Forget Me Not (23 page)

With his one hand on her backside, palming it like a football, and his other hand behind her head, he thrust his hips up, hitting her spot again and never disengaging his stare.

The intensity of the moment shook her. She wrapped her mind around the absurdity of the situation by smothering him with kisses. Only then did it seem real.

“I’m-I’m-I’m—” Janelle didn’t know when she lost her memory of all vocabulary.
With the intensity of the moment, she couldn’t form words, sentences, thoughts.

She pressed her forehead against his as he continued filling her, satisfying her. Gideon didn’t laugh at her. He nodded. He squeezed her ass cheek.

“Come with me.” Not waiting for a response, he captured her mouth and slid his tongue inside.

With his mouth on hers, Janelle had no other recourse than to scream against his lips. Gideon released a long, low moan and shook as he gave her two hard pumps before settling down.

He swept her hair from her face. “Better than I thought.” He smiled and kissed every available part of her face.

“I can’t believe you carried me upstairs.” She reached behind her and patted the knee she’d seen with the brace. “You could have let me sleep on the couch.”

Gideon shook his head. “Never. If I didn’t think you would have called me a pervert, I would have put you in my bed. But I’m a man. I respect you as a woman. I couldn’t sleep knowing what was in the next room. As soon as I heard you opening that door, I got out of bed and prayed with each step I took to my door that you wouldn’t ask to go home.”

Janelle smiled. “You could have woken me up. For this, I wouldn’t have minded.” She smoothed his hair from his face. “And you can ask for help.” She held onto his shoulders. “I don’t mind being on top if you aren’t able to—”

He stopped her. “I told you. I’m fine.” He removed her from his lap and placed her on the bed. “Sorry for cutting you off. I’m going to clean up.”

Gideon disappeared into his en suite bathroom and closed the door.

For a man who seemed to be an open book and have his life documented at every turn, he kept himself closed off to the world. Janelle curled under the comforter. Now that she had him, what the hell would she do next?

Janelle snuggled down into the firm but comfortable bed. Not any bed. Gideon’s bed. Gideon Wells’s bed. Gideon Super Bowl Champion Wells in his massive beachside mansion.

She stretched her legs. The sweet soreness between her thighs reminded her of what she’d done last night and earlier that morning. Janelle felt her mouth pull to the side in a self-satisfied smile. She’d had no idea going into Valentine’s Day that she would have the night that she did.

Janelle reached over to touch Gideon. For as long as she lived, she would forever remember his hard body, how he handled her, damn near carried her like a rag doll. She liked his control. The more she extended her hand, the more her heart pounded for the wrong reasons.

Nothing. She felt nothing but the mattress. Or had it been the mattress at all? Could she be on a couch? Janelle took a deep breath and inhaled the distinct aroma of roses.

Oh, God, no.

Had Gideon carried her spent body back downstairs to the living room where she and Penny had placed all the arrangements of roses Gideon had ordered? She hadn’t felt him carrying her up the stairs to put her to bed when she’d fallen asleep during the movie. After their wild night, she wouldn’t have awakened if he had carried her back downstairs.

In her mind, that treatment would be worse than what her ex had done to her. Gideon had used her and thrown her away. She squeezed her eyes shut and curled her legs closer to her body.

“Can’t be happening,” she whispered to herself.

“You woke up.”

Janelle shook when she heard the rumbling voice. Still refusing to open her eyes, she pulled the comforter up to cover her head, a protective move she hadn’t done since she used to wear pigtails to school. She wanted to keep the fantasy about her great night with this football hero. She hoped he didn’t want to send her back to home, back to nothing, a failing business, a lonely apartment and a hole in her heart.

She felt a sinking feeling behind her, then a large arm surrounding her waist. Janelle instantly moved to touch him, clutch his arm. She stopped herself. She’d already gotten too deep too quick with her feelings for him. No use getting attached even more.

“You said the next time I should wake you up.” Gideon brushed himself behind her.

Janelle felt his hardness against her backside. No way did he carry her out of his bedroom and now wanted sex.

