Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno #1)(194)

“And I have no doubt that you are excellent at that. A mouth as gifted as yours could never disappoint.” He winked at her impishly.

She flushed as red as the fruit but didn’t respond.

He returned to feeding her strawberries dipped in chocolate, interspersed with smal sips of champagne, until she declined any further dessert so that she could return the favor.

Picking up a fork, she loaded it with tiramisu and arched an expectant eyebrow at him. “Close your eyes.”

Gabriel did as he was told, and she delicately slipped the fork between his lips. He hummed loudly, for the dessert was very good. Better still was the pleasure of being fed by his beloved. She was preparing to serve him another piece when he interrupted her.

“I think you forgot something, Miss Mitchell.” His tongue swept across his lower lip.

He grasped her hand, dragging two of her fingers through a small portion of the dessert and drawing those same fingers languorously into his mouth. As usual he was unhurried, drawing gently on each finger, gliding his tongue up and down before sucking on them from root to tip.

As Gabriel adored her fingers with his mouth, Julia’s body cried out for him. She couldn’t help but imagine his most talented tongue dipping into her navel and lower down, where no one’s mouth had ever been…

“Are you happy, love?”

Julia opened her eyes and blinked. “Yes.” Her voice was shaky.

“Then kiss me.”

She pulled him by his tie, just as he’d hoped, and he complied gladly, rolling so that he was almost on top of her, his knee between her thighs.

He was warmth and wet kisses and long fingers that stroked up and down her ribs and down to her bottom, cupping it firmly. She felt the heat of his chest through his shirt as it pressed up against her br**sts, and his hardness against her thigh, and she wanted more, more…on top, in between, inside…

Gabriel pulled back and took her hand in his, kissing the back of it.

“Come to bed.”

“You can have me here.”

He furrowed his brow at first, and after his smile returned he kissed her nose. “Oh, no. I want you in my bed. Besides, it’s chilly out here, and I can’t have you catching pneumonia.”

She looked slightly disappointed.

He hastened to comfort her. “If you still feel the same way, we’ll revisit it tomorrow. But for tonight, we should be behind closed doors. I’ll meet you inside. Take all the time you need.”

He kissed her with restraint and watched her very fine derrière as she walked across the terrace and into the bedroom. He leaned back on the banquette and threw his arm over his face, unashamedly adjusting himself more than once through his navy wool trousers. The anticipation was kil ing him. He’d never been this excited before, so ready to spread her out before him and take her with abandon. But that was precisely what he would not allow himself to do.

Not tonight.

How had he ever thought that f**king some woman he didn’t even know in one of the washrooms at Lobby   was exciting? How had he believed that nameless, faceless orgasms would ever satisfy him? He’d spent his life worshipping at the altar of a silent, absent god who promised everything but delivered something fleeting that always left him wanting. He’d trafficked in lust masquerading as eros. But nothing had been further from reality.

Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.

Everything had changed since he found Julia again, and especial y since he’d fallen in love with her. She’d broken him open and taken his emotional virginity, but she had done so patiently and gently. He would give her nothing less.

While Gabriel pondered the ways in which he could worship her, Julia was leaning against the vanity in the bathroom trying to catch her breath.

Gabriel’s sensuous foreplay was the equivalent of a scorched earth seduction.

There was no going back. There was no slowing the tremendous, irresistible pull they felt toward each other.

Oh God, how I want him.

She studied herself in the mirror as she fixed her hair and makeup and brushed her teeth. Minty fresh and freshened up, she reached for her nightgown and robe, only to discover that in her passion-soaked haze, she’d entered the wrong room. Her lingerie was in the other bathroom.

Merda.

She could take off her clothes and wrap herself in one of the Turkish robes hanging behind the door. But that would rather defeat the purpose of purchasing lingerie. She could try to sneak into the other bathroom, but that would mean crossing through the bedroom, and Gabriel was sure to have come in from the terrace by now. No doubt he was reclining on the bed, like King Solomon in all his glory.

Julia trembled with anticipation at the mere idea. Should I take a shower first and just wander out there in a towel? Should I strip down to my panties?

As her brain stalled on how best to make her entrance, Gabriel tidied the terrace and moved everything inside. He placed the pillar candles around the room, grouping several of them by the bed. He adjusted the music so that a playlist he’d created solely for that night filled the air. He’d entitled the playlist Loving Julia and was more than a little proud of it. He placed a few personal items on the nightstand and turned out all the lights.

Then he waited.

And waited. But she didn’t appear. He began to worry.

He walked over to the bathroom and pressed his ear against the door.