Single and Searching (18 page)

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry, so sorry," Gabe whispered. "It must have been awful. What did your mother do? Didn't she defend you?"

Casey shook her head against his chest and glanced up, studying his face. His gray eyes looked black. A muscle ticked in his jaw. Did he think it was her fault?

"No, she kept telling me to be good or he'd leave her, and it was obvious she didn't want him to go. She ...always had to have a man."

Gabe rocked her in his arms.

"Then one night, I heard them fighting about me. Lou said he couldn't stand having me around anymore. They were going to send me away the next day."

Gabe pressed a kiss on Casey's cheek, but his eyes turned stormy.

"So I ran away."

"Where did you go?"

His concern touched her deeply, and her throat closed. She'd bared enough of her soul. There were still some parts she couldn't share, not even with Gabe. "I wound up in a group home," she finally said quietly.

Gently drying Casey's eyes with his handkerchief, Gabe kissed the moisture still clinging to her eyelashes. "I'm sorry you had such a tough childhood, honey, but I'm glad you told me. It makes me admire you even more for all you've become."

"Don't you see though. I was never good enough for him or my mother."
And I'm not good enough for you.

Gabe gripped Casey's jaw in his hand. "That's not true. You're a beautiful, wonderful woman and the fact that you've overcome horrible obstacles is admirable. I'm proud of you."

Casey searched Gabe's eyes as he locked his arms around her waist. Sincerity and tenderness lit the gray depths, not pity or scorn.

Hope bubbled inside her. He wasn't repulsed? He wasn't looking at her in disgust or running away, searching for a more socially acceptable woman?

In fact, he was looking at her with such tenderness and desire that heat rippled through her.

"I want you, Casey. I've wanted you since the first moment you stepped into my office." Gabe smothered her mouth with a kiss that made Casey dizzy.

Her lonely days and nights, her painful past, all those things made Gabe's precious words more special. She parted her lips and accepted his probing tongue, returning his kiss with the passion burning through her. Gabe groaned and rocked her body into his, pressing his arousal into her heat.

"I want you, too, Gabe," Casey whispered.

Gabe stilled, his erratic breaths beating against the nape of Casey's neck. He drew back and looked into her eyes, brushing her hair away from her jaw. "Casey?"

Casey dug her hands into his thick waves and combed a stray lock of hair away from his forehead with her finger. This strong sexy man ignited passions she'd never known, and if they made love, her heart would be lost to him forever.

He gave her a sultry smile and her heart fluttered. She'd never given herself to a man before, but she'd never been in love. If Gabe could accept her past, maybe he could love her in return.

She stood on tiptoe to kiss his dimple, then decided for once in her life that she would reach out for what she wanted. Gabe's skin felt hot as she traced her finger along his jaw, then she whispered in his ear, "I want you to make love to me, Gabe. Please."

Chapter 8

Gabe's heart soared.

His pulse raced.

His body instinctively grew hot with need.

Casey wanted him to make love to her.

But anger over the way Casey's mother and stepfather had treated her pulsated through every vein in his body. It had taken an amazing amount of restraint for him not to voice his distaste for her mother. The two people who should have cared for her and loved her had tossed her aside like a piece of garbage. He felt like hunting them down and venting his fury until they suffered the way they'd made her suffer.

Was that the reason she'd wound up as a juvenile?

Then Casey snuggled up to him, and he swallowed, forcing his violent thoughts at bay. She was so tender and gentle and full of life that his heart ached to think of her as a little girl all alone.

Did her real father even know she existed? Where was he when her mother shuffled her from one place to another?

Guilt over not telling Casey about the investigation added to his hesitation. Casey seemed vulnerable right now. She had been hurt terribly as a child, and he still didn't know the story behind Henry S.' father.

"I'm sorry," Casey whispered. "I... I... forget it."

Dammit. She'd misunderstood his silence. Did she think he didn't want her?

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Casey, listen," Gabe said, grappling for words.

"No, it's okay." Casey tried to pull away from him.

"Wait, sweetheart." Gabe pinned her into his arms. "I don't know what's going on in that pretty head of yours, but listen to me. I want you more than I've ever wanted any other woman."

Casey clutched his shirt and twisted the button in circles. He wanted her to rip it off.

"Then why did you hesitate... is it because of what I told you?"

Gabe's gut clenched at the pain in her voice. "God, no." How could he put his feelings into words?

He caught her trembling lip in his mouth and gently suckled it, then kissed the corners, wetting them with his tongue. "It's just that I know you're upset right now. You're vulnerable, sweetheart, and I don't want to take advantage of you."

Casey stared at him in disbelief.

"I'd never forgive myself if you had regrets, Casey." He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, then settled them loosely around her waist.

"I wouldn't have regrets," Casey whispered, "as long as it was with you."

Gabe's pride swelled at Casey's admission. How could he refuse her when he ached with the thought of holding her and burying himself inside her? Another button followed until she pushed his shirt open and burrowed her hands in the soft hair covering his chest.

"You're so handsome," Casey whispered. Shyly, almost hesitantly, she pressed a kiss on his chest, drawing circles around his nipples with gentle fingertips. Gabe's body reacted instantly. A surge of desire pooled in his groin and his pants grew tight.

Then Casey cupped his face in her hands and fused her lips with his, tasting and teasing the corners of his mouth with her lips the way he had hers. Her hand slid across his chest, and she squeezed his muscular torso, then grazed one flat erect nipple with her long fingernail.

Gabe's restraint broke. A man could only take so much, and be was after all, simply a man.

"Casey, are you sure?" Gabe's hands gripped hers, holding them over his heart.

"I want you to love me, Gabe." Casey kissed the tops of his hands, then burrowed her face against his chest. "I've never wanted anything more in my life."

