How to Woo a Wallflower (Romancing the Rules #3)(56)

“No, thank you. I won’t require anything else this evening, Mrs. Simms,” Clary said with a tone of authority he’d rarely heard her employ. “Now,” she said, once the woman had turned on her heel and departed down the hall, “come with me.”

Gabe ignored the gnaw of guilt as he followed her upstairs, focusing on the sway of her hips, the bounce of flaxen waves down her back. Once he closed the bedroom door behind them, he took her in his arms and bent to kiss her neck, her cheek, her lips. She let out a low, erotic moan as she opened to him, letting him taste her with his tongue.

She was heaven in his arms. Everything he wanted. Precisely what he needed. He loved her boldness, her honesty, the hunger in her eyes that burned as fiercely as his own.

She began working the buttons of her shirtwaist, watching him as if she never intended to let him out of her sight.

And where would he go? This. Right here. This moment with her was all he wanted. This moment made everything that came before fade away.

When she got to the buttons midway down her chest, she lost interest in her own clothes and reached for his necktie. He kissed her cheek, her nose, her forehead as she worked the knot, then kissed her lips as she tugged the fabric, with a long, sinuous tug, from around his neck.

He took over unfastening the maddeningly tiny buttons of her blouse, telling himself not to tear the delicate fabric. Below her blouse, her lush breasts spilled over the edge of her corset, but her thin chemise hid far too much of her soft skin her from his view.

“You’re like a thrice-wrapped present.”

She laughed against his mouth before pressing a kiss to the scar at the edge of his upper lip. Like a skilled seductress, she drew her fingers down his bare chest. “Be quick, then, and unwrap me.”

His fingers fumbled as he reached the last buttons of her blouse. Hard and aching, he only knew he wanted the barriers between them gone, so he could kiss every bare inch of her.

Clary only stoked his eagerness. Raining kisses against his face, sifting his hair through her fingers. Then she reached for the fastening of his trousers, and he clenched his teeth to stop himself from tearing her corset in two.

“Gabriel,” she breathed against his mouth as her nimble fingers worked. He gasped when she brushed her hand against him. Rather than shy away, she drew her fingers gently along his cock, exploring, biting her lip when she drew a hiss of pleasure from him.

“You’re driving me mad,” he told her before pushing the edges of her corset back and dipping his head to take one taut nipple in his mouth, sucking her through the gauzy chemise.

“Gabriel,” she said again, sinking her fingers against his scalp. He took her moans as encouragement, tugging and pulling until he got the chemise free of her skirt and over her head.

“So lovely.” He wanted to look and memorize every inch, but he wanted to taste her too. He reached back to work the hook of her skirt, then her petticoat, easing both down the generous swell of her hips. He bent his knees and hunched as he guided the fabric, drawing his fingers across her thighs, knees, calves, until the garments pooled at her feet.

She bent to roll her stockings down, and he pressed up on his haunches to kiss her. Only her drawers hid her from his view.

“Take them off,” she urged, planting her palms on his shoulders.

“I fear I’ll tear them.”

“Then do.”

He tried to be careful as he pulled at the knotted ribbon, but when it wouldn’t give way, he pulled the light cotton apart. Plump smooth thighs and a glorious thatch of burnished bronze curls were worth buying her a thousand new knickers. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Exquisite.”

“I want to feel you,” she said in a breathy whisper. “I want you to teach me everything.”

Bracing a hand on each of her soft, warm thighs, he leaned in and kissed her belly, stroked his thumbs nearer her curls. “Clary.” He was ravenous to taste her, to be inside all of her delicious energy and heat, but he told himself to go slow.

“Hurry,” she urged at precisely the same moment, and he chuckled against her belly.

He lifted a hand to cup her mound, parting her slick folds with one finger. She bucked against him, and he slid deeper. As he stroked, he bent to taste her. The honeyed sweetness made him shiver. He angled his tongue deeper, laving the velvety flesh until she dug her nails into his skin.

“It’s too much,” she said. “I’m falling.”

“I’ll catch you, sweetheart.” Gabe stroked her deeper, gazing up to watch the wonder in her eyes. “I’m right here. I’ll never leave you.”

She gasped and shuddered against him, clutching at his hair, tipping her head back against the door, bucking against his finger. Finally, she looked at him, her eyes lust-glazed, her hair hanging in a wild gold bramble around her face. “What happens next?”

Gabe smiled and straightened, hooking an arm under her knees to lift her against his chest. “Now I take you to bed.”

Laying her head against this shoulder, she let out a long, satisfied exhale, as if she’d happily doze there, but when he set her on the bed, she cocked a brow at him.

“Your trousers must go,” she commanded.

Edging forward on the bed, she shoved the loosened fabric down his hips, hooking his drawers with her thumbs, and pulling those along too. When his cock sprang free, she offered him the most erotic smile he’d ever seen. Then she reached out, shaping the length of him with her hands.