fight about this tonight, please? We’re not doing anything wrong.”
“We’re coming awfully darned dose, though. And it is wrong to lie to your family. I can hardly look Billy in the eyes anymore.”
“Gabe, not tonight. It’s my seventeenth birthday and I don’t want to spend our time together bickering.”
Silence dragged out. She felt his resistance, and then his surrender as the source of his tension changed. “Really? And how do you want to spend it, Venus?”
In answer, she tugged his head down to hers. Their lips met, clung together. That familiar, delicious fire began zinging through her blood.
Together, they sank to the pillow of green grass. Gabe guided her gently down onto her back, his mouth leaving hers to nibble its way down her neck. His nimble fingers worked the buttons at her bodice, then slipped inside to caress her bare skin. “No chemise again, Tess? Naughty girl.
She moaned, as his hands smoothed across her breasts, cupping and kneading. Tess arched her back, offering, craving to be suckled. His mouth closed around her nipple and she cried out with pleasure .
Not the memory of pleasure.
Here and now, God-it’s-been-so-long-and-it-feels-like-heaven bliss.
This wasn’t a dream anymore.
Tess froze. The familiar scent. The heated weight of a hard body atop hers. The rasp of bare skin against bare skin.
Gabe Cameron was really in her bed.
Keeping her eyes dosed, she took a minute to consider what to do. A long, lovely, minute during which he switched to the other breast. She seriously considered stretching her internal reflection to five or maybe even ten minutes. A half an hour would be splendid.
Her dress lay tangled around her waist. By touch she determined he sported nothing more than cotton drawers. She tried hard to summon up a little shame. She failed. From the very beginning, she’d been bold where Gabe was concerned. She had loved him with every fiber of her being, and she’d never considered what they did together wrong.
But then was then and now was now. A dozen years had passed. He wasn’t the same man, nor she the same woman. This couldn’t be love; it had to be lust.
It had to be.
And oh, how she wanted to give in to the weakness.
But she shouldn’t. Nothing between them was settled. Indulging in lust today wouldn’t be honest. It might belittle the memory of their love, and those memories were too precious to taint.
Regretfully, Tess realized she couldn’t take the risk.
She opened her eyes and faced the moment, or more precisely, she faced the thick mahogany waves atop Gabe’s head. Her fingers itched to slide through his hair, but instead she pushed against his shoulders and affected outrage. “What do you think you are doing?”
Gabe slowly lifted his head. His gray eyes watched her with that heavy-lidded, sleepily aroused look she remembered so well. So many times during the few months they lived together they had awakened in the process of making love, one of them having reached for the other in his or her dreams. Now he gave her a drowsy, sexy smile and pain twisted through her. Oh, but she had missed that particular grin. “Wake up, Gabe. What are you doing in my bed?”
His eyes focused, and he blinked once, then twice. The second time an accompanying wince betrayed the knowledge of where he was—and when. Tess held her breath, waiting for his next reaction in order to formulate her own response. She expected him to act defensive or perhaps apologetic. What she didn’t anticipate was regret. Regret and maybe even dismay.
Dismay. Well, isn’t that flattering .
His reaction gouged at her vulnerabilities and pricked her pride, so she adopted the challenging, snippy tone that used to drive him crazy and demanded, “Get out of my bed. You don’t belong here.”
He didn’t move an inch, although the flare of temper in his eyes told her he still didn’t care for snippy. Anticipation skittered up Tess’s spine, and in that moment, she felt
“We’re coming awfully darned dose, though. And it is wrong to lie to your family. I can hardly look Billy in the eyes anymore.”
“Gabe, not tonight. It’s my seventeenth birthday and I don’t want to spend our time together bickering.”
Silence dragged out. She felt his resistance, and then his surrender as the source of his tension changed. “Really? And how do you want to spend it, Venus?”
In answer, she tugged his head down to hers. Their lips met, clung together. That familiar, delicious fire began zinging through her blood.
Together, they sank to the pillow of green grass. Gabe guided her gently down onto her back, his mouth leaving hers to nibble its way down her neck. His nimble fingers worked the buttons at her bodice, then slipped inside to caress her bare skin. “No chemise again, Tess? Naughty girl.
She moaned, as his hands smoothed across her breasts, cupping and kneading. Tess arched her back, offering, craving to be suckled. His mouth closed around her nipple and she cried out with pleasure .
Not the memory of pleasure.
Here and now, God-it’s-been-so-long-and-it-feels-like-heaven bliss.
This wasn’t a dream anymore.
Tess froze. The familiar scent. The heated weight of a hard body atop hers. The rasp of bare skin against bare skin.
Gabe Cameron was really in her bed.
Keeping her eyes dosed, she took a minute to consider what to do. A long, lovely, minute during which he switched to the other breast. She seriously considered stretching her internal reflection to five or maybe even ten minutes. A half an hour would be splendid.
Her dress lay tangled around her waist. By touch she determined he sported nothing more than cotton drawers. She tried hard to summon up a little shame. She failed. From the very beginning, she’d been bold where Gabe was concerned. She had loved him with every fiber of her being, and she’d never considered what they did together wrong.
But then was then and now was now. A dozen years had passed. He wasn’t the same man, nor she the same woman. This couldn’t be love; it had to be lust.
It had to be.
And oh, how she wanted to give in to the weakness.
But she shouldn’t. Nothing between them was settled. Indulging in lust today wouldn’t be honest. It might belittle the memory of their love, and those memories were too precious to taint.
Regretfully, Tess realized she couldn’t take the risk.
She opened her eyes and faced the moment, or more precisely, she faced the thick mahogany waves atop Gabe’s head. Her fingers itched to slide through his hair, but instead she pushed against his shoulders and affected outrage. “What do you think you are doing?”
Gabe slowly lifted his head. His gray eyes watched her with that heavy-lidded, sleepily aroused look she remembered so well. So many times during the few months they lived together they had awakened in the process of making love, one of them having reached for the other in his or her dreams. Now he gave her a drowsy, sexy smile and pain twisted through her. Oh, but she had missed that particular grin. “Wake up, Gabe. What are you doing in my bed?”
His eyes focused, and he blinked once, then twice. The second time an accompanying wince betrayed the knowledge of where he was—and when. Tess held her breath, waiting for his next reaction in order to formulate her own response. She expected him to act defensive or perhaps apologetic. What she didn’t anticipate was regret. Regret and maybe even dismay.
Dismay. Well, isn’t that flattering .
His reaction gouged at her vulnerabilities and pricked her pride, so she adopted the challenging, snippy tone that used to drive him crazy and demanded, “Get out of my bed. You don’t belong here.”
He didn’t move an inch, although the flare of temper in his eyes told her he still didn’t care for snippy. Anticipation skittered up Tess’s spine, and in that moment, she felt
Similar Books
