First Night: (3 page)

We were in a darkened alley. Alone. No one to see us. No one to stop us.

These
kinds of thoughts proved who I really was. Someone who always reached for the darkness, for the forbidden fruit perched on a perfect smile. Someone who flew too close to the flame because she really wanted to burn.

Gabriel paused, searching my gaze with an enigmatic tilt of his head. I wondered what he saw in my eyes.

Lust? Surrender? The truth?

“I’m not lying,” he swore right before pressing his soft lips against mine.

I could’ve screamed. I could’ve bit him. I didn’t do either of those things because I really didn’t want to.

His mouth was perfect.
He
was perfect. Anything I could’ve imagined, daydreamed about collapsed as the pale imitation it was. Nothing could’ve prepared me for the drugging sensation of having him kiss me. I melted against Gabriel, reaching out blindly to entangle my fingers in his golden hair.

He was drunk when our kiss started. I was drunk when it ended.

Gabriel’s rested his forehead against mine. His bright gaze raked across my red and swollen lips. Hunger sharpened the sensuous lines of his mouth. Perfect teeth flashed bone white.

“Come with me.”

Everything would change if I went but how could I stay? With Gabriel’s kiss, everything
already
had changed. All my barriers were destroyed. I didn’t care about the future—my grades, school, or even what would happen tomorrow.

I wanted Gabriel. I’d always wanted him, long before this night or even this month. I wanted him from the first moment I laid eyes on him. And now I would have him.

“Yes.”

FOUR

“What are you doing, Gabriel?”

He leaned against me, straining against the seatbelt I clipped for him, and kept kissing my bare shoulder. I shivered in pleasure when he bit down on the spot between neck and shoulder for a sweet moment.

I cried out. I never knew I could sound so feminine and soft.

“Nothing bad. Yet.” Gabriel bit me again. The car jerked forward and the sound of metal assaulted our ears. “There goes second gear.”

“That’s not my fault! I know how to drive a manual.”

“Really? I wouldn’t have guessed, but then again I don’t really care. Grind away, Emma.”

I rolled my eyes. “Only a rich person would say that.”

“Guilty.” Gabriel’s hand played with the end of my sapphire satin dress. “Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?”

We pulled up to a stop light. I glared at him, mouth pressed into a hard line. “Gabriel Gordon, how can you even ask? When you get behind the wheel you have a responsibility to everyone else on the road. You don’t drink and drive. Period. Ever. If you even think you’re going to drink, get a driver. Call a cab. Walk. Whatever you do, don’t ever,
ever
drink and drive. Got it?”

Gabriel smiled beautifully. His expression hinted at great humor. “Yes, ma’am. I’ve been a bad boy, Ms. Adams. Are you going to punish me by stripping…my gears…further so my car is garaged? I won’t mind—especially if you promise to pick me up and take me home every day.”

“You can ride the bus—that is if your pack of girls would let that happen.”

“Oh, that’s not nice, Emma. I don’t want a pack. Never did. Just wanted you…”

“Hey! Watch your hand, Gordon!”

“Which hand? This one? Aw, Emma. Don’t be mean to my hand. It just wants to make the acquaintance of this one precious spot…right…here.” The spot in question being high on my thigh near my panty line. “Don’t be rude, my dear. Let them make friends.”

I reached for the arm making its way steadily up my thigh. “I have to drive and I can’t do it if you’re touching me like that.”

“Then pull over. I certainly don’t mind.” Gabriel kissed my ear, chuckling when I shuddered violently. “And apparently neither do you.”

The light turned green. I blew out a steadying breath and concentrated on not grinding the gears of his luxury convertible. So far, so good.

Then Gabriel rubbed his cheek against my chest. My foot slipped off the clutch before we could get into second gear. Thankfully no one was behind us. Gritting my teeth, I re-engaged the clutch and got into the right gear.

“Come on, Emma. Pull over. Just for a little bit. I just want to kiss you. One minute. That’s all.” Gabriel clasped his hands together in prayer. His eyes fluttered, innocence defined.

I licked my lips. I could already imagine the drugging pressure of his mouth over mine. I wanted to feel it again. Mind made up, I took the first right into an empty lot and parked.

“Good girl. I’m so glad you saw things my way,” he crooned while unbuckling our seat belts.

Lunging across the center console, I clasped his face and kissed him. I didn’t have the finesse he had, but what I lacked in technique I more than made up with enthusiasm.

Gabriel let me set the pace for a bit before taking over. He cupped the back of my head and then curved the long fingers of his free hand around my jaw. He teased the seam of my lips with the tip of his tongue, darting it past my parted lips until I moaned.

“I love kissing you, Emma!” Gabriel swore between long pulls of my mouth. “I could kiss you forever. I knew it would be like this…”

Lost in a wash of sensation, I ran my fingers greedily through his soft hair, loving the silkiness of his golden strands. I pushed against him harder, wishing the layers between us were reduced. I didn’t want to lose any bit of contact between our bodies.

“You’re mine, Emma,” he growled possessively. “Say it.”

Later I’d probably look back at this moment in equal parts embarrassment and wonder. Bewitched and unable to resist the siren call of obeying him, I whispered, “I’m yours, Gabriel.”

“Louder.”

“I’m yours!”

“For how long?”

“Always!”

He groaned and resumed kissing me breathless. I reached into his jacket and pressed my palm against Gabriel’s heart. It pounded against his ribs, mirroring the excited beat of mine.

We lost track of time, ravenous to taste every bit of each other. I never could’ve guessed how good it would feel to kiss.

It wouldn’t be like this with just anybody. It’s Gabriel that makes this different. Special.

