Robin Schone by Gabriel's Woman (10 ebook reader TXT) 📕

let him turn away from her.. .

She needed him.

She needed to be loved.

For the first time in her life she would not deny her need.

Gabriel’s gaze glanced past her shoulder—fleetingly calling to Victoria’s mind the man and woman

behind the mirror—and returned to her face. “I’ve trusted one person in my life.”

Michael.

And Gabriel had been hurt.

“I won’t touch you, Gabriel,” Victoria said unevenly.

“God help you if you do, Victoria.” Finality weighted Gabriel’s voice. “Puisque je ne puis pas.”

Because I cannot.

Chapter

16

Gabriel stepped aside for Victoria to precede him down the corridor. She looked neither left nor right,

every sense focused on the man behind her.

The electric chandelier inside the study was blinding; she stumbled.

Gabriel did not catch her.

They must trust one another, he had said.

She must trust that he would give her pleasure.

He must trust that she would not touch him.

The light in Gabriel’s bedroom was only marginally dimmer than the one in his study.

Victoria paused by the bed, fingers worrying the blue silk sash cinched around her waist. “I... am thinner

than I used to be.”

The women behind the transparent mirrors had come in varied sizes; none had possessed ribs that ridged

their sides.

Gabriel’s face hardened. “I won’t turn out the light, Victoria.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “I don’t want you to be ... put off by my appearance.”

Shadow darkened his face. “I have seen you, mademoiselle, and I assure you, I was not put off by your

appearance.”

How ridiculous she was being. Victoria had undressed for him the very first time they met. She had

stood naked in front of him while Madame René had measured her and Victoria asked how to seduce a

man.

How to love a man.

She squared her shoulders. Gabriel’s gaze dropped to her breasts. Victoria did not have to glance down

to know that her nipples stabbed the thin silk.

She notched her chin higher. “I would enjoy seeing you.”

“I’m not an angel, Victoria.”

A smile was surprised out of her. “I assure you, sir, I have no expectations of finding wings underneath

your garments.”

Gabriel did not return her smile. “But you expect a miracle.”

Gabriel was God’s messenger, Victoria had said.

Michael was his chosen, Gabriel had returned.

For better or for worse, the lives of two boys had been forever altered by a French madame. The cost of

survival.

Victoria had once believed in fairy tales, but. ..

“I have never believed in miracles, Gabriel.”

“I will try not to hurt you.”

Trust.

But Gabriel still did not trust her.

He didn’t trust her to touch him.

He didn’t trust her to see him naked.

But she trusted him.

“I know you will,” Victoria said shakily. She dropped the robe.

Gabriel weighed her breasts with his eyes. And then Gabriel weighed them with his hands.

Victoria stiffened her knees to prevent them from buckling at the lightning sensation that shot through

her.

“You have beautiful breasts, Victoria,” he said hoarsely, calluses rough, the heat of his skin scorching

hot.

She forced air into her lungs to speak. “Thank you.”

He traced her right rib cage, a raspy trail of pleasure, smoothed her waist. “Women wear corsets to

have waists like yours—”

“Thank you—”

His gaze snared hers. “I know what it’s like to go hungry. You have no need to apologize for your

appearance. Not to me. Jamais. ”

Never.

The heat of his hand and his gaze scorched her skin.

“I don’t have any cream,” she said breathlessly.

“You won’t need it.”

She sucked in air. “But you said—”

“Sit down, Victoria.”

Victoria sat on the edge of the bed.

Her gaze unerringly rested on gray wool trousers. They were tented.

“You are erect.” Victoria’s voice was hushed.

“I have been erect ever since you walked into my study.”

Harsh truth rang inside Gabriel’s voice.

It seemed a lifetime ago when she had walked into his study. But it had only been a day and a night...

She had witnessed death. And in the last few hours, she had witnessed the need that drove every man

and woman.

Victoria had seen other men naked. She dug her nails into the palms of her hands to stop them from

reaching out and unbuttoning Gabriel’s trousers.

She gazed up. “I want you to feel pleasure, too, Gabriel.”

“Then lie down, Victoria, and let me touch you.”

Fully clothed. While she bared her all.

Victoria lay back.

Immediately, hard hands dug underneath her buttocks. She was bodily dragged across the bed.

Victoria clutched the bedcovers.

Her buttocks were poised on the edge of the bed. Her legs fell apart.

Hard hands were instantly there, gently pushing them farther apart.

The cold, invasive air was promptly replaced by the heat of silver eyes.

Gabriel audibly sucked in air.

He touched her.

Victoria audibly sucked in air.

“You’re wet, Victoria.”

Yes.

His finger throbbed, there where no one had ever touched her.

She had not touched herself there until six months earlier.

Victoria stared up at the white enameled ceiling and clung to two fistfuls of velvet.

If he touched her clitoris ...

Hard, callused heat glided up the slippery lips of her sex and pressed her clitoris.

Victoria gasped. And climaxed. While electric light pounded her face and the pressure of his finger

pierced her soul.

“You orgasmed.”

Gabriel’s voice grated in her ears.

She gulped air. Electric tingles continued to surge from his finger into her clitoris. “Yes.”

“What did you see?”

Victoria squirmed to escape his finger. He did not let her escape.

He continued to press her, lightly, pulse throbbing and pounding.

“Light,” she said.

Just when she thought she was going to explode again, that enervating fingertip glided