Rock Hard (Rock Kiss #2)(74)

Those nipples throbbed as if he were tugging at them with his fingers and not his words. Rising on a hot flush, she went to clear the table, but he put his hand on the back of her chair in a gentle restraint. It didn’t make her afraid, not when he had that hungry T-Rex smile on his face.

“Are you sure you want to know?” she asked, deciding to fight fire with fire.

“Of course.”

“Don’t blame me for your frustration then.”

“I’m sure I can handle it, Ms. Baird.”

Charlotte bit down on her lower lip on purpose. His eyes went straight to her mouth, and her breasts grew even tighter, her nipples stiff points. It was nerve-racking to flirt with Gabriel so provocatively, but in a good way. “Well,” she whispered, leaning toward him, “I was imagining what you’d do if…”

“If?” His hand flexed on the back of her chair, the tanned skin revealed by the open collar of his shirt inviting her kiss, her caresses.

“If I served you dinner wearing an apron and nothing else.” The words came out in a rush.

Gabriel’s chest rose and fell in harsh breaths. “You are a bad, bad woman, Ms. Baird.”

“I wasn’t until I met you.” Sliding out of her chair on the side he hadn’t blocked with his arm, she cleared the table. “Aren’t you going to help?” she asked sweetly.

“When I can walk again, we’ll talk about your new sass.” He hauled her into his lap when she came back to the table, the hard ridge of his erection pushing against her buttocks. “Do I get you for my real dessert?”

Charlotte rubbed her fingers against her thighs.

Nuzzling at her throat, the roughness of his jaw scraping her collarbone and sending shivers over her body, Gabriel said, “Am I coming on too strong?”

“No.” He was who he was, and she liked him that way. “I just… I want to.” There, she’d managed to get it out, even if it wasn’t particularly coherent.

Body going absolutely motionless, he said, “What?”

“Have sex. With you.” Breath so shallow she’d hyperventilate if she wasn’t careful, she stared at the wall instead of at him. “I don’t want to be scared and missing out and hiding. I want to cut through the scar in a quick, clean move.”

“By having sex with me?”

“Yes.” Biting her lip again, this time because of nerves, she forced herself to turn to face him. “Are you mad?” Her proposal wasn’t exactly romantic.

“Why would I be mad at the idea of having you hot and wet and tight around me?” It was a rough purr of a question. “But Charlotte, are you ready? I don’t want to scare you off being with me because we rushed it.”

“Molly says we’ve been engaging in foreplay for months.”

“Molly is a smart woman.” Another nuzzling kiss to her throat, those bristles rasping over her skin in a caress that went straight to her breasts. “How about here?”

“What?” It came out a squeak.

“Kitchen-chair sex seems appropriate after that crack about the apron.”

Charlotte had been building up the guts to go into the bedroom with him, and he wanted to do it right here? Under the bright white kitchen lights? “I don’t know if that would be very comfortable.” It was the only thing she could think to say, her mind a mess.





29


CHARLOTTE CONFESSES HER MISDEEDS





SHE WAS ADORABLE. SEXY and adorable. And his. Gabriel much preferred her flustered and blushing to scared and stiff. He figured the instant they hit the bedroom, she’d get nervous, start to worry. Right now, she was so scandalized at his suggestion that she hadn’t remembered to be afraid.

“There’s just one problem,” he said, sliding his hand under the edge of her dress to place it on the silky skin of her thigh.

“One?” Her hand clenched on his nape. “You’re asking me to have kitchen-chair sex and you say there’s one problem?”

“Protection.” He rubbed his thumb over her inner thigh. “I don’t suppose you bought some?”

Her flustered expression changed, her face falling. “No.”

If Gabriel had been aroused before, her obvious disappointment shoved it through the roof. Squeezing her thigh to her little jump, he said, “Good thing I’m a Boy Scout.”

She shifted in his lap to angle her body toward him, but instead of pleasure, he was faced with a scowl. “Oh? You always carry around protection?” The tiny vertical lines between her eyebrows grew deeper. “For all those women you made me send flowers to?”

Gabriel didn’t have to think about his answer. “I haven’t f*cked anyone since the day we met.”

Her eyes went wide, her throat moving as she swallowed.

“At first,” he continued, “you were a mouse, and I don’t like mice, but I liked you. Because I could see the clawing tigress underneath.” He nipped at her chin. “By the time work let up enough that I could think about women, the mouse had been replaced by the tigress, and I knew I only wanted a bite out of you, no one else.”

The scowl returned. “Why did you have me make dinner dates for you?” She pushed at his shoulders. “Send the flowers?”