Page 19 of Nothing to Fear

He lowered his arms. “So it’s not just an effect I have on you. I’m a little disappointed.”

“Don’t be. You affect me.” Oh boy, did he ever.

His gaze dipped to her mouth. “I liked it. The way you smelled me. Indulge any time.”

Relief bloomed in her chest, and the pull toward him intensified.

“I thought you had to use the bathroom. What are you doing down here in my room?”

“I was curious. About you.”

Her fingers slid over the sculpted muscle of his arm. She was not only still touching him but had groped her way to his bicep. She dropped her hand, grazing his. Long fingers stroked hers in a feathery caress, drawing her belly tight, and she ached for more.

Now primed, she could handle lots more. She clutched his hand, not wanting this to end, and met his gaze. His eyes were mesmerizing, pale yet vivid in color at the same time.

She was staring but couldn’t stop. He leaned in, bringing his mouth close.

Panic bubbled up inside her. Affection was welcomed, but the last time a guy had kissed her, it’d felt like an angry eel had been unleashed in her mouth.

“A ten-second French kiss transfers eighty million germs.”

That gross fact had stopped any other guys from attempting to swap spit. Not that there had been many who’d tried. With her long work hours and sick father, she didn’t get out much.

Gideon looked amused. She hoped he wasn’t laughing at her.

He caressed her lip with his thumb, and something inside her loosened while other things tightened. “I’ll take my chances,” he said. “You’re worth the risk.”

There went that little tug to him again. “The study also showed that the more partners kissed, the higher the likelihood of them having a similar profile colonizing their tongues.”

“So you’re saying if you like the way I kiss, I should do it a lot.”

Is that what she was saying?

His calloused fingertips stroked the hollow of her throat with titillating lightness, and butterflies collided in her belly.

“Are you afraid of me now?” he asked.

“No.” She liked this side of Gideon. Liked it a lot.

“Do you want me to stop?” His voice was gruff and low.

“No.” An overwhelming need for more, of him and from him, rushed over her.

He lifted her chin and brushed his lips across hers—a sweet, devastating tease that drew her closer with anticipation—and his tongue slipped inside her mouth.

She stiffened, but the unhurried press of his lips, the gentle caress of his tongue, the firmness of his hands had her melting. The mash of mouths and unsettling amount of saliva she’d experienced in the past couldn’t compare to this sensual onslaught. She’d taken Gideon for a man who tore into things rather than savoring them, but she couldn’t have been more wrong.

His fingers trailed down and caressed her breast through her clothes, his mouth growing hungrier, feeding her own appetite for him. Everything inside her was turned on, lit brighter than a one-hundred-watt LED bulb.

A groan rumbled in his throat, and with startling abruptness, he broke off the kiss. She shuddered a breath out and rested her head back on the wall, uncertain what to do, hoping the moment wouldn’t end there.

“Are we going to have sex?” Whenever she’d been alone with a man in a bedroom, he kissed her and endeavored to have sex with her. But this was different. Gideon was different.

He drew back slightly. “Do you want to?”

“I’m not sure.” She swallowed thickly. Did she want to be a notch on his bedpost, become a for one night only girl? “I tried it once, and it wasn’t pleasant. He just shoved it in, grunted on top of me for a few minutes, and then it was over.”

Simon had smelled like oatmeal. It should’ve been the first indicator sex would be equally as horrid. His eel-tongued kisses should’ve been the second.