beside him.
He smiled when he quickly glanced at her before returning his gaze to the road. She was sleeping beside him. He couldn’t wait for the time when she would be sleeping with him. The thought of having her in his arms, making love to every inch of her body, filled him with a desire he didn’t know it was possible to feel. But then Gemma had always done that to him, even when she hadn’t known she was doing it.
Over the years he’d schooled himself well, and very few knew how he felt. Ramsey and Dillon knew, of course, and he figured Zane and Derringer suspected something as well. What had probably given Callum away was his penchant for watching Gemma the way a fox watched the henhouse, with his eye on one unsuspecting hen. It wasn’t surprising that Gemma was totally clueless.
So far things were going as planned, although there had been a few close calls with his family when he thought one of them would slip and give something away. He wanted Gemma to feel comfortable around him and his family, and the last thing he wanted was for her to feel as if she’d deliberately been set up in any way. He wanted her to feel a sense of freedom here that he believed she wouldn’t feel back in Denver.
For her to want to try new and different things, to embrace herself as a woman, topped his list. And for the first time, he would encourage her to indulge all her desires with a man. But not just any man. With him. He wanted her to see that not all men had only one thing in mind when it came to a woman, and for two people to desire each other wasn’t a bad thing.
He wanted her to understand and accept that no matter what happened between them, it would be okay because nothing they shared would be for the short term. He intended to make this forever.
Callum pulled into the gated condo community and drove directly to his home, which sat on a secluded stretch of beach, prized for the privacy he preferred. He planned to keep this place even after their home was fully decorated and ready to move in. But first he had to convince Gemma that he was worth it for her to leave the country where she’d been born, the country in which her family resided, and move here with him, to his side of the world.
He brought his car to a stop and killed the ignition. It was then that he turned toward her, keeping one hand on the steering wheel and draping the other across the back of the passenger seat. She looked beautiful, sleeping as if she didn’t have a care in the world—and in a way she didn’t. He would shoulder whatever problems she had from here on out.
With an analytical eye he studied her features. She was smiling while she slept and he wondered why. What pleasing thoughts were going through her mind? It had gotten dark, and the lights from the fixtures in front of his home cast a glow on her face at an angle that made it look even more beautiful. He could imagine having a little girl with her mouth and cheekbones, or a son with her ears and jaw. He thought she had cute ears.
With a tentative hand he reached out and brushed his fingers gently across her cheeks. She shifted and began mumbling something. He leaned closer to catch what she was saying and his gut tightened in a ball of ravenous desire when she murmured in her sleep, “Kiss me, Callum.”
Gemma felt herself drowning in a sea of desire she’d never felt before. She and Callum were not on the ranch in Denver, but were back on the plane. This time the entire plane was empty. They were the only two people onboard.
He had adjusted their seats to pull her into his arms, but instead of kissing her he was torturing her mouth inside, nibbling from corner to corner, then taking his tongue and licking around the lines of her lips.
She moaned deep in her throat. She was ready for him to take her mouth and stop toying with it. She needed to feel his tongue sucking on hers, tasting it instead of teasing it, and then she wanted their tongues to tangle in a delirious and sensual duel.
She began mumbling words, telling him to stop toying with her and asking that he finish what he’d started. She wanted the kiss she’d almost gotten before—a kiss to lose herself in sensual pleasure. Close to her ear she heard a masculine growl, sensed the passion of a man wanting to mate and breathed in the scent of a hot male.
Then suddenly she felt herself being gently shaken. “Gemma. Wake up, Gemma.”
She lifted drowsy lids only to find Callum’s face right there in front of hers. Just as it had been on the plane. Just as it had been moments earlier in her dream. “Callum?”
“Yes,” he replied in a warm voice that sent delicious shivers up her spine. His mouth was so close she could taste his breath on her lips. “Do you really want me to kiss you, Gemma? You are one Westmoreland that I’ll give whatever you want.”
Seven
Gemma forced the realization into her mind that she wasn’t dreaming. This was the real deal. She was awake in Callum’s car and he was leaning over her with his face close to hers and there wasn’t a flight attendant to interrupt them if he decided to inch his mouth even closer. Would he?
That brought her back to his question. Did she want him to kiss her? Evidently, she had moaned out the request in her sleep and he’d heard it. From the look in the depth of his green eyes, he was ready to act on it. Is that what she wanted? He did say he would give her whatever she wanted.
More than anything, she wanted to be kissed by him. Although it wouldn’t be her first kiss, she believed it would be the first one she received with a semblance of passion and desire on both sides. Before guys had wanted to kiss her, but she hadn’t really cared if she kissed them or not.
This time she would act first and worry about the consequences of her actions later.
Holding his gaze, she whispered against his lips, “Yes, I want you to kiss me.” She saw him smiling and giving a small nod of satisfaction before he leaned in closer. Before she could catch her next breath, he seized her mouth with his.
The first thing he did was seek out her tongue and the moment he captured it in his, she was a goner. He started off slow, plying her with a deep, thorough kiss as if he wanted to get acquainted with the taste and texture of her mouth, flicking the tip of his tongue all over the place, touching places she hadn’t known a tongue could reach, while stirring up even more passion buried deep within her bones.
For a timeless moment, heat flooded her body in a way it had never done before, triggering her breasts to suddenly feel tender and the area between her thighs to throb. How could one man’s kiss deliver so much pleasure? Elicit things from her she never knew existed?
Before she could dwell on any answers to her questions, he deepened the kiss and began mating with her mouth with an intensity and hunger that made her stomach muscles quiver. It was a move she felt all the way to her toes. She felt herself becoming feverish, hot and needy. When it came to a man, she’d never been needy.
He slanted his head, taking the kiss deeper still, while tangling with her tongue in a way she had dreamed about only moments earlier. But now she was getting the real thing and not mere snippets of a fantasy. He wasn’t holding back on anything and his tongue was playing havoc with her senses in the process. It was a work of art, a sensuous skill. The way he’d managed to wrap his tongue around hers, only letting it go when it pleased him and capturing it again when he was ready to dispense even more pleasurable torture.
She had asked for this kiss and wasn’t disappointed. Far from it. He was taking her over the edge in a way that would keep her falling with pleasure. His mouth seemed to fit hers perfectly, no matter what angle he took. And the more it plowed her mouth hungrily, the more every part of her body came alive in a way she wasn’t used to.
