“Okay, so this is the kitchen. That’s the living room. And we just had dinner outside.” The girl loved her some sarcasm. I liked that about her.
I followed her down her hallway, where more personal pictures were tacked to the walls. She pointed out several rooms, but I was distracted by a picture of Richard holding a baby that must’ve been her.
No shit, Sherlock.
There were several others surrounding it. It was clear that her relationship with her father meant more to her than she liked to let on.
“James,” she called from somewhere out of sight. She had disappeared into a room at the end of the hall.
“Yeah, coming.” Hopefully soon.
The bedroom that I followed her into was tastefully decorated, with a four-post bed made up with crisp white sheets and flowing curtains that hung in front of glass sliding doors.
None of that made an impact on me. The only thing that I could absorb was the fact that Gabrielle was standing there in front of her bed.
Stark. Fucking. Naked.
Chapter Eighteen
Gabrielle
James did a double take and froze as he stepped into my bedroom and laid eyes on me.
It was a risk, I knew, but he hadn’t disappointed thus far. I just had to trust that he wouldn’t this time.
A frisson of pleasure ran through me as his eyes widened and his pupils dilated. I loved that I affected him in the way that I did.
Never in a million years would I have expected that the sexiest, most beautiful man that I’d ever laid eyes on would look at me the way he did.
I’d had a good long talk with myself the night before, trying to make sense of the feelings that I started having for him.
Somewhere along the line, he had gone from being a distraction that would piss my father off to no end, to the guy who had my heart skipping a beat with every touch. The man that made me smile every time my phone displayed his name. The man who could make an ache rise between my thighs with one look.
Exactly like the look he was giving me as he moved towards me. My entire body hummed as he kept my eyes locked on his and stalked me with powerful grace.
“Don’t ever stop surprising me like this,” he growled before he wrapped his strong arms around me and kissed me like he meant it. I had every intention of obeying his order.
His kiss lit me up, and heat spread through my body, causing my nerve endings to spark and come alive. He devoured me like I was the answer to every secret that the universe held. I held nothing back from him.
I was putty in his very capable hands. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and I pushed my chest against his. My hands tugged at his hair, and he grabbed my ass, lifting me against him. His hands moved to my thighs. He broke our kiss and ran his lips down my neck.
My hands trailed down his sculpted back until suddenly I was on mine, sinking into my mattress with his glorious weight pressing into me. He nibbled at my collarbone before tugging his shirt over his head, letting it fall to the floor. Then his lips found mine.
We were skin to skin as he crawled over me. It felt incredible. His hands traveled to my thighs, and he squeezed them with delicious pressure.
His tongue traced the shell of my ear and moved down, finding places that I didn’t even know were sensitive. He had a way of doing that. It was like he knew my body better than I did.
His head dipped to my shoulder as he slid down my body, trailing kisses over my chest, down to my bare stomach.
My hips moved of their own accord. He played my body as well as the sport that he was the star of.
My hips brushed his erection, and a soft moan escaped my lips. He groaned at the contact, kissing the underside of my breast, then clamped his warm mouth over one hardened nipple.
I sucked in a deep breath and arched into his mouth, craving more. I would never get used to that feeling.
My fingers dug into his shoulders; then it was his hips. Anything that could anchor me as the intense sensations threatened to take over. He moved to the other breast, his hands moving from my thighs to my hips to my neck.
It was the first time we could explore one another. Take our time. It was clear that he intended on doing exactly that.