Angel: A Linear Tactical Romantic Suspense Standalone Read online

  “Bring it on, Collingwood.” She raised an eyebrow at him. A few peppers didn’t scare her.

  Him, on the other hand? She didn’t fear for her physical safety. Gabriel was not a man who was ever going to use his considerable strength to hurt someone smaller than him.

  But there were other ways she could be hurt.

  They made it through breakfast, her matching him bite for bite. The omelet was delicious although definitely spicy, though not enough to stop her from defending the honor of all Wyomingites.

  He cleaned up, brushing her aside when she tried to help, then sat back down at the kitchen table with the supplies to clean her hands. He unwrapped the loose bandage. She was a little afraid to look at the wounds since yesterday all she’d been able to do at the hospital was stare at them and cry at how much they hurt.

  Gabriel’s fingers were gentle as he rubbed the antibiotic ointment onto the blisters.

  “Never again.” He brought her hands up to his mouth and kissed the top, uninjured side of each finger.

  “I can’t promise I’ll never get burned again. I do work at a bakery.”

  “No, never again do you sit inside a room hurting, believing that you deserve to be there.”

  She flinched at words that hit a little too close to home. “The situation with Oak Creek is complicated.”

  “I know it is. But still, never again.”

  Jordan just nodded. She wasn’t a masochist, but Gabriel just didn’t understand the extent of the havoc her family had wrought on this town.

  And besides, she didn’t want to think about that right now. She would much rather focus on the feel of his lips against her fingers.

  He carefully rewrapped the loose bandage around her hands, leaving her pinkies free since they hadn’t been burned. The rest would need to stay wrapped a few more days until the blisters healed or popped. At least the burns on her thumbs were superficial. They didn’t even need ointment.

  The pain was peripheral. All she could seem to feel was Gabriel. How he stroked her wrist as he wrapped the bandage. How his big strong legs were on the outsides of hers, their knees touching.

  She was being ridiculous. These were just casual touches between one person doing the decent thing and helping another. They didn’t mean anything. But when his eyes met hers after he finished the last of the wrapping, they were filled with the same heat she could feel coursing through her own veins.

  “You’re hurt,” he said. “I shouldn’t touch you.”

  “I’m not that hurt,” she whispered. “I want you.”

  The heat flared in his eyes. He reached for her, pulling at the edge of the blanket wrapped around her until their faces were just an inch apart. The fact that she was naked under the blanket except for the short T-shirt moved to the forefront of her mind.

  “When I was putting you in that shirt last night—naked—it damn near killed me. All I could think about was that picnic table two months ago and how good you tasted. How sexy it was when your thighs clenched around my head like you were never going to let me go.”

  His lips nipped at hers, and she gasped.

  “Every night for two months as I’ve tried to fall asleep, it’s been with the taste of you on my mouth, the smell of you in my nostrils, the sound of you crying out my name in my ears.” His voice was almost guttural.

  “I thought about you too. Remembered.” Way more times than she should have.

  “Last night, putting that sexy body of yours into that shirt, all I could think about was hearing and smelling and tasting you again.”

  She let go of the blanket and it fell open, exposing her from the waist down. But she didn’t care, she just wanted what he was saying.

  “Yes.”

  He was looking down at her now, at the flesh between her legs. The place no one but him had ever seen before in a sexual manner. But hell if she was going to stop this to have a talk about her virginity. She’d learned her lesson the first time. Maybe he wouldn’t even notice.

  He actually licked his lips, and she couldn’t stop her squirming. “Gabriel . . .”

  His fingers trailed up her thigh until he was cupping her intimately. She didn’t even try to hold back her groan. When his own groan echoed hers, she couldn’t help but smile.

  But then he withdrew his hand and moved all the way back until they weren’t even touching.

  “I put you to bed last night and didn’t lay a finger on you.”

  She blinked up at him rapidly. “I believe you.” The thought that he would take advantage of her while she was sleeping had never occurred to her.

  He trailed his finger down her cheek. “I know that. And your trust means everything to me. I would never abuse it like that.”

  She smiled at him. “Well, I’m not asleep now. I’m not exhausted, frightened, or on any pain medication stronger than Tylenol. So I think we’re okay.”

  That heat was still raging in his eyes, but he didn’t move any closer.

  “Gabriel, what’s wrong?”

  “Last night, for the first time as I tried to fall sleep, it wasn’t what happened at the picnic table that filled my mind. It was what happened once we got back here.”

  She cringed. She’d been such a bitch that night, refusing to explain or give them a chance. She gathered the blanket back around her, feeling cold where a moment ago she’d been burning. “We fought. It happens. Can’t we both let it go?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about what you were trying to tell me before I said all that stupid stuff.”

  She reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck. She didn’t want to think about that night, just wanted to focus on now. “Who cares? I don’t. It wasn’t important. Kiss me.”

  He let her pull him in by her forearms and kissed her briefly, but then stood all the way up, out of her reach.

  “I’m an engineer who works in advanced math all the time. But last night all I needed was simple subtraction to figure out what you’d been trying to tell me.”

