“And those shoes,” he purred, his gaze dropping down over her ass, down the shapely curves of the backs of her thighs, to her slender ankles with those little dainty straps tied around them.

“I watched you looking at them in Macy’s. You’ve got the sweetest legs and ass, Gabrielle. When I first saw you in Cincinnati, you had on shorts and sandals on your feet. Even your painted little toes turned me on.”

He circled around in front of her. Her eyes were wide, deliciously unfocused. Her lips were parted and she was panting softly, her chest rising and falling gently.

He pressed the tip of his finger to her lips, pushed inside. She closed those lush lips on it, sucking, and such raw heat lanced through him that, for a moment, he couldn’t move. He finally managed to withdraw his finger, sliding it slowly from that luscious pucker, then traced a damp path over the shape of her mouth, across her jaw, down her neck, to the lush valley of her cleavage.

He should seduce her, he should woo her with kisses, he should gently entice, lead her slowly yet inexorably down the path to her ultimate and costly capitulation.

But it was too late; he’d waited too long, and there was a thing he could no longer deny himself. A thing he’d been thinking about too much while riding today. A thing he needed. Right now. And it pissed him off, the hold it had on him, how savagely he wanted it. To know the taste of her, to have her on his tongue, captured in his immortal memory. If somehow, for some reason, she managed to stop him this night, at least he’d have gotten this.

“For the record, Irish,” he informed her tightly, just in case she got the wrong idea, “I kneel to no one.” Then he dropped to his knees at her feet, shoved her dress up, gathered a fistful of silky material in each hand, and pushed her back against the door, pinning her to it by the fabric.

Gabby leaned weakly against the door, gasping for breath. The exotic scent of him was filling her nostrils, making her dizzy. Merely looking at him naked had gotten her so intensely aroused that she knew what he was about to find—she was wet; she was so wet she was almost embarrassed by it. She was ready right now; she didn’t even need a kiss, or any other foreplay, for that matter. She certainly didn’t know if she could survive what it looked like he was about to do. She just wanted him inside her. When he’d circled her like some big dark beast, talking to her, telling her how much he wanted her, she’d nearly begun begging.

And now he was on his knees between her legs, her dress rucked up to her waist, exposing her to him, naked but for a lacy scrap of silk slipping between her legs.

Oops, make that naked, she amended with a half-laugh, half-sob, as he dragged that lacy bit of fabric from her body with his teeth, tugging it down, down, teeth grazing her lightly, pausing to nip, scattering tiny little love bites over her skin, sending waves of chills skittering up her spine.

She felt drugged, drunken, intoxicated on passion. She had no idea how she’d managed to put him off this long, or why, and was suddenly astounded at how much time she’d wasted.

“I’m going to taste every inch of you before this night is through,” he purred.

And then he began making good on that promise, with long, hot, velvety strokes of his tongue up the insides of her thighs. Lazy sweet nips on the plump inner parts of her legs, hot, openmouthed kisses on the delicate skin of her hips. He left no inch of her skin unkissed, unnibbled.

Then a hand was pushing her legs apart and his dark head was between them. When he flicked his tongue over the tiny bud nestled in soft folds, she grabbed great fistfuls of his silky, dark hair and shuddered, leaning weakly back against the door.

“Stay standing, ka-lyrra. If those sweet knees give out and you come down on the floor, I’ll fuck you right there.”

She let her knees buckle instantly, barely smothering a laugh.

“Aw, bloody hell, Gabrielle, I wanted this to last,” he cursed, rolling instantly with her, catching her, going down beneath her to absorb the impact of her tumble.

But she was beyond niceties, she’d been waiting a lifetime for this. Couldn’t wait one moment more. Sprawled atop his great, big, naked body, she wriggled against him until she’d cinched his hot, hard erection right where she wanted it, the swollen ridge of him riding with delicious friction against her. God, she was so close, a few good rubs . . .

“Oh, no,” he hissed, instantly understanding. “You are not getting yourself there. Not without me inside you the first time.”

“Then I’d suggest,” she panted, “you hurry up and get inside me.”

He made a choking sound, a husky, erotic-sounding laugh-growl. “Ah, Gabrielle,” he purred, gripping her by the hips and rolling her beneath him on the soft carpet, “I’m never going to get enough of you, am I?”