“I apologize, Angelique. Again. One of the reasons I came out here was to be alone.” He eyed Emmanuel meaningfully. “I’m not exactly fit for polite company.”
“Hey, progress. You used her name.” Emmanuel chuckled.
Her full lips quirked and she shrugged, drawing his gaze back to her silky bare shoulder. He wanted to press his lips against it. He needed help.
“Maybe not. But at least you used my name. Progress.”
Emmanuel sent her an odd look as she repeated his sentence nearly word for word. He disappeared suddenly, leaving Gabriel alone with the stubborn Angelique.
Why was she still here? She wasn’t getting his hints. Wasn’t moving away from him and going back inside. What was her game?
“I know why I had to come, but why are you wasting your evening? You should be out with friends, getting into trouble, enjoying your freedom. Not surrounded by old married couples and a charity case.”
She rolled her eyes. “ ’ Bout done with those age references? It’s getting a little stale. Of course, I can wait if you need to get a few more out of your system. Try something about playing in the kiddie pool or grounding me.” She pressed her lips together and hummed. “Hmmm. Am I young enough to get a spanking for having such a smart mouth? You could always give that a shot.”
He couldn’t help it. He smiled. He wasn’t used to this kind of banter. She was brazen. Funny. Fearless. None of the socialites or businesswomen in his old circles had her kind of confidence. That special something that shone like a light around her.
And none of them had ever made him this hard.
His smile disappeared and he stepped in close. Close enough to smell her unique scent. It was intoxicating. A small voice in his head reminded him that she was Rousseau’s little sister. The Rousseau who was married to his sister’s best friend. Add more than a decade of difference between their ages and his current mental state, and there was nothing right in what he was thinking.
But that didn’t stop him from thinking it.
“Don’t tempt me.”
Angelique licked her lips, and that quickly, Gabriel couldn’t tear his gaze away from her mouth. It curved, gleaming pink and damp and framed by those riveting dimples.
“Do you ever notice how the more people tell you not to do something, the more you want to do it?” she asked.
All the damn time. Her breath skimmed his lips, and he realized she was still leaning back against the tree. He was the one who had moved closer, instinctively. Drawn to her, as he had been from the instant he first saw her.
One taste. Surely that wouldn’t damn him any more than he already was. It wouldn’t even be the worst thing he’d ever done. But he couldn’t give in without trying one more time to do the right thing.
“Feeling rebellious? Bored? You think I’m safe to play at being a bad girl with, here within view of your family and mine. I’d be curious to see how much you think I’ll let you tease me. How much I’ll let you get away with before I take your dare.”
Her response was a low chuckle. A rich, musical sound he wanted to capture. Wanted to hear again. He stilled when she reached up and laid her palm on his chest. Through the linen of his shirt, he could feel her heat. Feel the warmth of her send sharp ripples of desire through his limbs.
It had been a long time since he’d felt like this. Since desire didn’t come from desperation. From the need to escape into a willing body. Any willing body. A simple touch and all his attention, all his passion, found a single focus.
Angelique.
And from the twinkle in her doe-brown eyes, she knew it.
Her fingers traced the line of buttons down his shirt to his waist. He lowered his lids, staring at her through his lashes, unwilling to blink. Each muscle in his body was strung tight, waiting to see what she would do next.
She gripped his belt and tugged lightly, bringing him just close enough that he could feel the hardened tips of her full breasts scraping his chest.
“Is this bad girl enough for you? Or should I go on?”
“Jesus.” He gripped her wrist and pulled her flush against him, pressing his lips to hers. He couldn’t help himself. A saint would have had a difficult time resisting her offer, never mind a man who was used to taking what he wanted and damn the consequences.
Her mouth softened, opened willingly beneath his, and he growled. Her flavor burst on his tongue like summer strawberries. Bright and rich with passion, sweet and delicious. Fucking poetry. But he didn’t care. He needed more.
