Page 64 of My Treasured Obsession

Was that the wrong thing to do? I’d gotten into the habit of annotating my books because of school in order to be prepared for assignments and I occasionally did the same with the books I read for leisure.

She assessed me with an indescribable expression and heat smattered across my face.

“Yes,” I admitted. “I highlighted my favourite passages and left notes in the margins regarding my thoughts.”

I enjoyed this book, even though I initially read it with the sole intention of better understanding Gabriela. I wanted to know what it was about this romance story that stood out to her so profoundly. Four hundred pages later, I got it.

It was the attentiveness of the hero. His ability to constantly prioritize the heroine. To give her everything she could possibly want and need, to communicate eloquently and validate her feelings, to shower her with all the attention she’d never received, and to simply worship her as she was a gift from the heavens that he’d treasure forever.

Gabriela Regina Bellafiore wanted to be treated like a goddess, to be the center of her lover’s universe, to be someone’s damnation and salvation in one.

God as my witness, if she’d give me the chance, I’d cherish her for all of eternity.

“Hunter, this…” She shook her head, oscillating between shock and awe. “I’ve never received anything so lovely and thoughtful. I can’t believe you read this book. I can’t believe you brought me to stargaze. I can’t believe you—” She paused when the bookmark I’d carefully nestled between the pages fell out. Grabbing it, she studied the crushed rose petals and gold flecks glittering in its clear surface, her expression of appreciation growing even further. “Is that—”

“I made it,” I rushed out. “From the roses you gifted me.”

Gabriela’s gaze fastened on mine, brimming with a myriad of emotions that spoke to something deep inside of me.

I held my breath, anticipating her response like a man gone to battle waiting weeks for a letter from his beloved. Desperate to read her written words. Desperate to hear her lilting voice in his mind. Desperate for the anchor only she could provide.

“Why?” she whispered almost challengingly. “Why did you do this?”

Without looking away from her, I said in a ragged voice, “You know why, Gabriela.”

Gentle fingers caressed the stubble on my jaw before cupping my cheek. I leaned into her touch, letting her see all the reverence painted on my face.

“I like you,” I confessed in a murmur and let my thumb stroke over her cheek. “I think I’ve liked you since the first moment I laid eyes on you over a year ago, when I knew nothing about you…except for the fact that you were the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.”

Gabriela’s hypnotizing eyes widened at my admission.

My heart thundered in my chest. “It’s the truth.”

One second, she stared at me like I was unreal.

The next second, she closed the distance and stamped her mouth to mine with a needy sound that caused heat to scorch my insides.

A groan climbed up my throat.

Our lips parted and our eyes met for the briefest second as though acknowledging that we’d been foolish to assume this wouldn’t happen again.

Then our mouths collided once more like magnets, harder and needier.

Her kiss tasted sweet and of something that was uniquely Gabriela. I practically devoured her lips with my demanding kisses and frantic licks. Her tongue swept against mine almost teasingly, a languid erotic dance that set me aflame.

I felt dizzy and breathless from what the hot little minx was doing to me, wrenching open my ribcage, gazing into my heart, making room for herself, and slowly settling there like I was something to be possessed and owned.

For Gabriela, I was.

Wholly and unequivocally ready to be made hers.

I wrapped my fingers against that slim column just the way she liked and clenched lightly, relishing her sexy gasp. Gabriela’s fingers twisted in the collar of my shirt, holding me hostage, as if I had any plans to ever escape her clutches.

Hook, line, sinker, this siren had ensnared me.

Using my arm, I curved it around her back and dragged her astride into my lap without once breaking our lip-lock. Her weight against me was divine, namely when she sat against my bulge, giving an experimental buck of her hips like she wanted to feel me inside of her.

I was losing control, at the end of my sanity rope. I needed to know what she wanted from me. Some kisses. A few fingers. My tongue. Or my dick pounding away inside that tight little pussy.