shane did. He stroked his palm up her thigh, feeling himself grow twice as engorged at the feel of her warm, taut skin beneath his hand. He hiked her black dress higher, following the path of his movements with his eyes, drinking in everything about her. He could have sworn he glimpsed skimpy black underthings, inches away from his fingertips. He groaned.
“You’re
so
beautiful.” He brought his forehead to hers, gently, then gazed into her eyes. “You feel . . .
amazing
.”
“Lick my nipples, and I’ll feel even better.”
As invitations went, hers was beyond seductive. Assuredly, Gabby flicked away her dress’s straps, making her invitation even bolder. Her motion made her dress fall away. It puddled at her waist, revealing her pert breasts, rosy nipples, and myriad thin silver necklaces that Shane hadn’t noticed before. Her jewelry fell over her modest cleavage, glimmering in the low light, making Gabby seem feminine and magical and much too delicate for the rough, passionate liaison he had in mind.
“Do it,” she urged, giving him a lazy grin. For incentive, she grabbed his belt buckle and hauled him nearer. “That’s a command—and you know how I feel about obeying commands.”
Mindlessly, Shane complied. He
loved
the feel of her breasts in his hands, of her pearled nipples on his tongue, of her sweet breath rasping across his naked shoulders. Gabby clutched him, squeezing her outflung knees against his hips, and again he couldn’t help thinking about another, even more intimate scenario. He wanted to be inside her. He wanted to know how she felt when she came, how she sounded, how she reacted when that utter defenselessness washed over her.
Probably bossily
, a part of him whispered, and he grinned.
Dreamily, Gabby looked at him. “What’s so funny?”
“I think I love everything about you,” Shane said. “Even the bossy parts. That wasn’t what I expected tonight.”
“
Especially
the bossy parts, you mean.” Her grin matched his. Again, that sense of synchronicity struck him. She yanked at his belt buckle, then frowned. “What is this, Fort Knox?”
“You’ve got to protect the valuables.”
“
You’ve
got to free the valuables.” She nodded. “Open up.”
“My fly?” It was too hard to think with her bare breasts in his hands and her warm skin against his. “Open up my fly?”
“Open sesame,” Gabby tried, hilariously. “Abracadabra.”
“If
that
worked, I’d be in a world of trouble just going about my daily business.”
“Yeah. I saw all those women ogling you at the brewpub.”
Shane didn’t care about that. “I didn’t. I was ogling you.”
I was falling for you, hard, like a hammer on a nail
.
No, he had to say it. He had to
do
the spontaneous stuff. All of it. Tonight. So it would be exorcized tomorrow.
“I was falling for you,” Shane amended in a husky tone. “Falling for you hard. Like a hammer on a nail.”
Gabby gawked at him, then laughed. “It’s a good thing you look so cute when saying schmaltzy stuff like that. Otherwise, I’d have to start having second thoughts about coming here.”
“Oh yeah?” Meeting her challenge with one of his own, Shane slid his palm higher up her thigh. Those
were
barely there black panties she had on. He touched their silky softness, and was almost undone by the feel of her beneath. “How about now?”
“Now?” She gasped and clutched his shoulder, melting against him as his fingers stroked between her thighs. “Uh . . .”
“Can’t think?” Wickedly, Shane kept on stroking. She felt remarkable—and he knew how to make that sensation even better for her. Indulging himself with another lingering sweep of his tongue against her budded nipple, he stroked her again. “Can’t remember what you were talking about a second ago?”
He knew damn well she couldn’t. Her next moan confirmed it. So did the flexing of her thighs, the grasping of her hands, the slow, helpless tip of her head. All the same, Gabby tried.
Shane admired her for that. She was quite a woman.
“Take . . . off . . . your . . . pants,” she managed to pant, sticking to her earlier demand. She shuddered against him. “Do it.”
“Do it?” Playfully, Shane raised his eyebrows. “Like this?”
“
Ah
.” Gabby dug her fingers in his shoulder, her body slick against him. “Yes. Like that.
Just
like that. Oh, God. I—”
“Mmm.” He absorbed her cries in a kiss. “Go ahead. Tell me.”
“I—wait! Not yet.” With an obvious effort, Gabby opened her eyes. She stared at him, panting. “This is too fast! Too soon.”
“Too soon for what?” Delicately, Shane pressed onward. At her helpless response, a burst of tenderness filled him. He wanted . . .
everything
for Gabby. Every pleasure. Every goodness.
“I’m going to—” She panted again, then gave a frantic gesture toward his dining table. “Here, on your table! You—”
“It seats twelve. We’ll use the other end.”