As their tongues tangled, Gabriel dropped her wrist and cupped the voluptuous denim-encased cheeks of her ass. He lifted her up and pressed her against the tree, cradling his cock between her thighs. Heaven.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms curving around his neck, and Gabriel shuddered. There was no hesitance in her embrace. She made no secret of her desire for him. Her fingers twined through the curls at his nape and tugged. Her teeth bit down on his lip, making him moan. She was like living fire in his arms.
The pure, raw honesty of the moment scorched him. Made him want to drink her in. To fill himself up with her until there was no separation. No escape. Until there was no more darkness.
He ground his hips against hers, loving the scrape of the fabric against his flesh. The heat of her. He gripped the elastic fabric of her burgundy top and tugged until the flexible material slipped beneath her breasts, exposing them to his gaze. “I can see the flush on your skin, the nipples that are begging for my touch. My mouth. God, they’re perfect, Angelique. Do they taste as good as they look?”
She groaned in response, her head rolling back against the tree as he pressed his lips to one full, creamy breast. His mouth opened wide over the feast, his only thought to taste as much, to take as much, as he could. Sweet and spicy, the hardened nipple tempted him to flick his tongue across it, a temptation he gave in to. His cheeks hollowed as he sucked, the intensity of his need increasing with each thrust of his hips, each tug on her flesh.
She was whimpering when he moved to offer the same treatment to her other breast. He wrapped his lips around her without mercy at the same moment something caught his eye.
Someone.
Emmanuel stood off to the side, gaze locked not on Gabriel, but on Angelique’s bare skin. His blue eyes were dark with surprise and unmistakable lust.
In the months since Emmanuel’s arrival in his life, the unusual creature had disappeared whenever Gabriel took a woman to his hotel. Why was he here now?
A feeling of possessiveness crashed through him. This was his. This moment. This woman. But that sensation was overcome by the need to make Emmanuel squirm. That, and the fact that he knew he couldn’t make himself stop touching Angelique. No matter who was watching.
Gabriel dropped to his knees, taking the breathless Angelique with him, down to the grass behind the large tree that hid them from human eyes.
“What are you doing to me, Gabriel?”
God, he loved the way her voice caught. She was lost in it, already so close to coming her body was quivering beneath his.
She lay on her back, her curls spread out, her blouse at her waist, with the sleeves gathered at her wrists. An offering. A banquet. All for him.
Gabriel glanced up at Emmanuel and smiled before unsnapping Angelique’s jeans slowly, tauntingly. “I’m giving you what you wanted when you came out here to look for me. I’m showing you how much better it is to be bad.”
He jerked his chin toward the house. “And you are being bad, aren’t you, Angelique? That house full of people would never guess in a million years how bad you want to be. That you let me do this—” His breath came out in a low, shaky prayer as he tugged the denim down over her bent knees, revealing the lacy red thong barely covering her sex. “Oh, that’s pretty. That you’d let me do more than this. Anything. Because you crave it as much as I do, don’t you?”
Angelique’s eyes were wide, her teeth digging into her lower lip as she stared at him. Gabriel kne
w Emmanuel had fallen to his knees as well, as caught up as he was in the sensual vision on the grass.
When she didn’t answer, Gabriel slid one hand between her legs, his trembling fingers tracing the damp lace, loving how wet she was.
“I think you do, Angelique. You crave the risk. The excitement. I think you were one of those girls who sat next to a boy in the dark movie theater, your thighs pressing together as you imagined him touching you, slipping his hand up your dress and down your pretty panties. Fucking you with his fingers while the people around you stared at the screen, oblivious. But that would have been the most exciting part, wouldn’t it? The fact that they could look up at any moment and see you, your legs spread, your hips thrusting...”
Gabriel’s voice was guttural, his throat tight, as he echoed his words with his fingers. They were inside her. She was tight. So hot she soaked him as he pushed one, then two, of his thick, callused fingers inside her velvet sheath.
His cock was so hard it hurt. And he felt it again. Like he needed more of her. More of her light. More of her passion. He wanted to drown in her. What was it about this woman that worked him into this kind of frenzy?