With anger bubbling in her gut, she sat and turned to him. Only then did she notice the sunlight-filled room. As she lay nestled still in Gideon’s bed, covered in a pure white comforter with matching white pillows, she noticed rich
-
red rose petals covering every inch of the bed, the floor and out the door.

She whipped her head around to stare at Gideon, who only looked back at her with a self-satisfied smile. “You did all this?”

“You don’t get
over a hundred
roses and not use the petals.” He cupped her face. “I was hoping to surprise you.”

“Trust me. You did.” She curled back down and kissed him.

Gideon broke from the kiss. “You’re shaking. Are you cold?”

Janelle shook her head. A sudden rush of emotions took over her. “No one has ever done something like this for me.” She scanned the room.

In the full light of day, she noticed the expansive space. A large standing dresser sat across from the bed. All the oversize furniture reminded her of the man in bed with her. Large, imposing, sturdy.

“I thought—” Janelle stopped. She had to quit lumping all men into one category. That attitude epitomized her mother’s mentality. She didn’t want to be like Ida Gold. Certainly, Gideon didn’t deserve to be categorized with other men.

“What? What were you thinking?” Gideon put his hand on her bare stomach.

“I reached over and I didn’t feel you.” She kept her head down, afraid to see his expression. “I smelled the roses. I thought you moved me back downstairs.” She stole a peek at him.

Gideon’s disappointed expression cut deep in her.

She averted her gaze. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that. I was burned before. It’s hard for me to open up, to trust.” When she looked at him again, his face softened. “I hope you understand.”

He squeezed a snicker through his nose. “More than you know.” He slid his hand back and forth over her stomach. “My mother taught me and my brothers to respect women. I would never let you or any other woman feel inferior or less than.”

“I’m glad you said that.” She smiled as she looked around the room. “And I’m thrilled you’re a romantic.” She held his hand. “You should have been honest with me.”

He stopped smiling. “When did I lie?”

“Not lie.” She peered down his body, specifically his crotch area. “Withheld some information. Why didn’t tell me about your, um, assets?”

Gideon worried his eyebrows for a bit until he followed her gaze down his body. When he arrived at the destination, he laughed. “Really? You don’t think it would sound a bit cocky, for lack of a better term, to say that I may be well endowed?”

“We could have discussed it first.” She crossed her arms over her chest to look indignant. Too bad her body screamed for more of him.

“At what point should I talk about it? Should I have said something during dinner? If I had, I would have sounded like I expected us to have sex, and I didn’t. Should I have said something when you came out of the bedroom and we were looking at each other? Or should I have told you when I saw you at your store for the very first time and thought you looked so cute.”

Janelle gasped. “You did?” Then she quickly sobered to the moment. “It doesn’t matter. You must have thought it would be an issue since you wouldn’t show me before we had sex.”

He nodded and sat against his massive padded, white leather headboard. He exhaled. “I have been disappointed the last few times I’ve tried to be intimate with women. I lost my virginity at eighteen when I went away to college. The young lady I was with was also a virgin at the time. Between our inexperience, my eagerness
,
and my size, it did not make for a good scene. She said she liked it, but we never did it again. Nope. That’s not true. We tried it again. After the second time, she called me a freak and broke up with me.”

Janelle covered her mouth. “Really? Did you ever hear from her again?”

He nodded. “As soon as I made pro. She called me out of the blue and tried to reminisce about the good old days. I reminded her of the freak comment and didn’t hear from her again.”

“And with Hilary?”

He glared at her before dropping his stare. “It didn’t work out.” He reached over to her and held her hand. “I wanted to be with you.” He connected his gaze to hers. “I wanted you to want me, regardless of who I am or my size. If this is not what you want, tell me now.”

Janelle waited a beat before removing her hand from his. “Okay. Cards on the table. I want to see it.”

Gideon blinked. “Okay.” He started to push the comforter down when she stopped him.

“Let me drive.”

He laughed. “Fine.”

She eased the covers down his rippled abdomen and stopped right at his hips. She swallowed before revealing him. His impressive penis lay dormant between his thick thighs. Janelle reached for him. As soon as she touched it, as though she needed to check for its authenticity, he sucked air between his clenched teeth.

