The Unexpected Marriage of Gabriel Stone (Lords of Disgrace 4)

Finally her father gave a grunt of satisfaction and moved towards the door. The light vanished and the sound of his footsteps dwindled away. Gabriel backed out of the tight space, pulled out the valise and finally Caroline, unresisting and shivering, into his arms. His kiss was hard, almost angry, over in a second, a wordless acknowledgement of their narrow escape.

‘Hurry.’ He let her lead the way to the garden door and watched the passageway behind them as she lifted the handle, wiggled it up and down and then pressed on the door panels. The lock opened with a scrape, then, as she pulled it closed behind them, it dropped back into place.

The tall hedges that led from the house to the ha-ha made deep shadows and Gabriel set a fast pace, the sharp scent of the yew drifting back as he brushed the edges.

He vaulted down from the lawn into the ditch and she sat on the edge, then jumped into his upheld hands, gripping his shoulders to steady herself. His mouth sought hers again, with fierce and fleeting heat, then he set her on her feet and turned to climb the gentle slope of the other bank.

Panting with fear and relief and desire, Caroline gathered up her skirts and followed across the pasture, hurrying in the wake of Gabriel’s long stride.

As they reached mid-slope Gabriel stopped, turned and looked back at the house. ‘No lights. We’re clear away for now.’

She tried not to puff. She should be flattered, she supposed, that he had assumed she could keep up, that she would not need treating as though she was some fragile little flower who required cossetting. She was going to need all the strength she had to make good her escape, however much help she had. She would not think about those kisses. Not yet.

‘Are you all right?’ He might have read her mind, or perhaps her breathing was not as controlled as she had thought. It was impossible to read his face by starlight.

‘I...I don’t know,’ she said as he caught her hand and began to stride on up the hill. Know what?

When they reached the chapel Gabriel slammed the door, caught her to him and locked his mouth on hers. When he finally lifted his head he seemed as breathless as she was. ‘Yes?’

‘Yes.’ This. Now. We’re safe, we’re alive and we did it together.

His lips captured hers again, his hands moved over her clothes, things fell away, cool air touched her skin. Bare skin. Gabriel was still fully dressed.

Caroline scrabbled between their bodies, found buttons, pulled and tugged and now he was helping her. His shirt was gone, her breasts were crushed against his bare chest and he was still except for his hands caressing down over her shoulders, his thumb tracing her spine, his breath hot on her neck.

She wriggled, not knowing what she wanted, only knowing that she needed him.

‘Shh.’ Gabriel’s voice was a breath in her ear, a shiver that followed his fingers on her backbone. He set her slightly away from him and she protested, then stilled as the space gave room for the crisp hair on his chest to tease her breasts, for him to slide one hand up between their bodies to capture a nipple between thumb and forefinger, his palm cupping the breast as he rolled the sensitive nub until she was gasping, her forehead dropped on his shoulder for support, her hands clutching at his upper arms.

He moved, pulling her with him, and she was sprawled in his lap as he sat on the edge of the bed, one hand still tormenting her breast, his mouth on the other nipple, sucking and licking as the waves of sensation rippled through her, down to her belly, down between her legs. There was pressure, a building, aching pressure down there and she arched up, needing something to ease it, to end it, to make it last for ever.

As though he understood, Gabriel’s hand slid from under her and he touched her there where she needed him. His fingers slipped into the swollen, wet, intimate folds as she bowed up to him, he bit gently on the nipple he was sucking and a shudder of some electric, terrifying sensation ran through her, then he slipped one finger, two, into her and she heard her own voice in an incoherent cry as the pleasure swept her away. Impossible to withstand, terrifying, wonderful.

He moved. She found herself alone on the narrow bed and whimpered, reaching blindly for him, for his heat, then Gabriel’s weight was over her.

‘Caroline.’

‘Yes,’ she panted. ‘Gabriel. Please.’

He kissed her again, his lips travelling softly over her jaw, down her neck...

She smiled to herself, wrapped in the warmth of the pleasure he was giving her. She ran her fingers through his hair and gasped as his tongue met her breast again.

‘Are you finally claiming my IOU?’ she murmured, trailing her fingers down the solid muscles of his back.

He stilled.

Under her splayed fingers she could feel the shift of muscle, the tension that shivered under his skin. Then he rolled off her, down the floor and sat, back to the bed, his head on his raised knees.

‘Gabriel?’

‘I am sorry, Caroline. That should not have happened.’

Not? The pleasure still rippled through her, wonderful, transforming, but something inside her shrivelled like a rosebud in the frost. ‘I want you. I am a grown woman, I can make my own decisions.’ I will not feel shame. ‘And you want me.’ Which was the truth.

He stood up. Tall, beautiful, arrogantly male, half-naked. She wanted him to come back so she could touch him, explore that loose-limbed body, but she was too proud, too hurt, to ask.

‘That was a mistake. The result of shared danger, suspense and too-close proximity.’ Gabriel scooped up his shirt from the floor and pulled it over his head, his back turned to her. ‘I have never... Damn it, I do not sleep with virgins. I should never have taken that idiotic IOU.’