She wept. He kissed away the tears, so tenderly that they fell even harder, hot and wet on her flushed cheeks.

She was embarrassed and trying not to let him see.

He knew. He smiled and kissed her eyes shut. “It had to be with me,” he whispered. “Only with me. I would rather die than know you had such an experience with any other man.”

She opened her eyes and looked up into his. “Really?”

“Really.” He looked down at her nudity, his eyes hungry again at the sight of her pink-and-peach skin, silky and soft and fragrant. He touched her breasts tenderly. “You are the most beautiful woman I will ever see.”

Her lips parted on a shaky breath.

He bent and kissed her breasts. “And now we have to get up.”

She stared at him.

“Or not get up,” he murmured with a laugh. “Because I can’t continue this much longer.”

“It would be...all right,” she whispered. “If you wanted to,” she added.

“I want to,” he said huskily. “But you won’t be happy afterward. And you know it. Not like this, ma belle. Not our first time together. It has to be done properly.”

“Properly?”

“You graduate from college, get a job, go to work. I come to see you bringing flowers and chocolates,” he mused, tracing her mouth. “And then, eventually, a ring.”

“A ring.”

He nodded.

“An...engagement...ring?”

He smiled.

“People do it all the time, even before they get engaged,” she said.

He got to his feet. “They do. But we won’t.”

“Oh.”

He dressed her, enjoying the act of putting back onto her lovely body the things he’d taken off it. He laughed at her rapt expression. “You have a belief system that isn’t going to allow a more modern approach to sex,” he said blandly. “So we do it your way.”

“I could adjust,” she began, still hungry.

“Your happiness means a lot to me,” he said simply. “I’m not going to spoil something beautiful with a tarnished memory. Not after I’ve waited so long.”

She stared up into his black eyes. “I’ve waited for you, too,” she whispered.

“I know.” He smoothed back her hair just as they heard a car door slam and footsteps approaching.

Michelle looked horrified, thinking what could have happened, what condition they could have been in as Darla put her key into the lock.

Gabriel burst out laughing at her expression. “Now was I right?” he asked.

The door opened. Darla stopped with Bob in tow and just stared at Gabriel. Then she grinned. “Wow,” she said. “Look what Larry changed into!”

And they all burst out laughing.