Free Sweet Charity by Lauren Dane Page B

against her clit with her middle finger.
    Her breath caught at the bolt of pleasure.
    “L-like this? Shall I stop?” His eyes on her, the way he looked at her like she was the best thing he’d ever clapped eyes on, fired some inner strength. She felt like a goddess up there on his lap. Sexy. Powerful.
    “Yes, just like that. And don’t stop unless you want to kill me. Make yourself come. And then we’re going up to your bedroom.” He laced his fingers behind his head and relaxed back against the pillows, just watching.
    She tugged on her nipple and brushed the pad of her middle finger from side to side over her clit, her hips moving as orgasm stole toward her, blurring the edges of the world outside the space she and Gabriel inhabited.
    His body was warm beneath her, the sound of his breath as he watched her echoed against her own. It wasn’t like she’d never masturbated before, but in front of someone took a level of trust she never could quite work up. But she’d done it with him without even thinking. Even the week before after he’d brought her home from the bar.
    Her head tipped back right as she began to come and the world exploded around her as he held her throat with one big hand. Not suffocatingly, not rough, but enough pressure to collar her that way. Never in her life had she felt anything like it. Trust that he wouldn’t hurt her, excitement that he’d hold her that way. Her entire system lit up as she moaned.
    Slowly, he relaxed his grip and shifted to put his arms around her, hugging her tight. She fell forward against him, breathing hard, wondering that he’d found yet another way to push all her buttons.
    “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured against her hair. “I didn’t scare you?”
    She snuggled into him with a satisfied sigh. “No. It was…unexpected. I’ve never felt anything like it. I…well obviously it worked for me.”
    He picked her up as if she weighed nothing, holding her against him as she wrapped her legs around his waist.
    “Let’s go see what else works for you,” he said as he took them both upstairs and into her bedroom.

Chapter Eight
    “Hey, um, would you be interested in helping me get a tree?”
    Gabriel looked up to see Charity standing on his doorstep looking very festive in a red sweater and white jeans. His heart contracted at the way she looked and the way he’d missed her, and the sight of her made him happy. He’d never relied on a woman in that way before. Never counted on one to make him happy or fill him up the way she did.
    She ducked her head a moment and looked up through her lashes. “I can ask someone else. I just thought since I was here already I’d stop and ask you. So then I can watch your muscles flex and stuff.”
    He laughed and kissed her. He’d simply accepted that he liked to touch her and did. His mother had invited her to dinner several times and he’d be going to a huge pre-Christmas brunch at her grandparents’ house the following day.
    She was suddenly just in his life. Not that she hadn’t been before but he’d ached for her and pretended he didn’t. He pretended she was just one of the gang. Now he didn’t have to pretend. She was more than a friend, she was…a girlfriend? Um, no, not that. He wasn’t right for her, nope. Now he had her in his bed, in her bed, wherever and whenever and she responded to him in ways he’d never imagined. That’s what it was and he’d think about the rest after the holidays.
    “Why do you wait so long to get a tree?” He opened the door wider to let her in. “Come in for a second so I can turn the computer off and get my boots on.”
    He sat in the chair nearest the door but before he could, she’d picked up his boots. She knelt and laced his boots quickly and efficiently. But it left him speechless. She did these things to him, for him and it touched some part deep inside. Things she didn’t have to do, things he didn’t need her to do but that she did them for him, took care