“At the time, that’s what I told myself.” He considers his words in silence for a moment before speaking. “The truth is, I enlisted because I knew if I stayed, sooner or later, the old man and I were going to hit a wall neither one of us could move past without coming to blows. I didn’t want to do that to my mother. Or to my brothers. So, I left.”
I place my hand lightly on his forearm, because I can’t hear that bitter edge of pain in his voice and not offer some measure of comfort—whether he wants it from me or not. He doesn’t withdraw from my touch.
He glances down where my fingers gently caress his lighter skin. A slow breath escapes through his flared nostrils. When he lifts his eyes to mine, they are fierce with desire.
Tormented with it.
“Eve,” he rasps, the first he’s ever called me that name. And while it’s been a source of pain and badmemories for me for these past many years, hearing Gabe say it with such raw need inflames me like nothing else can.
He grabs hold of me, his hands warm and strong on either side of my face as he takes my mouth in a fevered, possessive kiss that burns through every cell in my body. I was melting before he touched me, but now I’m on fire.
He catches my moan in his mouth, his tongue pushing past my parted lips. My sex clenches in answer to each wet stroke and lick and thrust. Our bodies crush against each other where we stand, Gabe’s muscled arms pulling me into the hardness of his arousal.
He reaches down and cups my ass in both hands as the demand of his mouth renders me boneless and aching, so ready for him I can hardly breathe.
His mouth is open on mine, our kiss mutually hungered. Our desire is dangerously close to exploding out of control.
It’s what I want. What I crave more than anything right now.
This man. This kiss. This white-hot attraction that’s been smoldering between us from the day we first met.
With one hand buried in the silkiness of his short hair, I use the other to explore the hard slabs and planes of his chest. It’s not enough. I tug the hem of his T-shirt loose from his jeans and slip my hand inside. His skin is hot and velvety soft, even in the places where I feel the ridges of several scars. His abs are rippled beneath my fingertips, a delicious eight-pack, punctuated by a line of crisp hair trailing down to his groin where the steely ridge of his erection proves more than I can resist.
He hisses against my mouth when my palm slidesover the top of his zipper. His hips buck, rocking into my caress. He growls my name in a ragged tone, somewhere between a warning and a plea.
He releases one hand from my backside, dragging his fingers around the side of my thigh. He finds the loose edge of my top and lifts it, moving his hand beneath the fabric and up to the swell of my breast. His grasp is bold, dominating. As he kneads and caresses me, his tongue invades my mouth once more, owning every breath and gasp and moan that leaks out of my throat.
I am wet for him, beyond ready for anywhere he wants to take me. Despite the fact that we’re both fully clothed, I teeter at the edge of a pleasure I haven’t felt in a very long time—and never as intensely as this.
“Fuck,” Gabe snarls, shuddering as I continue to stroke him. He draws back from my mouth on a harsh curse, panting hard.“Fuck.”
He’s shaking with barely controlled arousal. I know, because I feel the same powerful need vibrating inside me. I lick my kiss-bruised lips. I stare up into his stormy gaze, hating the anguish I see there. I skim my fingers over the furrowed crease of his brow.
“If you’d like a tour of the rest of the apartment, my bedroom is just up those stairs.”
It’s a lame attempt to defuse some of the torment I see in him, but his faces relaxes a fraction. He groans, clamping his molars tight behind the flat line of his mouth when he should be kissing me some more. “I’d better not.”
We’re not talking about a house tour, and I can’t pretend I’m not aching desperately for him to stay. “Do you want to, though?”
“More than you can possibly know,” he says, hisvoice rough and jagged.
But he’s still moving away from me. Another inch back now, with a deepening scowl and a curse ripe on his lips as he stares at me.
“If I go down this path with you right now, there’s no coming back. Hell, I’ve already gone too far. Every minute I’m with you, I’m betraying your brother’s trust. Nick’s too.”
“They don’t have anything to do with this. They’re not here.”
He shakes his head slowly, his hazel eyes scorching me as they drink me in. “I can’t do this with you, Evelyn. It wouldn’t be fair. I don’t do this. And don’t do relationships, either. I’ve tried before. I’m not any good at it.”
“I don’t recall asking for you for that.”
“You should.” His reply is sharp, even uttered low under his breath. “Christ, you should demand it. You deserve something more than this.”
“More than this,” I ask hesitantly, “or more than you?”
“Both.”
He says the word with finality. Another step carries him out of my reach, and I know his control is stronger than my wish to keep him here. He wants me, there’s no question about that. I see it in his handsome, rigidly held face. I see it in the thickness of his erection, straining against the confines of his dark jeans.
