Kitabı oku: «Modern Romance June 2019 Books 5-8», sayfa 8

CHAPTER FIVE

“IS THIS THE right place?” Luli asked with confusion. “Where are the other people?”

“What other people?” Gabriel rose from the car to stand beside her and accepted the umbrella from the chauffeur.

Airports were busy places, weren’t they? Gabriel had brought her to a quiet field where stretches of road cut across acres of green toward the blurry horizon. There was an airplane with Arabic writing on its tail parked toward the other end of the low building that crouched behind them. The chauffeur handed their bags to an attendant and they were carried up the stairs in front of them, into an aircraft that was downright intimidating.

It was designed like the ones folded out of paper, with big triangular wings. Like a fighter jet. The windows were a continuous stripe down the body and the tail was painted with the Chinese symbol for dragon. Luli knew that meant it was Gabriel’s. He’d been using that symbol in his logos since developing a smartphone game about dragons when he was a boy.

“Don’t I have to show a passport to security?”

“It will be waiting for you when we land in Paris.”

“Paris!” She swung around. “You said you’d take me to New York.” She had tried to teach herself French at one point, but hadn’t had anyone to practice with.

“A small detour for shopping.” He gave her outfit another disdainful glance and waved to the stairs into the airplane.

Everything was happening so fast. She could barely catch her breath. And now she was awestruck as she entered the jet. It wasn’t the kind that looked like a bus with rows of seats and an aisle and little round windows. This was a house. The staff was even lined up exactly as she had stood outside Mae’s mansion when he had arrived yesterday.

The pilot welcomed her and invited Gabriel to join him in the cockpit to review their flight path.

“May I show you to your room, Mrs. Dean?” a pretty attendant asked.

“Call me Luli.” She needed to talk to Gabriel about how real this marriage was before she ran around calling herself Mrs. Dean. It was still bothering her that he hadn’t been nearly as caught up in their kiss as she had been. Then he’d been so angry after the incident with the butler.

With her mind whirling with misgivings, she’d stood on that bottom step as if it had been a jump off a high diving board. She probably wouldn’t have come this far if he hadn’t held out a hand, reassuring her she could trust him.

Foolishly, she wanted him to keep holding her hand as she followed the woman past the L-shaped sofa and reclining armchairs arranged to face a flat-screen television that hung above a fireplace.

Not a house, Luli decided as she absorbed the ebony-and-ivory interior with its glints of chrome and glass. A spaceship.

The attendant took her down a short corridor that ended in a minisuite in grays and chrome. Along with a massive bed, there was a private dining area for two, a sofa, a desk and another television.

“Please use the bell if you need me to bring anything.” She pointed at the button near the headboard as she left.

Luli saw her bag hung empty on a hook behind the door. She opened a couple of drawers, finding Gabriel’s clothes in them.

Her heart stopped. This was his room.

And there was her underwear in another drawer, looking very paltry in such a big, empty compartment. She closed the cupboard and touched the vase on the night table. It was magnetic, ensuring it wouldn’t fall over during turbulence.

She went into the bathroom. Mirrors and subdued lighting turned the powder-blue color scheme silver. The shower had frosted glass and the towels matched the bedspread.

Luli stared at herself in the mirror. Gabriel was right. This double-breasted jacket did her no favors. She had been trying to blend in for so long, she had mostly forgotten how to make the most of her attributes.

There was only soap and lotion in here, no makeup. She washed, then, rather than pin up her hair again, left it loose. The thick, wavy mass had always been one of her best features along with her natural honey-toned skin. She left the jacket on the hook behind the door, even though her plain cotton bra caused unflattering lines against the thin fabric of her knit top.

She paused before she opened the door. Gabriel was on the other side, advising someone on the phone in French what time they would arrive.

She opened the door to see him tossing a pair of bone-colored pants onto the foot of the bed. He noticed her and glanced at the blue shirt on the hanger in his hand. He replaced it on the rack and brought out a red one.

“Merci. Au revoir.” He ended his call. “These are for you. More comfortable for travel.” He pulled the shirt off the hanger and picked up the pants. “And more flattering. Although, that’s better without the jacket.”

The way his gaze lingered on her made her think of their kiss. Her skin grew tight.

“Thank you,” she murmured as she came forward to take the clothes. The linen pants had a wide, woven tape as a drawstring and the shirt was a soft knit with a half dozen buttons at the collar. “We, um, should talk about a few things.”

“Sure,” he said absently. “I wondered how long it was.” His gaze traveled to where tendrils of her hair scrolled against and around the swells of her breast. His hand lifted and she felt a light tug against her scalp, as though he drew a few strands through his finger and thumb, testing its silky texture.

