Undertaking Love

Chapter Thirty-One




Pow!

A nuclear lust bomb exploded behind her rib cage, sending slivers of awareness hurtling through her body in all directions. Her bare toes tingled, and goose bumps shot up all over her arms. It was too much of a sensory overload. Marla needed to put some space between them fast or else she’d jump his bones right there and then.

She scrabbled to her feet and made a dash for the back door, not brave enough to look back. ‘I, err, I need the loo. Back in a sec.’

In the cool, safe sanctuary behind the locked bathroom door, Marla stared at her reflection incredulously. ‘What the hell are you playing at?’ she hissed at her pink-cheeked, sparkly-eyed evil twin in the mirror.

‘Having fun with a drop dead gorgeous man. It is my birthday, after all,’ her reflection wheedled right back. If reflections could stick their tongues out, Marla had no doubt that hers would have at that moment.

‘You’re drunk!’

‘And you’re boring!’

Ouch. The slur pierced right through to the heart of Marla’s biggest hang up. She was mostly content with her life choices, with her decision to turn her back on love in order to protect her heart and her business, but it came at a cost. Life could be incredibly dull, and occasionally she battled with the urge to cut loose of her self-imposed rules and run amok for a few hours.

Evil twin sensed a chink in Marla’s resolve and pounced.

‘Come on! Where’s the harm? He’s handsome, he’s available, and he’s gagging for it.’

Marla closed her eyes, but she could still hear evil twin’s words just as clearly.

‘Just tell him up front that it’s a no strings attached, one day only, never to be repeated or spoken about again, special birthday deal, and that it’s back to daggers at dawn in the morning.’

Marla’s eyes flew open and she gasped in shock at the flame-haired harlot’s outrageous suggestion.

‘Who’s to know, Marla? And aren’t you just dying to know how his kiss feels?’

Marla all but whimpered.

‘Wouldn’t you love to feel him hard between your thighs? You would, wouldn’t you?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘God, yes. I really, really would.’

Her reflection winked at her. ‘Why are you skulking around in the bathroom, then? Get out there!’ Marla swallowed hard, then opened the bathroom cabinet and shook a condom out of the box.



She found Gabe flat out on the stars and stripes with a contrite look on his face and two freshly opened bottles of Bud on the grass beside him. He sat up as she skirted the edge of the blanket. ‘Marla, look … I’m sorry about just now. It was a stupid thing to say.’

She appreciated his apology, and let his silence hang in the air for a second as she quickly hid the condom in the basket and settled down alongside him. She reached out for her beer and clinked the bottle against his, then took a long swig for Dutch courage and looked him square in the eyes.

‘I’ve been thinking, Gabe. If you were a sandwich, I’d say you were Marmite.’

He did the tiniest of double takes at her abrupt shift in gear. ‘Yeah?’

‘Uh-huh.’ Marla nodded gravely. ‘People either love you or hate you.’

Gabe stepped up to the mark without missing a beat. ‘I see. And you, Marla? What’s your position on Marmite?’

‘You know what? That’s the funny thing.’ She propped herself up on her elbow and gesticulated towards him with the neck of her beer bottle. ‘Most days I can’t stand the stuff, and then very occasionally, I have to have it.’ She licked her lips. ‘I crave it, in fact, and nothing else will do.’

Gabe leaned in just close enough for Marla to feel his breath on her cheek. ‘And is today one of those days?’

‘I’m not sure,’ she said, breathless and powerful. ‘I’d probably need a tiny taste to help me make my mind up.’

He laughed softly, closing the space between them. Marla glimpsed the sweep of his dark lashes against his cheekbone as his eyes closed a second before hers, another second before his lips found hers.

Gabe’s warm fingers bumped along her jaw, their bodies aligning hip to hip as he kissed her long, slow and easy. He tasted of beer and sunshine, and the touch of his tongue against her lips turned Marla’s blood to liquid lust. She opened her mouth to welcome him in, but he nipped her bottom lip and pulled back. ‘So? Did you make your mind up?’ He soothed her lip with his thumb. ‘Is today a Marmite kind of day?’

Marla lifted her eyelids and looked into his eyes, which, interestingly enough, were the exact colour of Marmite. She saw raw desire that he made no effort to hide, and an erotic intensity that shrank the world down to a bubble just for them. The bottom dropped out of her stomach with need as she snagged her leg over his thigh and rolled him on top of her, her hands already beneath the edge of his T-shirt. She felt his stomach muscles jump with shock at the touch of her fingers. He felt like hard, warm silk. ‘This is one of those days when I want to eat the whole damn jar.’

Gabe’s appreciative groan rumbled through both of their bodies, and this time when he kissed her he held nothing back. His hands held her face steady as he branded her with his mouth, a crazy hot kiss that left Marla reeling. More intimate than any sex she’d ever known, Gabe’s kiss laid him bare and vulnerable. His tongue stroked hers, learned her mouth inside and out until she dug her nails into his shoulders and murmured his name in shock. She’d waited forever to be kissed like that, and she hadn’t even known it. His skin was sun-warm beneath her fingers, and he snaked an impatient hand down between them to yank his T-shirt over his head, giving her unfettered access to his body.

Marla feasted her hands and her eyes. He was exquisite, all movie star shoulders and firm, golden skin with a fine smattering of dark hair that trailed down his chest. She dragged her dress straps down, desperate for the glide of his naked skin against her own. His mouth followed her hands, hot against her neck, damp across her collarbones.

Gabe caught hold of her wrist when she twisted an arm beneath herself. ‘I want to do that.’ He licked the dip between her breasts and unclipped her bra with one assured flick.

