Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [87]
Not wanting him to see too much too soon, Sage eased her body a little beneath the bubbles. Nervously, she darted her tongue out to moisten her lips. Big mistake, she thought, when Gabe’s attention was drawn to her tongue.
She cleared her throat and placed her attention on his sexy-as-sin appearance. “Do you plan to take a bath with me?” she found the courage to ask, ready to take things to the next level. Especially with the ache between her legs intensifying in slow, tormenting degrees.
Still holding her gaze, he slowly walked into the room and rolled up his shirtsleeves to his elbows. “No, I’m not going to take a bath with you, but I intend to kiss you, touch you and taste you all over.”
Sage watched his approach, and the only thing she could think of saying while her heart beat rapidly in her chest was, “Oh, my.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Gabe released a long, stirring breath as he glanced down. His gaze swept over the enticing womanly body submerged beneath a ton of bubbles. Sage wasn’t letting him see anything just yet, which wasn’t such a bad idea. If he was to see her now, naked and wet, he would lose control, and he couldn’t do that.
He closed his eyes for a second, trying to get his bearings, maintain what little control he did have and remember his promise, his word, and he intended to keep it someway, somehow.
“Gabe, I’m ready to get out of the tub now.”
Sage’s words made him open his eyes. He met her gaze and immediately knew that for some reason, she wasn’t going to make tonight easy for him. She would intentionally push him to the limit. Why? Was she counting on him not keeping his word so she could claim a reason not to trust him, which would make her walking away after tomorrow that much easier, that much more convenient?
He tightened his hands into fists at his sides. No, his thoughts couldn’t go there. He refused to let them. He couldn’t start doubting her or the ground they had covered over the past weeks. Her decision to become an enticing vamp tonight had nothing to do with seeing her ex-fiancé tomorrow. He had to believe in his mind as well as his heart that one didn’t have anything to do with the other. So whatever plan she had in mind for them tonight, he had to keep his cool, let her take it to the heights he would allow it to go and make sure in the end, no matter what, they didn’t make love … although, he thought, smiling, what he had in mind was penetration of a different kind.
“Gabe?”
His smile widened. She wouldn’t have to call his name a third time. Grabbing a huge velour towel off the rack, he held her gaze as she slowly began standing.
He sucked in his breath, almost forgetting to breathe. She was a mind-blowing vision rising from the bubbles, with tiny rivulets of water coursing down her body. Standing tall, naked, wet and sudsy, she was the most beautiful and the most desirable woman he had ever seen.
He couldn’t help but take a moment to appreciate what he saw. Everything. Every single curve, indention, hollow, body part. Nothing was missed during his scan of her body. Nothing.
Stifling a groan, his gaze lowered and made contact with that part of her he wanted desperately, but couldn’t have yet. But boy, did he want it. When he saw her tremble, he reached out his hand to help her out of the tub. She was getting cold, and it was time to dry her off.
“I can do it,” she said quietly, reaching for the towel when she stood on the floor mat in front of him.
“No, let me,” he said softly. “I want to do it.”
With trust in the depths of her eyes, she nodded and gave herself to his ministrations. Sucking in another deep breath, Gabe began drying off the water from her body, deliberately lingering in certain places, stroking her, patting her wet skin, flesh that felt hot to his fingers through the thickness of the towel. He moved the towel over her shoulders, past her breasts, down to her stomach, hips and thighs, deliberately saving the best spot for last.
He slowly began kneeling, patting her legs dry, parting her knees and drying between them, going lower