  She cringed. He’d figured it out. She shouldn’t be surprised.

  “You went to jail when you were seventeen. You’d lived in this house alone a year before that. I can imagine your father’s activities didn’t make you the most popular high school student.”

  “No, they didn’t.” There was no point in denying it.

  “So that talk you wanted to have. I assume it was to tell me that you’re a virgin.”

  No point in denying this either. “Yes.”

  Chapter 15

  Gabe wasn’t surprised. He’d already known it had to be true.

  He’d stayed up most of the night thinking about her and wondering if the best thing he could do for her would be to leave, to just get her the nurse they’d talked about and hightail it back to Idaho Falls.

  He could still do that right now. But not if she kept looking at him that way and whispering in that husky voice of hers that she wanted him. Because he damn well wanted her too.

  But Jesus, it had to be because she honestly wanted him, not because of any sort of misguided thanks or obligation. He scrubbed a hand over his eyes. He wasn’t sure how to explain his concerns without insulting her. Again.

  She’d just been through so much, and he didn’t want to add to her burden. He wanted to take some of her burden away.

  But he wasn’t a goddamned saint. He wanted to sink inside that body of hers so badly he could practically taste it. Literally taste it.

  “I just don’t want to be someone else who hurts you.”

  That was it in a nutshell.

  “Geez, Gabe, is your penis so big that it needs a warning label?”

  If he’d had coffee in his mouth, he would’ve spewed it everywhere. Instead, he laughed at her impish little grin.

  This woman. She had strength and grit and spunk that most of the people in this town were too blind to see. She had lived through circumstances that would’ve broken most people.

  And had done i
t completely alone.

  She tried to act like she wanted to be alone, that she was okay with it. But Jordan was alone because she had to be, not because she wanted to be.

  Behind those smiling eyes of hers, there was pain. And fear that he might reject her now, fear that for some reason he might not appreciate the gift she was willing to give him. He would be stupid not to see that her virginity really was a precious gift.

  Gabe had never been stupid. He wasn’t going to start now.

  “If it hurts for more than a second, then I’m definitely doing something wrong.”

  Her eyes widened just a fraction, and he realized she’d been preparing for his rejection. He took a step closer.

  “You still want me?” Her voice was hesitant. “Even though I don’t know what I’m doing?”

  He leaned his hands on the arms of the chair on either side of her and kissed her gently. “I know you’re generous, passionate, and the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen. Knowing that I am the only man who’s ever touched you? That is definitely not a turn-off. The opposite, in fact.”

  A feminine smile fell over her features, softening the tension and adding to her beauty. “We better do something about that then.” She held her hands out in front of her. “But I can’t touch you.”

  “It won’t be long until you can get those little hands on me. Until then, I’m more than happy to take the lead when it comes to touching.”

  A happy smile lit those gray eyes. Gorgeous. He just had to stare into those happy eyes for a moment.

  But she wasn’t having any of that. “Then what are we waiting for? Get out of the way, mister, so I can get to the bed and see this legendary penis.”

  He laughed and bent down to kiss her again. But what he’d meant as a brief, playful touch became much more when her little tongue began dueling with his.

  He had to taste her. Right now, right here, again, before anything else. He had to know if she tasted as good as he remembered.

  His lips broke off from hers, and she started to stand, but he pushed her back down into the chair with one finger on her chest.

  “Stay.” He crouched down in front of her chair and moved the blanket aside, blessing that short shirt that had already ridden up to her waist.

  God, she was so damn beautiful.

  “G—Gabe? Aren’t we going to . . .”

  “Oh, we are. But first, this. I’ve got to taste you again.”

  He dropped down and licked her slit from bottom to top.

  He hitched one leg over the arm of the chair, shifting her torso sideways and down further.

  “But you don’t get any pleasure this way.”

  He licked her again before using his tongue to tease her clit, loving the little gasp he elicited. “Oh sweetheart, hearing you call my name is a pleasure unto itself. And there’s plenty of time for me. Later.”

  After Jordan lay boneless in the chair from the onslaught of Gabriel’s mouth, he picked her up and carried her into the bedroom.

  When he peeled the T-shirt off her body, she gave herself over to him. He kissed his way up her belly to her breasts, then up her shoulders to her neck, then back down to her breasts.

  Gabriel was all big shoulders and heavy muscle. Incredibly powerful, but also impossibly gentle. His lips and hands were everywhere, kissing over her hips and under her breasts and behind her ear. And while he was arousing her again to a fever pitch—which honestly she’d never dreamed possible so soon after what he’d done to her in the kitchen—she wanted more. She wanted to touch him, stroke him with her fingertips, drive him as crazy as he was driving her.

  When he bit her nipple and fire zinged straight to her core, she rubbed her thighs together in need and let out a frustrated grunt when she could only hold his head to her by her forearms.

  Gabriel laughed and lifted his head to look up at her. “What was that sound? That didn’t sound like pleasure.”

  “I want to touch you. It’s not fair that you get to drive me crazy over and over, and I can’t reciprocate.”