‘Jesus f*cking Christ, Marla.’ He slid his thumbs over her nipples as he held her in the palms of his hands. Marla lost her head, caught up in him completely as he teased her with his mouth and his hands. She wound his hair around her fingers and held him against her, but he caught hold of her wrist for a second time when she moved to reach for the buttons on his jeans.

Heat gathered between her legs as he glanced up with his lazy, lopsided smile and shook his head. ‘Slow down. I’ve got one more birthday present for you first.’

She lifted her hips to help him as he tugged her rumpled white dress off and flung it aside, his tongue already on the curve of her stomach as he scooted down to kneel between her knees. He bent his head low, a silk ribbon of kisses along the edge of her knickers.

Marla sucked in a sharp breath as his fingers cupped her, lava hot and territorial. ‘Take them off, Gabe. Please. Take them off.’

He didn’t need to be asked twice, and what followed was hands down the most erotically intense few minutes of Marla’s life.

Gabe was tender and filthy dirty all at the same time. He explored her with his fingers and his tongue, building her up but never quite letting her fall over the edge. She felt rather than heard the incoherent sexy words he murmured as he licked her, magic vibrations, erotic electric shocks that lit her from the inside out. Marla arched, greedy to get more of her into his mouth, and Gabe read her signs well. He didn’t take his mouth away for a second as his fingers moved inside her, deeper each time until her only thought was now, now, now. He held her steady when she tensed and cried out, and soothed her with endless, barely there kisses until she unclenched her muscles and laughed low with spent appreciation.

‘Happy Birthday, Marla.’ His stubble grazed her inner thigh as he grinned. Marla loosened her grip on his hair as he nuzzled her skin.

‘Thank you. I think that was my favourite present of the day.’

Gabe slid up the length of her body and kissed her, the taste of her sex in his mouth, his forearms either side of her head on the stars and stripes. Desire kicked in again hard as his weight settled over her, his back silk and steel beneath her fingers as she committed his contours to memory.

‘Still hungry?’ He grazed her earlobe with his teeth.

‘Mmmm. Starving.’ She turned to look in his eyes. ‘Take your jeans off.’

He stood and stepped out of his clothes, uninhibited by her bold eyes. Not that he had any need to be shy. Marla bit her lip and stretched across to retrieve the condom she’d stashed in the basket.

‘I’m pretty sure I didn’t ask Eve to include this in the picnic.’ He raised his eyebrows as he took the foil packet from her and ripped it open.

‘No. That’s my own contribution.’

‘Siren.’

He reached for her again, and surprised approval flashed in his dark eyes when she rolled him onto his back and straddled his thighs. Marla gazed down at him, struck by his louche perfection in the gilt afternoon sun.

‘Angel Gabriel.’ She whispered, and trailed her fingernails down his chest as he rolled the condom on. It was Gabe’s turn to strain for more as she moved over him, used him shamelessly to stroke her own pleasure back up to boiling point. His chest heaved, and his coal dark eyes begged her to finish what she’d started.

He hadn’t made her wait, and she repaid the favour with pleasure.

Marla had had sex with other men, but none of them had prepared her for her first time with Gabe. He filled her to the hilt and then some, and for a few seconds, it was all she could do to just hold still in the moment and remember to breathe. He was heartbreak beautiful; his dark lashes on his cheek, his teeth sunk into his lower lip hard enough to draw blood. He opened his eyes and looked up at her through lust-heavy lids, and Marla had to close her own eyes against the raw emotions she saw there.

‘Marla …’ Her name was a caress on his lips as he levered himself up to kiss her. She hadn’t anticipated his move, and she gasped with pleasure when he held her close and slipped a hand down between their bodies to draw slow circles on her *oris with his thumb. His tongue traced the same slow circles in her mouth. He gave, and he kept on giving, slow, languorous strokes until her orgasm shimmered through her veins. Marla wrapped herself around him and clung on vice-tight as, thrust by beautiful thrust, Gabe let go of his grip on control too. He pumped harder, breathed faster, and kissed her with abandon as he emptied himself inside her.



Trembling-limbed, Marla laid her damp cheek against Gabe’s chest, content in the cradle of his arms. He kissed her neck. Stroked her hair. Stilled inside her, his heart against hers.



Marla glanced at the bedside clock for the tenth time in as many minutes.

There were thirty-three minutes of her birthday left.

Thirty-three guilt free minutes with her Marmite man, and then he had to leave. She couldn’t bring herself to regret it, because it had been the sexiest sex she’d ever had. In fact, it was probably the sexiest sex anyone had ever had.

Her tiny shower cubicle had neither seen nor heard the likes of it before. She flushed just thinking about the things he’d murmured in her ear as he’d pushed her towards a violent orgasm. His accent turned even the dirtiest of words into music, and wow, did Gabe know how to use it to devastating effect.

He’d shared his gentle side too, right here in her bed. Marla closed her eyes and sighed at the memory of his weight over hers, the way he’d moved inside her with infinite tenderness, his fingers meshed with hers, his mouth slow on her lips. He’d built her orgasm until it glittered through her fingertips and her toes, snaked along her limbs in an unstoppable wave that gathered momentum until it broke and threatened to drag her right under. He’d kissed away the unexpected tears that spilled from her eyes, and rested his forehead on hers as his own release shuddered through him like a freight train. Marla had clutched him to her, rocked core deep by the protective urge that filled her as she tangled her fingers in his dark curls, as she held him until his breathing slowed from a desperate gasp to steady in her ear.

Twenty-one minutes. She’d allow herself just five more, and then she’d wake him.