This kiss was just as deadly, even more potent than the last, and her head began swimming in pa.s.sion. She felt that drowning would soon follow. Blood was rushing, fast and furiously, through her veins with every stroke of his tongue. He was lapping her up in a way that had her entire body shuddering from the inside out.
Callum had encouraged her to ask for what she wanted and was delivering in full measure. He wasn"t thinking about control of any kind and neither was she. He had addressed and put to rest the only two concerns she had-his relationship with her brother and her relationship with him as a client. Last night, he"d let her know that those two things had nothing to do with this-the attraction between them-and she was satisfied with that.
And now she was getting satisfied with this-his ability to deliver a kiss that was so pa.s.sionate it was nearly engulfing her in flames. He was drinking her as if she were made of the finest wine, even finer than the one he"d just consumed.
She felt the arms around her waist tighten and when he shifted their positions she felt something else, the thick hardness behind the zipper of his jeans. When she moved her hip and felt his hard muscles aligned with her curves, the denim of his jeans rubbing against her bare legs, she moaned deep in her throat.
Callum released Gemma"s mouth and drew in a deep breath and her scent. She smelled of the strawberry bubble bath she had used and whatever perfume she had dabbed on her body.
He brushed kisses across her forehead, eyebrows, cheeks and temples while giving her a chance to breathe. Her mouth was so soft and responsive, and it tasted so d.a.m.n delicious. The more he deepened the kiss, the more responsive she became and the more accessible she made her mouth.
His hands eased from her waist to smooth across her back before cupping her backside. He could feel every inch of her soft curves beneath the material of her skirt and top, and instinctively, he pulled her closer to the fit of him.
"Do you want more?" he whispered against her lips, tasting the corners of her mouth while moaning deep in his throat from how good she tasted.
"Yes, I want more," she said in a purr that conveyed a little catch in her breathing.
"How much more?" He needed to know. Any type of rational thought and mind control was slipping away from him big time. It wouldn"t take much to strip her naked right now.
He knew for a fact that she"d rarely dated during the time he"d been in Denver. And although he wasn"t sure what she did while she was in college, he had a feeling his Gemma was still a virgin. The thought of that filled him with intense pride that she would give him the honor of being her first.
"I want all you can give me, Callum," she responded in a thick slur, but the words were clear to his ears.
He sucked a quick gulp of air into his lungs. He wondered if she had any idea what she was asking for. What he could give was a whole h.e.l.l of a lot. If he had his way, he would keep her on her back for days. Stay inside her until he"d gotten her pregnant more times than humanly possible.
The thought of his seed entering her womanly channel, made the head of his erection throb behind his zipper, begging for release, practically pleading for the chance to get inside her wet warmth.
"Are you on any type of birth control?" He knew that she was. He had overheard a conversation once that she"d had with Bailey and knew she"d been taking oral contraceptives to regulate her monthly cycle.
"Yes, I"m on the pill," she acknowledged. "But not because I sleep around or anything like that. In fact, I"m..."
She stopped talking in midsentence and was gazing up at him beneath her long lashes. Her eyes were wide, as if it just dawned on her what she was about to reveal. He had no intention of letting her stop talking now.
"You"re what?"
He watched as she began nervously nibbling on her bottom lip and he almost groaned, tempted to replace her lip with his and do the nibbling for her.
He continued to brush kisses across her face, drinking in her taste. And when she didn"t respond to his inquiry, he pulled back and looked at her. "You can tell me anything, Gemma. Anything at all."
"I don"t know," she said in a somewhat shaky voice. "It might make you want to stop."
Not hardly, he thought, and knew he needed to convince her of that. "There"s nothing you can tell me that"s going to stop me from giving you want you want. Nothing," he said fervently. he thought, and knew he needed to convince her of that. "There"s nothing you can tell me that"s going to stop me from giving you want you want. Nothing," he said fervently.
She gazed up into his eyes and he knew she believed him. She held the intensity in his gaze when she leaned forward and whispered. "I"m still a virgin."
"Oh, Gemma," he said, filled with all the love any man could feel for a woman at that particular moment. He had suspected as much, but until she"d confessed the truth, he hadn"t truly been certain. Now he was, and the thought that he would be the man who carried her over the threshold of womanhood gave him pause, had him searching for words to let her know just how he felt.
He hooked her chin with his fingers as he continued to hold her gaze. "You trust me enough with such a precious gift?"
