Rock Hard (Rock Kiss 2)

CHEST HEAVING, CHARLOTTE STARED at Gabriel after the last ripples passed through her body.

He’d stopped kissing her, was just watching with glittering eyes, a red flush brushing his cheekbones. “You are so sexy, Ms. Baird.”

Blushing, she slipped her hand out from under her dress. She couldn’t believe she’d done that, but even more, she couldn’t believe she’d orgasmed from nothing more than his kisses and a single purposeful touch. And words. Gabriel’s words. That, she thought, was the most important thing.

It had been Gabriel with her.

Closing his fingers around the wrist of the hand she’d taken from between her legs, he tugged it closer, drew in a long breath. “I can smell you, and it makes me want to lick you until you come on my tongue.” Molten silver eyes met her own. “Let me.”

Her thighs clamped together again, pleasure splintering her body. “I don’t think I can take it today,” she said when she could speak again.

He brushed the back of his hand over her breasts. “Next time.”

Nipples hard and pebbled, she nodded. “Yes.” Then she leaned forward and kissed him. Richard wasn’t going to steal Gabriel from her. No way in hell.

AFTER CHARLOTTE LEFT HIS office to head to the bathroom, a hot-pink blush coloring her cheeks, Gabriel shut the door and stood with his back to it. Then he went through a step-by-step mental replay of the last professional game he’d ever played. He’d been injured two minutes before the final whistle, right after the best fucking try of his career, so he had plenty of mental footage.

Just as well.

It took the entire game to get his hard-on under control. But the agony was worth it. He’d never seen anything as hot as Charlotte coming so sweetly in his lap. And he most definitely could not think about that again while he was at the office.

Opening the door to see that Charlotte had returned to her desk, he smiled. “What’s on the schedule, Ms. Baird?”

Her nape flushed before she turned slightly in her chair to narrow her eyes at him. He felt his smile deepen.

“Can you fit in a meeting with Geoff before your conference call?” she asked, her lips tugging up at the corners. “He says he only needs ten minutes.”

“Send him in.”

The ensuing workday was a merciless one. He broke for only a half hour, and that was to spend time on the phone with the principal of the school where he volunteered as the coach for the school’s top rugby team—their first XV. One of his players had been caught with weed and the principal wanted to know if Gabriel would back him on a suspension from play as well as school.

“Yes,” Gabriel said without hesitation. “Team’s got a strict no-drugs policy.” He then tore a strip off the player himself; the kid was an amazing fullback, might go all the way, but not if he fucked up.

He hung up after getting a genuinely contrite, “I’m sorry, Coach. I messed up.” The boy was now aware that as a result of his error, his team might well lose its upcoming match against their greatest rivals; that knowledge would work more effectively as a deterrent than anything else.

Other than that interruption, the day involved challenge after challenge—exactly what Gabriel liked in business. Charlotte called in lunch that they both ate at their desks, then kept going. He would’ve pushed on if she hadn’t booked a seven-o’clock appointment to view the sublet. Since there was no way he was about to let her do that alone, they headed out.

His building wasn’t far from the office, and with rush hour having eased, it took them under ten minutes to make it there. Bringing the SUV to a stop in his parking space in the underground garage, he stepped out. Charlotte was already opening her door by the time he came around.

Putting his hands on her waist, he lifted her out. “Do you realize we haven’t said a single word to each other since we got in the elevator at work?”

Wrinkles formed between her eyebrows. “No, that’s wrong… isn’t it?” She tilted her head a little to the side. “It didn’t feel like it.”

“No, it didn’t.” He cupped her face, brushed back a strand of hair. “Ready to see the apartment?”

Charlotte’s hand landed on his shirt. “What happened to your tie?” A scowl. “Wait, let me grab your jacket from the back.”

Laughing, he drew her to the elevators. “Trust me. The owner’s not going to care if I’m not professionally dressed.” Not when Gabriel owned over a quarter of the apartments in the building. Unfortunately, that didn’t include the sublet.

“At least roll down your sleeves.”

“You’re adorable when you scowl like that.”

Expression darkening as they entered the elevator, she reached up and fixed his collar, then smoothed her hands down his chest in a petting, possessive move that made him want to stretch out and ask her to do it all over his body. When she said, “Bend down,” he did so without complaining.

Slender fingers brushing through his hair. “There,” she said, just as the elevator doors opened on the fourth floor.

He followed her out, delighted with her. He wasn’t, however, taking anything for granted; after today’s panic attack, he knew Charlotte herself didn’t know when she might react negatively to something he said or did. The seeds of terror were hidden within her, could burst open at any time. But then he thought about how she’d quivered big-eyed at him during their first-ever dinner.