Unforgettable, page 20
He grabbed an arrangement of taper candles he found on one side of the mirrored mantel and placed them in the center of the coffeetable. “Matches?”
Laughing, she shook her head. “There’s a lighter in that drawer.” She pointed to the small desk tucked into the corner of the room.
“Great.” Once he had lit the candles he glanced at her. “What else do we need?”
She couldn’t stop smiling. “Wine. I’ll get it.”
“No, you stay right there. I’ll find it.” He headed for the kitchen.
Anna leaned back against the sofa cushion, hugging herself. She was nervous, but happy. Yet there was still something she hadn’t told him. And she was starting to wonder if she should continue to keep it to herself. Gavin was back before she could decide. He carried a small tray of cheese and crackers, an opened bottle of wine, and two long-stemmed crystal glasses.
As he filled their glasses with a rich, fruity chardonnay, he said with a smile, “Not exactly dinner.”
“It’s wonderful. You’re wonderful. Thank you.”
He held out a glass of wine, but when she reached for it, he shook his head. “Not without a kiss.”
She laughed as she rose and looped an arm around his neck. She teased his bottom lip with a flick of her tongue before she gave him a sweet kiss.
“We need to make a toast.” He smiled down at her. “To us.”
They clinked glasses. Anna hadn’t taken more than a sip when Gavin took the glass away and pulled her into his arms. As they moved to the music, Anna rested her head on his shoulder.
When the soft soothing sounds of Natalie Cole’s “Unforgettable” started playing, she whispered, “I love this song,” as her lips brushed his throat.
“Sweet and sexy. Just like you.” He pulled her closer, until her breasts were cushioned against his chest.
She trembled from the feel of his long length against her. He was all hard angles, unyielding muscle and heat. There was no doubting his arousal. He cradled her as he moved a muscular leg between her thighs, causing her to sway with him.
“How am I doing?”
“Very well.” With her eyes closed she focused on the feel of him. She pressed her open mouth against his throat once more.
Gavin quivered, placing a finger beneath Anna’s chin, angling her face up toward his. His kiss was hot, raw with need.
“Mmm,” he sighed, as he deepened the kiss. He didn’t stop until he had lifted her off her feet and her soft mound nestled his hard sex. “You feel so good…so right.”
“Oh, honey…” she whispered throatily.
He trailed kisses down her throat before he placed her back on her feet, easing away just enough to blow out the candles. His big hands clasped her waist, and then he tossed her onto a powerful shoulder.
“Gavin!” she screeched, steadying herself by placing her splayed hands on his broad back.
He laughed as he walked down the short hallway toward the bedrooms.
“You have lost it.”
“No doubt. But you drove me to it.”
Once she was back on her feet, she teased him, “You call that romantic? One sip of wine and one turn around the living room? What about the cheese and crackers? I didn’t get one bite.”
“Hold on.” He turned on his heels.
While he was gone, Anna didn’t even try to suppress her joy as she turned on the bedside lamps.
He carried the tray and placed it on the nightstand. Anna started laughing all over again when he cut off a slice of cheese and offered it to her.
“What?” he quizzed, his eyes sparkling.
She was laughing too hard to answer.
He grinned. “Stop that, I’m being romantic here.”
She laughed even harder before she was reduced to giggles.
Curving an arm around her waist, he mumbled, “Watch it. You’re going to hurt my manly feelings.”
She pressed her face against his shoulder, glad she had gotten the cheese down without choking. She stopped laughing when he licked the valley between her full breasts.
“Sweetheart, you have no idea how badly I need you. I’ve been walking around with a hard-on for weeks, thinking I shouldn’t feel this way, but I couldn’t help myself no matter how much I tried.”
“Oh, Gavin.” She pushed his sport coat off his shoulders and tossed it in the direction of the armchair before she ran her hands up and down the gray silk shirt that covered his back.
He pushed her cardigan down her arms as he kissed her again. “I really want it to be the way you imagined it would be. Tell me the rest, sweetheart.”
