Page 76 of Vicious Temptation

“I’m still going to take a shower,” she says with a small laugh. “I should—I should probably go do that.”

She looks up at me with those huge eyes, her lips still parted, the feeling of what she just did to me throbbing through my body, and I want to pull her to me and kiss her again. I want to never stop touching her. But I can see something shuttering in her face, and I know we’ve gone far enough for today.

With effort, I take a step back. “I’ll see you upstairs,” I tell her, and she nods, pushing herself away from the wall. She looks at me for one more long moment, and then turns, walking a little unsteadily towards the door.

It takes everything in me not to go after her. Not to follow her upstairs and into the shower. Not to never, ever let her out of my sight again.

But I know better than to give her expectations I can’t follow through on. We’ve made it clear what this is. I’ve blasted past every other line I’ve tried to draw between us, but this one, I need to stand firm on. So I watch her go, thinking about the next time she’ll let me touch her.

This is a slippery slope.

And I’m already falling.

23

BELLA

I’m still trembling when I get up to the shower. A fine tremor ripples through me from the inside out. My hands are shaking when I go to turn on the water, my skin still prickling as if I can feel his fingers ghosting over me even now. Even my breathing is shaky, as I step under the hot spray and try to calm myself down.

All this time, and I hadn’t known that was what was waiting for me. I’d been so afraid I would balk at the first touch, fall apart at a kiss, but Gabriel made it feel easy. Natural. Like there was nothing to fear when he was kissing me, touching me.

I know why. He took it slow, going at the pace I set, never pushing until he knew he could, and then only a little. I would have thought I’d panic at the feeling of him dragging my bra up and sucking my breast into his mouth, but all I could think about in the moment was how badly I wanted it—how badly I wanted his mouth everywhere.

I still do. And all I can think about as I strip down and step under the hot water is the next time—and what else we might do.

When I get out, I can still see the imprint of Gabriel’s mouth around my nipple, a red mark left from the suction and scrape of his teeth. I touch it lightly, a warm flush of desire rippling through me at the sight of it. It doesn’t frighten me. It makes me feel like I’m his, like he’s marked me in some way, and that doesn’t scare me the way I would have thought, either.

I get dressed, leaving my wet hair loose, and go to get Cecelia and Danny up. I have a feeling Gabriel will be gone by the time we get downstairs—he’s already running late because of what we just did—and I smother the disappointment as best as I can. If anything, I tell myself, a little space will be good. What Gabriel and I are doing is just as friends, because he’s someone I can trust, and he’s been clear that he can’t give me anything more. But I’m not naive enough to think that something this intense, this emotional, will come without feelings. I need to be able to process those feelings, or I’m going to lose control of the situation. And that control is what’s making it possible at all.

I round up the kids, get them dressed and herd them downstairs, only to stop in the foyer at the sight of both Gabriel—now dressed for work in suit trousers and a button-down—and a pile of packages next to the door. He straightens, a broad smile on his face, and I struggle to match up this cleaned-up, composed version of him with the man who had been shuddering above me less than an hour ago, hair messy and mouth open, coming apart under my touch. The contrast sends heat blooming through me, and from the way his eyes darken as he looks at me, I know he’s thinking something similar.

I swallow hard. “What’s that?”

Gabriel chuckles. “What do you think? Seems like your camera equipment arrived.”

My heart leaps, and I gasp, all other thoughts forgotten as I make a beeline for the boxes. “Oh my god, you’re right,” I breathe, and Gabriel laughs.

“Kids, go find Agnes and get her to dish up breakfast while Bella looks through this.” He smiles at me as I straighten, a mischievous look in his eyes. “I’m sure you want to put all this through its paces, right?”

“Yes, but—” I have a whole day ahead of me full of all of the things I usually do with Cecelia and Danny, and he knows it. I look at him quizzically.

“This weekend,” he says, “I’ll take you out for another driving lesson, and then you can show me some of what you like so much about photography. But in the meantime, why don’t you take the kids to Central Park today? Get your friend to meet you, so you can spend some time with her, and have fun taking pictures. I’ll tell Jason and Gio to be ready to go with you in a couple of hours.”

“Okay—” I shook my head, trying to clear it. “Are you sure?”

“Of course.” Gabriel looked at me as if he was unsure of why it would even be a question. “It’ll be good for them, and you.”

“That sounds wonderful.” I look at the boxes and back up at him, suddenly overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude. This is all so much more than I’ve ever been able to explore before, when it comes to the things that interest and excite me. I’ve been making do with the same old camera for years—not because my father couldn’t have afforded a better one, he could have bought me an entire store of cameras if he wanted to, but because he didn’t think it was worth the money to indulge my hobby. “Thank you—so much.”

“It’s my pleasure.” His gaze meets mine, and that heat is still there, a reminder of what happened between us earlier—and one that sends a shiver up my spine. “I’m looking forward to what you show me this weekend.”

“Me too.” I bite my lip, and for a brief second, as he stands there looking at me, I think he’s going to kiss me. But instead, he reaches for his bag, and opens the front door.

“See you tonight,” he says, as offhandedly as if he didn’t shift something in my entire world this morning.

And then he’s gone, walking down the driveway, leaving me with thousands of dollars of camera equipment ready to be put together at my feet.

—

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