“Slick?”
She nodded. “I couldn’t trust him.” Her eyes twinkled as she spoke.
Damn, but she was enjoying this. “And then?”
“Another author. My editor introduced us at an awards ceremony.”
“Too messy, being in the same profession?” he guessed.
She shook her head. “Too needy. I want a man who’s independent and doesn’t have to know where I am 24-7. Besides, he worked at home and he was around. All. The. Time.” She groaned at the notion. “After that, there was the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. The butcher was a slob, the baker too heavy and the last guy always smelled like another woman’s perfume,” she said, laughing.
“Wench.” He realized by the end she was teasing him, although he also sensed there’d been some truth in each of them.
No man had suited her.
“How about me? What are my flaws?” he asked.
“Honestly? The fact that you don’t have any. And that brings us back to the issue at hand. Protection and how we don’t need any.” Her eyes darkened as she met his gaze. “I want you, Derek. I always have.”
His body throbbed with anticipation. He’d been hard since he’d seen her again. And he’d wanted her ever since they’d said goodbye years ago.
“The problem is we do need protection.” He swallowed hard. “Ever since Marlene got pregnant, I’ve made it a nonnegotiable rule to always wear a condom,” he said, more serious than he’d ever been.
She nodded slowly. “I respect that. And it just so happens that I believe in protection, too—with everyone in my past. Even though I was on the pill.” She licked her lips. “But I had a hunch you might feel this way, so look what I picked up?” she asked, obviously pleased with herself. She held up a box of condoms.
“You’re still thinking ahead,” he said, amused that this one character trait hadn’t changed.
And though he’d like nothing more than to feel her around him, her hot slick walls cushioning him in moist heat, he couldn’t break his rule. He needed to protect them both from the damn curse.
The time for talk was finished. He flipped her onto her stomach in the center of the bed. The hem of her lingerie slipped upward and cool air rushed over her bare buttocks.
He groaned and rubbed his hand first over one cheek, then the next. His body shook over hers and he knew he was building their arousal and anticipation. Knew he wanted her as desperately as she wanted him.
Derek leaned down and pressed a kiss against her skin.
Gabrielle’s body trembled, and before she could think beyond the erotic sensation of his lips against her flesh, he straddled her derriere and began to massage her back and shoulders. A delicious pulsing began between her thighs. And as he worked on her shoulders with his hands, he rocked insistently, erotically against her back, his erection obvious. His hard length lay in t
he crevice of her bare behind and she felt him there, an oddly arousing sensation.
“If I let myself go, it’ll be over in two seconds,” he said, his breath hot in her ear. He swept her hair off the back of her neck and leaned forward to press his lips against her skin. As he moved upward, so did his penis. Rigid and unyielding, he pressed himself against her bare cheeks.
Her thighs clenched of their own volition and her body quaked in reaction.
She attempted to roll over, but Derek placed a hand against her back, stopping her. “Not so fast. I’m not finished with you yet,” he said in a gruff voice.
He kissed her neck, nibbling with his lips and tongue, traveling from the sensitive flesh on her shoulders down the length of her back. His touch burned and she writhed beneath him, pressing against the mattress, seeking relief from the building crescendo of need.
There was no relief to be found. With each pivot of her hips, his erection thrust harder against her, heightening her excitement and her desire until she ground herself harder and faster against the mattress, pushing and pressing her lower body until just the right spot hit the bed, sending her closer to the release she desperately needed.
All the while, his movements mimicked hers. His hips rocked faster, harder, his erection exciting her beyond belief. Between her mound grinding against the mattress and his erection thrusting at her back, she could barely catch her breath. She gasped for air, unwilling to choose between breathing and coming apart right here, right now.
Finally, tiny flickers of light danced in front of her eyes. The fulfillment she’d been seeking hit and a fast and furious orgasm followed. And continued until she collapsed against the sheets.
Her body still trembled, her breath still came in shallow gulps, long after the sweet release had ended. When she was able to focus again, she took stock of her surroundings, how her body felt. And she immediately realized something was missing.
He was missing.
She needed him inside her.