Fire and Foreplay

by Melanie Shawn

  He pulled her shirt up over her head. She felt the hem of the fabric trail along the sensitive skin of her torso as it made its slow but inexorable way north.

  Every bit of her skin felt hypersensitive, like she could narrow down and identify thousands of discrete sensations, all of which combined to create one giant feeling of utter bliss.

  Then a realization hit her that threw her for a loop. All of the warm and lovely feelings that Gabe’s caresses had filled her with were drowned out by the cold bucket of water that this new revelation dumped right over the top of her head.

  Forgetting about the ban on sound for just a moment, she gasped audibly. Her eyes flew open wide. She couldn’t believe that this was the first she’d thought about this.

  Gabe drew back, his worried eyes searching hers. “What? What’s wrong, baby?”

  She shook her head. “Gabe, we can’t do this in here,” she rasped.

  Confusion clouded his features. “Why not? We’re behind closed doors. And we already said we’d be quiet.”

  A flush rose and covered her cheeks that had nothing to do with arousal. Nope, this one was all about embarrassment, pure and simple.

  “There’s no lock on the door,” she hissed. “Anyone could just walk right in. The girls, Jonah, sometimes they have nightmares and…”

  A panicked feeling washed over her as she choked out the words, as thick as if that unthinkable scenario had come to pass in reality and not just in her imagination.

  Gabe just smiled, though.

  Now it was her turn to feel confusion. “I don’t think you understand what I just said. We can’t do this. This room isn’t secure.”

  The expression of self-satisfied amusement never left his face as he whispered back, “Sure we can. We just need to secure it ourselves.”

  He leaned forward, pressing her entire body firmly against the wooden door. “And be very, very quiet,” he whispered against her neck.

  Just like that, all of the heat that had fled her body flooded right back into her veins. Her heart pounded a million miles an hour again, and her breath was rapid, like she’d just run a marathon.

  Gabe moved down to plant kisses across her collarbone, but she had a different idea.

  As much as she absolutely loved him always taking care of things and making her feel so treasured and cherished, she thought that maybe it was his turn to be on the receiving end of a little care.

  A sudden need to make him feel as good as he always made her feel seized her. It wasn’t just that though. If she were honest with herself, this impulse was just the tiniest bit selfish. She wanted to take his stiff erection in her mouth and devour him.

  She placed her hands firmly on his shoulders and pushed, ignoring the look of puzzlement that drew his brows together. He would understand her plan soon enough.

  Then, she spun them around so that his back was now the one against the door. She let her hands trail down the muscular landscape of his chest and abs as she dropped to her knees in front of him.

  She was looking directly into his eyes when the realization of what she was doing dawned on him. She saw the instant that it happened. The spark of recognition and then pure animal hunger. Her core squeezed with anticipation. There was no more powerful aphrodisiac than being desired, and when Gabe looked at her like that, there was no question how much he desired her.

  Her fingers were steady and nimble as she unfastened his jeans. That surprised her—she hadn’t done this in a while and she would’ve expected to be more nervous. Yet with Gabe, she wasn’t. She felt confident and self-assured.

  With unrushed ease, she pulled him free from his jeans and boxer briefs, pushing them down over his thighs to give her plenty of room to play. She was tempted to take his straining flesh immediately into her eager mouth, but she resisted and took just a moment to admire it. During their first night together, he’d explored her body thoroughly, but she hadn’t returned the favor. She remedied that imbalance now.

  She ran her fingertips lightly up and down the sides of his shaft, admiring the way that his thick member jumped under her touch. It was almost like a separate entity from him, as if it had a mind of its own. Like it existed solely to respond to the erotic stimuli that she heaped on it.

  Her stomach erupted in frantic butterflies at the thought.

  She extended her tongue out of her mouth, taking a few experimental swipes at his tip with it. She picked up a few drops of salty, tangy liquid with that exploratory trip of her tongue and realized with a jolt that he already had arousal leaking out of the end of his dick. That’s how turned on he was.

  Slipping her mouth over his engorged head, she fastened her lips into a tight ring of suction and then swirled her tongue decisively around and around. She could tell by the way he clenched his ab muscles and tightened his fisted fingers in her hair that she was making him feel good. She was on the right track.

  Not wanting to torture him any longer, she took the plunge. She slid her hands up the outside of his muscular legs and then grasped his lower torso firmly for leverage. She plunged her head downward as quickly and deeply as she could, taking as much of his enormous length and girth as she could manage into her mouth at one time. She didn’t stop until the head of his dick was pressed so tightly against the back of her throat that she couldn’t even breathe.

  Then, when she was certain that she couldn’t go any further or take the pressure for one moment longer, she pulled her head back until her lips were just brushing the broad head of his sex again. She took a second to admire the way that his shaft shined with her saliva and then plunged her head back down again. She kept up that steady rhythm over and over again.

  She wanted to show Gabe how she felt about him, even if she couldn’t tell him.

  *

  Gabe couldn’t tear his eyes from her. It felt amazing to have her hot, tight mouth pumping up and down on his hard dick, and it was even sexier to look down and see her head bobbing back and forth.