She nodded. “I need a few minutes to get ready. Okay?”
He caressed the soft skin at her waist beneath her knit shell. “Ten minutes enough?”
“Yes.”
She kissed him before hurrying into her walk-in closet. She emerged a few minutes later with a lacy black nightgown thrown over her arm.
“Just a quick shower, and I will be right back.” She was a nervous wreck by the time she made it into the hall and closed the bathroom door behind her.
“I should have told him,” she whispered aloud as she fumbled with the button at her waist. Her attempt to jerk down the zipper caused it to catch. “Hurry…” She wrestled with it. It took a few precious minutes before she managed to get it down far enough for her to wiggle out of the slacks.
“I’m a mess,” she mumbled to herself as she yanked the shell over her head and then tackled the pantyhose, panties, and finally the bra. She used a covered elastic band she found on the vanity to gather her hair up into a ponytail.
Maybe she was wrong for not telling him but she hadn’t because she didn’t want him to know she’d lied. She couldn’t bear it if he stopped caring about or wanting her. That was one risk she wasn’t willing to take.
After turning on and adjusting the temperature of the shower spray, she climbed over the rim of the tub, closed the shower curtain, and reached for her favorite floral-scented shower gel and a bath puff. As she soaped her neck and shoulders, she concentrated on deep breathing, trying to calm her nerves. Self-absorbed, she didn’t notice the door quietly opening and closing.
She jumped when she felt strong arms encircling her waist from behind and easing her back against a hair-roughened chest.
“Anna…” Gavin kissed her nape.
“You scared me,” she announced, once she could speak, but she didn’t turn to face him. With eyes closed, she leaned back against him.
“Get used to me being with you. I’d like to make a habit of showering with you, sweetheart.” He moved his hands up and down her arms.
Enjoying the feel of the wide expanse of his chest, his taut midsection and hard stomach, she trembled when his heavy-muscled thighs pressed against her buttocks and the hard ridge of his penis flexed against her back.
“I stayed away as long as I could,” he said as he rested a wet, widespread hand against her soft stomach. She sighed, wondering how much longer her legs could hold her upright. “Need any help scrubbing your back?”
Anna nodded, unable to get past the feel of being naked in his arms. His deep copper brown frame was as bare as her own mocha brown body. All the barriers were finally gone.
He took the shower gel and poured a generous portion into his wide palm. When his hands were wet and sudsy, he began to massage the tight muscles in her neck and shoulders until she felt relaxed, almost boneless. And then he caressed from her elbows down the length of her arms and her closed hands until they rested open at her sides. She purred her enjoyment as his soapy hands massaged her back to the base of her spine. Her breath quickened as he moved his hands over and around the full curves of her buttocks.
His breath was uneven when he moved to cradle her generous breasts in each palm. He explored her softness, relishing the feel and texture of her smooth skin. She released a husky feminine moan as he rolled her elongated nipples between his fingers.
“Your breasts fill my hands as if you were made for me.” He pressed a kiss against her nape.
Beyond speech, Anna closed her eyes. Yet, the ache deep inside was building. Her breath nearly stopped when he slid a long-fingered hand across her stomach and then into the thick curls covering her sex. Her lashes fluttered, and she sighed when he cupped and squeezed her mound rhythmically. She was a mass of tingling nerves endings by the time he parted her fleshy folds to caress her fully.
“Oh Gavin,” she whimpered.
“Sweetheart”—he breathed heavily into her ear as he continued to stroke her—“you feel so good…so wet…so hot.”
She leaned on him grateful for his supporting arm around her waist. Her legs nearly gave out all together when he moved to caress her ultra-sensitive clitoris.
“Gavin…hurry.”
“No, baby. You’re not ready for me…not yet.”
She rested her head on his shoulder as the pleasure increased even more.
“Just relax and enjoy,” he whispered as he gently pinched her taut nipple while worrying her moist core.
