Page 61 of Deliver Me

“I love you, too,” she said, reaching up on tiptoe to press her lips against his cheek as her fingers rubbed lightly at one curl of his hair. “And that’s why I don’t want to wait. I’m not ashamed of wanting you.”

He breathed, an intentionally controlled soft and slow inhale and exhale as her meaning entered his mind and went straight to his body. Still, it hadn’t been that long ago that she’d been unable to even speak the names of her own body parts out loud. “I’m glad you’re not ashamed of it,” he said cautiously. “But I won’t ask you to do anything that you’re not ready for.”

“I’m ready,” she insisted. “I didn’t have time to go to the clinic for birth control yet, but I bought condoms.”

“You did?” He tried to imagine how much determination it must have taken for her to overcome her shyness and buy condoms from the store.

“Yeah,” she said, and he heard the edge of fierce determination in the statement. “I want this.”

She leaned into him eagerly when he tightened his arms around her and pulled her back up on tiptoe to slot his mouth over hers again and moaned, a small soft sound that was somehow fragile, a mixture of unabashed desire and nervous anticipation. It didn’t take her long to learn to soften her lips against him and match the erotic movement of his tongue and she shifted closer, pressing against him on instinct, until they both froze when the hard evidence of his arousal unmistakably rubbed into her stomach.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly, pulling away as she looked down at him and then back up with pink cheeks.

“No,” she said, her hands holding fistfuls of the t-shirt the prison had given him so he couldn’t move any further away. “It’s just … is that because of me?”

“Yes,” he breathed, watching intently as her eyes widened and then glanced back down at the straining bulge in his jeans.

“It’s bigger than I expected,” she said timidly, startling a laugh out of him.

“I won’t hurt you,” he promised, trying to focus on her concerns and not his own stroked ego. “If you’re sure you want this, I’ll make it good for you.”

A shimmering tear slipped from the corner of her eye to pave a wet path down her cheek as she refused to meet his gaze. “You’ve done this before, with Brittany and all the others. What if I’m not good at it and you don’t like it with me?”

“Hey, please look at me,” he beseeched, bending down and trying to peek back up at her face until she finally sniffled and cast a quick glance in his direction. “Nothing that happened with anyone else will ever mean as much to me as doing it with you.” He pulled her close to rub his nose against her temple, his voice low and soft as he whispered in her ear. “We don’t have to wait but we can go slow, and I can prove it to you.”

It hit him again, the glorious feeling of having time to spend. The bed behind them wasn’t going anywhere and neither were they. He could take as much time as he needed to show her that his words were true, that he meant it when he said he’d never loved anyone, never wanted anyone, the way he wanted her.

“Can you start showing me now?” Her eyes were still wet with tears and vulnerable. She might be pushing herself to do too much, too quickly, but he couldn’t deny her anything and he resolved to use everything he had ever learned about how to please a partner to make sure that she didn’t regret it. He bent down, hooking a hand around the back of each thigh and liftingher until she settled against him, her dress pushed up around her hips and her legs wrapped around his waist.

He walked to the bed with her wrapped around him like a vine, nipping and kissing his way across her jaw as he went. By the time he sat down with her on his lap, her body was already quivering, and her lips were parted, her breaths coming in soft pants of confused arousal.

She scooted closer as he kissed her neck and followed the curve of her body down until bare skin disappeared beneath soft cotton. He tugged down the bodice of her dress to reveal the lace of her bra and cupped a breast, squeezing it and rubbing his thumb over the hardened bud of her nipple. Her back arched, pushing her body into his hand as she shifted her hips restlessly, nearly overwhelmed with the newness of what was happening to her.

“Gabriel?” Her voice cracked, fear and desire at odds in her tone.

“It’s okay,” he soothed. “Just hold on to me.”

She tightened her fingers on his shoulders where she gripped him as he changed his hold on her, one finger tracing the curve at the top of her thigh. He didn’t dip beneath the fabric of her underwear, but she was already hot, and the cloth was damp against his knuckle.

Her hips bucked against him instinctively, seeking and searching for more as she tucked her face into the crook of his neck.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked, running his fingers over the ridges and dips of her spine as she nodded against his shoulder. “We can stop but you don’t have anything to be embarrassed about. I fucking love it that you’re all wet for me.”

“You do?” She didn’t lift her head from his shoulder, but her voice was hopeful and her whole body shook at his words. Her hips were slowly shifting, trying to get some friction or relieffrom the arousal he knew she felt, but unable to do so because she was spread so wide around his torso.

Struck with sudden inspiration, he nudged her until his thigh was nestled between her legs, pressing against her center. “This will help,” he told her, letting his hands resume their exploration as he guided hers from his shoulders to his hips.

“So pretty,” he said, lifting the bra out of the way and revealing the expanse of her breasts beneath the white lace, his fingers plucking her nipples into pebble-hardness and then sucking one and the other into his mouth as she gasped and whined.

She shifted eagerly against his thigh, and he knew the exact moment that she realized the new position allowed her to rub her clit on the hard muscle of his leg because a soft and eager moan tore from her lips.

“Yes,” he whispered. “Just like that. Does that feel good?”

She nodded, her breath quickening, and he could feel the tension building in her body. Her face was flushed, and her hair was tumbling down from her bun where his fingers had dug into it.

“Can you come like this?” he asked.

“I think so.”

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