As if he’d heard my thoughts, Gabriel pulled away long enough to ask, “Have you ever kissed anyone else, Emma?”

“What?” I stalled while licking my lips. I didn’t want to talk. I wanted more and tried to get it. Gabriel wasn’t to be denied an answer.

“Has anyone ever tasted this beautiful mouth before? Felt it against his own?” He hungrily kissed me again before pulling away again. “Tell me true.”

Temptation to lie didn’t even come into play. “You’re my first.”

Gabriel closed his eyes and whispered, “I knew it.”

“Why? Didn’t I do it well?” Despite my newness to kissing boys, like in all things, I wanted to be the best. Stupid but true.

“More than well. Perfectly.” He peppered my cheeks with tiny kisses. “You’re so sweet, Emma, did you know that? I imagined it but I could never really imagine how perfect you really are.”

My hand clutched the back of his head. “I’m not perfect, Gabriel. Far from it.”

“I know all your flaws and they don’t matter to me.”

I arched, exposing my neck to his clever mouth. “Flaws, huh? I do have a lot of those for sure.”

“No more than me, baby. And I know them because you weren’t the only one watching.”

Embarrassed, I bit my lip and tried to avoid eye contact. “That obvious?”

“No, only to me. But it’s okay.” Gabriel ran his lips up and down my neck, paying special attention to the pulse thrumming in excitement. “You know why?”

“Why?” I could barely keep my focus on him when my body was quickly becoming a mass of nerves all calling to become Gabriel’s personal switchboard.

“You’re my perfect match, Emma.”

Gabriel’s softly spoken words intoxicated me. He sounded almost like a man in love. My mind immediately skittered away from those dangerous thoughts.

Love?

Slow down. You’re moving too fast, Emma.

“Where’d you go, baby?”

The concern in his voice shook me from my cautious thoughts. “No where. I’m right here.”

Gabriel rubbed his thumbs across my cheeks. “Having second thoughts?”

All this time I thought him as a dilettante, prone to moments of brilliance. A boy who spent all his time sleeping in class in between spending time with a glittering set of jackals. Pretty. Harmless unless he chose otherwise.

I completely underestimated his keen powers of observation. In seeing Gabriel, I’d unwittingly allowed him to see me for four years. All of me.

This time I shook for different reasons.

I couldn’t imagine what Gabriel really thought of me and the idea that he wanted me so badly was
because
he had seen me created a potent concoction of giddiness and exhilaration.

“No.” I shook my head for good measure. “No second thoughts.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” My shaky smile managed to convince him.

“Good. I’m not sure I could let you go anyways.” His rakish grin was at odds with the darkness in his eyes.

Maybe I should’ve been scared, but I wasn’t. His darkness called to mine and it was impossible for me to resist.

“Gabriel?”

“Yes?”

“How much further to your house?”

Lust arched between us, charging the air. Gabriel’s open-mouthed kiss dominated for a long minute before he answered hoarsely, “Less than ten minutes.”

“Let’s go.”

He nodded and reached for my seatbelt. Once we were both fastened safely, I started up the car and pulled back onto the road quickly.

I knew what was going to happen and I wanted it.

For the first time, maybe ever, I wasn’t going to allow my logic and pride to dictate what happiness could or should mean to me.

At least for tonight.

FIVE

Gabriel held my hand. Our steps across the marble entryway echoed, emphasizing the emptiness surrounding us both. I’d been in many mausoleums like this with my mother during the summers, but never had I entered through the front door.

Cleaning alongside her and the crews, I didn’t allow myself to really look at the wealth displayed into the very bones of the house. They were objects to dust, to preserve, to tolerate.

Now I had a chance to see it from the other side.

Everywhere I looked I saw acquisitions beyond compare. Gilt frame paintings, antiques, greenery, and furniture better suited to a museum than house emphasized the difference between existing and thriving.

The Haves and the Have Nots.

“Would you like something to drink?”

I appreciated his politeness, somehow expecting Gabriel would simply drag me up the stairs and have his wicked way with me.

“That would be nice. Thank you.”

Gabriel nodded and still holding onto my hand, he wound his way back into the enormous, spotless kitchen. He pulled back a chair at the island and easily lifted me up.

“What would you like? We’ve got it all—water, juice, milk, soda, wine. Whatever you’d want, Emma.”

“Ah, I’d like some juice please.”

“Sure. What kind?”

“Whatever you have.”

Gabriel placed his hands on either side of me. Leaning forward, gaiety sparkling in his gaze, he said, “We’ve got apple, grape, cranberry, grape-cranberry, punch, orange, and grapefruit.”

“All of that?”

“Yep.”

“How do you drink it all? You don’t, do you?”

He shrugged. “What can I say? I love juice.”

“I’ll take…grape.”

“Grape it is.” Gabriel kissed my forehead. “Stay right here, baby, and I’ll be back.”

Kicking my feet while I waited, I asked the question I should’ve already asked. “Are your parents home?”

“No. They’re in Switzerland at the moment and won’t be back for another two weeks.”

“Oh. That’s…nice. I guess.”

Gabriel brought me a large glass filled with ice, juice, and topped off with a festive straw. “It’s been peaceful.”

Something flashed across his face, too quick to be analyzed but strange nonetheless. I cleared my throat and thanked him for the drink. Gabriel propped his chin on his hand and watched me take a sip. Self-conscious, I offered him some.

Delight danced in his eyes. He took the straw into his mouth without hesitation. The intimacy over the act emphasized why we were both there. Whenever I paused in my never-ending pursuit of excellence, I let myself wonder what it would be like when I finally found
the one
to go to bed with for the first time.