A Billionaire's Redemption - By Cindy Dees Page 0,32

Willa.”

“Kiss me, Gabe.”

He bolted forward, tearing out of her grasp. “No!” No way was he taking any chances with her. She was still too fragile, too afraid for that. She needed time to recover. To learn to trust men again.

Willa was quiet behind him. Too quiet. Cautiously, he looked over his shoulder at her. And swore. Tears were sliding down her cheeks silently as she stared down at her toes. She looked like a little kid who’d just had her puppy stolen.

He swore aloud as he turned and swept her into his arms. “It’s not you, baby. I swear. Believe me, you’re just about the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. But it’s too soon.”

She made an impatient sound and shock exploded across his brain. It wasn’t too soon for her? Then that must mean...damn...was it too soon for him?

Chapter 7

Willa tossed and turned in her bed, so frustrated she could scream. No matter what she’d tried last night, Gabe Dawson flatly refused to kiss her. He kept spouting some drivel about her needing time to learn to trust men again.

Frankly, she expected she would never trust most men. But she did trust him. He’d charged to her rescue three times now. First at the police station when the media mobbed her, then again at the press conference when the reporters had overwhelmed her and most of all, last night.

He’d risked his life to confront a potentially deadly intruder in her house, for goodness’ sake. Jerks didn’t do heroic stuff like that just to get in some girl’s pants.

She punched her pillow, but it was hopelessly bunched and hot beneath her cheek. It figured. The first time she was truly attracted to a man in recent memory, he refused to lay a hand on her, let alone kiss her. After James had beat her up, she’d found herself craving someone to touch her gently. Respectfully. Okay, maybe not so respectfully, but definitely intimately.

At least Gabe didn’t think she was a complete troll. Memory of his entirely obvious physical reaction to her last night under his cotton pajama bottoms made her smile in momentary triumph. Temptation to go to him, to cajole and tease him until he couldn’t resist her washed over her.

She really shouldn’t. It would create a horrible scandal if she dated her dead father’s mortal enemy. Not to mention all the divorcées of Vengeance that Gabe had spurned over the years would be out for her blood if she landed him.

But darned if he wasn’t everything she’d ever dreamed of in a man. Truth be told, she’d spent most of her teen years, and an embarrassing portion of the years to follow, idly dreaming of him. He’d figured prominently in most of her first sexual fantasies. She’d literally dreamed about him more times than she could count. Hot, explicit dreams where he did all the naughty, forbidden things to her that nice girls weren’t supposed to think about or even know about.

She had no doubt he was adventurous enough and confident enough as a lover to fulfill all of those fantasies, and maybe cook up a few that hadn’t occurred to her, yet. After all, he wasn’t some inexperienced college boy who would fumble his way through the rudiments of sex. If even a tenth of his reputation was rightfully earned, he was an extraordinary lover.

Oh, she’d blushed and pretended not to listen over the years as his various female conquests had kissed and told. But as furious as they’d all been at his unwillingness to marry them, they’d all purred with satisfaction over Gabe Dawson in the bedroom.

Her body humming with need until her nerves jangled, she glanced at her alarm clock. Barely 8:00 a.m. But she couldn’t stay in bed one second more. Not without her hands wandering over her body, stirring up even more frustrated fantasies of the man dozing on her living-room sofa. He’d insisted on guarding her through the night, and he’d been equally adamant that he was not going to share her bed.

It had been sweet, really. He’d confessed wryly that a whole squad of intruders could stomp through her house and he would never notice them if he spent the night in the same room with her. Yes, indeed. A little teasing and seduction of the man was just what the doctor ordered.

To that end, she got out of bed and pulled on her shortest shorts, rolled down the elastic waistband below her navel and chose a cropped T-shirt that