When Anna tried to turn in his arms, he held her fast. “I want to touch you.”
“Not yet.” Determined to concentrate on her and not himself, he ignored his manhood throbbing against her back. She whimpered when he circled her opening with a soapy finger, but when he slid that finger into her tight sheath, she cried his name and her entire body stiffened.
“Relax, I won’t hurt you,” he whispered as he eased in and out of her body. “Sweetheart…you’re so tight.”
Her whimpers rose as he stroked her, encouraging her to take a bit more. When he added another finger while increasing the friction she let out a breathless moan and her heartrate soared.
“Not…not this way.”
“This way and every way. Sweetheart, close your eyes and let it happen.”
She trembled as waves of pleasure washed over her. She let out a long moan when she climaxed.
“Yes…that’s it.”
After she quieted and the tremors eased, Anna turned and lifted her face to his.
He held her close. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, but I’m feeling selfish.”
His voice was raspy when he confessed, “I like pleasuring you. It excites me to watch you come apart in my arms.” He kissed her and then suckled her bottom lip while he moved his hands down her spine to her shapely hips. “You’re so much woman and so damn sexy.”
As she smoothed her hands over his shoulders, she was aware of his incredible heat and his manhood pressed against her stomach. Warm but cooling water rushed down her neck over her shoulders and down her spine. Gavin towered over her. Every inch of his frame touched hers. She knew she’d never felt smaller or more feminine than she did at that moment. She wanted to pleasure him as thoroughly as he’d pleasured her.
Placing kisses at the base of his copper brown throat, her lips and soft tongue lingered in the scented hollow and she kissed across his wide shoulders and the thick pad of muscles on his chest. She retrieved the shower gel. Once her hands were covered with suds, she moved them over his hard-ridged midsection and stomach. He winced when she touched a tender spot. Anna pulled back to study his heavy-lidded brown eyes. She leaned down to kiss the bruise she saw on the left side of his rib cage.
“You took a hard hit, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but I’ll survive.” He eased her back against him, his mouth hot and insistent as he took one tongue-rubbing kiss after another.
She was breathing heavily when she resumed her sensuous assault, moving her sudsy hands into the thicket of dark coarse hair surrounding his sex. Gavin moaned as if he were in pain when Anna moved past his shaft in order to soap the length of his feet and calves.
He didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath until she soaped his inner thighs. He released a heavy moan as she cupped his testicles in her soft palms and gently caressed him. His entire body shook and his eyes were closed from the intense pleasure as she caressed the length of his erection from base to the crown. She jumped when his sex jerked in response to her attention.
“Did I do something wrong?”
He kissed her hungrily, greedily. “You did everything right.”
“Show me the way you’d like to be touched.”
He read the appeal in her pretty gray eyes. His strong legs quivered so badly that he was forced to lock his knees. His kiss was hard and hungry before he nodded. He guided her soft hands around his sex, showing her how to give him the firm strokes he craved. It wasn’t long before he begged her to stop.
He explained, “I’ve done without for so long that my control is limited. I don’t want to disappoint either one of us.”
She placed her arms around his neck and moved until her breasts were on his deep chest.
He kissed the tip of her nose, then asked, “Ready to get out? The water is cooling.”
Trying to ignore the sudden flutter of nerves in her stomach, she nodded her head.
Gavin stepped around her and rinsed them off before he switched off the water and helped her out of the tub. She stood trembling on the thick, pink bath rug when he unfastened and dried her hair. She blushed as he took his time drying her before he wrapped the towel around her. Even though her cheeks were hot, she couldn’t look away as he dried himself.
She slid her arms around his neck when he scooped her up and carried her into the bedroom. Her heart pounded with excitement and swelled with love when she saw the candles shimmering inside glass enclosures on the nightstands and the dresser, enfolding them in a warm glow. He’d also pulled back the comforter.
