It arrives in the way I cup her jaw in one hand, in the glide of her mouth, soft and gentle over mine. It’s self-evident in how she opens for me, her tongue darting out eagerly.
We fit, like we were meant to be.
Like we are the blueprint for kissing, handed down from on high. We are the lovers who make others jealous. We are the ones who connect so incredibly well that everyone wants what we have. I sensed it the day I met her. I felt it the first night I took her home. I was certain when I made love to her.
Penelope Jones drives me wild just by being her.
My free hand finds her hip, and I tug her against me, closing the remaining distance. Her slim body molds to mine, and that’s more proof of why this woman captivated me from the second she walked into my restaurant the other day. Because my Penelope has been indelibly etched in my mind for ten years. Now, with her body angled to mine, my body remembers her.
She murmurs, and it’s like a match to kindling. The sparks inside me roar as lust surges in my veins and, well, in other parts, too. I want her. I ache for her. My head spins, dizzy with desire that’s lived through the years. Set on a low flickering flame, like a blue light, it’s now hot and fiery once more.
Chapter Nine
Penny
My feet don’t touch the ground. Gravity has no hold on me. I’m floating, falling, gliding.
My brain short-circuits as Gabriel kisses me, his lips both wonderfully familiar and fantastically new. My skin sizzles everywhere. Just everywhere. There’s no part of me untouched by this kiss. It’s consuming in every sense of the word. My mind is awash in endorphins, my heart hammers madly with happiness, and my body aches with an almost debilitating pleasure.
My fingers lace through his hair. And yes, his hair is softer than I remember. It’s thick and lush, and I can’t stop touching it. I can’t stop kissing him. I don’t want to break this connection now that we have it back.
I dreamed for so many nights of kissing him again, even as I fought against it. Still he visited me late at night in my fantasies. Hope was the cruelest torment, and it lasted so damn long.
And all those times I hoped, it was for this.
Him wanting me again.
He deepens the kiss, his lips claiming mine, his mouth owning me. Closeness is all I wish for, and he gives it to me, his lean, tall frame aligned to mine, his chest pressed to me, his erection hard as a rock against my hip. I’m barely aware of where I am, whether we’re alone, if it’s day or night. All I know is I want him to take me again, to have me, to make love to me.
I want him to strip me naked, kiss me all over, down my thighs to my knees, nipping my ankles, then back up again, settling between my legs.
I moan loudly into his mouth as my panties dampen. He swallows my sounds, and he’s voracious, as hungry as an animal in the way he can’t seem to stop kissing me. I think we might be as close to fucking as two people who are kissing can be. Quite possibly we’ve crossed some sort of line of public decency as I slam my body against his.
Thankfully it’s New York, and no one cares that our arms and hands are tangled up in each other, or that I grind my hips against him, seeking his hard-on to fill the wild ache inside me. My body is empty and needy, and I’m dying for him to return me to the kind of ecstatic bliss I’ve only ever known with him.
He could fuck me here against this railing and I’d go along with it. I want him that much. I’m about to break the kiss and say take me home now when the faint sound of a dog’s breathing reaches me through the haze of wanting.
My eyes flutter open in time to see an older woman walking a Papillon, and the sight snaps responsibility into focus.
“Shortcake,” I say as I wrench apart from Gabriel.
“Hmmm?” His face is flushed and his eyes are dark and hazy.
“My dog. I need to go. To let her out and take her for a short walk. She’s been alone for hours.”
My comment seems to take a few seconds to register, then he nods. “Of course. I understand.”
Somehow, we manage to separate from our fully-clothed almost-screw, and I smooth a hand over my shirt and then my hair.
“Penelope,” he says, his voice low and smoky.
“Yes?”
“I’m not letting you go again.” He licks his lips then says, “Penny,” as if he’s adjusting to the name I use now.
A smile spreads on my face completely of its own accord. I think I might be the poster child for a grinning fool. “You’re not?”
He shakes his head, his topaz eyes intense as he gazes at me. “No. Fucking. Way.”
He takes my hand and gestures to the sidewalk. “I’m walking you home. I’m kissing you again on the steps outside your apartment. And then I’m going to see you again tomorrow.”
My smile is as wide as Manhattan. “Is that so? Is that like an order?”
He laughs as we walk. “Perhaps it is. Though I’m confident it’s one we both like. But why don’t you think of it more as a…” He stops, perhaps searching for the word. “A declaration of my intent.”
Happiness floods my body and my brain. He always had a way with words. I squeeze his hand. “I accept your declaration, and I want it badly.”
When we arrive at my building he does as promised, kissing me madly, deeply, truly. His lips travel up my neck, brushing the most tender kisses against my flesh until he whispers, “I want you badly. But Shortcake needs you. Can I join the two of you on your walk before I say good night? I would love to meet her.”