Gone Country (Rough Riders #14)(126)

His brow furrowed. “Personally or professionally?”


“Both.”


“Because filling that gap is no longer a financial necessity? Since you now have me as a fall back guy?”


She blushed. “Does that make any sense?”


“Whacked out Ree sense, yes, but that’s why I love you.” His eyes grew serious. “You’re permanently involved with me, a guy who has no financial worries. If you lost all your businesses now it wouldn’t affect your standard of living because I’m there to pick up the financial slack—even when I know you’d never ask me for a dime. You’ve never had that long-term stability before and it scares you.” His voice dropped to a husky whisper. “You know I’d like to make your life easier.


“Don’t let that be an issue between us. I love your independence and that you are a self-made woman. I still think you work too hard, but that’s a huge part of who you are and what formed you. I love the whole of you, Ree. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that counting on me—physically, emotionally, financially—doesn’t make you soft or lazy.”


“Gavin. I…” She forced the words past the lump in her throat. “I don’t want you to make my life easier. But you already make it better. That’s all I want from you.”


He rested his forehead to hers. “I know. Just don’t shut me out anymore, okay?”


“Okay.”


An odd sort of acceptance shifted between them in the silence.


“Can I make love to you now?”


“Yes. Please.”


“Close your eyes,” he murmured and kissed her eyelids to ensure she did.


Gavin’s hands cradled her face and he kissed her so softly, so sweetly, she felt tears welling again. Then his hands moved down her neck and beneath the collar of her robe. He said, “Untie the sash.” As soon as the tie fell free, he slid her satin robe off her shoulders until it pooled on the floor, leaving her naked.


“So beautiful, every inch of you,” he breathed against her skin.


His mouth cruised to all the hot spots he’d discovered. The arch of her neck. The side of her right breast. He feasted on her nipples until she became dizzy and wet with want. The entire time his sucking mouth and flickering tongue drove her out of her mind, his hands were on her. Caressing. Squeezing. Soft at times, rough at others, but every sweep and brush of his fingers and mouth told her of his possession.


Rielle gave herself over to him completely, understanding that’s what he wanted—her total surrender.


Gavin worshiped her. With his hands. With his words. “You’re so strong here,” he said, his voice soft against her throat as his fingertips mapped the muscles in her arms. Then the slope of her shoulders.


Normally she’d urge him to hurry, push her on the bed and mount her like a rutting beast. But she’d given him control and it appeared he intended to take his own sweet time in exercising it fully.


Not that she was complaining.


He stood behind her. Scattering openmouthed kisses down her nape and spine until she shook from the eroticism of it. His breath, his lips, the play of his hands all swirled together into an overwhelming maelstrom of sensation. Yet she felt every press of his fingertips, every kiss, every stuttered puff of air across her skin. And he left no section untouched. Unloved.


Then Gavin turned her around again. He lowered to his knees.


The muscles in her abdomen rippled as he pressed kisses from her belly button to the rise of her mound.


“You’re so sweet. My own personal honey pot. I love this hot, sticky honey your body makes just for me.” The tip of his tongue followed the slit down to her opening. After wiggling his tongue inside and softly sucking, he flattened his tongue and dragged it back up.


Rielle couldn’t keep her legs from wobbling.


Using his thumbs, he opened the folds of skin hiding her clit. He murmured something and settled his mouth on her sex.


He’d wound her so tight that thirty seconds after his wicked mouth began to suck, she unraveled. The short, intense orgasm had just primed her for more. She eagerly waited for him to command her to get on the bed.


But Gavin didn’t budge. His tongue traced the lines of muscles in her quads. His teeth nipped the inside of her thighs. When he f*cked two fingers in and out of her swollen *, her legs became Jell-O again. That tingling tease of release hovered close to the surface.


“Come for me.”


“I…” She groaned when he slid his thumb over the seam of her sex.


Between the pressures of his thumb pushing her clit up so his tongue could torture her with wet swirls and the constant rubbing of his fingers on her inner vaginal wall, she hit that detonation point. The throbbing heat licked through her body. She felt the waves in her nipples. In her throat. In her lips. Gavin held on and held her up through every pulse. Then he nuzzled and petted her as she floated down from that foggy bank of pleasure.


As soon as he was on his feet, she tried to remove his clothes, but he stayed her hands. He kissed her fingertips. The center of her palms. The insides of her wrists. Planting his mouth on hers, he kissed her deeply, with sweetness, with finesse. Sharing her taste and giving her a taste of his need.