“What?” Her gaze, hazy and desire filled, met his. “You—”
“I’m kidding.” He kissed her. “And you talk too much.”
“No, I don’t,” Gabby managed. With evident effort, she moved her hand lower. She stroked his fly. “I feel, too.”
God
. Shane knew it. Beneath his jeans, his cock felt huge. He needed this, needed her . . . needed her to quit making him crazy. What was she doing? Trying to make him burst through denim?
“You’re
competing
with me,” he marveled, realizing it at last. “You’re competing to see who can make who come first.”
Her blush told him he was right. So did her renewed efforts to unzip his fly, this time bypassing his belt altogether.
“I’m going to win, too.” To prove it, Gabby stuck her hand inside his pants. She touched him. They both shuddered.
“I
definitely
love you,” Shane said on a moan.
“I’ll love you
after
you give in to me,” Gabby returned.
He couldn’t help it. Her bossiness, so a part of her, made him feel hotter than ever. He
needed
someone like her, Shane thought. Someone who wouldn’t quaver, wouldn’t back down . . .
. . . wouldn’t be able to help rhythmically pushing herself against his stroking hand, making herself quake even harder.
Gabby was about to come undone. Shane knew it. She didn’t.
That explained the surprise on her face as the first tremors struck. With potent satisfaction, Shane felt her rock against him, and knew that if nothing else happened tonight, he’d be happy to have shared this with her—to have glimpsed her beautiful face aglow with pleasure and full of affection.
The affection he hadn’t earned. Not yet. But the pleasure . . .
Well, Gabby’s gasped exclamation said it all. “Oh my God! That was so . . .” Limply, she sagged against him. “. . . so
fast
!”
“Sorry.” He wasn’t. “I’ll try to go slower next time.”
Smartly, she jabbed his shoulder. “I wanted to win!”
“Maybe next time.”
“So there’ll
be
a next time?”
“I hope there’ll be a continuation of
this
time.”
Pointedly, Shane glanced down at himself. In her frenzy, Gabby had managed to get his belt totally crooked. She’d gotten his zipper all the way down. She’d made him as hard as granite.
She followed his gaze to the bulge in his jeans. Her eyes widened. “I thought
feeling
you was good. But
seeing
you, too . . .”
“Is good?”
Gabby scoffed. “You know it’s
excellent
.” Her attention shifted to his face. A saucy smile came next. “It’s about to get even better, too, once I get you naked.”
Then she lunged for him and knocked him down to the rug.
The rug wasn’t the most romantic place to seduce a man, Gabriella figured as she pushed Shane onto the floor. But it was expedient. And impulsive. And it suited her current mood, too.
Which was, to put it plainly,
desperate
for him.
Besides, so far tonight, impulsivity and bravado had served her well. Since the rules in her life had otherwise broken down . . . why not demolish a few more restrictions with Shane?
She could always go back to being born-again responsible tomorrow.
Decisively, Gabriella reached underneath her dress. An instant later, she dropped her black bikini panties onto the floor. She followed up that move by shimmying out of her dress.
In for a penny, in for a pound, she reasoned. She was here now. Naked and proud—and still feeling seriously weak-kneed after the orgasm she’d experienced—Gabriella looked at Shane.
He made quite a sight, sprawled there on what looked like a very luxurious and pricey rug. His muscular torso was bare, his sinewy arms were flung to the sides, and his eyes sparkled at her. His mouth looked sensual. His body looked perfect. And as for his smile . . . well, his smile invited her to do what she wanted.
So, gleefully, Gabriella straddled him. With both hands on Shane’s strong chest, she lowered herself to kiss him. Nothing could have outstripped the passion between them; nothing could have disguised the desire Shane felt. The impressive bulge in his jeans was proof of that. Exercising remarkable restraint—given the circumstances—he brought up his hand to cradle the back of her head, ruffling her already messy sex-me-up hair.
They must have made quite a sight, Gabriella knew. Her, naked atop him and kissing him like there was no tomorrow. Him, sporting a massive erection, a pair of too constricting jeans, and a demeanor that made everything between them feel...
Perfect
.
Right
. Almost inevitable. It was . . . remarkable.
Struck by a feeling of inexplicable fondness for a man she’d only just met, Gabriella kissed him again. She cradled Shane’s face, loving every sharp-angled contour, every stubbled inch of skin, every quirk of his assertive nose that landed him just on the right side of looking too handsome. She
loved
the way he looked, the way he felt, the way he made
her
feel.