Page 14 of Her Wedding Night
He doesn’t point out that I was pretty defenceless in his arms. “They think they’re all getting laid tonight, Lucy. Is that what you want?”
I ignore the way his voice tightens, and the corresponding deep tug in my belly. “I’m not sleeping with any of them,” I say firmly. “Ethan knows I’m a virgin.”
CHAPTER 10
GABRIEL
Lucy’s words hit me like a lightning bolt. “You’re a virgin?”
Her soft, pink lips form a surprised O and her eyes go wide. “Yes?”
God damn it. I need to get her off this boat immediately. “Lucy…”
“Don’t lecture me,” she whispers, her voice cracking.
I push off the chair, advancing on her. Needing to touch her, to show her it’s okay.
She backs up, bumping against the bulkhead, and I stop just short of crowding right up against her. Every cell in my body yells at me to take her into my arms. “It’s not a lecture. I don’t want to boss you around. I just want?—”
She lifts her chin defiantly. “What? What do you want?”
I want to strip her bare and worship her virgin body like it deserves. I want to kiss her and taste her and make her need more, wait until she begs for more, and then give it to her. Only what she asks for, only what she needs.
I want her first time to be magical.
And yes, I want it to be mine.
I’m a virgin.
If it were up to me, Lucy would never know anything but mind-blowing pleasure.
Heat makes my arms heavy, but I still lift them and press them against the bulkhead on either side of her. My innocent little bunny. Her breath hitches, catching in her throat, and I’m painfully aware she feels like trapped prey.
“I only want you to be safe,” I growl.
“Liar,” she whispers back.
I jerk, the unexpected verbal attack electrocuting my senses.
She glares at me, bold and unafraid. “That’s a story you tell yourself,Gabriel. I don’t want you to do that anymore.”
“What…?” The word tumbles out of me, thick and confused.
She arches in the confines of my arms, coming off the wall enough to press her barely covered breasts against my chest. “Do you want me, Gabriel?”
Blood roars in my ears. No.No….
“I think you tell yourself that you’re my guardian angel,” she whispers. “But that’s not real life, is it? You don’t know anything about me. So let me tell you that I’ve been keeping myself safe in dangerous situations since I was twelve years old. That made me extra vigilant when I started to notice you, and I thought you were a threat. But I can smell danger, Gabriel. You don’t smell dangerous to me.”
“I’m a different kind of dangerous,” I mutter, tensing every muscle as she winds her arms around my neck.
“I want you to do what I ask,” she whispers. “Can you do that for me, Gabriel?”
God fucking damn it all to hell. I grunt and sweep my arms off the bulkhead, down her back, scooping her up against me and then thudding her back into the wall. Pinning her there, as if I could maybe pin down my racing heart and make it listen to reason at the same time. “I see what you’re doing.”
“Do you?”
She pets me, completely unafraid now. No, no, no. I press my head into her touch, hating how good it feels, how right and electric her simple stroke is after all these months of being completely alone.