Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno #1)(199)

“Then tell me how.”

“I thought you’d be… over  me.” His banner over me is love.

“I like being on top, I won’t deny it, but you’re very small, sweetheart, and very delicate. I’m worried that — ”

“I know I made you wait a long time, Gabriel.” Her voice was just above a whisper. “It will be all right if you can’t be careful with me. If you need to be…aggressive.”

Her remark disturbed him deeply, for behind the words he recognized not her voice but Simon’s. Of course that’s what she thinks — that’s how  he 

treated her. Men are dogs with no self-control, and she’s just a plaything for their sexual release.  The idea sickened him, but he fought to keep revulsion from showing on his face. He placed his hand on her cheek and gently stroked her.

“Julia, I love you. If I were the kind of man who would be aggressive with you because you made me wait, then you shouldn’t be going to bed with me. You’re a person, not a toy.

“I don’t want to use you. I want to please you. So much.” At this he gazed up at her with large, dark eyes, dropping his voice to the merest whisper.

“I want you forever, not just for tonight. So please, let me do this my way.”

He begged her with his eyes to take him at his word. He didn’t want to have to explain why  he was concerned and what kind of outcome he was studiously avoiding. There would be time enough for that in the morning.

“All I ever wanted was for someone to love me,” she said, quietly.

“You have that now.”

He moved his mouth to her br**sts, holding one gently in his hand while he nuzzled the other. They were perfect. Perfect in weight and size, natural and pretty. Rosebuds and cream. He thought back to the night he’d first seen one, peeking out from behind her purple robe in their hotel room in Philadelphia. How he’d longed to take her into his mouth. He flicked her with his tongue, licking softly, and gently drew on her nipple, feeling it peak still further in his mouth.

Julia threw her head back, making inarticulate noises. Gabriel measured her reaction carefully. He wanted her to be aroused, and if she orgasmed by this alone, so be it. It would make what followed much, much easier.

“Let go, love. You don’t have to fight it,” he spoke to her other breast, as he offered it his attention.

Julia shuddered at his words and began rocking against him, eyes closed, sliding back and forth. Within a few minutes he felt her tighten and release, her posture sagging as she finished. She opened her eyes, blinked, then smiled down at him almost languidly.

And thank you very much for orgasm number two…

She took the initiative to kiss him, murmuring her affection through swollen lips. When she retreated, he reached over to grab something from the nightstand. She watched as he freed himself from under her, squirting a clear substance into his right hand and rubbing it somewhat roughly up and down on himself.

He noticed the expression on her face and hastened to explain. “It will make things easier for you.”

Julia flushed deeply. She knew about such things, although she had never had reason to use them before. She felt embarrassed that she hadn’t thought to purchase it for herself. She had come to Florence unprepared.

“You’re very kind.”

His mouth curved up into his cocky half-smile. “I told you I’d anticipate your every need.” He kissed her and reclined back on the pillow. “I can use a condom, if you’ve changed your mind.”

“With all the tests you’ve had, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

“It’s still your choice.”

“I trust that you told me the truth about everything.”

“I’m glad I’m your first.”

She smiled widely at his declaration. “I want you to be my last, Gabriel.”

She kissed him passionately, her heart quick and full because of his words.

Because of his actions. “But I want something from you now.”

“Anything.”

“I want you to be on top.”

When his brow crinkled and he looked perilously close to a frown, she leaned over him in earnest. “You have already shown yourself to be a generous lover. But it isn’t a good idea to put me in control when I don’t know what I’m doing. It makes me nervous. I won’t be able to relax and concentrate on how it feels. Please…” She added the last word as a half-hearted addendum, for she didn’t want to have to plead with him. He’d asked her to voice her desires, and she was doing so.

He realized at that moment how stressful it would be for her to sit above him naked and exposed, responsible for what was to happen. Later on, perhaps, but not the first time. Despite his worries, he could not deny her. Gabriel nodded, a slight tension visible in his jaw, and in one fluid movement she was on her back and he was kneeling between her legs.

Her smile was like the rising sun. For this was how she had always imagined it.

“Thank you,” she murmured against his mouth as he kissed her tenderly.

“It takes so little to make you happy.”

“I wouldn’t say little, ”  she giggled as she rubbed her thigh against him.

He smirked at her, reveling in a moment of levity.