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I peered around, baffled. “This is a bona-fide bachelor lair. How is there already a fire in here?”
“I punched a button in the kitchen.” He grinned at me. “My tech is showing, isn’t it?”
I grinned back at him. “A little.”
He sat on the bed and patted the space next to him. I sat down and took another shaky sip of wine. This was it. I was in Gabe’s room, on his king-sized, four-poster bed, a fire roaring in front of us. It didn’t get much more intimate…except I had a feeling that it was about to do just that.
I took a deep breath and somehow found the courage to say what I didn’t want to say…what I’d always thought, in the back of my mind, I would never need to say to anybody. I hadn’t thought it would ever come up. “Gabe, I—”
“Hey.” He wrapped me in his arms, cutting me off. “It’s okay. I already know.”
I sat there, stunned. “You know?”
He nodded into my hair. “We don’t have to talk about it, not unless you want to. In which case, please continue.”
Panic started to overtake me. “Does everybody know? Is that one of the things you all talk about—Lauren Taylor, the workaholic, orphaned, recluse virgin?”
Gabe laughed and held me tighter, soothing me. “Uh—no. No one’s ever talked about you like that. Not to me anyway. How would they know?”
/> “How do you know?”
He shrugged against me. “I just do, from what you told me. You’ve been so intense about Paragon for so long. I know you haven’t had much of an outside life. When we met, you seemed so nervous around me physically—skittish. You’ve been keeping me at arm’s length. I just…put it together.”
I groaned. “Tell me how you knew.” I wanted a more precise answer, even though I was only torturing myself.
“I could tell. Just like I could tell you probably didn’t eat meat, just like I could tell you were going to like having dinner with me way more than having dinner with Clive Warren.”
I didn’t buy it. “Did my sister say something to you?” That had to be it. I was going to kill her, and maybe cut her up into tiny little pieces afterward to make a point.
“Not in so many words. She just said that I needed to take it slow with you. She worries about you. That’s all. She didn’t out you.”
I frowned, still thinking. “Could you tell from the way I kissed?”
He started to laugh, until I tensed against him, and he saw the look of horror on my face. “Hell no. You kissed like my personal spirit-animal sex goddess.”
“Stop making fun of me.” I could feel my face turning crimson. “This is bad enough as it is.”
He gently stroked my face. “I’m not making fun of you. Kissing you made me hard. You got me hard just from a kiss—you can’t really ask for more than that, babe. Trust me. That means you’ve got the goods.”
Curious, I leaned over and kissed him again. Partly because I wanted to prove to myself that I could, and partly because having him so close made me crazy.
The urgency was back between us, stronger this time. He worshipfully ran his hands down me. I wished I still had on that dress and sexy underwear from the other night, but my boring outfit didn’t seem to be dampening his enthusiasm. Our tongues tangled together, and I fisted the back of his hair in my hands, thrilled to finally be touching it. It was thick and coarse. He pulled me onto his lap so I straddled him. I could feel his arousal against me. He grunted, positioning himself so his thickness was pressed against my belly.
“What do you want?” That was probably a stupid question, but I’d never been in this situation before, and I was a naturally curious person. I liked to lay out all the steps in front of me.
He smiled and it was as if the sun was coming out. “I want to take your clothes off, babe.” He stroked my hair again, pulling me even closer. When we kissed this time, I felt the oddest sensation, as if I wanted to pull him through me.
“If you want me to stop, just tell me.” He cupped my face, his thumbs stroking my cheeks. “I don’t ever want to hurt you.”
“What exactly do you want to do to me?”
“You’re a biomedical engineering genius. I’m sure you can figure it out.” He kissed me deeply, and I felt that riptide again, a force beyond my power taking control of me. “I want to do all sorts of things to you. I told you—I have plans.” He pulled back, making me dizzy. “But hurting you isn’t one of them. So tell me if something’s making you uncomfortable. Promise me.”
“I promise.” My voice came out wobbly.
We kissed again, and he pressed his body against mine, nudging me back onto his bed. He pulled off my sweater and my skirt. I was almost naked, breathing hard, filled with a longing so fierce, it made me ache between my legs. He put his fully clothed body on top of mine, and I could feel all of him—his muscles, his arousal, his weight. I wanted him so badly, I felt as if I were going to burst.
“Oh my God.” He cupped my breast with his hand, stroking me through the filmy material of my bra. “You’re so beautiful.”
