Page 33 of A Night to Remember

“Thank you for leaving your door open,” he murmurs into my hair. “I was afraid I might accidentally surprise your mom.”

“She’d be thrilled,” I laugh. He’s kissing my neck, sucking gently on my shoulder just above my collarbone. He runs his hands up my rib cage and cups my breasts as I push back into him.

“This okay?” he asks, his voice husky.

“Yes,” I sigh.

“When I saw you arguing with my father at the bank,” he says, circling my nipples with a teasing finger through my bra, “this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to wrap my arms around you, pleasure you, make you mine.”

I moan in response, reaching an arm around to the back of his head as he slides a hand between my legs, stroking me through my jeans, as the other hand gently, maddeningly, massages my breast. He’s driving me crazy, and I can feel that he’s just as turned on as I am. I want nothing more than to whip around and jump him like I did at Mickey’s, but I also want this to last.

After a few minutes he steps away from me and leads me over to the bed. He sits down on the edge and stands me between his two strong legs. I see his torso for the first time, and can’t stopmyself from running my hands over his muscular shoulders, his biceps, the soft curls of hair on his well-defined pecs.

“You must lift a lot of weights,” I breathe as he slips my t-shirt over my head.

“Mm-hm,” he hums into my skin. “My workout routine mostly involves curls and boosting my protein intake.” I laugh at the reference, but my breath catches as he begins kissing a line from my belly button to my bra. I have no mental energy left to be embarrassed by my Walmart lingerie. I can’t think about anything right now but Gabe’s mouth, Gabe’s hands, skillfully unhooking my bra and dropping it to the floor.

“I’ve thought about this so many times,” I confess as he takes one of my nipples into his mouth. I snake my hands through his silky hair. He’s licking, sucking, tugging slightly, and I feel like I could come just from this. Heat rises up between my legs as I press his head harder to me. The pleasure builds until it’s almost unbearable. No man hasevermade me feel like this. Previous sexual experiences have been more… perfunctory. But Gabe is perfectly attuned to me. He responds to every whimper, every shudder, by holding me still more firmly, and just as I’m about to beg him to touch me between my legs, he unbuttons my jeans, pushes my panties to one side, and slips a finger inside me.

I come almost instantly, biting back a scream, but he doesn’t release me. Instead he moves one finger, two, in and out, deeper and deeper, massaging my clit with his thumb. I grind shamelessly against his hand, gripping his shoulders with my fingernails, riding wave after wave until finally my world explodes. Sparks go shooting across the backs of my eyelids and I collapse, shuddering, against him. I grab his wrist to still his hand and at the same time press it harder into me as the last aftershocks reverberate through me. When I risk looking at him again, he’s smiling at me, a sweet, tender expression that I’venever seen on his face before. I stroke his stubble, trace his eyebrows, try to memorize every feature.

“Good?” he asks softly, brushing the hair from my forehead.

“Incredible,” I admit. “How did you… I’ve never…” I haven’t fully recovered the capacity for speech, but he doesn’t care. He just gently strokes my hips and smiles up at me like I’m the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. I kiss him, lingering on his lips for a moment, then drop to my knees between his legs.

“Kayla,” he groans. It may be the first time I’ve heard him say my first name. I’ve never liked my name, to be honest—I always felt like my mom was just following some late-nineties trend. But on his lips it sounds like a supplication.

I undo his belt and free his erection from his jeans and boxers. He’s bigger than I expected. Bigger than I’ve encountered before. This information is both terrifying and thrilling, but all I want now is to please him, to give him a taste of the pleasure he just gave me. I gently kiss the head of his cock, then run my tongue along the shaft before taking him into my mouth. I come up off my heels to try to take him deeper, but I still can’t manage much. He doesn’t seem to mind, though. He’s letting out low masculine groans that send a shiver down my spine, resting a hand lightly on the back of my head like he wants to press down but knows better. Finally he utters a gutturalstopand I pull back.

“Do you want something different?” I ask, sitting back and wiping my lips with the back of my hand.

“No. Yes. I mean,” he says, looking at me with a smile, “if you don’t want this to be over in about ten seconds, we’d better change things up.”

“Oh,” I smile back, “well, what would you like to do?”

He grins more widely, then assumes a serious expression. “Lie down on the bed, Johnson,” he commands.

That tone. He used it with me in the bank. And in the bar. I hate to admit it, independent woman that I am, but I respond to it viscerally. When he talks to me like that, I want nothing more than for him to drag me by the ponytail back to his lair and have his way with me.

He seems to intuit this. He leans down to his jeans, takes a condom out of his wallet, slips it on, then climbs on top of me, pinning my wrists to the bed above my head. Instead of giving me what I want right away, he goes back to slow, lingering kisses, pressing me into the bed. We’re both completely naked now, and my skin is on fire everywhere his body meets mine. I’m sweating, even though it’s January in Missouri and my house is so poorly insulated that I have plastic wrap on the windows.

“Please,” I whisper, sliding my legs up on either side of his waist.

“Please what?” he mutters, licking the hollow at the base of my throat.

I arch against him, needing him so bad it’s almost painful. We’re so close that I can feel his chest rise and fall in short, shallow breaths against mine. His erection is rubbing against my leg, my clit. I angle my hips, willing him with every Jedi mind trick I can think of to enter me. “Please fuck me,” I beg.

He comes up on his elbows and finally starts to guide himself inside me. It’s amazing at first, and then—not. He’s too big. I suddenly realize that I haven’t had sex in almost three years, and—I can’t. I breathe in sharply, trying not to wince. He can tell immediately that something’s wrong and pulls out.

“I’m sorry,” he says, eyes full of concern. “I thought you wanted me to?—”

“I did. Ido,” I pant, because I really,reallydo. I wrap my arms around him, keeping him close. “It’s just that… you’re so big, and I haven’t… in a while. You’re like the Swiss Army knife.”

He can’t help but crack a smile. “Johnson, I only have one tool down there. Are you sure you’ve done this before?” I laugh. He kisses me again, then reaches between my legs, slowly circling my clit with his thumb. I moan and spread my legs wider for him.

“I’ve waited eight years,” he says, pressing slightly harder now. “I can wait a little more.” I roll my hips against his hand, feeling myself start to lose control again. My world starts to dissolve around the edges. I clench the sheets in my fist, struggling to catch hold of something, anything, to keep me from becoming completely unmoored.

“Yes,” I whimper. “Oh fuck, Gabe,yes.” He keeps stroking me as he enters me again, just the head at first, then more and more as I begin to climax.

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