Whispered Lies

Her breathing hitched and she lifted up. Not yet.

Gabrielle tried to catch her breath. She wanted to pinch herself to be sure this was real. This gorgeous, sexy man wanted her. She held Carlos close, reveling in the feel of his embrace. He kissed her as if she were the only woman on Earth.

That he did so challenged her to take what he offered. She’d grown up believing she would marry her Prince Charming, but exchanged rings with a snake. Her dreams had been stolen along with her hope for a normal life.

She’d lived by everyone else’s directives for as long as she could recall. Even her slimy ex-husband forced her to live in hiding. Didn’t she deserve the chance to be intimate with a man who really wanted her? Maybe even cared about her?

Carlos had convinced her he burned for her.

He’d called her exceptional. Attractive.

Her. Naked.

Gabrielle pushed her hands down, shoving herself up to him. She unbuttoned his shirt and pushed the cloth off his arms.

He lifted up on his elbows, then shed the shirt before he circled his arms around her back and pulled her to him lovingly. She swallowed the lump that jumped into her throat. He framed her face with his hands, paused, then kissed her tenderly on her cheeks, her eyelids, barely touching her lips.

He was treating her as if he cherished her.

She’d melt all over him if he did that again.

Easing back up onto her knees, she reached down, working the jeans past his hips and freeing him. She tossed them aside.

A masculine sound raw with need escaped.

She’d never felt so wanted, so confident.

In one of his liquid moves, he was up on his knees, facing her. He pulled her forward, always keeping her close. She grasped him; the feel of velvet skin over his hard erection was pure sensual decadence. Gripping him lightly, she moved her fingers up until her thumb brushed over the damp tip.

The blitz of Spanish he muttered would have singed the ears of her language instructor. She blushed to her roots from the erotic meaning.

Gabrielle tried to smother her laugh of pleasure, but couldn’t hide her joy at his earthy flattery.

“Dios mío, you are a she-devil come to kill me.” Carlos drew a deep breath and lowered her across the bed, covering her with his wide body.

She ran her hands across the cut muscles and toned shapes.

Her fingertips brushed over a scar on his chest, just over his heart. She replaced her fingers with her lips.

He stilled.

Was the scar ugly? Why did her touching it make him uncomfortable? A scar didn’t matter to her.

She moved her lips along his neck and cheek, finding his mouth and losing herself in the scorching kiss.

Black night surrounded them, heightening her senses and lowering the walls of her restraint with a man. But she’d had so little experience-if the unremarkable sex with Roberto even counted-she felt unsure of how to move forward.

So when Carlos asked her in a husky voice, “What do you want me to do?” she panicked for an answer and said, “Surprise me.”

He chuckled. A low, riveting masculine sound that held a warning. “I’m not sure you want to give that suggestion to a man like me, princess.”

EIGHTEEN

PRINCESS?

Gabrielle had never cared for being treated like royalty growing up, but from Carlos’s lips princess sounded so intimate.

An endearment.

She caught his warning about “a man like me.” A man she couldn’t get starry-eyed over, but she was beyond caring.

She wanted this man. Tonight was hers to take. “What’s it going to take to get you deep inside me?”

He stilled, again, and tense silence swirled around them.

Had she said the wrong thing? She hated being so inexperienced, but then his fingers curved around her breast, lifting the nipple to his mouth. He suckled her and all thoughts ceased.

The burst of heat that streaked across her skin pooled between her legs.

She might die if he stopped. A low moan of yearning seeped from deep inside her chest. She clutched his shoulders, clinging to him and her sanity with the same fierce grip.

His fingers cupped her other breast, then his lips were there, his tongue torturing her nipple. She squirmed, needing more, so much more.

The nimble fingers left one breast and drew circles along her abdomen, lower, teasing the curls. She pushed up off her knees and he swiped a finger up her thigh, inside her, dipping in again and again.

Mon Dieu! She shuddered and cried out, spi

Then all at once he touched that point where everything in her body was now co

“Please, please…” She couldn’t finish the thought. For the first time in her life, her mind was of no help.

He whispered sweet words in Spanish, assuring her she was beautiful and desired. The room filled with his ragged voice, which stirred something deep inside her. Something wholly feminine she’d never felt so completely before. His masculine smell, hot and damp from sweat glistening against his skin where her body met his.

His fingers crazed her wet heat.

She arched, strung tight with a need so demanding she expected to rip apart from head to toe.

He moved to her side, one leg hooked around hers, spreading her legs apart. His mouth found hers, kissing hot and hard. When his tongue pushed between her lips and rushed to hers, he pressed his finger deep inside her, then pulled out, then repeated the motion, mimicking it with his tongue.

She gripped his shoulder, clinging for her life, so close to losing her mind she didn’t realize he’d quit kissing her until his mouth replaced his fingers.

The tongue that had tangled with hers now brushed back and forth over her most sensitive spot. Her heart raced. A frenzy of nerves scrambled for release. She arched up.

Her body clenched tight, then shattered, free from the strain.

Stars blistered across her vision.

His tongue pressed her for more.

Unable to refuse him, she cried out again and again until her muscles quit contracting.

Spent beyond her wildest imagination, she could only lie there, her chest moving with each long, exhausted breath.

Then he was holding her, cuddling her to him the way she’d always dreamed the man she’d love would do. Carlos whispered in her ear how special she was, how hot she made him, how much he wanted her.

But he never pushed for more as he held her close while she found her way back into her body again. His big hands wrapped her against his warm chest. Gentle lips touched her forehead, her cheek, and brushed her lips.

She rubbed her hips against him like the wanton woman she was at the moment.

He answered by reaching a hand between her legs from behind to tease her, then plunged two fingers inside.

How could she want more after that?

She didn’t know, but there it was.

He laid her down on the mattress. “Don’t move.”

“As if I could.”

His deep chuckle rumbled all the way to the bathroom just before the light flashed when he opened and closed the door. Her mouth went bone-dry at the vision of his gorgeous backside in that moment.

He rummaged through something, then flipped off the light on his way back.

What had he been looking for…

Protection?

“Did you have a condom with you?” She was cheered and suspicious at the same time. Had he really pla

“I always carry a few,” he admitted, answering her unspoken question.

She heard the hesitation in his voice, as if he thought he’d insulted her. Not even.

“I would have been sorely disappointed if you hadn’t.” She reached blindly until her fingers encountered his sheathed erection.