  The little moonlight that was able to sneak in through the window treatments shone in her hair with every movement. There was just enough light for him to see that her eyes were angled upward to him. She was watching his face. Enjoying the visual evidence of the pleasure she gave him.

  He locked his gaze with hers; he loved the connection he felt as they looked into each other’s eyes. There was something so visceral about the energy that flowed between them.

  As her head moved up and down more and more frantically, and her lips squeezed him tighter as her speed increased, his balls tightened and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to last much longer. It was a simple matter of physiology.

  As much as he hated to do it, he put his hands firmly underneath her arms and lifted her to her feet in one smooth movement. It happened so fast that surprise was still written on her face as he sat her firmly down on the floor.

  Her eyes widened as he spun her around and pressed her back against the door.

  He then dropped softly to his knees in front of her. She let out a whimper, and then slapped her hand over her mouth. He smiled. He liked that. He liked that he had that kind of power over her; that he could give her that level of pleasure.

  He planned to wield that power as often as possible in the future.

  Just as she had done to him, he unfastened her jeans and pushed her jeans and panties down over her hips, her thighs, and her ankles before taking them off entirely. He wanted her to be free to spread her legs wide as she leaned against the door so that he could cover her completely with his mouth. No restrictions.

  She rested her hand on his shoulder for balance.

  He placed his hands between her knees and pushed her thighs far apart, then placed one leg over his shoulder. He extended his tongue and touched it to the skin of her inner thigh, just above the knee.

  Ever so slowly, he ran his tongue up the inside of her leg, reveling in her soft skin and loving the way that her muscles jumped under the tender, gentle attention of his tongue.

 
; Halfway up her inner thigh, he got a tart surprise when he found that her juices were dripping down her leg. His cock jumped at the realization. She was so turned on that she was leaking juices down her thigh. She was so wet it couldn’t be contained.

  His masculine, alpha instincts fired up with pride at that realization. She was his. He had claimed her with his touch, his kisses, and his words. He was the one that made her wet, and if he had anything to say about it, that would be true for the rest of their lives.

  He traveled the rest of the way up her thigh with his tongue flat, licking her tender skin as if he were eating an ice cream cone. Her fingers were pressed to the back of his head, her fingers fisted in his hair as he pressed his head forward.

  She was desperate for him. He could feel it in the energy coming off her body. If she were free to cry out, he knew that her head would be thrown back and she would be screaming.

  However she wasn’t free to make a noise, and so this was his show. He smiled to himself. He was going to, if not torture her, then at least tease her for a little bit. The opportunity was just too good to pass up.

  He dragged the stiff tip of his tongue slowly over her outer lips, up one and then down the other. She didn’t let out even so much as that high, soft whimper this time, but her breathing did get faster, and the pressure on the back of his head increased.

  It was working.

  He penetrated her slick seam with his tongue and dragged it slowly up, taking his time and enjoying every twitch of her muscles as he went.

  God, she tasted so good.

  When he saw that she had had enough of teasing, he opened his mouth wide and covered her with it completely, drawing a dramatic exhale from her. He flicked her pleasure center repeatedly with his tongue while he pushed two fingers inside of her and pumped them in and out.

  She was so tight inside that it was hard to even work those two fingers into her, and it made him desire even more fiercely the moment that he would plunge his manhood into her, stretching out those tight walls yet again.

  Yet another way he could claim her as his.

  It didn’t take long for the movements of his tongue and his fingers to send the ultimate pleasure through her. Even though she couldn’t cry out, he knew from the way she painfully twisted her fingers into his hair when her inner walls clamped down tight on his fingers that she was gripped by a powerful orgasm.

  He slid his hand up the taut muscles of her belly, and he loved the way that they squeezed and jumped as pleasure washed over her.

  He loved being the man that had made her feel that good.

  His fingertips grazed her nipples as she came, and she leaned forward and down to give him a better angle. When she did, he grasped her hard knob in between his thumb and forefinger and rolled it back and forth in the same rhythm that he was moving his tongue between her legs, while he pumped his fingers in and out of her.

  He half-expected her to let out an involuntary scream, regardless of the consequences. She didn’t. Even as he felt her spasming under his tongue, she remained silent, save for the sandpaper rasp of her rapid breathing.

  When he could tell that she had mostly come down from her climax, with the only evidence of what she had just gone through being the still rapid breaths escaping through her lips and the flush that spread across her chest and face, he rose to his feet and pulled a condom out of the back pocket of his jeans.

  He grabbed it between his teeth, holding it firm as he shed all of his clothes as quickly as possible. It was a treasure. The one thing that he needed in order to go forward, and he wasn’t letting it out of his grasp. Not for one second.

  He pushed his jeans the rest of the way down his legs and hopped out of them expertly, then ripped his shirt off and threw it across the room.

  He impressed even himself. Zero to naked in just under five seconds.

