Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [74]
Gabe nodded. He clearly understood that. He hadn’t gotten serious about anyone since Lindsey.
“And I want to get comfortable about trusting someone again.”
Gabe met her gaze. “Do you feel you can trust me, Sage?”
She thought about his question. Deep down she felt that she could. If she didn’t believe that, then she wouldn’t be alone with him now, holding this conversation, exposing her pain and insecurities to him. “Yes, Gabe, I feel that I can,” she finally answered.
Gabe smiled. “Thanks. Now, is there anything else you feel we need to discuss and get out in the open?”
“Yes, there’s the issue of sex.”
With that one single word spoken from her lips, Gabe’s heart began beating rapidly in his chest. “Sex?” he asked huskily as thick desire flowed through his nerve endings.
“Yes, sex,” Sage said, leaning forward. “I’m not comfortable with the idea of sleeping with a man just to have something to do. It’s not in me to physically share myself with someone I don’t care deeply about. Other women may not find it difficult, but I do.”
Gabe nodded again. A part of him was glad that she did.
“So these sexual urges aren’t helping matters,” she said softly.
Gabe bit back a moan at what Sage had just said. He cleared his throat. “Sexual urges?” he rasped.
She nodded as she unconsciously skimmed the tips of her fingers over the smooth skin of her thigh that her skirt didn’t cover. “Yes, or sexual chemistry if that’s a better name for it. I felt it last night with you, and I hadn’t counted on that happening,” she said in a slightly irritated voice.
An amused smile curved his lips. “Neither had I. At least not to that extent.” Then his expression turned serious as he watched the unconscious movement of her hand on her thigh. Seeing her bare skin reminded him of the soft feel of her flesh he had cupped in his hand last night. The memory made his front ache. Tilting his head, he met her gaze. “I wanted you bad last night.”
A shiver of desire coursed slowly down Sage’s spine with Gabe’s words. She had wanted him badly last night, too. And it didn’t help matters that with the way he was looking at her, his heated gaze was inflaming her entire body. “How bad?” she surprised herself by asking as a coiling tightness formed in her stomach and a torrential ache settled between her legs.
“Come here and I’ll show you,” he murmured huskily.
A shudder ran through Sage at Gabe’s invitation. She exhaled a deep breath and gazed at him through heavy eyelids. “I’m not ready to have sex with anyone, Gabe,” she said in a raspy voice. She crossed her legs when the ache between them intensified.
Gabe held up his hands. “No sex. Just foreplay.”
Foreplay that doesn’t end with sex? “How?” she asked, curious as well as aroused at the very thought.
Gabe leaned forward in his seat. “In a number of ways, but mainly doing what we did last night.”
She raised a brow. “Kissing?”
He nodded slowly. “Yes, and touching.”
Curiosity thrummed through Sage, and she wondered how they had gotten on the subject of kissing and touching. “No more than that?”
“No more than that.”
“No sex?”
“No sex. I promise. Trust me,” Gabe answered, his voice deep, husky, seductive. For the first time in his life, his restraint, his sense of honor and the ability to keep his word would be put to the test. He watched as Sage nervously nibbled on her bottom lip, contemplating his words, his request to prove her trust in him. Considering her disappointment with her ex-fiancé and her father, he knew that placing her trust in another man was not easy for her.
He sat back in the chair. The decision would be hers, and he would wait patiently for it, even if it took all night. And no matter what, he would abide by her decision.
His breath lodged in his throat when she slowly stood. He could actually feel the heat simmering in his gaze as he watched her walk around the table that separated them. And when she stood before him with as much desire in her eyes as he had in his,