The Billionaire's Matchmaker(16)

The words filled him with joy. She saw who he was underneath. She always had. “And you’re still the same person who pushes me to step out of my comfort zone, to take chances.”

“I could say you’ve turned the tables in that department this week.” Her gaze softened when she looked at him.

“Maybe we should take this beyond just a road trip. To something more.” He’d said nearly the same thing years before. Back then, she’d rejected him. But this time, he sensed the undercurrent of attraction, the simmer of want, warring with whatever battles Gabby had inside her.

“But…” She got to her feet, and shook her head. “We’re just traveling together for a few days. It wouldn’t be smart to complicate that. What’s going to happen when we get to California? You stay there, I go back to Illinois? We have something long distance?”

“Honestly, I don’t know what will happen then.” He wanted more, wanted it all, but to have that, he had to tell her the truth about who he was…about why he stayed away all these years.

Gabby nodded and bit her lip. The air in the room shifted from warm to cool. “Neither do I, T.J. Which is why I think we should just play it safe.”

They faced one another, not touching. Charlie had woken up and pranced around their feet, panting and yipping, as if confused by the change. T.J. shook his head. “You used to be fearless, Gabby.”

She snorted. “I used to be a lot of things. I’m sorry, T.J. As much as I want…” she waved between them as she took a step to the right, “this, I know it wouldn’t be—”

Just then Charlie pounced on Gabby’s legs, knocking her off balance. She stumbled forward into T.J.’s arms. Fire erupted in his gut, and the world stopped spinning.

“It wouldn’t be…” But she didn’t finish the sentence, and he didn’t leap to fill in the blanks.

For that moment, all he knew, all he felt, was Gabby in his arms, the only woman he had ever really wanted but never stood a chance with. Her lips parted but no words came out. She looked up at him with those big green eyes. “Damn it, forget what I said. I do want you. A lot.”

Before he could think, she rose on her tiptoes, grabbed his head, and hauled him to her for a hot, searing kiss.

His arms circled her, and Gabby’s body melded into his, her sweet breasts pressed against his chest, her pelvis ground against his erection with delicious temptation. He slid his hands between them, reaching for the hem of her T-shirt, tugging the soft cotton up and over her head. At the same time, she worked at the buttons of his shirt, parting the panels in a feverish rush.


He tugged off her jeans and then his own, kicking the denim to the side. The TV played the muted soundtrack of a movie in the background, but all T.J. heard was the skip of Gabby’s breaths, the whisper of her hands against his skin and his on hers. He slid his fingers under the satin straps of her bra, dragging them down her shoulders, watching as the fabric dropped, inch by inch, to reveal the swell of her breasts. The clasp released, the bra dropped to the floor, and T.J. lowered his head to follow the trail with his mouth. He kissed the curve of her breast, then teased along the edge of her nipple. She arched beneath him and he sucked the sensitive nub into his mouth.

“Oh, God, T.J.”

The sound of his name slipping from her lips nearly sent him over the edge. T.J. scooped Gabby into his arms, crossed the tiny room in three strides, and then laid her on the bed. He stepped back and paused.

She smiled. “What are you doing? Taking a break already?”

“Taking a second to think how damned lucky I am.”

“That you’re welcome to do. As long as you’re quick about it.” The smile widened, and she opened her arms and beckoned him into the bed. He slid into the space beside her then watched her lift her hips, slide off her panties, and toss them aside.

“You are absolutely beautiful,” he said.

“And you are going to make me blush.”

“Which only makes this part more attractive,” he trailed his hand down the center of her chest, “and this part,” he danced his fingers over her nipples, “and definitely this part.” He finished with a long slow slide down her abdomen, then between her legs and finally, inside her. She gasped, rose up, and clenched against his fingers.

God, she was wet, eager, and hot as hell. It was all T.J. could do to take his time, to stoke the fire within her with his fingers and his mouth, moving down from her breasts to her delicious core, spreading her legs and tasting her in long, fast licks of his tongue, while Gabby groaned his name and tangled her hands in his hair.

“T.J., God, please, just please…” She bucked against his face. “Please.”

That was all it took. He paused only long enough to retrieve a condom from his overnight bag and slip it on, and then he positioned himself above her and slid inside her delicious warmth. She grasped at his back and his ass as he drove into her with long, hard strokes. She matched him move for move, and his brain stopped functioning. All he knew was this hot, fast, incredible moment. The vanilla notes of her perfume danced under his senses and mingled with the scent of her sex, and when she called out his name again in one drawn out syllable, he drove harder, faster, until the world exploded.

After a moment, T.J. rolled into the space beside Gabby and drew her against him, then tugged the thin comforter over their bodies. She rested her head on his chest, one palm on his heart. The movie had ended and a beer commercial flickered on the television. From outside the room came the sounds of traffic passing on the highway, punctuated by the staccato of horns.