“I meantno, dickhead. Iwon’ttell you to stop.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Fucking hell.
Gabriel’s hand found its way back to her thigh, fingers digging into the soft flesh as he ground against her center, his rock-hard cock unable to ignore the call of her wet heat. “You know better than to disobey me, witch.”
Jacinda shrugged. “Ask nicely next time. I’m not good with demands.”
“I’lldestroyyou.” Gabriel’s grip on her thigh tightened. His heartbeat clamored as if it was trying to warn them both. “Tell me to bloody well stop before—”
“I don’twantyou to stop, Prince.”
The fiery admission shattered the last of his resistance. He felt it crack and fall, a thousand shards crunching beneath his boot like the bottle.
“Then what is it you want from me, little moonflower?” he breathed, bringing his lips to the dark hollow of her throat, his own breath ragged as he moved up to her jaw, her chin. Then, hovering just before her mouth, “A kiss?”
Jacinda’s eyes widened with raw, honest fear—the first he’d ever found there—and she snapped her mouth shut and turned away, giving him her cheek.
Curious…
“Hmm. Not a kiss, then.” He stashed the thought away for later examination and reached for the black ribbon that secured the front of her dress. It was laced up tightly, rounding the tops of her breasts in a way that damn near made him forget his name. “A touch, perhaps?”
His fingertips brushed the soft skin behind the ribbon, and Jacinda turned her face toward his again and sighed, her warm cloves-and-cinnamon breath ghosting over his lips.
“Oh, yes,” he said softly. “I think we’re getting warmer.” He untied the ribbon and pulled open the corset, revealing the marvel of her breasts—soft, no bra, fucking perfect.
Gabriel groaned at the sight.
At the barest caress of his thumbs, her dark pink nipples rose, beautiful and tempting, begging to be sucked. Savored. He wanted them in his mouth, hardening with every swirl of his tongue. Wondered if he could make her come like that, kissing and biting, tongue and teeth and hot, heavy breath alone. But he forced himself to hold back, palming her breasts instead, his fangs descending again, throbbing with the need to bite that tender pink flesh. To taste her.
Allof her.
“Tell me to stop,” he warned once more, voice trembling with the effort of his restraint. Fucking monumental, that restraint. He’d never had to use it before. When it came to Gabriel and his women, they either said yes, and he bedded them, or no, and he didn’t. In a centuries-long life fraught with more shades of gray than a storm, that was the only clear line he’d ever drawn. Black and white. Yes or no, stay or go.
But this? This sorcery, this devilry, this dark pleasure had swept him away like a wild, restless sea, no light to guide him home but the stars in her eyes and the moonlight shimmering in her silvery hair.
Even with his fangs bared, Jacinda shook her head—another order disobeyed, another frantic refusal to head off this epic fucking disaster.
So instead, Gabriel embraced it, welcoming the crash and its inevitable ruin.
He lowered his mouth to a dusky rose peak, brushing his lips across her flesh. Her bare skin was hot to the touch, just like everything else about her, making his mouth water. He sucked one nipple, then the other, savoring her creamy skin as much as he savored the soft, decadent moans his tongue was unleashing. Every teasing, tantalizing lick made her shudder and gasp, all for him.
Jacinda’s hands slid into his hair, and her grip tightened, her back arching, pressing her flesh harder against his eager mouth.
“One time,” she breathed. “Just once. Yes?”
Gabriel kissed his way up her chest to her throat, blazing a hot path to her ear.
“One time, what?” he asked, though he’d be a fool not to see where this was headed. Wheretheywere headed. They’d been on the collision course ever since he’d taken her prisoner and she’d threatened to grind his bones into dust, her stubborn fire turning him on beyond all reason.
“Don’t play games,” she said hotly, still panting as his fangs grazed her earlobe. “God, you’re infuriating!”
“And you’re… Hmm, let’s assess, shall we?” He slid his fingers between her thighs again, grazing the damp fabric of her panties, letting her desire speak for itself. “The sooner you tell me what you want, witch, the sooner I can make you come.”
Another breathy moan. Another tug on his hair.
“One and done,” she said. “A quickie. Take me to bed for a polite little roll in the sheets, then we never mention it again and I… Oh,fuck…”
