I followed his demand and reached between us, stroking my clit hard. Pleasure welled up in me again. He was almost there, too. Our groans ran together.
I wanted to come with him. I rubbed my clit faster. A few more strokes of my fingers and I was there. His name rolled off my lips again and again as my world was reduced to nothing but white-hot pleasure.
Then he was there, too. Groans rumbled through his chest and rocked me through his orgasm. “Fuck, Gabbi. Fuck.”
His entire body shook. It was the best thing ever.
He pressed a kiss to my neck and held me close, his body not leaving mine.
He propped himself up on his elbows and looked into my eyes. There was something shining in them that I hadn’t seen before. Admiration maybe? It couldn’t be the other thing.
It wasn’t possible that he was falling for me the same way that I had fallen for him, was it?
The corners of his mouth twitched up into a grin. “Well, that was worth the wait.”
I laughed. I was sated, spent. He groaned. I realized that he was still inside me. “If you keep laughing, we’re going again.”
My sex clenched involuntarily. His eyes fluttered closed.
“Seriously?” he teased. “Give me a second to recover, you insatiable woman.”
Two could play that game. “Only with you.”
His pupils dilated as I repeated his earlier words back to him. It was a promise. It was also the truth.
He did things to me that I couldn’t describe. To my body. To my heart. He was every bad boy that I had ever been warned about, every reason that I avoided relationships like the plague. Every outlaw and every villain.
Yet, as the weight of his body pressed me into the bed and his eyes bored into mine, he was every dream and every fantasy that I’d ever had come to life. He was every prom king and every hero rolled into one.
“What are you thinking?” He stared at me with eyes full of questions.
There was no way I was telling him exactly what I had been thinking, so I said the closest thing to the truth that I could come up with. “I’m really happy that you showed up tonight.”
His eyes shone with sincerity as he answered. “So am I, Gabrielle. It was the best fucking decision that I’ve ever made.”
Then he started moving again, slow, steady strokes that soon had me forgetting anything and
everything that I had ever known.
Later that night, James wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his chest. My arms draped over him, and our legs twined together. Our breathing had long since slowed, and my body felt like it had been hit by a train. In the best possible way.
My train was sexy and thoughtful and attentive and intelligent. I still didn’t quite know what was happening between us, but I knew that he wanted it, too.
Wrapped up in his arms, I knew that our problems weren’t gone. At least for now, however, it felt like we could handle them.
Chapter Twenty-Three
James
Gabrielle squealed with joy as I tackled her to the sand, rolling us so that she landed on top of me.
“Say that you’ll try it,” I demanded. Her hair fell in soft waves around us, blocking out the world. Her eyes danced with mischief as they locked with mine.
“Never,” she breathed, her wet bikini heaving against my chest. “I hate heights, James. How about scuba diving instead?”
“You want me to go down to all the creepy crawly shit?” I feigned horror, my eyes wide.
“You love going down.” That much was true. I couldn’t get enough of Gabrielle.