She lifted her hips, forcing his fingers deep, and he heard Emmanuel’s heartfelt groan. “God help me.”
Gabriel could have echoed the sentiment. Only he knew it would have been a hollow prayer. He could pretend all he liked . . . but he didn’t want to escape. Not from this.
The thought should have sent him far away. Instead, he lifted her legs and bent down until his teeth were snagging on the ruby-red lace that concealed her. The shredding sound as the weblike underwear dissolved made him smile.
She wasn’t the only one who could be bad. Hell, Gabriel had written the book on it.
CHAPTER 3
WHAT IN THE NAME OF SWEET HOLY HEAVEN HAD SHE GOTTEN herself into? Talk about the kiddie pool. She’d just jumped into the deep end without knowing how to swim.
She’d known pleasure. She’d known passion. But it was like comparing a firecracker to a nuclear explosion. Angelique realized as soon as Gabriel started kissing her that she was way out of her league.
Now she was on her back on the ground with her pants down, Gabriel’s head between her thighs, and family within shouting distance.
And she couldn’t care less.
The pictures he’d drawn in her mind with that husky whisper were shocking. Scandalous. Had she ever wondered what it would be like, having someone watch her? Now it was all she could think of.
The fantasy was so strong she opened her eyes, sure she would find a man watching from the darkness. A man wanting to touch her. Wanting his tongue, instead of Gabriel’s, gliding along the lips of her sex, wanting to suck her clit while his fingers plunged deep inside her.
For an instant she thought she saw . . . and then her eyes blurred with pleasure. She was coming. So hard the power of it pulled her off the grass. Her back arched and her teeth bit into her hand to stop her screams.
But he was nowhere near done. Her skin was still tingling from her orgasm, every inch scalded by his touch, and a lightning storm of energy and passion zapped along her nerve endings as he silently demanded more with his mouth. His fingers. His tongue.
She could almost feel it. She was dizzy. Light-headed. It was the strangest sensation, as though he was consuming her down to her soul. Every bit of her being drawn into him. This was more than desire. More than lust. But whatever it was, she didn’t care right now. She just didn’t want it to end.
His tongue curled inside her sex, vibrating with his moan as though he loved the taste of her. Couldn’t get enough.
Her hands reached down to sift through his hair again, loving the softness of it, the velvet waves curling around her fingers—the only thing about Gabriel that wasn’t rough and hard. The only thing she had to hang on to as he brought her back to the edge of madness with a few firm thrusts of his fingers.
His other hand reached up to grip one of her wrists, tugging her hand out of his hair and guiding it to her breast. She looked down at his green eyes, dark and sparkling like jewels, his intent clear.
He wanted to watch as she touched herself.
Angelique licked her lips, unable to stop them from curving up. Her other hand lifted to join the first and she cupped the heavy globes of her breasts, presenting them to him like an offering.
He gently bit the sensitive flesh of her sex in approval, and she shivered.
She squeezed her nipples between her fingers, a tight twist that made her thighs quiver and his gaze narrow. She did it again. Yes. She liked that. Liked the zap of pain, the flash of pleasure that followed in a rush behind it.
He did, too. But she knew what he would like even more.
She pressed her breasts together and lifted her head off the grass, her tongue darting out to lick one nipple, then the other.
Gabriel lifted his mouth and growled. “Again.”
Angelique obeyed. She moaned in disappointment when he rose to his knees, leaving her wanting. She was so close to coming again. So close to falling over that cliff that was quickly becoming her addiction. But one look at his expression and she knew he wasn’t going anywhere. His fingers, still damp with her arousal, reached down to close over the brass button of his pants. The sound of his zipper sent a shudder through her. This was really happening. Right here. Right now.
Oh God.
“Oh—um—well, shit.”
The unfortunately familiar female voice sent Angelique and Gabriel scrambling away from each other. She cursed silently as her sluggish hands readjusted her blouse, covering her breasts.
Her jeans and the remnants of her thong were a bit more difficult of a proposition.
