Lori Foster - Forever Buckhorn - Gabe

“Therefore,” Gabe added, as he started to lower her once again, “I’m not what you’d call a hero at all.”

Her back no sooner touched the dock than she bolted upright. Her head smacked his chin with the force of a prizefighter’s blow. She blinked hard, rubbed her head and scowled at him.

After working his jaw to make certain she hadn’t broken anything, Gabe asked, “Are you all right?”

“You’ve given me a concussion.”

He smiled. “I have not.” Then: “Why’d you get so jumpy?”

“I need to write everything down before I forget it.”

Rolling his eyes, Gabe said, “So you’re finally satisfied?” No sooner did the words leave his mouth than he looked at her spectacular breasts, saw her pointed nipples and knew true satisfaction was a long way off. Not that she’d ever admit it.

Her gaze downcast, she said simply, “I’m satisfied—for that question. But I have so many more.” Looking at him, a soft plea in her gaze, she asked, “Will it really be so difficult to let me get some answers?”

Damn, he wanted her. He wanted to see that look on her face when she was naked beneath him. It defied reason and went against everything he knew about his preferences and inclinations. She was so far from the type of woman who usually caught his eye that it was almost laughable.

But it didn’t change the facts.

Gabe chucked her chin. “I’m willing if you are.”

“Meaning?”

There was a note of caution in her tone that made him smile with triumph. “Meaning as long as we stick to our original bargain, I’ll answer your questions. One kiss per question.”

Lizzy turned her head to stare at the lake. There was a stillness about her that he hadn’t seen before, and it made him uneasy.

“Because this is important to me,” she said without inflection, “I’ll agree if you insist. But what we’ve just been doing…that was more than kissing.” She turned her big blue eyes on him and added, “Wasn’t it?”

Sure felt like more to him! But he’d never admit that to her. He had a feeling that if she knew how she’d turned him on, how close he’d gotten to losing all control, she’d never agree to see him again, much less let him kiss her. “It’s not a big deal, Lizzy. You don’t have to worry for your reputation or your chastity.”

Her lips tightened, giving her a wounded look. Gabe cursed. He’d wanted to reassure her, not make light of their mutual attraction. “I didn’t mean…”

“Why?” She turned to face him. “Why is it so important for you to toy with me?”

“I’m not toying with you, damn it.”

She obviously didn’t believe him. “Do you enjoy seeing me flustered, embarrassed? Do you enjoy knowing this is all very strange to me?”

A direct attack. He hadn’t been expecting it, no more than he’d anticipated her vehemence. He watched her, but she once again avoided his gaze. After some thought, Gabe said honestly, “I like you. And it’s for certain I like kissing you.” She made an exasperated sound, but he continued. “You’re different from the women I know around here.”

“You mean I’m odd?”

He laughed at the suspicious accusation in her tone and look. “No, that’s not what I mean. I’ve known most of the women in these parts for all of my life. They’re entirely comfortable with me and with their own sexuality.”

She slanted him a look. “I’m odd.”

“No, you are not!” He tucked a long tendril of hair behind her ear, still smiling. “You’re a…contradiction. Sweet and sassy—”

“What a sexist remark!”

“—and pushy but shy. You intrigue me. I guess it’s tit for tat. Just as you seem to want to know what makes me tick, I want to know what makes you tick. It’s as simple as that.”

“It doesn’t feel simple.”

“That’s because you’re evidently not used to men paying you attention.” She didn’t answer his charge, and he frowned. Catching her chin and bringing her face around to his, he asked the question uppermost in his mind. “Why is that, Lizzy?”

She shook her head, her lips scrunched together.

“I figure you must be…what? Twenty-two?”

She looked at the sky. “Almost twenty-three.”

“Yet you had no idea how to kiss. What girl gets through high school these days, much less college, without doing some necking?”

She glared at him and growled, “Redheaded, freckled, gangly girls who are shy and bookish, apparently.”

Gabe took a telling perusal of her body. “Sweetheart, you’re not gangly. Far from it.”

She stared at him hard for at least three heartbeats, then asked with endearing caution, “Really?”

Tenderness swelled over him, taking him by surprise. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that you’d filled out real nice?”

She clasped her hands in her lap and shook her head. “My mother died when I was twelve.”

Gabe scooted closer to her and put his arm around her sun warmed shoulders. He didn’t question his need to hold her, to touch her. “Friends? Sisters?”

Shaking her head, she explained, “I’m an only child. And I didn’t really have that many friends in school.” As if admitting a grave sin, she added, “I was always very backward until recently.”

Gabe squeezed her gently. “You’re hardly a robust conqueror now.”

“I know. It’s not easy for me to do all these interviews, but they’re important, so I do them.” Her expression turned mocking. “Most of them have been fairly quick and simple.”

“Then it’s a good thing you ran into me, huh? Because lady, if anyone ever needed shaking up a little, it’s you.”

“I need to complete my thesis.”

“You have the rest of summer break, right?”

She nodded warily, obviously uncertain of his intent.

“So why don’t we indulge each other? I’ll answer any questions you have, and in return, you’ll let me convince you how adorable you are in that bathing suit.”

Her chin tucked in close to her chest. “Convince me…how?”

“By what we’ve already been doing. I won’t ever push you further than you want to go, you have my word on that. But I can promise there’ll be more kissing.” His hand cradled her head. “You won’t mind that so much, will you, Lizzy?”

She didn’t reply to that, and she didn’t look convinced. In a slightly choked voice that gave away her tension, she said, “I need you to be more specific than that.”

Gabe chewed it over, trying to think of how to couch his terms so she would be reassured. “Okay, how’s this. I’ll answer a question and you’ll cut loose a little, my choice of how. And before you start arguing, first I want you to go to a drive-in with me. You ever been to the drive-in?”

“With my father when I was young. I didn’t even know they still had them.”

“You’re in for a treat!” And I’m in for a little torture. “We can go over to the next county, to the Dirty Dixie.” He bobbed his eyebrows. “They play fairly raunchy movies—which will probably be another first for you, right?”

Looking dazed, she nodded.

“Perfect. How about this Friday? That’s two days away, plenty of time for you to get used to the idea.” And plenty of time for him to get a better grip on himself.

She hesitated once again and Gabe held his breath. Then she nodded. “All right. Where should I meet you?”

“Ah, no,” he told her gently, knowing she wanted to keep him at a distance and knowing, too, that he wouldn’t allow it. “You’ll give me your address and phone number. I pick up the women I take on dates, Lizzy, I don’t meet them.”

She seemed to consider that, then shrugged in feigned indifference. Taking up her pencil, she jotted her address and phone number. Gabe accepted the scrap of paper, then slipped off the edge of the dock and waded to the boat to put it in his cooler for safekeeping.