"Yes," she said promptly without hesitation.
Filled with both extreme pleasure and profound pride, he bent his head and kissed her gently while sweeping her off her feet into his arms.
When Callum placed her on his bed and stepped back to stare at her, one look at his blatantly aroused features let Gemma know that he was going to give her just what she had asked for. Just what she wanted.
Propped up against his pillow, she drank him in from head to toe as he began removing his shoes. Something-she wasn"t sure just what-made her bold enough to ask. "Will you strip for me?"
He lifted his head and looked over at her. If he was shocked by her request, he didn"t show it. "Is that what you want?"
"Yes."
He smiled and nodded. "No problem."
Gemma shifted her body into a comfortable position as a smile suffused her face. "Be careful or I"ll begin to think you"re easy."
He shrugged broad shoulders as he began removing his shirt. "Then I guess I"ll just have to prove you wrong."
She chuckled. "Oooh, I can"t wait." She stared at his naked chest. He was definitely built, she thought.
He tossed his shirt aside and when his hand went to the zipper of his jeans, a heated sensation began traveling along Gemma"s nerve endings. When he began lowering the zipper, she completely held her breath.
He slid the zipper halfway down and met her gaze. "Something I need to confess before I go any further."
Her breath felt choppy. "What?"
"I dreamed about you last night."
Gemma smiled, pleased with his confession. "I have a confession of my own." He lifted his brows. "I dreamed about you, too. But, then, I think it was to be expected after last night."
He went back to slowly easing his zipper down. "You could have come to my bedroom. I would not have minded."
"I wasn"t ready."
He didn"t move as he held her gaze. "And now?"
She grinned. "And now I"m a lady-in-waiting."
He threw his head back and laughed as he began sliding his pants down his legs. She scooted to the edge of the bed to watch, fascinated when he stood before her wearing a skimpy pair of black briefs. He had muscular thighs and a nice pair of hairy legs. The way the briefs fit his body had her shuddering when she should have been blushing.
All her senses suddenly felt hot-wired, her heart began thumping like crazy in her chest and a tingling sensation traveled up her nerve endings. She felt no shame in staring at him. The only thing she could think of at that moment was that her her Aussie was incredibly s.e.xy. Aussie was incredibly s.e.xy.
Her Aussie?
She couldn"t believe her mind had conjured up such a thought. He wasn"t hers and she wasn"t his. At least not in that that way. But tonight, she conceded, and whenever they made love, just for that moment, they would belong to each other in every way. way. But tonight, she conceded, and whenever they made love, just for that moment, they would belong to each other in every way.
"Should I continue?"
She licked her lips in antic.i.p.ation. "I might hurt you if you don"t."
He chuckled as he slid his hands into the waistband of his briefs and slowly began easing them down his legs. "Oh my..." She could barely get the words past her throat.
Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s felt achy as she stared at that part of his anatomy, which seemed to get larger right before her eyes. She caught a lip between her teeth and tried not to clamp down too hard. But he had to be, without a doubt, in addition to being totally aroused and powerfully male, the most beautiful man she"d ever seen. And he stood there, with his legs braced apart, his hands on his hips and with a ma.s.s of hair flowing around his face, fully exposed to her. This was a man who could make women drool. A man who would get a second look whenever he entered a room, no matter what he was wearing. A man whose voice alone could make woman want to forget about being a good girl and just enjoy being bad.
She continued to stare, unable to do anything else, as he approached the bed. She moved into a sitting position to avoid being at eye level with his erection.
Gemma couldn"t help wondering what his next move would be. Did he expect her to return the favor and strip for him? When he reached the edge of the bed, she tilted her head back and met his gaze. "My turn?"
He smiled. "Yes, but I want to do things differently."
She lifted a confused brow. "Differently?"
"Yes, instead of you stripping yourself, I want to do it."
She swallowed, not sure she understood. "You want to take my clothes off?"
He shook his head as a s.e.xy smile touched his lips. "No, I want to strip your clothes off you."
And then he reached out and ripped off her blouse.
The surprised look on her face was priceless. Callum tossed her torn blouse across the room. And now his gaze was fixed on her chest and her blue satin push-up bra. Fascinated, he thought she looked s.e.xy as h.e.l.l.
"You owe me for that," she said when she found her voice.