She stood very still, not sure what to make of his curiosity, but liking the tingle that rippled across her scalp and down her nape into her shoulder. It was like their kiss, leaving her feeling shaken, while he had seemed to shake it off.

“I wondered if—” She started to lose her nerve. “We didn’t talk about whether this would be, um, a real...um...” She swallowed, voice almost nonexistent as she squeaked, “Marriage?”

His brows came together like a pair of crashing trains, head-on. “You signed the contract. I thought that meant you agreed to everything.”

“I didn’t have a chance to disagree, did I? Everything happened so fast. Then, the way you kissed me, I thought maybe it was just for show.”

“What do you mean? Were you pretending when we kissed?” His voice rang with such foreboding, she shivered inwardly.

“N-no?”

“You don’t sound sure.”

“I’m sure. But I wasn’t sure if you...?” She swallowed, completely out of her depth.

“I wasn’t pretending anything. I was trying to keep it this side of X-rated.”

There was something in his demeanor that reminded her of the time her mother had been photographed with a jaguar. Luli had been seven or eight. Her mother had insisted she join her. Luli had been fascinated by the power and heat radiating off the spotted cat, but the handler had warned her, Don’t look him in the eye.

So she knew better, but she did it now with this beast—and instantly understood why it was a mistake. It aroused the hunter in him. He might appear relaxed, but his pupils opened and he bared his teeth, sending swirls of reaction into her abdomen. Strangely, it wasn’t terror. It was the opposite. An answering type of excitement? She didn’t know what it was, but she couldn’t look away, couldn’t move.

Another tug pulled against her scalp as he turned his finger, winding her hair to draw her forward, until she stood close enough to feel the heat off his body. He let his gaze wander her face, both lazy and thorough, like he was staking a territorial claim.

She found herself studying his mouth, licking her lips.

His fist rested on her shoulder, still tangled in her hair. His thumb stroked along the artery in her throat, where her blood moved thick and unsteady.

“You have the most beautiful skin.”

She didn’t know how to respond to that and wasn’t given a chance. He dipped his head and opened his mouth against her neck.

This was what they did. They crushed their prey with their powerful jaws.

Except he only breathed hotly against her throat, licked once, sending her pulse skyrocketing. Her breasts prickled and stung inside her bra and a wicked dampness rushed into her loins. She forgot to inhale as he rubbed his lips against her skin. Heat suffused her body and her bones turned to melted wax.

He made a purring noise and scraped his teeth, then sucked lightly, soothing with another lick. The sensation was so enticing, she let her head fall back, fully baring her throat to him.

With another noise of satisfaction, he set a hand on her hip and drew her closer, lifted his head and took her mouth in a kiss that buckled her knees. Hot, thorough, hungry. His arms went around her, pulling her in. Holding her up.

Her arms were tangled in whatever she held, but she didn’t care that she couldn’t move them. She only wanted more of that raking pleasure of his lips across hers.

The swipe of his tongue against hers sent streaks of electricity through her. She met it with her own, moaning softly in her throat as a near-painful sting heightened every inch of her skin. As if he understood that, he ran his hands over her back and waist and hips, soothing but inciting, making her wriggle restlessly, wanting more.

Her shirt came loose from her waistband and his palms went under the edge, up and up, arriving to cup her breasts so they throbbed with sensitivity in the firm hold of his hands. It was too much and not enough. She could smell something feral on his skin and wanted to drown in that scent. She plucked at his shirt and drew on his tongue and wished she could breathe, but she only wanted him.

With a savage hiss of breath, he jerked his head back. The gray-green of his eyes was jungle dark, filled with mysterious shadows and the secrets of life.

Her heart thudded so hard she could feel it rocking her whole body, pulsing in her nipples against his palms and throbbing in the plump folds between her legs.

“Are you faking this?” he asked in a voice that made her scalp prickle.

She looked down at the way his hands were trapped against her breasts under the taut fabric, the clothes he’d given her rumpled on the floor at their feet.

“No.” She didn’t have a clue what she was doing, but she was lured by the feel of his palms on her breasts to lean in to his touch.

“Good.” The word was a satisfied rumble. His thumbs flicked across her nipples, and even muffled by the cotton of her bra, the caress caused a sharp spear of electric sensation to stab into her abdomen. “I’ll close the door.”

Consciousness began to seep back into her brain. “I was going to save it,” she remembered distantly.

“Save what?” His head lowered so the air between their lips became magnetized, tugging with invisible force.

It took all her efforts to remember what they were talking about and say it before he kissed her and erased every thought she could conjure.

“My virginity.”

* * *

Gabriel stopped a scant millimeter from claiming that luscious, clever mouth. He balanced on the knife’s edge between rational thought and the sweetest, blindest escape he could recall glimpsing in his lifetime.

