Free Gypsy Love: A Gypsy Beach Novel by Jillian Neal Page A

caress, as if he weren’t certain she wanted this. She parted her mouth in answer to his unspoken question as her eyes closed in expectant satisfaction.
    A hungry, guttural groan echoed against the rush of the waves crashing into the shoreline. He turned his head, and their lips worked simultaneously. He dipped his tongue into her mouth. A quick, gasped sound of desperate pleasure escaped her. His body pressed closer, crowding her. Without thought, she ran her hands over his pecs and the up to his neck. All she knew in that moment was she needed more of him. She pulled him closer still.
    His kiss devastated her every sense. It somehow burned away the shame she’d been living for so long it had left her feeling unworthy of anything so astoundingly good. Her body trembled against his, and he wrapped his arms around her, never breaking from her lips. He steadied her against him, holding her close enough to feel his cock prod against her abdomen. The hardened manliness of him mixed itself in heady juxtaposition with his tender care and the safety he offered her without end. Unable to help herself, she rocked against him.
    Another moan thundered from his chest as he allowed her breath by tracking his kisses down her neck. His teeth grazed just above her collarbone, and she fought not to beg to be carried back to the Inn, taken to his bed, to complete the overwhelming sensations he brought her. Everything about that nip said he certainly knew a thing or two about how to pleasure a woman, and something about the way he held her in his powerful embrace said that he wasn’t asking for anything from her other than for her to be who she really was.
    “Oh, God, please,” she finally whimpered in his ear. “Please.”
    He lifted his head to stare in to her eyes. His jaw worked rhythmically. A storm of voracious need swirled in his eyes just before they closed and he tried to regain his breath. He turned his head and then tucked her face to his neck, caressing her hair and her body in equal measure. He seemed to regain his composure and then whispered, “Not tonight, baby doll. I need you to be sure, Arley, and you’ve been through a lot of shit lately. When I take you to bed, I plan to be there for hours worshipping your entire body head to toe. I plan to make you feel things you’ve never felt before. I’m not a man of half-measures, Arley. Once I get started, I need you to know that I’m who you want to let in like that. I don’t want you to have any doubts, sweetheart. We just met, and as bad as I want to know every single thing about your sexy little body, I’m willing to wait until you’re absolutely certain.”
    Rejection took another vicious blow at her psyche. She’d been damming back tears for years now, but he’d just devastated all of her resolve. Her temper flared, and she tried to jerk away from him, but he held her with ease. “No, ma’am, but that’s precisely what I’m talking about. I don’t do jerking away from me once I have you. If I haven’t made you trust me enough to keep you from trying to escape then we have a long way to go before I take you to my bed.” He pressed his hips towards hers again. “I know you feel how hard I’m hung. That’s all you, baby doll. This has nothing to do with a lack of desire to own you thoroughly, but like I said, you need a little more time before we jump into bed. You’ve been through enough. You don’t even trust yourself anymore. I want you to trust me completely before we take this further.”
    She’d never appreciated being told what she wanted or what she needed, but his voice rang with truth. He wasn’t lying to her. She could always tell when people lied. Charlotte’s constant lies about her books swam in the confusion that roiled in Arley’s gut. The falsifications that Charlotte was proud of her were somehow worse than her mother’s shame. At least her mother was being honest. Maybe she did need a little more time. Maybe he was right. She had