This was nothing like their other kisses. This was soft and sensual. He took her mouth in a slow, heated exploration. She made a small sound in her throat as he wrapped an arm around her back, pulling her closer. So close that every curve was soon pressed to his body.
Blood pounded through him.
Her hands went to his shoulders, then around his neck. The kiss deepened, his body hardened, and he wanted more. So much more of her.
“I have wanted you from the first day I met you.” He said the words into the sweet-smelling skin of her neck.
“I know. I felt the same. It was this way between us from the beginning.”
“It was.” He drank from her lips again. Desperation to be closer to her had him lifting Dimity to her toes so he could take more of her mouth. Deepen the contact.
He’d lifted her into his arms before he’d realized what he was doing and made for the room next door.
Chapter Twenty-One
Dimity couldn’t think. Her head was full of Gabriel Deville. His lips drugged her with need. Those skilled, strong hands of his were traveling over her body, and through her dress she felt everywhere they landed.
“Do you want this?” He whispered the words into her neck, each breath making her shiver as it caressed her skin.
She couldn’t think, only managed a sound she hoped was an affirmative. He understood, as his fingers went to the hem of her dress and slowly eased it up her body. Dimity shuddered when he reached the naked skin of her upper thigh.
Heat, need—it was all there and pushed rational thought aside. Never had she felt anything like this. Felt what others talked of. No kiss had ever before unleashed the demons of passion inside her.
“I want to see you, Dimity. Have dreamed of that for so long.”
“Yes.” She reached for his shirt as he reached for the buttons of her dress. He won, and her dress soon loosened. He pushed it from her shoulders and down her body.
“So beautiful.” His mouth caressed a bare shoulder.
She would surely melt to a puddle right there at his feet.
“You skin is like silk.” His lips traveled down her shoulder. Dimity’s eyes closed to savor the sensations.
She felt his hands in her hair, pins being released, and then it fell in a heavy weight down her spine.
“Since that night when I found you in that bar, I’ve wanted to see your hair like this again.”
“You were so angry,” she managed to rasp as he picked up her hand and kissed each of her fingers.
“I was angry for what had put you there when clearly you did not wish to be, but that did not mean I was unaware of you.” He moved to the next hand and wove the web of passion tighter around her as he kissed each finger. The last he sucked into his mouth slowly.
“My lord,” she whispered, unsure what else to say. She only knew that if he stopped, she’d beg him to continue.
“Gabe. I want to hear you call me Gabe.”
He eased the chemise down her body, and she watched his eyes darken as they looked at what he’d uncovered.
“I imagined you, but my imagination is sorely lacking when faced with reality. Your beauty eclipses all others, Dimity.” Such strength, yet so delicate, his hand ran up her side in a feather-soft touch, his thumb stroking close to her breast. “I am your slave, madam,” he whispered.
“Gabe….”
“Easy.” He kissed her softly as his thumb moved closer. Then he was cupping her full flesh, his palm stroking a pebbled nipple.
The pleasure was exquisite and almost too much. Heat pooled between her thighs and she wanted him… wanted more.
“Christ, you inflame me.” He stepped back.
She watched him pull off his boots, then tear the shirt from his body. Lastly, he eased down his breeches.
