They’d have one mutually beneficial romantic encounter out here, where they were isolated. She’d feel young again, like a woman instead of just a mother. And he’d learn what his body could and couldn’t do. Knowledge was power. With knowledge he could adjust and take it from there….
“Hannah?”
She didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until she needed to speak. “What?”
“Unbutton your blouse.”
She glanced at Lazarus, who sat expectantly at Gabe’s knee. “Here?”
He nodded.
“You don’t think Mike will surprise us again, do you?”
“It’s Saturday night. He’s with his wife. No one else ever comes up here.”
“Right.” She swallowed to ease her dry throat. Obviously, he didn’t realize that it had been forever and a day since she’d done anything like this. She needed a dark room and his hands doing all the work, not full daylight with him staring at her as if she was about to unveil the most beautiful thing in the world.
She tried to unbutton the top button on her blouse, but her hands were shaking too badly to do it as smoothly and enticingly as she wanted. “I guess I’m a little nervous,” she admitted. “I—I have a stretch mark.”
His eyebrows lifted. “A stretch mark? I’m sitting here in a wheelchair, and you’re worried about a stretch mark?”
“But you’ve been with so many women, and I’m sure they all looked like models. Actually, they probably were models.”
“I think you’re beautiful,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what came before. I’m not even the same man.”
Catching her lip between her teeth, she nodded and started unbuttoning her blouse again. He rolled closer, but he didn’t touch her, and she couldn’t bear to meet his eyes. She was afraid she’d lose her nerve. Maybe it had been a long time for him, too, but he had to know he could have Ashleigh or Michelle or Jessica up here stripping for him instead. They all had perfect figures and knew a lot more about seducing a man than she did. She had to be crazy to be doing this. Especially now, when she was having problems with Kenny and had so many other things on her mind….
She needed to leave. She pulled her shirt back together and opened her mouth to tell Gabe she’d changed her mind. But he chose that moment to finally touch her. The warmth of his large hands covered hers, steadying them. “Hannah?”
Blinking rapidly, she stared down into his face. “What?”
“Relax, okay?” He gently coaxed her to let go, and undid the last button himself.
She was still considering backing out—until he nudged her blouse open. Then the appreciation she read in his reaction sent a deluge of hormones to her rescue and she couldn’t walk away. She’d never seen a man look at her like this before.
“Last chance to reconsider,” he murmured. But his hands circled her waist as though he’d hang on to her if she tried to leave.
By way of answer, she let her blouse fall off and kissed the top of his head. Slipping her arms around his neck, she rested them on his broad shoulders, marveling at how many times she’d longed to do this.
He responded by rubbing his lips against her bare stomach and sliding his hands slowly up her rib cage.
He must’ve heard her quick intake of breath when he reached her br**sts because he leaned back to give her the most radiant smile she’d ever seen from him. Fleetingly, she wished she could photograph it, capture that very expression, so the memory of this moment would never fade.
“I don’t want you to have any regrets,” he said, running his fingers lightly, teasingly over the silky fabric of her bra. “You’ll be okay if we do this, right?”
She was tingling all over. “Is that thing you’re doing with your fingers just to hedge your bets?”
His grin slanted to one side. “I think of it more as a nonrefundable deposit.”
“What if I require a bigger deposit than that?” she asked and ran her mouth lightly over his, teasing him by giving him only the very tip of her tongue.
“I’m negotiable,” he said and caught her mouth more securely, joining them deeply, hungrily.
She groaned at the sensations he evoked. “You’re talented at this,” she whispered breathlessly.
“Good thing you know where I live.”
She might have told him she wouldn’t be coming back, at least for this, but he’d pulled her into his lap and was running his lips down her neck to the swell of her br**sts. She couldn’t think of anything except the goose bumps he was leaving in his wake—and peeling off his clothes.
“Let’s get rid of your shirt,” she said and sat up straighter so he could use both arms to pull it over his head. Lazarus followed the shirt with his eyes as Gabe tossed it carelessly aside, then whined and barked in an encouraging fashion, and Hannah couldn’t help laughing.
“What?” Gabe murmured.
“Your dog is watching us.”
“Don’t let him bother you. If he’s half as turned on as I am, he’s having a good time.”
She laughed, feeling small in contrast to Gabe’s powerful chest and shoulders. His body was even more beautiful than she’d expected. She kissed his collarbone, ran her fingers over his warm skin. “Nice…”
He unclasped her bra, and Lazarus gave another encouraging whine as it landed next to Gabe’s shirt. This time Hannah barely noticed. She was too focused on the man who sat back to examine what his hands had revealed.
A cool wind cascaded over Hannah’s sensitized skin as she waited nervously for his reaction. The daring of being naked in his yard instead of in his house added a certain element of fear to the experience, but it might have been even more erotic to her if she hadn’t been terrified already. Certainly she’d never forget this moment.
“You look exactly as I imagined,” he finally said with a smile.
“Imagined, when?” she asked.
“In your house, in the restaurant, in the truck, and whenever I closed my eyes after I got home last night.”
Maybe she would have admitted to dreaming about him, too. But he’d already lowered his head to her breast.
She jumped as his mouth closed over her nipple. “Wow, it really has been a while.”
He chuckled and tickled her with his tongue. “Some things are worth waiting for,” he said. “I have a feeling this is one of them.”