“You’re not buying me anything for another twenty years.” Raising her hand on that stern statement, she pointed to the bracelet that glittered on one wrist.
Gabriel’s response was a deeply possessive smile. “Looks perfect on you, Ms. Baird.”
Making a face at him for totally avoiding the point, she finished powdering her face. It was what she should’ve done first, but she’d felt so naked and ravaged that she’d started with mascara. She’d have to repeat the mascara now, after getting powder on her lashes.
Slicking on some lipstick, she redid the mascara and put her glasses back on. Gabriel came into crisp focus. “Will I do?” she asked the man who looked at her as if he wanted to take a greedy bite.
“Come sit on my lap.”
“Gabriel.”
Putting his feet on the floor, he crooked a finger.
27
GABRIEL LEADS CHARLOTTE INTO WICKEDNESS AND SIN
“WE’RE IN THE OFFICE,” she said, even as she came around the desk to take a seat on those strong thighs. “We’re supposed to be professional at work.”
Arms loosely around her, Gabriel leaned forward to press his lips to her shoulder. “We’re having a coffee break.”
“We already had that this morning.”
Another kiss over the linen of her shift. “I’m the boss. I say we deserve a second coffee break after all those late nights and weekends.” The third kiss brushed over her skin.
Toes curling, she felt her bones start to dissolve.
Then he pressed a kiss to her throat and she turned boneless. No one had ever kissed her throat, and it was so incredibly arousing that she leaned into him in a silent request for more. He chuckled, his breath hot, and gave her what she wanted; his kiss was wet and suckling, made her whimper. “So my Ms. Baird has a hot button on this sweet neck.”
Chest rising and falling in jerky breaths, Charlotte stayed shamelessly close. Gabriel continued to feed her sensual hunger, playing his fingers over her hip at the same time. Each kiss seemed to tug on her nipples, stroke her between her thighs. Charlotte found her hand was on the back of Gabriel’s neck again, her throat arched for him.
Stroking his own hand over the curve of her waist and to her hip, he nuzzled the spot just below her ear. Charlotte moaned, her panties damp.
“I like that sound.” It was a deep rumble against her. “Makes my cock so fucking hard.”
Another moan slipped out of her throat, her nails digging into his nape. “Gabriel,” she said, the single word breathy.
He kissed his way down her throat in response, each kiss accompanied by a wet little suck. By the time he worked his way back up to that spot under her ear, her panties were so wet they were sticking to her flesh, her breath coming hard and fast, her chest tight with anticipation. He paused, hot breath against her skin. “Touch yourself for me, Ms. Baird.”
She bit down on her lower lip, but the moan escaped anyway. The combination of his words and the fact he’d used her professional name, it had her heart thumping even harder, her skin so hot it felt as if she’d catch on fire. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.” A kiss just below that delicious spot she needed him to kiss. “I want you to come on my lap, want to watch you take your pleasure.”
Lungs aching, she clenched her hand on his nape.
Another wet kiss that ratcheted up her arousal without easing it. “Put your hand under your dress.”
Charlotte’s heart was racing a hundred miles an hour, her mind filled with Gabriel, his scent—hot, masculine, arousing—in her every breath. And his voice, that deep voice telling her to do such a carnal thing. She didn’t know where she found the courage; maybe in the protection of his arms, maybe in the fact she was so close to a pleasure that promised to be bone-searing when she’d been a wreck minutes ago.
She slid her free hand below the hem of her dress.
“Oh fuck.” Gabriel’s body shuddered. “Higher, sweetheart.” Each word was accompanied by a kiss to her neck.
Charlotte had tried this before Gabriel came into her life, but it had never worked, as if there was a toxic block inside her made of fear and the memories of Richard’s denigrating words. Then had come those dreams and erotic fantasies. Today, as she inched her hand up her thigh, it felt as if her entire body was alive with arousal, her nerve endings sizzling just below the surface. Breasts rising and falling in an erratic rhythm, she moaned at the feel of Gabriel sucking on her neck as he made his way back up to that spot that felt so good.
Then he was there, his tongue swirling a delicate circle against her skin just as her fingers brushed the plump bud of her clitoris through the lace of her panties. Her clit felt as if it had swollen to three times its usual size, the space between her thighs humid and hot.
“Nudge aside your panties and tug on your clit,” Gabriel ordered as he continued to suck and kiss her throat. “Imagine it’s my fingers doing that to you. Be rough.”
Skin tight and breasts aching, she pushed aside the gusset of her panties.
“Are you wet?”
“Yes,” she whispered, her fingers finding the slippery plumpness of her clit.
“Tug,” he said, his voice harsh. “Harder than you usually would.”
Because she could deny him nothing, she did exactly as he’d ordered. Her thighs pressed together instinctively, her lower body clenching in convulsive shivers as her eyes squeezed shut.
The pleasure was deep, sinful, sublime.