* * * *

The more Gideon hung out with Janelle, the more he started to fall for her. He hadn’t expected her to bring up his method to avoid telling her about his dick. He thought that if he satisfied her, she would forgive him. Her need to be respected on all levels impressed him.

Now that she wanted to see him, all of him, he had to contain himself. Her first touch broke him. She stroked his shaft, gently at first. Her fingertips danced down the length of him to his thick tip and then back up again to the base where she twirled her fingers in his sandy nest of hair.

“Nice.” She never broke her stare from his cock.

Janelle slid down the bed and slithered between his legs as she held him. No way could she miss him getting hard in her hand.

“You don’t have to do this.” He waved his hand to her.

“I want to.”

The first teasing swipe of her tongue over the weeping tip had him thankful she wanted to pleasure him orally. She swirled her tongue around the mushroom-shaped head and then eased her mouth down as far as she could go. Janelle wrapped both hands around him in a staggered fashion and twisted her hands in the opposite direction of each other while her mouth continued coating him.

As a kid, he and his brothers had made that same hand motion on each other’s arms and called it giving an Indian burn, a derogatory term their mother made them stop saying as soon as she heard it. When Janelle did that same hand motion on him with her delicate fingers and soft hands, he wanted to scream mercy in a good way.

More than the motion with her mouth and hands, the fact that she kept constant eye contact with him got to him the most. He returned her stare as his breathing increased. Instead of gripping the back of her head, he fisted the comforter around him. He couldn’t stop his hips from gyrating, which slid his cock in and out of her mouth.

In response, Janelle tightened her lips around his shaft. Each time he stroked up, she
pressed her tongue against the tip. She kept up this technique for what seemed like hours. When she reached down and started massaging his sac, Gideon couldn’t hold back.

“So close.” He said it as a warning.

Even with him in her mouth, Janelle managed a smile. She bobbed her head up and down faster while her hands seemed to be everywhere at once. He felt her stroking the skin between his asshole and his balls. That had him wanting to climb the walls.

“Can’t hold back.” Gideon’s toes curled.

He felt his legs shaking as he tried hard not to release his load into this goddess’s mouth. Then he heard her whisper, “Come.”

His muscles tightened as he climaxed, releasing his seed into her awaiting mouth. She swallowed every bit of his essence. When she pulled back, she grazed her teeth over his sensitive tip.

“I’m not delicate. I’m a woman. Treat me like one.” She sat up on her knees, leaned forward and kissed him.

The taste of himself didn’t turn him off as much as he thought it would. He had done the same to her last night.

“I’m assuming that’s the bathroom.” She pointed to an open doorway in the corner.

Gideon nodded. “Extra toothbrush and washcloths are in the cabinet. As soon as I get feeling to my legs, I’ll join you.”

She laughed. Then she glanced at the clock in the room and cursed. “Sorry. I can’t believe that’s the time. I’m so late for work.”

“I’ll call Penny for you.” He started to reach for his phone next to the bed.

“No. If you do, she’ll know I’ve been here all night.”

An eerie feeling crept up the back of Gideon’s head. “Is that a problem?”

“With Penny? Yes. She was the one that sent that online gossip site a picture of us. She has a big mouth. I don’t want to get anyone’s tongue wagging any more than they are now.” She scanned the room and then stopped. “My purse and bag are downstairs.”

“Good.” Gideon hopped out of bed and headed toward her on shaky legs. “You’re going to shower and get cleaned up. Then get dressed and I’ll take you home.” He glanced at the clock. “My mom’s surgery is today.”

“Oh, wow. Where is it going to be?”

“Virginia Beach General Hospital.”

“Take me home so I can change, and I’ll go with you.”

Gideon shook his head. “You have a business to run. I don’t want to interfere with that. But I appreciate the offer.”

Janelle held his hand. “I don’t want to be there only for you. Elizabeth is important to me. I want to show her my support.”

He cupped her cheek. “I appreciate that. Keep your phone handy. I’ll keep you updated on her progress.”