Page 20 of Cinderella's One-Night Baby

It felt like it took for ever before her quiet voice cut through the still night. ‘I’m sorry for running out on you like that.’

‘I frightened you?’

She swallowed and then shook her head slowly. ‘I frightened myself. Andrés...’ Her voice caught but she didn’t drop her stare from his. ‘This isn’tme. I don’t... I don’t do this.’

He didn’t need her to explain whatthiswas. They were both adults. Adults sharing the strongest chemistry it was possible to be caught in.

He took a deep breath, hating to vocalise the question he knew he must ask. ‘Do you want me to get my driver to take you home?’

Gabrielle got to her feet and took a step towards him before she even realised what she was doing.

Until he’d asked the question she would have said yes: take me home. She’d escaped into the palace gardens to cool her overheated body and get air that was fresh enough to clear her mind enough to think rationally into her lungs.

Except no matter how rationally she tried to think, the only thing to race around in her mind was how thrilling it had felt to be crushed against Andrés...and how badly she longed to be crushed against him again. Not just to be crushed against him but to bury her face in his strong throat and feel the warmth of his skin against her and refill her lungs with his scent and experience the pleasure of his hands caressing her in all the places she’d never been touched.

She drifted closer and gazed up at him.

His jaw was clenched, magnificent body tensed.

Without the extra inches the shoes gave her, he seemed even taller and broader. Even more virile.

She leaned her face closer to his, closer to the magnetic darkness of Andrés’s black eyes and unthinkingly lifted a hand to touch his face.

Moving with a stealth-like grace no man of his size should possess, he caught her hand mid-air and snatched the other too, holding them firmly as he brought his face even closer to hers.

Gabrielle could feel herself falling into the hypnotic swirl, couldn’t have broken the lock of their gazes if she tried... Didn’twantto break the lock.

Releasing a hand to grip her hip and maintain the few inches of air separating their bodies, he pressed the tip of his nose to hers. ‘Do you want my driver to take you home?’ he repeated hoarsely. ‘If you want to leave then all you have to do is say. I will step away from you and call my driver to collect you and see you safely back to your apartment.’ His breathing became heavier, each word whispering against the delicate skin of her sensitised lips. ‘What do you say, Gabrielle? Do you want me to make that call?’

The alternative went unspoken. Nothing more needed to be said.

Skimming her fingers up his arm, she placed her palm on his chest. He sucked in a breath. His grip on her hip tightened. The thuds of his heartbeat perfectly matched the thuds of her own.

In a brief moment of clarity she realised that the alternative wouldn’t mean breaking the promise she’d made to herself when she’d brought Lucas home. Andrés was a strictly short-term relationship man. He wouldn’t want more than she could give, and all she could give him was one night. It was all she could give to herself.

This was meant to be, she realised, staring even deeper into his eyes. It had been from the start. If she’d known he was single, she would have refused point blank to attend the party with him, would have spent the night alone in her tiny apartment unaware that he held the key to unlocking all the desires she’d kept buried so deep for Lucas’s sake that she’d hardly been aware they existed.

For this one night she could put those desires first, and do so with the sexiest man to roam the earth, the man who had the power to turn her to liquid without even touching her.

A man who wouldn’t want anything more from her.

She moved her face closer. Their lips brushed like feathers. The heat of his breath filled her senses.

The butterflies in her belly had grown so big the beat of their wings had become at one with the beats of her heart. She was barely aware of her hand sliding up from his chest to cup the back of his strong neck, not until she felt the scorch of their flesh connecting. The thrill of Andrés’s fingers biting deeper into her hips sent a tiny moan escaping in the moment their mouths fused together, and then she was caught in a kiss so deep and sensuous that the last thought before she lost the last of her mind was that Andrés’s kisses tasted of hedonistic heaven.

Nerve endings on fire, Gabrielle dug the tips of her fingers through the soft bristles of his hair, and melted into the most passionate and thrilling moment of her entire life. The first slide of his tongue against her own sent a fireball of desire screaming through her, and she held onto him tightly as the dance of their mouths deepened into a hunger that had every cell in her body begging for more.

Laughter close by echoed in the night air and penetrated the sensual vortex Andrés had fallen into.

With a muttered curse, he broke away from the woman who, with one hungry kiss, had fully aroused him in a way he’d never experienced before.

This went bone deep. Marrow deep. Hunger fuelling hunger.

The feel of those pillowy lips against his and that sweet tongue in his mouth...

Smothering a groan, he took a step away from the temptation that was Gabrielle, muttered another curse and dragged air into his lungs.

What the hell was he doing?

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