"And I"ll pay up," he responded as he leaned forward to release the front clasp and then eased the straps down her shoulders, freeing what he thought were perfect twin mounds with mouth-watering dark nipples.
His hand trembled when he touched them, fondled them between his eager fingers, while watching her watch him, and seeing how her eyes darkened, and how her breath came out in a husky moan.
"Hold those naughty thoughts, Gemma," he whispered when he released her and reached down to remove her sandals, rubbing his hands over her calves and ankles, while thinking her skin felt warm, almost feverish.
"Why do women torture their feet with these things?" His voice was deep and husky. He dropped the shoes by the bed.
"Because we know men like you enjoy seeing us in them."
He continued to rub her feet when he smiled. "I like seeing you you in them. But then I like seeing you out of them, too." in them. But then I like seeing you out of them, too."
His hand left her feet and began inching up her leg, past her knee to her thigh. But just for a second. His hand left her thigh and shifted over to the b.u.t.tons on her skirt and with one tug sent them flying. She lifted her hips when he began pulling the skirt from her body and when she lay before him wearing nothing but a pair of skimpy blue panties, he felt blood rush straight to his heads. Both of them.
But it was the one that decided at that moment to almost double in size that commanded his attention. Without saying a word, he slowly began easing her panties down her thighs and her luscious scent began playing havoc with his nostrils as he did so.
He tossed her panties aside and his hands eased back between her legs, seeing what he"d touched last night and watching once again as her pupils began dilating with pleasure.
And to make sure she got the full Callum Austell effect, he bent his head toward her chest, captured a nipple in his mouth and began sucking on it.
"Callum!"
"Umm?" He released that nipple only to move to the other one, licking the dark area before easing the tip between his lips and sucking on it as he"d done to the other one. He liked her taste and definitely liked the sounds she was making.
Moments later he began inching lower down her body and when his mouth came to her stomach, he traced a wet path all over it.
"Callum."
"I"m right here. You still sure you want me?" His fingers softly flicked across her womanly folds while he continued to lick her stomach.
"Oh, yes."
"Are there any limitations?" he asked.
"No."
"Sure?"
"Positive."
He took her at her word and moved his mouth lower. Her eyes began closing when he lifted her hips and wrapped her legs around his neck, lowered his head and pressed his open mouth to her feminine core.
Pleasure crashed over Gemma and she bit down to keep from screaming. Callum"s tongue inside her was driving her crazy, and pushing her over the edge in a way she"d never been pushed before. Her body seemed to fragment into several pieces and each of those sections was being tortured by a warm, wet and aggressive tongue that was stroking her into a stupor.
Her hands grabbed tight to the bedspread as her legs were nudged further apart when his mouth burrowed further between her thighs and his tongue seem to delve inside her deeper.
She continued to groan in pleasure, not sure she would be able to stop moaning even when he ceased doing this to her. She released a deep moan when the pressure of his mouth on her was too much, and the erotic waves she was drowning in gave her little hope for a rescue.
And then, just like the night before, she felt her body jackknife into an o.r.g.a.s.m that had her screaming. She was grateful for the privacy afforded by the seclusion of Callum"s condo.
"Gemma."
Callum"s deep Australian voice flowed through her mind as her body shuddered nearly uncontrollably. It had taken her twenty-four years to share this kind of intimacy with a man and it was well worth the wait.
"Open your eyes. I want you to be looking at me the moment I make you mine."
She lifted what seemed like heavy lids and saw that he was over her, his body positioned between her legs, and her hips were cupped in the palms of his hands. She pushed the thought out of her mind that she would never truly be his, and what he"d said was just a figure of speech, words just for the moment, and she understood because at this moment she wanted to be his.
As she gazed up into his eyes, something stirred deep in her chest around her heart and she forced the feeling back, refusing to allow it to gain purchase there, rebuffing the very notion and repudiating the very idea. This was about l.u.s.t, not love. He knew it and she knew it as well. There was nothing surprising about the way her body was responding to him; the way he seemed to be able to strum her senses the same way a musician strummed his guitar.
And then she felt him, felt the way his engorged erection was pressed against her femininity and she kept her gaze locked with his when she felt him make an attempt to slide into her. It wasn"t easy. He was trying to stretch her and it didn"t seem to be working. Sweat popped on his brow and she reached up and wiped his forehead with the back of her hand.
He saw her flinch in pain and he went still. "Do you want me to stop?"