He chuckled, still twitching with the remnants of his orgasm. His jerking compounded each time her thumb rubbed over his cockhead.
“Are you suggesting that my hand is well acquainted with my cock?” he asked.
She flushed. “I meant with sex in general.”
“The amount of sex I have in general will never catch up with how much I experience in my head.”
Beau emitted a loud, sharp bark, and Melanie jumped. She winced and peered over her shoulder at the pair of Labradors gazing at them with obvious curiosity. “Were they watching the entire time?”
“I was too busy enjoying myself to notice.” Which was partially true. He had noticed them toward the end there, but refused to let a couple of dogs ruin his good time. “I did have an idea for a new sex swing while you were giving me the ride of my life.”
She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Do you always find the capacity to think when you’re in the middle of the act?”
“I wouldn’t call it thinking,” he said, stroking both hands up her smooth back beneath her shirt. “More like sparks of inspiration. But to answer your question . . .” He bent to kiss her neck because she was every distraction he needed in his currently chaotic life. “Inspiration doesn’t happen often. I just find you particularly stimulating.”
“Are you going to tell me about this new idea of yours?”
“Mmm,” he murmured, kissing a path to her ear and nipping the lobe. She shuddered in response. “I’d rather build the prototype and give you a demonstration.”
“Not sure if I should be intrigued or worried,” she said.
He wondered if she were thinking about the prototype he’d been hoping to unveil the last time she visited. They’d had to postpone its debut when it malfunctioned, but he’d got it working late last night. Tinkering took his mind off his troubles, but not nearly as well as Melanie did. And tinkering for Melanie? With Melanie? Well, that might just get him through this mess he called a life with a big smile on his face. He was tired of being angry. Tired of trying to fix problems he had no control over. Tired of feeling like his opinions didn’t matter.
His arms tightened around her, and while he didn’t share all the thoughts and feelings swarming through his turbulent mind, he did say, “I’m really glad you came.”
“That was quite an orgasm,” she said, her tone teasing.
“I meant—”
She squeezed him. “I know what you meant,” she whispered. “I’m glad I came too. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to find my shorts so your dogs will stop ogling my bare ass.”
“Some dogs have all the luck.”
Chapter Four
Melanie knew she was staring, but she couldn’t help herself. It was true that Gabe was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen in profile—surpassed only by when his face was turned in her direction—but that wasn’t the only reason she couldn’t take her eyes off him as he drove. After making love on the porch swing, they found the rest of their evening quite normal—preparing and sharing a perfectly ordinary dinner accompanied by perfectly ordinary conversation, cuddling up on the couch with two giant dogs to watch a movie, telling each other stories about their pasts, falling asleep in each other’s arms. All of it had made her heart ache with longing. She wanted this kind of life with him—ordinary, tame—and he would give anything to go back to his life as a rock star. Recognizing that he was everything she wanted in a man ignited far more than her passion. It ignited feelings she could not ignore.
I’m in love with him. She smiled as she identified the feelings within her thoughts. I’m madly in love with him.
After Gabe had made arrangements for his dogs to be spoiled in his absence—she couldn’t help but think that guys who were good with dogs made great future fathers—the two of them had started north to visit Nikki. Most guys would have deemed her best friend too high maintenance to deal with. Melanie’s last boyfriend had broken up with her for that very reason. He couldn’t deal with Nikki or with Melanie dropping everything to help Nikki out of another mess. But not Gabe. Gabe cared enough about her to drive ten hours to visit the woman whose reckless behavior had already put a strain on their tender new relationship. Either Gabe was a glutton for punishment, or he cared about Melanie’s happiness. Genuinely cared. Or maybe he was just antsy for a road trip because he was supposed to be touring with his band this summer.
“Take a picture; it will last longer.”
He gave her a sideways look that made her toes curl.
She flushed. So he had noticed that she was gawking at him.
“A picture might be worth a thousand words,” she said, feeling particularly sappy—maybe it was hormonal—“but it would never do you justice. A picture wouldn’t smell like you, sound like you, feel like you.”
“Taste like me?” He gave her a hopeful look.
She giggled and leaned across the small interior of the Volkswagen to kiss him. He’d left his Texas-size truck at home and opted to take Nikki’s car back to Topeka, assuring Melanie that he could fix her temperamental sedan without a problem.
“A picture wouldn’t kiss me back either,” she said. “So I wouldn’t ever take a picture over staring at the real you.”
“You’re so obsessed with me.”
She laughed at his teasing, but he was closer to the truth than he could possibly know. “I think it’s called being in love.”
“What?” he said, his eyes widening.
“I love you, Gabriel Banner.” Maybe she should wait for him to say it again—after all, he’d been the one to promise he’d tell her how he felt as often as she needed to hear it, and he hadn’t repeated the sentiment since their hasty love confession over a week ago. But this morning her feelings were bubbling out of her like the head on an overflowing beer mug, and she couldn’t contain them. She leaned into his line of sight because he was singularly focused on the road in front of him. “Does it scare you? That I love you?”
The car jerked, tires screeching as Gabe stomped on the brakes. They were on a lonely stretch of interstate somewhere in Oklahoma, so he didn’t even earn a horn blare from a disgruntled driver as the Bug shuddered to a stop. Melanie pried her fingernails out of her thighs and glared at him.
“What are you doing? Are you trying to kill us?”
She jerked around in her seat to see that the road behind them was empty, but it wouldn’t stay like that forever. A semi might mow them over at any moment.
“Why did you stop?” she asked, turning her attention to him.
His face had gone pale. Even his lips had lost their color. “Did you just say . . .”
“That I love you? Yes, I said it. And I’m sorry if that upsets you, but I can’t help it. I love you. It’s not like it’s the first time you ever heard me say it.” The second time, but not the first. “Now will you please go so we don’t commemorate this heart-baring moment with our deaths.”
The car started forward, slowly at first, and then went faster and faster until they were cruising at least thirty miles per hour over the speed limit.
“Gabe?”
He was in some sort of trance. She wasn’t sure that he’d even heard her call his name. She touched his knee, poked his cheek, licked the side of his neck. Nothing. He did come out of his daze when flashing red and blue lights came up behind them and the state patrolman squawked his siren.
“Shit,” Gabe said, finally coasting to a sane speed and then braking smoothly to pull over and stop on the highway’s wide shoulder.
Gabe leaned across her and fumbled with the glove compartment. “Please tell me that Nikki has insurance on this thing.”
Melanie couldn’t help but wonder why he was avoiding looking at her, and why he was digging through the glove compartment instead of asking for her help, and why he was acting so weird just because she’d said those three little words. She’d assumed—apparently wrongly—that he still held the strong feelings he’d confessed to after their one and only huge argument, especially after
asking her to move in with him last night. But maybe he was having second thoughts. Maybe she should have waited for him to tell her how he felt again before opening her big mouth. She knew how skittish some guys could be over the word love. She just hadn’t realized Gabe was such a guy. Had she completely fucked up this relationship with premature word ejaculation? Damn it!
“She has insurance,” Melanie said, though she didn’t want to discuss fucking insurance at the moment. She wanted to discuss Gabe’s inexplicable cold feet. “I should know. I pay for it.”