It's Only Love(27)

This was really happening. It was too soon, and yet nowhere near soon enough at the same time. How could it be too soon to do something she’d wanted forever? The official relationship was new. The attraction, the friendship, the spark, the love . . . None of that was new.

In fact, they’d been building to this inevitable moment since they’d kissed on the beach last summer and in every encounter since then, even if most of them hadn’t ended the way she’d wanted them to. He was it for her. She’d had no doubt about that for a long, lonely time.

No way in hell would she do anything other than exactly what she’d wanted to for ages now.

She placed the candles on the bedside table and turned to him, her breath catching in her throat at how sexy he looked with his shirt unbuttoned and hanging open, his jaw covered in the stubble she loved so much, his lips swollen from their kisses and his hair mussed from her hands.

If a more perfectly beautiful man ever existed, Ella had never met him. She took a step closer to him, laying her hands on his chest inside the shirt and feeling his heart beat every bit as rapidly as hers.

His hands framed her face, and he looked at her. “I don’t deserve you, Ella.”

“Don’t say that. You deserve to be happy.”

“You can do better.”

“I don’t want anyone else. I’ve never wanted anyone else.”

“It makes me feel lucky to hear you say that.”

“I’m glad.”

“I want you to feel lucky, too, that you took this chance on me. I don’t want to disappoint you.”

“Then don’t.”

“I’m going to try really hard not to.”

“That’s all I can ask for.”

His hands dropped from her face to her shoulders to remove her robe. It billowed to the floor, a cloud of ivory silk.

The nightgown she wore under it ended at midthigh, and Gavin took a long, slow look at what he’d uncovered. He dragged his index fingers over her collarbone before hooking them under the straps of her gown.

Ella wondered if he could see the pounding pulse point in her throat. Her question was answered when he leaned forwarded to touch his tongue to the spot in her neck that throbbed for him. Her legs wobbled under her. She was never going to survive this if that was all it took for her to go weak in the knees.

His hands followed the fall of the straps down her arms, leaving a trail of goose bumps behind.

She reached for the button on his jeans, but he stopped her.

“Tonight is all about you, Ella.”

“It should be about us.”

“Next time.”

Her hands fell to her sides in surrender, his tenderness her undoing. This man had owned her heart for so long. Now he wanted to own her body, too. Little did he know, she’d give him everything if only he’d let her.

The gown dropped to her waist and then to the floor, leaving her bared to him except for matching panties.

He took a step back, his hands on her shoulders, his gaze taking a perusing trip from her face to her breasts and below before coming back up. “Beautiful.”

She’d never felt more beautiful than she did standing before him, waiting to see what he would do next. A hint of trepidation worked its way down her spine, acting as a reminder that if it all went bad after this, there’d be no bouncing back. She’d never get over him.

Gavin dropped to his knees before her, pressing his lips to her belly and making her body sing with pleasure and anticipation. His hands slid up the back of her legs to her bottom, where he squeezed and molded her cheeks before pulling her in closer to him.

She gripped handfuls of his hair to keep from falling over.

For the longest time, he was still, holding her tight against him, his breath warm against the sensitive skin of her abdomen. He held on to her as if she were a lifeline, keeping him anchored.

She wanted to be that for him. She wanted to be everything to him.

He picked her up, effortlessly, and settled her on the edge of the bed. “Lie back.”

Since he’d knocked her breathless by lifting her the way he had, she focused on continuing to breathe as she did what he asked. Her legs were trembling madly and her entire body was on fire for him. All that, and he’d barely touched her. Then his hands were on her legs, sliding them apart as he dropped to his knees again and settled between them.

Good God . . .

With his hands cupping her bottom, he drew her to the edge of the mattress and buried his face in the V of her legs, breathing deeply, breathing her in. “You have no idea how often I’ve dreamed of being right here.” His gruff whisper, the scratch of his whiskers, the heat of his breath . . . It was too much. It wasn’t enough. “Even when I was pushing you away, I wanted to take you by the hand and drag you to the closest bed. You have no idea how badly I wanted that.”

Hearing those words from him brought tears to Ella’s eyes. Knowing he’d wanted her every bit as much . . . It made the difficult months leading up to this moment seem somehow more bearable.

He grasped her panties and dragged them down over her legs, tossing them aside before returning to his perch between her legs. His palms were flat against her thighs, his calluses rough against her skin. “So soft and so hot. You’ve had me wound up in knots for so long, Ella Abbott.”

Moved by his words and the emotion she heard behind them, she arched her back, hoping he’d take the hint to move things along.