Maria stared, entranced, as that mouth came closer and closer and he gently tipped her chin up. Distantly, she heard Matt say, “Right, well, it looks like you two have lots to discuss so I’ll just leave you to get reacquainted and if anyone needs me I’ll be in my hopefully sound-proof office with my door securely shut, bye now!” And then a soft click as the door was firmly closed.
Her eyes fluttered shut at the first caress of his lips against hers and she gasped against his mouth as every nerve in her body tingled to life. With a groan, Gabriel deepened the kiss, his tongue demanding entrance to her mouth. She complied eagerly, parting her lips and stroking his tongue with her own as he swept in. Her hands came up to clutch his hair and she could feel his arms around her holding her close, his hands dropping to cup her bottom and lift her up so their groins aligned. She could feel him hard and throbbing directly against her mound and she squirmed, pleasure racing through her. She felt herself becoming wet, her panties getting damp.
Memories of his thick c*ck stretching her, plunging deep inside caused her p**sy to contract and she whimpered at the empty ache at her center, wanting desperately to feel him there again, filling her to overflowing. She tried to raise her legs so she could wrap them around his h*ps but her slim skirt frustrated her attempts. One of his hands left her bottom to fumble at the back button and zipper of her skirt, and she thought, oh, yes, eager to get rid of the layers separating them, and then, oh, no! as the reality of what they were doing intruded.
With a gasp, she tore her mouth away from his and pushed them apart, nearly stumbling as her knees weakened. She kept her hands against his chest when he tried to pull her back and she could feel his pounding heart and the warmth of his hard muscles beneath her hands. She took a deep breath to try to steady her own heaving chest and blurted out, “We can’t do this.”
Gabriel stared at her, his mouth wet from their kiss and hectic color along his cheekbones, his skin pulled taut over them with arousal. “Why not?”
“Because I’m going to be your daughter’s nanny! It’s so wrong on every level and besides,” she gasped as realization hit, “you’re engaged!”
A stab of something that felt very much like pain mixed with jealousy went through her at the thought of him belonging to another woman.
He blinked and then closed his eyes, running a hand through his hair, disordering its perfectly combed waves. He turned away from her and grasped the edge of his desk, his hands gripping it so tightly his knuckles showed white.
She stared at him, letting her eyes trace his body, clad in a well-cut, obviously hideously expensive navy pin-striped suit. He’d been wearing a similar suit but in fine black wool the night they met and he was even handsomer than she remembered, if that was even possible.
She and Sophie had gone to the hotel bar that first night after hitting some night clubs, hoping to find someone more suitable for Maria’s needs there, and she’d noticed him at the piano immediately, his strong, elegantly chiseled features concentrating only on the beautiful music that his incredibly skilled hands were producing. His dark hair was lightly grayed at his temples and swept ruthlessly off his face, and even sitting at the piano she could tell his body was strong and fit—there was no doubt he was a man in the prime of his maturity and made every single guy she’d met in her quest the past week seem like a boy. He was unquestionably way out of her league and she’d resisted when Sophie encouraged her to go up to him.
But she came back the next night, this time without Sophie in tow and dressed more like her normal self and not in clubbing attire, hoping only to see him again. She’d been happy to find him in the same lounge and content just to look at him and listen to him play.
She’d found him completely compelling, something in her responding to him even before they’d spoken a word with each other. It might have been the hint of sadness surrounding him, a solitary quality in him that she’d recognized in herself.
Whatever the reason, all she knew was that she’d never felt this kind of attraction before, an overwhelming physical hunger combined with a feeling of kinship, of connection.
She’d been surprised when other men had flirted with her that night, men she might have seriously considered another time, but all she’d felt was irritation that they’d pulled her attention away from the man at the piano.
It wasn’t until it seemed that he was done for the evening that the idea to approach him popped into her mind, and once it did, she knew there was no one else she wanted for her first time. The shock had been him accepting her clumsy advance. She still didn’t know why he’d said yes.
He finally turned to face her and Maria nearly took a step back at the fierce, forbidding anger on his face.
“Why did you sneak away in the morning?”
She flushed, remembering waking up nak*d in his arms, sore between her legs and in other intimate parts of her body and quietly scrambling around for her clothes, wanting only to leave before he woke up. “The night was over—I thought you’d want me gone before things got awkward after you woke up.”
He looked thunderous. “Are you telling me that you thought it was just a casual one-night stand?”
“Well, yes, isn’t that what it was?” Maria was confused—isn’t that what all men expected when a strange woman picked them up in a bar?
“So you gave your virginity to me and didn’t expect anything else?” Did he seem even more upset at her answer?
