Gabe (In the Company of Snipers, #8)(74)
And that was enough for him. He cradled her face between his hands, drinking in the delicious scent of vanilla and rose petals. God, she smelled like spring combined with that distinctly feminine fragrance of a woman who wanted a man.
He paused, a breath away from daring to hope again. A woman hadn’t been in his life before. Shouldn’t have been. Military careers were tough on relationships, so he’d purposefully avoided the complication before he’d been deployed. Then came Afghanistan. Then his injury. After that and one too many rejections, he’d quit looking.
Shelby was right. It was damned tough losing a limb, and a damned tough man gets lonely enough to buy a home all by himself.
But this was no experienced woman in his hands, no Sex in the City bed jumper who traded men like the latest fashion heels. This woman was different. Bossy as hell maybe, but rare, and if he was right—pure. That’s the impression he got from their bathroom encounter. She’d been so flustered. Curious, but genuinely embarrassed.
She’d closed her eyes. The hole in his chest opened up, that one deep inside the heart he’d closed off years ago. He pressed his lips to hers. She stilled the moment he touched her mouth with his. Her hair fluttered over his cheek as her breathing quickened.
He took time, letting his tongue trace the seam of her closed lips, tasting and teaching, offering sensations just in case she wanted more. His instincts told him this woman hadn’t been here before, which meant this might be her first kiss, or at least one of few.
Was it possible?
The notion that she might be a virgin let loose a firestorm Gabe hadn’t expected. A groan crawled up from his heart. He’d done what most guys did with girls and girlfriends. He was no saint, but here he was holding something unusual, maybe even endangered.
At last, she relaxed with a sigh onto his chest, her hands soft and warm on his shoulders. And then it happened. She let him ease between her lips, so tentatively, as if she wasn’t sure if she should.
He took it slow. Her breath filled him with hunger that he forced himself to control. But God, offering manna to a starving guy in the middle of his own self-made desert was a difficult temptation to refuse. Every last molecule in his awakening male body craved her.
She didn’t seem to want to take it slow, either, her luscious curves pressed against his thighs, her round plump breasts planted against his pecs like two clusters of delectable grapes on a platter, as if they were meant to be right damned there.
Blood thrummed through his body. She was small enough. With one good heft, he could have her straddling his hips. Hell, he could have his hands all over her, and he wanted to. God, how he wanted to.
It took what resolve he had left to allow common sense to rule. He and she were both on duty. Kelsey deserved the best they had to give. Now was not the time, and this floor sure wasn’t the place. Their risky adventure into heaven had to end before Zack returned and interrupted them.
“Shelby,” Gabe growled, his mouth still full of her lips, his hands still cupping her head. Even his fingers were big and ugly in her hair. He opened his eyes to take in the view.
“Uh-huh,” she answered, her eyes still closed and the sweetest expression on her face.
He couldn’t help smiling. This woman glowed with pure unadulterated pleasure, and he’d put that glow there. He’d given her something that, hopefully, no other guy had before.
“You’re something else, you know that?” He concluded their close encounter before Zack spoiled it.
Steamy violet-blues poured heat and desire onto him, and damn it. Gabe wanted his own bed in his own room. Now.
He nibbled her lower lip despite the need to release her. Innocent, that was what she was. The oddest mix of innocence and belligerence and compassion, rolled up in a five-foot tall goddess with a major dash of sass. Did she have any idea how close he was to ignition and red lighting on the line?
He smoothed his right hand over her head, lifting her golden locks away from her face. With one last kiss to her forehead, he eased her off his chest and back onto her butt.
“I should go, huh?” she asked, shy again. Her gaze drifted to her clenched fingers.
“No.” His fingers lingered in her hair, wanting to pull her back to his mouth for another go around. “You should stay, but not like this.”
Zack’s hand hit the back doorknob.
Shelby dropped to Gabe’s surprised mouth, planted one last wet kiss on his lips, grabbed her glasses and bolted down the hall.
He pushed onto one elbow in time to watch her disappear into the dark, his heart pumping up high in his throat. Shelby had long legs. Her barely covered backside looked way cute in matching black panties as she scampered out of sight. The girl was full of surprises.
Gabe scrambled to stand the floor lamp back where it belonged.
“You’re still awake?” Zack asked surprised, shrugging out of his jacket. “Thought you’d be dead to the world by now.
“Just waiting for you. See anything?”
“Yeah, lightning and thunder in the middle of a downpour. Hail, too. Crazy weather tonight. How about you? Feeling any better?” Zack’s gaze trailed down Gabe’s wide open polo and those missing buttons. He scanned the floor next. “You sure you’re okay?”
Gabe took a deep breath and relaxed into the back of the couch, the panic attack gone. Let Zack think what he wanted. “I’m good.”