He allowed her body to slide down his until her feet sank into the carpet. He dropped his towel and sat down on the side of the bed before he pulled her between his thighs. Pressing soft kisses along her throat down to the swell of her breasts, he whispered her name.
Cradling her face in his wide palm he gave her no choice but to look into his dark, searching eyes. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? You’re trembling, and I suspect it’s not with desire.”
She dropped her lids. “I’m fine…”
“If you’ve changed your mind, all you have to do is tell me. I can wait. I won’t push you into something you might regret later.”
She kissed his forehead, his nose, his sharp cheekbones, and then lingered on his full, mustache-covered mouth. “I haven’t changed my mind. I want to make love with you tonight.”
Gavin growled low in his throat, tossing away Anna’s towel and pulling her down with him onto the bed. The kisses were long, filled with need, causing her senses to reel. She stopped thinking altogether by the time he took her chocolate-brown nipple into his mouth. He laved the hard peak, enjoying her moans, and then sucked her nipple insistently. He took his time lavishing attention on first one breast before he eventually moved to the other one.
“So sweet,” he crooned.
Pleasure raised goose pimples along her nerve endings, which seemed to pool in her feminine core. Gavin placed openmouthed kisses over her shoulders and down her arms. Then he lifted his head and looked into her dark gray eyes.
“Anna, you are so beautiful.” He revealed his thoughts. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fantasized about having you like this, with every delectable inch of you bare to my lips and mouth.”
He cupped her damp mound and then slid down her body and settled between her parted thighs. He parted her soft folds, opening her to the hot flick of his tongue. Her senses went wild as sensation after white-hot sensation flared from deep inside. Her pleasure soared when he took her ultra-sensitive clitoris into his mouth to worry and then to suck. Anna was not prepared for the powerful heart-stopping release as she sobbed Gavin’s name.
He was almost as breathless as she was when he moved up beside her, smoothing a soothing hand down her spine. He squeezed the swells of her behind, burying his face in the scented place where her neck and shoulder joined.
“Gavin…” She wrapped her arms around his waist, holding on to him.
“You okay?” he murmured throatily.
“Better than okay.”
Her kisses were filled with heat as she ran her hands down his chest. Pressing closer still, she rubbed her sex against one of his hard-muscled thighs, using the firm pressure to soothe the ache inside.
“I don’t want you to worry about a thing.” He pushed a lock of hair away from her face. “I have protection. I’ll keep you safe.”
Anna watched as he got up and picked up his discarded jacket. Inside his wallet he pulled out several foil packets. Her eyes had gone wide at the size of his engorged manhood. There was nothing small about him. Could she accommodate him?
He dropped the condoms on the nightstand. When he settled beside her, she reached out a hand to caress his chest. When she touched his stomach he stilled and held on to her hand.
“Baby, I’m too far gone for that,” he confessed as he tore open a condom and then expertly sheathed himself.
Gavin took his time kissing Anna as he smoothed a hand along her spine while he settled between her parted thighs. He watched her reaction as he rubbed the crown of his sex between her moist fleshy folds. She stiffened, her eyes were tightly closed as if she dreaded what was to come. He dropped his head to lave her aching nipple before he suckled as he caressed her. He didn’t stop until she was breathless with yearning, open to his slow penetration.
He kissed her lids, whispering, “Don’t close me out. Let me see your eyes as I make you mine and I become yours. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“Oh yes…”
Bracing his upper body on his arms, he moved forward, careful not to rush her. She was incredibly tight. He forced himself to go slow, each new thrust taking a bit more while perspiration drenched his upper body. His strokes were shallow as he gave her time to adjust to his size.
“Anna?” He groaned in disbelief when he met resistance. His heart pounded and his breath was ragged as he accepted the indisputable proof that she’d never been with a man.
Why? Why hadn’t she told him? He wanted to shout his frustration. His big body shuddered from her sweet heat. He knew he should stop, but how could he? How, when his entire body was one huge ache of unrelenting need?