She looked up at Gabriel, thankful that he’d moved to stand between her and Bethany as she got to her feet and hopped herself back into her jeans. She shoved a scrap of red lace into her pocket and tried to focus on the hushed conversation going on in front of her.
Bethany sounded strained. “They noticed Angelique was gone. We told them we saw her head toward the front door, and that we thought you’d gone home.”
“I appreciate the circumspection.” Gabriel sounded strange.
Angelique peered around his broad shoulders to study his face. Emotionless. Almost cold. Could he turn it off so quickly, then? She’d never been that good at hiding her emotions, and right now she was a tangled mass of nerves—not to mention frustration, embarrassment, and unbelievable arousal.
Bethany sent her a sympathetic glance just as her husband appeared behind her.
BD raised one elegant eyebrow as he took in the situation. He snared Angelique’s gaze, one side of his mouth quirking upward. “Yes. You are definitely my favorite Rousseau.”
Bethany dug her elbow into his ribs and he winced. “What? You didn’t marry a puritan, Blue Eyes. And it’s not as if you don’t enjoy a touch of risk now and then. I distinctly remember a certain store’s dressing roo—oomph!”
Angelique tried to hide her smile when Bethany whirled around and covered her husband’s mouth with her hand. “Public displays of affection aren’t the issue here, okay? And keep your voice down.”
Understanding dawned in BD’s amber eyes and he tugged Bethany’s hand away from his mouth, kissing it apologetically. “The players and not the game. I see. And you’re right as usual, my love. Rousseau is more the punch first, think later sort. Especially when it comes to things he can’t explain. Like me.” He smiled, lost in a memory. “But he usually comes around.”
Angelique shook her head. Yes, she might have chosen a more secluded spot, if she’d known how well and truly lost to Gabriel’s touch she’d become. But she wasn’t sorry it happened. And she wasn’t going to act like a toddler with a hand in the cookie jar. “Well, you may see it, but I don’t. What I choose to do is exactly that. My choice. My brother needs to get used to that.”
She placed her hand on Gabriel’s arm and his muscles tensed. He backed away from her and ran a hand throug
h his hair. “It isn’t about you at all, Angelique. It’s about me.”
He refused to look at her, to look at any of them, as he continued to back farther away. She watched his gaze dart around the yard, peering through the shadows. “I shouldn’t be here. I have to go. Forgive me.”
She stood beside the tree and watched him disappear around one side of the rambling old mansion just as her brother and Ben appeared from the other.
Son of a bitch. What was wrong with that man? She knew it wasn’t fear of Celestin that sent him racing off into the night. No. Something else was going on.
Or are you just fooling yourself because you want him?
Maybe, she admitted silently. But she didn’t think so. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but she did. Gabriel’s responses to her had been real. The chemistry she’d been feeling between them was real. And so volatile it had overwhelmed her.
A part of Angelique was still reeling from the experience. She’d come alive for the first time in a way she could hardly explain. Her miniature obsession with the scowling bad boy had taken an unexpected turn. Now that she knew what he could do to her body with a single touch . . .
She just had to find out what he—what everyone—was hiding from her about him. Now more than ever.
Bethany’s words fell right in line with her plan. “Babe, could you distract the boys and tell Michelle and Allegra we’ll be back in a few minutes, please? I think we need to have a girl talk.”
BD bowed quickly and winked at the women. “For you? Anything.” He raised his voice and headed toward the two scowling men who’d reached the gazebo. “Rousseau, Ben, did I ever tell you about the time I was called to help a certain senator with a penchant for, shall we say, letting someone else have the reins?”
Bethany sighed and sat down beside the tree, where Angelique had been on her back only moments before. “I’m exhausted. Come on, have a seat.”
She sat down, studying the woman who was studying her. Noticing the evidence that Angelique could feel all over her face. The heat and redness on her cheeks and neck from Gabriel’s stubble. The swollen lips. She braced herself for the imminent interrogation.
Tempt Me Page 4