Gabe's willpower totally faded. "Lord, Casey, you don't know how that makes me feel."

His secrecy about the investigation taunted him.

So did Casey's other lovers, Brick and his triple-size condoms.

But she kissed him again and nothing mattered except holding and loving her.

Casey's face flushed with passion as his hands sought her hips, and he pulled her against his hardened arousal, backing her toward the bedroom. Her violet eyes shimmered with desire. He was going to explode if he didn't have her.

"I want to feel you, Casey. I want to look at you and taste you and touch every inch of you."

He tugged off Casey's baseball cap, and she laughed as he tossed it onto the floor. Then he slipped her hair from the ponytail holder and ran his fingers through the long strands, combing it and brushing it over her shoulders. With one quick movement, he grabbed the bottom of her t-shirt and tugged it over her head. His breath caught as his eyes drank in the sight of her bare breasts.

Casey pressed her hands to her chest in an attempt to cover herself, and Gabe's mouth twitched into a lopsided smile. "No, sweetheart, I want to look at you." Gently, he threaded his fingers through hers and brought her hands down by her sides. "Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?" His eyes searched hers, and he saw the answer in the way she lowered her gaze to his chest. "Oh, Casey," Gabe whispered. "You are the loveliest woman I've ever known."

He intended to go slow, but he felt as if he'd already waited years to be with her, and he couldn't wait any longer.

He touched her breasts, and she moaned and came apart in his arms, thrusting herself into his open hands, parting her lips for his assault, groaning as he took her nipple into his mouth and suckled. Her hands gripped the bunched muscles in his arms, stroked the plane of his chest, feathered over the hair tapering down to his navel and into his pants, and a low growl erupted from deep within him.

Shoving his shirt off frantically, Casey kissed and touched him with fingers that teased and delighted him, rubbing her breasts against his chest as he unzipped her shorts and pushed them over her hips. She jerked his jeans down and he stepped out of them, kicking them into her bedroom.

Suddenly, Gabe remembered Henry S. He swung Casey into his arms and closed the door behind them. Casey's fingers caressed his nipples as she kissed and suckled his neck, making hungry little sounds that sent his pulse accelerating.

Perspiration dotted his forehead. Before he reached the edge of the bed, he stumbled over one of Henry S.' balls and slipped. He reached out to break his fall and dropped Casey on the bed. Her elbow jabbed his eye as he fell beside her, then something sharp stabbed his butt.

"Ouch!" He fumbled below him and retrieved the item, a Tinkertoy. Dammit, he was such a klutz he'd probably have a black eye and a sore ass.

"Are you okay?" Casey yanked his briefs down to inspect his bruised bottom.

"It's fine," he growled, desperate to stop her torturous touch. "But you can kiss it and make it all better."

Casey laughed. "Look at this, you even have a dimple on your butt."

Gabe chuckled as she kissed his dimpled cheek, then his other dimple.

When she looked into his eyes, his injury was forgotten as he noticed the dazed expression in her eyes, her tousled hair, her kiss-swollen lips, her beaded nipples.

But he exhaled a shaky sigh and fought the impulse to rush her. Her hands trembled as she saw his hardened arousal pushing at his red briefs. His heart pounded as he remembered buying them in the Love 'N Lace shop and imagining her taking them off. Watching her look at him now with such desire sent heat racing through him.

"God, Casey." Gabe covered her mouth with his, plunging his tongue inside, tasting the moist corners of her mouth. A loud rumbling sound made him pause, and he raised slightly to look into her eyes. Was it Henry S.? "What's that noise?"

Casey pushed a lock of hair from his forehead. "Dog. He snores."

Gabe nibbled her neck. "I thought it was an earthquake." He cupped Casey's breasts in his hands, kneading and watching her creamy mounds fill his hands. "You're beautiful," he whispered.

But another sound drew his head up, a loud panting and whine. "What's that?"

"Dog scratches his back on the sofa."

Gabe arched an eyebrow. Dog sounded as if he was having an orgasm.

Casey crinkled her nose, her nipples turning a darker pink shade as his eyes roved over them. "I know what it sounds like."

"I'm going to make you pant even louder," he whispered. Then he lowered his mouth and kissed her breasts, taking time to lave each nipple, making suckling noises that had Casey clutching his arms and moaning out loud.

She slid her fingers into his hair and clung to him. Heat blazed through him and he traced his fingers down her stomach to her navel. Slowly he fingered the sensitive skin around the edge of her pink lace panties, then stroked her inner thighs, teasing her through the lace.

Casey's eyes flashed a brilliant shade of violet, glowing with passion, and Gabe placed his mouth where his fingers had teased. He felt the moisture through the lacy underwear and reveled in Casey's passionate response.

"Oh, Gabe, I do want you," Casey whispered.

Slow seemed like a good idea in the beginning, but slow didn't work with Casey. With one quick movement, he dragged her panties over her hips. Casey reached for his briefs, and bent to kiss his stomach. When she did, the tomahawk earrings he'd bought for her snagged on his underwear.

Gabe yelped as the points pierced his belly.

"I'm sorry." Casey struggled, trying to ease his briefs down, moving her head down his length in an attempt to free the earring. Gabe rolled his hips forward, trying to help, groaning as her hair stroked his thigh.

She gripped his hips. "Wait a minute," Casey cried. "My ear's ripping."

"Hurry, I'm in agony here."

Casey tried to pry the earring loose and wound up at his ankles, the briefs tangled in her hair as she slipped them over his feet. Finally she untangled them, then removed her earring and waved his underwear in the air.

Gabe chuckled as she tossed them over her head, but his laughter died when Casey reached out to touch his manhood in a shy gesture. His arousal leapt into her hand, aching to be inside her.

"Wait, sweetheart." He grabbed his jeans and dug into his pocket. Casey watched him undo the foil packet.