  He unrolled the latex tube of the condom onto his shaft, standing proud at attention. He pulled her to him, pressing his hand flat against the door so that he could hold her against his body while still making sure that the door was firmly secured. He just needed to feel her pressed against the length of him, her hot, naked skin touching his entire body while he kissed her. He needed that before he entered her, to center himself and remind himself to remain silent.

  When the intensity had built to the point that he couldn’t draw it out even one moment longer, he pulled his lips out of the intoxicating kiss, and pushed her gently back against the door.

  As he took a step forward, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hopped up into his arms. He groaned with pleasure, but kept the rumbling sound deep in his chest, willing himself not to let it escape.

  He cupped her ass cheeks in his hands, holding her slight weight up as she wrapped her legs around his torso and clung to him. He positioned her entrance at the tip of his cock and lowered her down onto his length.

  The sensation was so spectacular that it stole his breath. She stole his breath.

  He moved forward again just slightly, just enough to brace her shoulders against the firm backstop of the door and give him leverage to draw his pelvis backward and then he thrust into her again. Then he drew himself back and thrust into her again. Over and over until he felt lost in the rhythm, as if it was a metronome that someone was using to hypnotize him.

  As he felt the orgasm build inside of him, he was seized by an urge so visceral that he couldn’t help but follow it. He felt as if, on some level, he didn’t have a choice in the matter.

  “I love you,” he spoke into her ear again and again as they came. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

  She didn’t respond with words but each time he said it her body responded. It clenched tighter around him, her fingers, her inner walls, her arms. They all said the three words she didn’t say aloud.

  It was enough. For now. It was enough.

  Chapter 17

  ‡

  “Jake’s calling me.” Adriana looked up across the yard and saw Gabe’s cousin waving.

  She lifted her arm and waved back.

  Gabe placed his hand between Adriana’s shoulder blades as leaned down as he placed a kiss just below her ear before he set off to meet his cousin. “I’ll be right back.”

  Her eyes cut to scan the few adults that were gathered around the bouncy house that was set up for Peyton and Paige’s second birthday, and she was relieved that no one seemed to notice.

  In the three days since Gabe had declared that he was “all in,” he’d lived up to his word. He’d been with them from the time the kids got up in the morning until they went to bed at night. Then he’d stay for an hour or two past “bedtime” so he and Adriana could get a little more practice being human shields against the door.

  They were taking things one day at a time, per Adriana’s request. She didn’t want to advertise that they were doing…whatever it was they were doing. She wanted to deal with one thing at a time. The first thing was finding out the DNA test results. They were due back in two days. Then they could deal with whatever those results were and how the results would affect Jonah. Once he was on solid ground then, and only then, could they turn their attention to them as a couple, if that’s what they were.

  She knew that they were doing things all kinds of ass backwards. As Adriana watched Gabe walk across Amy and Matt’s backyard, she couldn’t help but hope it would work out. Never in her life had she felt so in sync with another human being. Over the past week, she and Gabe had fallen into perfect step with one another.

  She’d been worried during the first few days of Gabe’s parenting boot camp that it was too much for him. He had experience being an uncle, but “uncle” and “dad” were not the same thing. He’d made some rookie mistakes, sure, but he never made the same mistake twice. He took being in the kids’ lives seriously. That meant the world to Adriana.

  “Oh, my.” Naomi appeared beside Adriana and she fanned herself with a homemade fan made out of folded paper and a Popsicle stick. “Who is that tall drink o
f water over there?”

  Adriana only had eyes for one tall drink of water, so she had no idea who her mother was talking about. She glanced in the direction her mother was gawking but she still didn’t know.

  The entire birthday party was filled with good-looking men. Eric and Jake were both extremely attractive. Matt and Mike were not so bad looking either. There were at least a half a dozen firefighters here, all of which could model for a calendar. She smiled as she thought about how crazy Em would’ve been for Marco. Her cousin had always had a thing for Latin lovers and he fit the bill to a tee.

  “Which one?” Adriana asked her mother.

  “The cowboy.” Naomi pointed. “Right there.”

  “The mayor?” Adriana was impressed that her mother’s chosen target was age appropriate, but she was surprised to find out that Mayor Walker was her type.

  In the week that she’d been in town, she’d run into the mayor several times. He was a very sweet man who was extremely personable and made a point to remember her and her kids’ names.

  She was also impressed by the man’s fashion. Each time she’d seen him he was cowboyed out. From the hat, to the boots, to the large belt buckle. The man was a walking Wrangler’s ad.

  “Is he the mayor? Oh my,” Naomi repeated as she flicked her wrist to fan herself faster. “I’ve always loved men that served their community.”

  “You have?” If Adriana was to describe her mother’s “type” she would have said longhaired, unemployed, losers, but hey, maybe Naomi truly was evolving.

  “Oh yes, it’s very sexy,” her mother confirmed. “I’ll admit I was drawn to him when I saw that his aura was a soft shade of blue. I only saw that he is a kind and honest man. Now however I see the vibrant red. I must follow my heart and speak to him.” Her mother announced with her usual dramatic flair. “Will you be okay here?”