With a cry, she came, rocking into him and felt his whole body stiffen and bow in her arms. His hips churned with his own release, and a primal growl escaped his hard lips.
“Yesss!” His body twitched inside her, and she cradled his jaw, kissing him back with all the feelings racing through her on repeat.
The moment stretched for endless heartbeats. She listened to her heart settle from pounding to normal and finally issued a satisfied sigh.
He rolled half to the side but cloaked her body with his, burrowing his face in her hair. “My god.”
“You can say that again.” Her voice was a rasp. “I’ve never done anything like that before.”
He lifted his head, eyes shining with amusement. “You never had a fantasy about having sex in your bookshop?”
She nibbled her bottom lip, which made him laugh. “I did. But I thought it would be in the romance section. Not the cookbooks.”
Laughing, he pressed a kiss to her temple, and she shook in his arms with her own mirth.
“This might be a little like that scene fromHis Honor, Her Ruin.”
Her jaw dropped. “You read that?”
“Some guys in my platoon were joking about a video where a guy talked about how men should read romance to learn how to woo women. My brothers thought it was hilarious, but I figured why not take it straight from a woman’s fantasy? Then one day I was in Decker’s room—when he was still in the program—and that book was in his collection.”
He brushed his lips over hers once…twice…with such extreme tenderness that her heart fluttered.
Her shop was still wrecked. The exit was still closed. Her future was still a giant question mark.
But right here, in the circle of Gabe’s arms, she didn’t feel alone.
She turned her face into his chest, inhaling the warm, cedar scent of him, and let herself linger in this moment between them. This one wild, reckless moment on her bookshop floor.
She curled closer, tracing a small, thoughtless pattern on his skin, and shivered as his hand slid up and down her back in slow, soothing strokes.
If this was what it felt like to fall…maybe she wasn’t afraid of the landing anymore.
Chapter Eight
They were still twined together, her leg hooked around his, her cheek pressed to his shoulder. Gabe couldn’t remember a time he felt this…at peace.
Felicity turned her head and murmured against his skin. “I’m getting really hungry staring at all these cookbooks.”
A laugh rumbled up from someplace he’d forgotten existed inside himself, and he tightened his hold on her. Her laugh was low and warm, and all he could think about was the way she’d sounded ten minutes ago—breathless and pleading.
For all he cared, the cookbook section could burn down. The only thing that mattered was Felicity in his arms and the thump of his pulse in his veins. He didn’t know if he’d ever get the sound of her coming apart for him out of his head. God, he never wanted to.
He trailed his fingers down her spine, still hard from the feel of her silky skin and the fall of her hair across his chest. He wasn’t new to women, but this—her—it felt different. Like she’d cracked open a part of him that was closed for a long time. Like she’d reached past all the armor and found the restless parts he never allowed anyone to see.
She was so perfect wrapped in his arms, hair messy from his fingers and her lips swollen from his kisses.
He brushed his mouth across her temple because if he didn’t touch her, he’d combust. “We’d better eat then.” His voice was grittier than he meant it to be. “What are you hungry for?”
“Lunch. A big one. Before I pass out.”
While he felt a ripple of pride that he might be the cause of her big appetite, he hungered for the way she’d looked at him right before she flew apart in his arms.
They washed up and dressed in the small bathroom. He was shocked to find that the criminal had even dumped the cleaning items out from the vanity cabinet.
As he tugged his shirt over his head, their gazes caught and they exchanged a shy smile that made him feel like a damn teenager. When she brushed her hair back into place, their gazes held again, and another beat throbbed between them.
He didn’t have words for the sensation in his chest. Only knew that he’d never had it with anyone.