“No, of course not—I just wanted to sleep with you. Remember, I wasn’t even going to tell you it was my first time.” She tried to laugh to lighten the mood, but it came out sounding strained and false. “I may have been inexperienced, but even I know that orgasms, no matter how many or good, don’t equal a relationship.”
If anything, his expression got even darker at her quip.
“Why are you so upset? I would have thought I’d done exactly what you wanted.”
“Is it so hard to believe that I wanted to see you again after that night? I woke up, expecting to see you and couldn’t believe you’d just left—I was afraid something had happened to you! I spent weeks searching Boston for you.”
The thought that he wanted to see her again left Maria breathless.
“You did?” she squeaked. “I was staying with a friend until my job started—I left Boston for Connecticut just a few days later.” She didn’t tell him how much she regretted leaving him without some kind of note, but she woke up after that incredible night wanting him again, not just sexually but emotionally, and those feelings were so strong and overwhelming she didn’t know how to deal with them.
So she reacted the only way she could in her panicked state—she ran. The fact that he’d also wanted more after their night together left her reeling—with joy, because the night had been as meaningful to him as it had been to her, but with despair too, because it was all too late—he was now committed to another woman.
Maria felt her shoulders slump before she straightened them and lifted her chin. She looked directly at Gabriel and kept her voice steady as she said, “Obviously it’s impossible for me to work for you now. Thank you for the opportunity—I’m sorry that you’ll have to look for another nanny.”
Gabriel stiffened and narrowed his eyes at her. She wondered absently if he’d ever been in the military because he had the “displeased commanding officer talking to idiot junior officer” demeanor down pat.
“Another nanny? I don’t think that will be necessary.”
She blinked at him. “You really think it’s a good idea for me to stay considering our history? You haven’t even formally interviewed me yet.”
“Fine, let’s have the interview then,” Gabriel snapped and stalked around back to his chair, grabbing a piece of paper she assumed was her CV off his desk. “So you were with your last family for five months? Why did you decide to leave them?”
“Mr. Scott was being transferred to Japan, and although they wanted me to go with them, I decided not to,” she replied promptly, determined to act as professionally as possible under the circumstances.
“And that was your first live-in situation? The lack of a readily available social life didn’t bother you? The Scotts lived near Greenwich—you may have noticed on your drive here that this is a more isolated location than your previous position,” Gabriel remarked coolly, watching her carefully.
Maria hesitated for a moment before responding. “No, the lack of a social life didn’t bother me. I don’t mind a quiet life.”
“Is that because you already have a boyfriend who plans on visiting you? Should I be letting my housekeeper know to expect another guest?” he drawled.
She refused to be baited. “No sir, I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“So are you planning on using your days off to go into the city and find more random hook-ups there? I seem to recall you saying how much you wanted to explore Manhattan,” he sneered.
Maria flushed and her temper started to climb. There was no doubt he was deliberately trying to provoke her. “Despite what you may think, I don’t make it a habit to do random hook-ups—you know very well you were my first!”
“Well it has been six months since we were last together—how do I know you aren’t in the habit now? I wouldn’t want to expose my children to possibly immoral behavior from their caretaker,” he said insultingly.
She stood up, her temper definitely on fire now. How could he be so awful! “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you’re the only man I’ve ever slept with and I’m having major regrets about that right now!”
He stood up as well and leaned towards her over the desk, glaring at her. “Then why did you then? Were you just determined to lose your virginity that night, and any man would do?”
She flushed bright red, her gaze faltering a little and he realized that he had hit a target with his words, immediately pouncing on her. “I’m right, aren’t I? You did plan on losing your virginity that night! Any dick would do!”
“No! Well, yes, but—” she said, trying to explain but Gabriel interrupted her curtly, saying, “Please, spare me your justifications. Let’s get on with this interview now, shall we?”
He glanced down at her CV again, and Maria bit her lip, perilously close to tears. Her passionate, tender lover was gone completely, replaced by this brutal, cold-eyed stranger who acted like he hated her.
He suddenly stilled, staring at the piece of paper in front of him as if it were a striking cobra before his head shot up, and the shock and horror in his gaze caused her stomach to plummet. “Christ Almighty, you’re a nun!?”
She flinched, both at his blasphemy and at his reaction. She’d nearly forgotten that information was on her CV. “Ex-novice, actually. I left the novitiate last year before I took my final vows.”
He stared at her in utter disbelief. This vibrant and sensual creature had nearly chosen a life devoted to God? Everything in him revolted at the thought—he’d never met someone less suited to a cloistered life. His eyes narrowed as something else occurred to him. “What the f**k was a virgin ex-novice doing picking up strange men in bars? And taking birth control pills on top of that!”