“You talked to someone?” Her eyes went huge, then turned suspicious. “Did your mom make you?”
“My dad,” he admitted. “It was a good thing. I wasn’t too messed up, but I might have been if I hadn’t talked to Dr. Mac at that point in time.” He shrugged. “He reminded me I had a whole lot more going for me than just my skill on the field.”
Charlotte pressed her hands flat against his chest. “You were hurting.”
“I’d been playing no-holds-barred rugby since I could run, then poof, it was all gone.” Feeling Charlotte melt against him, her features soft, he realized she was a sucker for his hard-luck story. Too bad he adored her too much to use it to manipulate her. “Anyway, Dr. Mac, he’s a good guy.”
“A man?” Charlotte twisted her lips. “I don’t do too well with men, you know that.”
“He looks like Santa Claus, complete with the beard. Why don’t you give it a shot? I can go with you for the first session.”
Charlotte rubbed her hands up her arms and immediately found herself cuddled against the heat of Gabriel’s chest. He really was very tactile—she loved it. Settling into him and hotly aware of how intimately he held her, one of his hands curved over her left thigh, she said, “Okay, I’ll try it.” She wasn’t sure she could talk to even Santa Claus, but she was willing to attempt anything at this point.
“I’ll give him a call tomorrow, see when he has a slot.” Gabriel’s hand moved to between her thighs.
She shifted restlessly on his lap, her pulse spiking. When she tipped up her head, his lips were there for her to kiss. Sliding her hand around to his nape, she opened her mouth to him. He thrust his tongue inside, and it was a more aggressive kiss than he usually began with; it made her wet all over again.
He cupped her between her thighs a second later, swallowed her gasp with his kiss. Rising up in an instinctive move, she pushed back down and he thrust two fingers into her. It was so hard, so fast, that it tore a rasped scream from her throat.
Biting down on her lower lip, Gabriel said, “Come back here, Ms. Baird.”
She gave him her mouth again and in return, he moved his fingers in a deep, demanding rhythm, his tongue echoing the tempo. Charlotte tried to hold on, but it was hopeless. Her thighs squeezed his wrist, her internal muscles clamping down on him as the orgasm crashed over her. It didn’t stop when she thought it would, because he kept doing things to her. Pressing his thumb against her clit, pulling out his fingers and thrusting them back in past her passion-swollen entrance, sucking on her tongue.
“Stop,” she gasped at last, her muscles aching. “I can’t take it.”
A husky chuckle, but he’d stopped the instant she asked. Leaving his hand between her legs, he curved it around her inner thigh. He was sticky with her and the feel of it made her shudder again. Burying her face against his neck, chest heaving, she tried to find words, but they’d all left her brain.
“Do you mind if I use your body to get myself off?” It was a hot question against her ear.
Charlotte moaned.
“Is that a yes to my using your body?”
She nodded.
The big, sexy man who’d turned her bones molten pulled up her dress, tugging it over her head before removing her bra. She barely had the strength to move her arms, but he managed. It left her totally naked for the first time, and she should’ve felt vulnerable, but Gabriel’s hands felt so lovely on her skin that she just let him do what he wanted.
He spread her thighs over him so she straddled him again, then cradling her against him, nibbled at her throat as he released himself from his pants. “I want your hand on my cock.” Taking her right hand, he slid it over his chest and down.
Charlotte curled her fingers around the hot steel of his erection, shivered when he said, “Kiss me, Ms. Baird.”
She did exactly that, part of her aware that had she been normal and not messed up as she was, he’d have hauled her aggressively into that kiss. Right now, that didn’t matter. What mattered was that he was kissing her all raw and deep again while using his hand on her own to show her how to caress him. Finding strength in his desire for her, she lifted off his chest enough to look down.
Seeing her fingers on him made her lower body tighten in a convulsive shudder.
There wasn’t much thinking after that.
GABRIEL REALLY DIDN’T WANT to drive home that night, but he got dressed and rose, both because he had no fresh clothes at Charlotte’s and because he knew she wasn’t ready. The last thing he wanted was for her to wake up in the middle of the night and panic at having a man in bed with her.
So he kissed her on the doorstep, leaving her all sleepy-eyed and sated. It was one of the hardest things he’d had to do—especially when she reached up on tiptoe to kiss him again at the instant he would’ve pulled back.
“Thank you, Gabriel.”
“I’m the one who should be giving thanks.” He’d never been so sexually satisfied in his life. Yeah, he’d had to hold back, but that was changing. He wasn’t sure she realized it, but he’d been pretty demanding on the sofa and she hadn’t flinched. Sex, however, wasn’t the key to Charlotte’s fear. Still, it was a start.
Leaving her with a final kiss, he made his way home.
CHARLOTTE SLEPT LIKE THE dead and woke early, feeling good from the tips of her toes to the ends of her hair. She probably should’ve showered before going to bed, but she hadn’t, not wanting to wash off Gabriel’s scent. Rolling around and basking in it for another few minutes, she finally made herself go and shower, then got dressed.