He made his hands slide down to her waist and swallowed.

“You’re a virgin?” he asked carefully.

Her tense stomach muscles quivered against the heels of his hands. Her pouted mouth was still parted with invitation. “Yes.”

“And you kissed me like that?”

She blinked and the sultry haze of arousal in her sea-green eyes grew tepid and unsure. “Am I not good at it?”

He was hard as high-carbon steel, his flesh nearly searing its way through the layers of cloth between them to get to the molten center of her. He swore he could smell her arousal like nectar, beckoning him to burrow deep. He would give anything to taste her, to feel her arch with pleasure against his mouth.

But he refused to believe what she was suggesting.

“Back up a step.”

She took him literally, drawing back so his hands fell to his sides. Her shirt stayed loose, her nipples sharp points against her unbecoming top.

He opened his mouth, closed it. Sought out a couple of brain cells and tried to kick them together, force them to spark cohesive words.

“I’m the first person to ever kiss you? That’s what you want me to believe?”

“The first man.” She folded her arms defensively. “There was a boy when I was thirteen. It was...” Her nose wrinkled. “Like pushing my mouth into a pile of mashed potatoes. But there were mostly women in Mae’s house so he was my only one.”

Gabriel folded. If they were playing poker, she won that hand with a wild-card joker that could be a bluff, but at this point, he could only swear and wave at the clothing on the floor.

“Change. Then go to the lounge. I need a minute to collect myself.” Maybe a cold shower. He locked himself in the bathroom the way werewolves chained themselves to a tree on a full moon, so they wouldn’t have terrible deeds on their consciences the next day.

He ran his hand down his face as if he could physically bank the heat that had risen in him as he’d contemplated starting their flight in the reclined position.

That had been even better than their first kiss. He hadn’t seen any reason to stop except to ensure their privacy, the fines for sitting on the tarmac worth every minute. Hell, they were married. If they both wanted it, what was to stop them?

But she was a virgin.

How?

And how hadn’t he realized it? He wasn’t a womanizer, but he’d slept with enough women he should be able to recognize a lack of experience in a kiss.

He’d been too carried away by her responsiveness both times to register how untutored she was, though. He liked to lead and she had let him. He’d thought it was a sign they were compatible. If he’d noticed any surprise in her, he’d put it down to his same delight at the way their chemistry ignited so quickly, feeding into each other’s arousal in a way that was exponential.

Potentially mind-blowing.

And how was her virginity such a turn-on? He was a normal man with normal fetishes like pretty underwear and high heels. Virginity had never reached the top twenty in his fantasy playlist, but the idea of being Luli’s first drew him taut as a piano string.

He skimmed his hand over his hair, tamping down the prickle in his scalp.

The more evidence he collected, the more he was coming to see Luli as every bizarre thing she claimed to be. But the only way to prove she was a virgin was to sleep with her.

And if she was a virgin, he shouldn’t touch her.

That paradox wasn’t going to torture him at all.

* * *

Luli fought her way out of the clothes she wore, half terrified Gabriel would walk out and see her naked. And reject her again.

Part of her knew he had saved her from being careless and impulsive, but she still felt rebuffed. Like she’d done something wrong. Not morally, although maybe he was judging her. She didn’t know. But more than that, she feared she had repelled him in some way, out of ignorance.

The drawstring pants hung low on her hips even after she tied them, but they only needed to be turned up twice at the cuff because she was only a little shorter than Gabriel. The shirt seams dropped off her shoulders and the sleeves also needed turning up, but the light knit was soft and comfortable and smelled of him which was disturbing and nice at the same time.

She went to the lounge, sat in one of the armchairs and buckled, then studied the panel in the armrest. Along with several reclining adjustments, there were a dozen massaging options and both heating and cooling settings. She could also control the television, the music, the lights and call the attendant. There were screens of safety instructions and a message from the pilot welcoming them aboard. It showed a countdown to takeoff.

Apparently, they would begin taxiing in seventy-eight seconds.

Gabriel appeared, hair damp as though he’d showered. He removed the shopping bag with twine handles from the other armchair, setting it at her feet before he sat.

“Something for you to play with while we travel.”

“Is this your chair? That’s why the panel has so many options. I’m sorry.” She reached to unbuckle.

“They’re exactly the same.” He waved her to stay put.

The attendant appeared with a glass on a silver tray that she offered to Gabriel.

“May I bring champagne? Lavender-infused lemonade? Perhaps a cappuccino?”

“Water is fine,” Luli said, pressing into her chair.

“Sparkling or Arctic glacier?”

Luli looked to Gabriel, expecting him to make it clear she didn’t deserve this level of catering.