“You can relax. I’m not asking you to marry me.” He said the words and he should mean them, so why did they feel hollow?
Another, “Oh.”
And then her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
“I’m sorry. Wow. You must think I’ve lost my mind.” She blinked up at him. “Seriously, we’re strangers for all intents and purposes. I mean, strangers is not really the best way to put it. We’re somewhere in between. Familiar strangers. Does that make any sense?”
He cracked a smile that he didn’t feel. “Sure. We knew each other once but you don’t know the guy who can kill a man and not talk about it later.”
“I wasn’t saying—”
“Not out loud. But you thought it.” He’d always been able to read her.
“You can talk to me about that, Gabriel. Or anything else. I don’t know if it’s too late but I’d like to be friends. The best part about this whole ordeal has been seeing you again,” she said.
He reached out and ran his finger along her jawline. “Yeah, for me, too.”
“We can build on that, right? Become friends again,” she offered. “No matter how hurt I was or how angry, I missed you.”
“We were never just friends,” he fired back with a little more ire than he’d intended.
“Is it too late for a fresh start then?” she asked.
“Once this is over, you might just change your mind.” He hated the thought but it was true.
“How can you say that to me?” There was genuine hurt in her voice but she didn’t give an inch. Instead, she pushed up to her knees to face him.
“Well, damn.” He locked gazed with her and a need to kiss her again was a physical ache.
“What really happened to us when we were kids?”
“People make mistakes. We were young and insecure. We didn’t have enough sense to hang onto a good thing when we had it,” he said.
“And what about now?” Those cobalt blue eyes of hers bit right through him. “Are we too stupid to hang onto a friendship?”
“I don’t want friendship from you right now. You’d be better off if you went to sleep and forgot about this conversation,” he said, and he could hear the gruffness in his own voice.
“Why is that?” she asked, and he could tell at this point that she was enjoying the power she had over him.
“Because if you don’t, I’m going to kiss you. With your permission,” he added.
“Then do it,” she said boldly.
That was all the encouragement he needed. Gabriel tilted her chin up toward him and peppered a trail of kisses along her jawline, the scar. And then he claimed her lips, covering that full pink mouth of hers with his.
She teased his tongue inside her mouth and all rational flew out the window. Gabriel knew better than to want this but, God help him, he did. His body trembled with need for her, for Kinsley, for his Kinsley.
He brought his hands up to her face and cupped her cheeks as he drove his tongue inside her parted lips. She mewled with pleasure and he swallowed the sound.
She brought her hands up to his shoulders, electricity firing through her fingertips as she traced his muscles. And then she gripped his shoulders and pulled him flush against her body. Her sweet full breasts had a thin layer of silk from touching his skin—skin that was alive and aching with a need to be in physical contact with hers.
Gabriel unbuttoned her blouse and she shrugged out of it a moment later. He released a guttural groan when he palmed her lacy bra and her nipple beaded.
She unhooked her bra and shrugged out of that next, tossing it on top of her shirt.
Kinsley was all curves and creamy skin and beautiful woman.
She stood up and shimmied out of her pants. Her panties were teal lace, his new favorite color. She started to take those off, too, but he stopped her.
“I want to do the honors.” Gabriel’s voice was deep and gravelly. His eyes darkened with need.
Kinsley wanted to feel his strong masculine body on top of her, pushing her into the mattress. Her stomach quivered as he hooked his fingers into the sides of her lacy underwear and tugged them down. About halfway, they freefell and she stepped out of them.
She should feel awkward standing naked in front of her high school boyfriend but being with Gabriel was the most natural thing. She couldn’t imagine feeling anything but a sense of rightness with the world and a burning desire for him to touch her.
And he did.
He smoothed his hands up her hips, leaving a scorching hot trail. He took his time standing to his full height again. She already brought her hands up to unsnap his jeans. He helped her and his denim along with his boxers ended up in the pile of clothing next to their feet.
“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Kinsley,” Gabriel said in that low, hungry voice.
Her skin goose bumped as electricity skittered across her skin. He was all glory and masculinity. “You’re not bad, either.”
Those words didn’t begin to cover just how glorious his body was. And it was. But there was so much more to her attraction to Gabriel than that. The connection went so much deeper and that scared the hell out of her. If she was in her right mind, she’d stop this while she still had a prayer. But this was Gabriel. All grown up. All danger and muscle and sex appeal in buckets.
And she’d be damned if she could deny herself one amazing night with him.
“You have protection in that backpack?”
He dipped down and retrieved a condom. And then he walked her over to the bed, ripped the package open with his teeth and handed the contents over to her.