Page 42 of Prince She Shouldn't Crave
Gabe slowly undid his shirt, tugged it out of his trousers. Cast it aside. Lena propped herself on her elbows, watching as he put on a show.
‘Relax back,’ he said as he came forwards onto the bed, sliding her panties down her legs. Dropping them on the floor. Her gaze looked almost out of focus, but she was now nestled deep into the down pillows, as he’d demanded.
He sat on the bed next to her, his hand tracing down her stomach, fingers slipping between her legs, which fell open at his touch.
‘What’s my rule again?’
‘You want silence,’ she whispered.
He smiled, kept stroking her. Lena’s hips beginning to move in time with his rhythm. She was so wet. If he kept going much longer she’d come, he was sure of it.
‘And what happens if you scream?’
‘You stop.’ Her voice was almost a whimper.
‘That’s right, but you won’t scream, will you? You won’t make any noise at all.’
She shook her head. He stopped touching her. Lena opened her mouth as if to object, then closed it again.
‘I want you to watch what I’m doing to you,’ he said.
He manoeuvred himself between her legs. Lay on the bed. Her eyes widened. ‘Just lie back and enjoy.’
Her legs opened further to accommodate his shoulders as he propped himself on his forearms and dropped his head between her legs. Traced his tongue over her. The sweet salt, the scent of her arousal. He groaned. It would be a challenge to see who’d come last. He was so aroused, craving her orgasm almost as much as his own. He wanted her mindless, replete. Forgetting everything but his lips, tongue, hands. He didn’t know if she watched—all his focus was on her pleasure. Her breaths came heavy and fast. Panting as he stroked her flesh with his tongue. Concentrating on her clitoris, the centre of her pleasure.
Her body trembled as she fought not to cry out. Her fingers gripping the coverlet till they blanched white. Gabe knew sheneeded more. He slid one finger inside, then another. Her legs shook, as if an earthquake were overtaking her body. Her back arching off the bed. His fingers slick with her arousal. He wasn’t sure she was even breathing when he stopped the relentless rhythm of his tongue and sucked. She stilled. Stiffened, then broke in two. A high-pitched keening noise shattering the room. He didn’t care. His plan had never been to deny her, but to give her everything. She pulsed around him as he waited for her to come down from her orgasm. Then he moved up to her. Lay on his back. Took her, lax and replete, into his arms.
Hoped, for a while, he’d allowed her to forget.
‘It’ll be fine, Lena,’ he murmured. ‘It’ll all work out.’
As he said the words, Gabe wasn’t sure whether he was talking about her family problems, or their time together.
CHAPTER NINE
His palace apartmentsfelt stultifying after the freedom of his time away. Even though the building had seven hundred rooms and five apartments spread out over different wings, he still had this clawing sensation, as if he were trapped. He’d chosen his apartments to be at the opposite end from his parents and even that was too close. Nothing seemed to fit right now. His tie appeared too tight, the fine wool of his suits prickled. He was uncomfortable in everything he did. The only time he had a modicum of peace and felt he could trulybewas with Lena. After a long day he’d let Pieter go for the evening, shut his door, and wait for the click of the secret door in his dressing room.
He and Lena would spend the evening over dinner, talking about the day. Their nights, making love. In the morning they’d wake early and Lena would leave. Then they’d start over again, to the world appearing as employer and employee until night fell and they could be lovers once more.
Only it was harder and harder to let her go as the sun rose each morning. Not reaching out to touch her in public. All things that had once seemed inconceivable, now as natural as breathing. Simple, yet impossibly complicated.
When he was with her, he wasn’t thinking about a past or a future, he simplywas. Present in the moment. He started each day with enthusiasm, evident in the headlines that were toLena’s credit. It was clear she saw something he’d thought he’d lost. Showing the world as well.
He wasn’t sure what he’d do when she left to take care of her family, even though that wouldn’t be for ever. She’d come back. But…what if she didn’t? Lise and Rafe had all but offered her a job. No doubt they’d pay a premium for her, and her family needed the money… Those thoughts made his chest tighten. No, she’d return. There was no question of it.
But what was she returning to? There’d been no promises between them, only short term with an uncertain end date. Once, that had seemed enough. To live firmly in the present with what they had, till things burned out between them. Where the future felt like something distant and unreachable. Except things didn’t feel as though they were burning out. They were burning hotter.
He looked at himself in the mirror. The same face but, in so many ways, changed. Today he was opening a library. There, he knew he’d be asked to read a book to the children, but it didn’t bother him any more. He’d practised reading it with Lena till the concern that he might stumble and forget something abated. All because she had a faith in him few others seemed to hold. Gabe wanted to sit with that realisation, what it meant, for him to have someone who was becoming so vital to him. What he needed was time, to sift through these complicated feelings running through him. To work out what they meant, because he’d never been in this position before.
Time was something he’d find, except this morning he needed to button himself back into the role of Prince Gabriel, rather than Gabe Montroy. The man whose name Lena loved to scream to the room…
He shook his head with a wry smile to his reflection, then walked into the sitting room and grabbed his coffee, which he’d taken to leaving a little later in the morning given Lena’s usualpresence here. Nothing had been said, it was no one’s business, but Gabe had the sense Pieter’s normally cool demeanour had warmed a fraction. He took the time to relish the drink, before putting on a tie and getting the day started.
His valet walked into the room. ‘Sir, may I suggest no tie today? Perhaps a more casual approach, for the children.’
‘Are you falling under Ms Rosetti’s influence?’
Pieter grinned. ‘No, sir. She suggested a tie adorned with a popular cartoon character. That would never do.’