  Humor lit those green eyes as he lifted himself onto one elbow beside her. “I’m sorry. Are you bored? Maybe I should try a little harder.” His fingers trailed down her torso and began strumming her clit. Jordan couldn’t stop her gasp or the way her hips shot off the bed.

  “For God’s sake, don’t try harder. You might give me a heart attack.”

  His deep chuckle was a beautiful sound. “And what would you do to me if you could use those hands of yours?”

  She could barely think around the workings of those clever fingers. Whatever focus she could find was shot to hell when he leaned over and began nibbling on her ear.

  “Focus, Rainfall,” he whispered in her ear. “Tell me what you would do to me. If you don’t, I’m going to make you come again. And then one more time. And that’s before I even get inside you.”

  His thumb continued its onslaught against her clit, while his fingers slid inside her, deep.

  “You don’t play fair.” She gasped. “Also, you need to work on your threatening skills, if the most menacing thing you can come up with is orgasms.”

  He chuckled again. “Don’t think I don’t know you. You hate the fact that I haven’t come yet. It goes against that generous nature you have.”

  Damn it, she did hate that she hadn’t been able to give him his turn yet, although she wasn’t sure it had anything to do with any generous nature on her part. She just wanted to see if she could make him lose control the way he so obviously did her.

  His fingers thrust deep, and her hips shot off the bed again. She tried to close her legs, but he hooked one of his jean-clad thighs over her naked one, opening her even farther to him.

  Even as soft as the material was, it was an irritant. She wanted to feel his skin.

  “I would get those damn jeans off you, that’s for sure,” she got out through gritted teeth.

  His fingers stroked her for a second more before pulling out of her completely. She didn’t know whether to cry or be relieved.

  But as he stood up next to the bed and pulled off his jeans, she could only stare.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “Boxers too.” She wanted to see all of him.

  A second later the boxers were gone too, and he was gloriously naked in front of her.

  If she had thought he was unaffected by what they’d been doing, she’d been terribly wrong.

  She wanted to touch him all over, that massive chest, that trim waist, that hard length of him. Somehow looking at him so gloriously naked and confident was turning her on just as much as his touch on her flesh moments ago.

  She ached with need.

  She scrambled forward, desperate to get closer to him. Forgetting about her wounded hands, she hissed in pain when she put her weight on them.

  He was immediately beside her, lifting her weight off her hands. “Hey, be careful.”

  She didn’t know how to explain what was happening inside her. She didn’t understand it herself.

  “I hurt,” she whispered. It was the only way she could explain the ache inside her.

  His eyes immediately turned compassionate. “Okay, we can stop. This can wait until later.”

  “No!”

  His eyes widened just slightly at her forceful response. “I was just kidding about reciprocal orgasms. We have plenty of time if you’re hurting.”

  She took the back of her bandaged hand and pressed it against her lower belly. “No, I hurt here. The ache, Gabriel. Make it go away.” He was the only one who could. She needed him inside her now. No more games.

  She thought he didn’t understand as he cupped her head and laid her gently back against the pillows.

  “Shhh, Rainfall. I’ve got you.” And then she saw that deep heat in his eyes. Like he understood. Felt the pain himself. “I’ll make the hurt go away.”

  There was no more teasing.

  He grabbed a condom and rolled it on before his big body covered hers completely, skin touching sk
in from head to toe. He took his weight on his elbows on either side of her head, wiping the hair from her forehead with his thumbs. There was no jest in those emerald eyes now, only heat.

  “I just want you to be sure,” he said.

  That he would stop and ask her that when she could feel the length of his erection pressing against her meant everything.

  “I’m sure.”

  She was.

  He kissed her, tongue dipping deep into her mouth. Slowly thrusting in, then retreating, then thrusting again.

  “Yes.” Her hips thrust up against his. That was what she wanted, what his tongue was doing.

  He shifted his weight all onto one arm and slid the other hand between their bodies, between her legs, playing her with his fingers while his tongue continued to thrust inside her mouth.

  It all felt so good. Hurt so good.

  “Please, Gabriel.”

  He shifted and reached to guide himself to her opening. And slowly—God, so slowly—he worked himself inside of her a little at a time before easing back out and starting the process again.

  The rocking of his hips against hers became her whole world. The feel of him inside her, stretching, burning with the most delicious heat, was all she could discern.

  But he was holding back. She knew it. He didn’t want to hurt her.

  She didn’t have the ability to use her hands to clutch him to her, but she damn well had her legs. Spreading them wider, they both gasped; she hooked her long legs around his hips and urged him closer.

  He broke from their kiss and looked her in the eye, sweat beading on his forehead, a testament of the effort his control was requiring.

  She didn’t want his control. She wanted the opposite.

  “Now, Gabriel.”

  He closed his eyes and yielded to her demand, thrusting all the way in until he was buried to the hilt.

  Jordan let out a gasp at the slight burn, but it was gone a moment later as his fingers reached down between their bodies and began to drive her crazy once again.

  Instinct took over, her hips moving of their own volition. Her leg hitched higher on his hip, giving him further access, and he groaned deeply, picking up the pace of his thrusts.