She responded by twining her arms around my neck, and I nearly lifted her off the ground, I was so eager to touch every part of her. Gemma moaned into our kiss, and her tongue flickedagainst the back of my teeth, sending a surge of arousal straight to my groin. I plundered her mouth in response, tasting her, exploring her pink mouth, and licking at the freshwater that had mingled with her tears and the salt on her skin.
Thunder clashed in the distance, and it startled Gemma enough that she pulled away. Breathing fast, she peeked up at me through her lashes, like she was wondering if I would yell at her for kissing me. It was a fair assumption. I wasn't the sunniest personality. I licked a drop of rainwater from her upper lip. "Come on. Let's get out of the rain. It's not safe if there's lightning."
A smile dimpled one side of her cheek. "Oh, well, safety first."
I didn't bother covering her shivering form with her sodden coat, but I did plan on getting her out of those wet clothes as soon as humanly possible. I held her hand and led her through the downpour, back to the parking lot, and to the side entrance of the greenhouse. She shouted, "Where are you going?"
I sent her a look over my shoulder as I opened the door, but I didn't answer. I just led her through the doorway and into the humid, dark space. Only the fairy lights on the trees lit the room, and as I suspected, Spencer had vacated the building now that he'd achieved what he'd wanted to. I twirled her back into my body, capturing her lips in a fevered kiss that stole whatever question she had been about to drop.
My mouth slanted over hers, consuming her like she was the rain after a twenty-year drought. She plastered her front to mine, her arms around my neck and supporting her weight on tiptoes, and I circled her waist with my hands, relishing the feel of her beneath my palms. My life had been a hologram of feeling before this, solid only as a picture but empty to the touch. But pressing my skin to Gemma's? It was so real, I could cry. She felt like the first concrete thing I had held in years, the first living,breathing being to truly make contact with my awareness in an endless existence.
I pulled at her cream dress, shifting it up to her hips and moving slowly so she could stop me if she wanted. Gemma broke our kiss just long enough to unzip her boots and kick them off behind her. Then she returned to me, and with shaking hands, she popped open the first two buttons on my shirt, her eyes hooded with desire. She nibbled the corner of her lip and with mock severity, she said, "We might get listeria."
"Good thing I'm a doctor," I rumbled, shoving the fabric of her dress up past her hips to her waist.
Gemma giggled—honest-to-Godgiggled—and my heart gave a painful squeeze of joy. I'd put that laugh there, and suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to be the sole reason she smiled. I peeled the dress the rest of the way over her head and tossed it to the side where it landed with a wetfwumpto the concrete floor. She finished with my shirt, and as she parted it to my shoulders, I took in the sight of her. She had on a baby pink lingerie set, and the lace bra pushed her breasts up enticingly, her skin glistening with a dewy glow. I reached for her, following the top curve of her bra around her generous breast.
Gemma's eyes fluttered closed, and she breathed deeply as I followed the curve around the other breast. I shucked off my shirt fast, and then we were pressed against each other again, I caught her lips in another kiss. She groaned into my mouth. "You're so warm."
I wrapped my arms around her cold body, shifting her hair over one shoulder so I could drop a kiss to her shoulder. "And you're delicious." I licked a line up her neck, and she shivered. "And I'm going to eat you until you can't form another coherent word."
Chapter nineteen
Gemma
Rule #22: No sex.
Knox walked me back until my legs hit the wood and iron bench, and then he broke our kiss to gently sit me down. Panting, I looked up, admiring the tall strength of his body as it gleamed under the dim lights. He lifted my chin with the tips of his fingers. "I want to hear you say it, Gem. What do you want?"
My breath hitched. "Touch me, Doc. Kiss me. Fuck me."
His fingers smoothed across my jaw to the base of my head where he ran them through my soaking hair. He sank to his knees and put pressure on the back of my neck until I arched into his touch and he could caress my throat with a gust of warm air. His lips moved against my pulse point as he murmured, "Careful what you wish for."
I shivered happily. Every touch from him sent a shock of pleasure through my body. Every slide of his skin against mine lit a trail of fire that burned straight to the heat between my legs, and I craved more of him with every moment that passed. "Knox, please," I breathed.
He kissed my neck, blazing a path down to my breasts. "Do me a favor, Gem. Call me Rook when I'm fucking you."
My hands threaded through his damp hair as he kissed the crest of my breast. My eyes closed with delirious pleasure, but I had enough presence of mind to ask, "Why?"
One of his hands pressed the small of my back, and the other unhooked my bra with deft ease. He licked the slope of my breast. "Because when I have you on the brink of orgasm," he licked a line to my nipple as my bra fell away, "my name sounds like 'no-no-no.'"
I laughed with incredulity just before his tongue made contact with my nipple. It turned into a gasp as he sucked the bud into his mouth, and I arched with a shock of pleasure. My fingers tightened in his hair, and I moaned. As he bit down softly, pinching my nipple and lapping at the sensitive skin with his tongue, I actually understood what he meant. I was going to be a stuttering mess in no time if he kept that up.
I let my hands wander down the back of his neck, over his strong shoulders, and then to his back, and he rippled his shoulders with a groan. He released my nipple with a nip at its crest, and I jumped, leaning back against the bench. Rook swept my bra away, and then his hands were smoothing down my waist to my hips. His mouth followed, kissing in a straight line to the lace band across my pelvis. Every kiss was a starburst of pleasure, tingling and then melting away into a warm buzz of lust that made the moisture between my legs soak my panties.
Like Rook knew that ache in my pussy was becoming unbearable, he slid his fingers over the triangle of lace and downto my slit, kissing just above the waistline of my panties. I shifted on the bench restlessly, and he hummed in satisfaction against my skin as he found me drenched right through the fabric. "I don't think that's the rain."
I groaned again. "I want you so badly."
"How long?" he whispered against my skin, grazing his teeth just above my panties. "How long have you wanted me?"
God, I couldn't tell him that. It was too pathetic. "Long… enough."
His fingers pressed over the fabric, just barely brushing against my clit. He rubbed up and down, but it was just gentle enough that it gave me no relief. "That wasn't an answer."
"Kno-Kno—" I stuttered, moving my hips against him. My eyes flew to his when I heard the way his name came out. "Oh, fuck, it does sound like 'no.'"
He hooked me with an icy look of censure, down on his knees, but clearly in command of my body. "Don't do it again."
