Page 50 of The Talk Around Town

What could he say to make her forgive him? To make her want to spend time with him again? To make this gnawing emptiness in his gut go away?

Emma’s face closed over with consternation. “You say you want to spend time with me, that you like me. How do I reconcile that with how I feel about you? Because I like you a lot, Gabe. And not just as a friend. I’m attracted to you. You make me feel things I wish I didn’t, that I don’twantto feel, but I do. How am I supposed to deal with that if you’re around all the time?”

Gabe stepped closer to where she stood near the counter, his surprise displayed all over his face. She actually admitted it? He’d felt the heat when they’d kissed. It had been real. “You feel it too?”

She sighed and rubbed her hand over her face. “Of course I do. I don’t know, maybe it’s just lust, or something we have to get out of our systems?”

He strode over to stand directly in front of her. “I think we both know it’s more than that. I wasn’t looking for anything either, but maybe it’s something we need to try, maybe this is something webothneed.” He slipped his hand around the back of her head, her soft hair winding around his hand, entrapping him, entrancing him.

“Let me kiss you, Emma. Please.”

Her mouth parted when her gaze dropped to his mouth. She licked her lips and he was gone. She tilted her mouth to his, her soft breath teasing his lips.

He dropped his head, unable to resist her pull any longer.

*

Shock waves eruptedthrough Emma’s entire body at the taste of Gabe’s mouth on hers. Silver fire shot along every vein, screaming down intoevery nerve as his tongue touched her lips then teased her mouth.

Her hands slid up his shirt, around his neck and into his hair, her fingers twisting and grabbing handfuls, holding him to her. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t do anything but feel him against her, around her, enveloping her.

She didn’t want it to stop.

She’d been fighting her attraction to him since the first day she’d seen him, keeping it hidden and controlled, to let their friendship grow instead. She’d thought it better to have him as a friend. But she couldn’t fight it anymore. Not with him kissing her, tasting her, owning her with just his mouth.

He had reasons why he didn’t want to be involved with anyone, but so did she. Emma didn’t want to be responsible for anyone again. Never wanted to be put in that position of trust. Not when it could so easily be taken away.

No one seemed to have told her body that, however. She could not stop herself from reacting to him any more than she could stop the spin of the earth, and his pull was far stronger than that.

His hands slid down her back to her bottom, pulling her against him. His moan at the feel of her against him set her skin on fire. Gabe’s hand slipped around, sliding up beneath her T-shirt to lay claim to her breast. Emma sucked in a desperate breath at feeling his hand on her bare skin, her nipples reacting so thoroughly it was impossible to miss.

She wanted his touch, it was as simple as that.

Her body’s reaction to his hand didn’t go unnoticed. Gabe tore his mouth from hers as he yanked up her shirt, pulling it over her head and tossing it to the floor. His mouth replaced his hand on her breast, his lips and tongue devouring her. First stroking one nipple, then the other.

Emma gasped in another desperate breath.

Leaving her aching breasts, Gabe’s mouth returned to hers. He raided the depths of her mouth, stealing all strength from her legs. Lifting her up to sit on the edge of the kitchen counter, his strong hands urged her knees apart to place himself between them.

He slipped his hands beneath her skirt, bunching it up around her thighs, and grazed his hands along her legs to slip under her bottom, pulling her against him.

The hardness of his erection behind thick jeans pressed against her. Emma rubbed against him, needing the touch, the pressure. Needing him.

“I want you.”

Her whispered words had Gabe’s fingers digging into the soft skin of her ass as they moved and tugged on the sides of her knickers.

Apparently finding no easy way of removal, Emma heard the soft material tear, the remains of the once-expensive underwear flung heedlessly to the floor.

“Do you have protection?” Gabe whispered. His deep voice sent shivers from her ear, down her spine.

Emma shook her head to clear it a little. “Ah, in the drawer.” She pointed at her kitchen junk drawer. Darby had given them to her a few weeks ago and she’d tossed them into the closest place possible to get them out of her sight.

Gabe lifted an eyebrow, seemingly surprised at the location. Emma laughed. “They weren’t my idea. I was given them. I threw them in the draw there because it was the closest place to hide them.”

Gabe chuckled and reached over, pulling them out. “I think I can guess who that was.” He leaned in for a seductive, spine-tingling kiss, distracting her all over again. Gentle fingers slipped between them and slid over her. She bucked against his hand and moaned at the touch. A soft crackle reached her ears, then Gabe’s hands returned to beneath her butt, and lifted.

Emma’s eyes flew open with the heavy heat of him pressing against her, then sliding slowly into her. He shifted her slightly, then slid fully into her, inch by tantalising inch. She gasped and clenched her hands tight on his skin.

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