He moved his hands down to the snap on her jeans and flipped it open, moving his big, calloused hand down beneath that fabric, beneath the fabric of those cotton panties she’d been bemoaning earlier, and pushed his finger through her slick folds.

She couldn’t hold back the hoarse cry of pleasure as his fingers lit a fire trail across her body. Pleasure so hot and reckless, it wasn’t like anything she’d ever known.

He chuckled, and her eyes flew open, watching his face as he teased her beneath her fully clothed lower half. He spread his fingers wide, pressing down on either side of that sensitized bundle of nerves down there, teasing and tormenting her, moving his fingertips to the entrance of her body, and toying with her there. Not giving her what she wanted.

She shifted, pushing her body against his hand, trying to force him to increase the pressure, trying to force him inside. She ached. Felt hollow. And she couldn’t even say for certain she understood why she instinctively knew what she needed.

“Impatient,” he said against her lips. “Somehow I should’ve known that you were impatient, Jamie.”

“What does that mean?” she panted.

He chuckled. “It just means I could tell that...from everything about you, sweetheart.” He removed his hand, grabbing the edges of her jeans and her underwear, and tugging them down her legs, leaving her completely naked beneath him. He settled back between her legs, the denim rough against her thighs, against other parts.

“That isn’t fair,” she said.

“What isn’t?”

“I’m naked,” she said. “And you’re not.”

It surprised her that she was so completely fine with it, too. She wasn’t embarrassed to be naked. How could she be? Gabe appreciated it so much.

“I can fix that,” he said, rising up on his knees, his hands going to his own belt.

Okay, right in that moment she felt a little bit self-conscious. Because she was spread out in front of him, and he was looking down right at the most intimate part of her.

But as had been the case with everything else, he seemed to like what he was looking at.

He pushed his own jeans down his lean hips, and Jamie’s throat dried.

Okay. She’d seen a whole lot of male bodies in her life.

Men wandering around her house half-naked, at all hours, for all reasons. But she had never seen an aroused, naked man before.

And this wasn’t just a generic, aroused, naked man. This one was interested in her.

There were no barriers between them.

Well, there. There were some virginal nerves that she had been hoping to avoid.

She took a breath. There was nothing to be concerned about. People did this all the time. Women pushed babies out of there.

Of course, historically, they made that seem like it didn’t feel too good, so she had some concerns about how it was supposed to be pleasurable, but it was possible. She knew that.

She could handle discomfort. As long as she wasn’t an abject failure.