Page 55 of A Bride By Morning
Words she couldn’t say.
“I want all of you, Gabriel St. Clair,” she whispered. “I want everything.”
Something constricted in his features. But when she thought he might pull away, he leaned down and kissed her fiercely. Then he slid inside of her until he found resistance—proof that she had never done this before. Lydia sensed his hesitation, that this man who had become an instrument of violence did not wish to hurt her. No, he treated her as if she were infinitely precious—a treasure to regard with utter care.
Lydia pressed her thighs into his side in a silent encouragement for him to continue.
And then he pushed inside her to the hilt.
Lydia sucked in a breath at the sting of pain. Gabriel watched her, his gaze intent, as if counting her every second of discomfort. Lydia dragged him closer for another hard kiss.
I want this,she said with her lips.I want you.
Gabriel muttered something against her lips that sounded like, “Thank fuck.”
Then his entire body came alive. He dragged his lips from hers, sliding his hot tongue along the pulse at her neck. Then he pulled his cock out of her and thrust it back in.
Lydia gasped at the pleasure of it. He noticed her response, the way her hips rose to meet him, and took that as encouragement. His pace increased, his hips shoving against hers with a force that rocked the bed. That slight burn she’d experienced earlier seemed like it had occurred eternities ago. All that remained was . . .
Pleasure.
God, but Lydia burned with it. Now she understood what she’d longed for in the privacy of her room as she thought of him. What she wished for when she slid her fingers into her cunny and imagined it was him. She wanted this: the rocking of his hips, the intense focus of his regard, his tongue tracing the shell of her ear as he tupped her.
“Where are we?” she whispered, brushing his hair back from his face. “In your mind, where are we?”
“Vienna,” he replied, his breath coming fast. “I had a little apartment in Alsergrund where I read your letters. I used to imagine you with me in the cramped bedroom. We would drink wine, and I would fuck you until sunrise.” He shut his eyes and groaned, his cock slamming into her. “God, Lydia. Tell me you want it like this.”
“Yes,” she said. At that moment, it was the only word she was capable of emitting.Yes, yes, yes, yes.
“You feel so good,” he said, moving faster. “So. Fucking. Good.”
God, but he was beautiful like this. His muscles strained above her, and his entire face looked . . . unburdened.
She scraped her nails across his back, raising her hips to match his pace.
“Fuck,” he whispered in her ear. “Yes. Keep doing that. God, keep doing that.”
Lydia’s release tore through her, and she arched against him with a soft cry.
And then Gabriel came, his hands gripping the blankets on either side of Lydia as his climax tore through him. A rough groan escaped his lips as he collapsed, panting against her shoulder.
In a sudden surge of tenderness, Lydia wrapped her arms around him and held his body to her own. Felt the beat of his heart as his pulse came down and his breathing began to slow.
She didn’t know how long they lay like that, their bodies fitted together like two rocks sanded into the shape of each other. It might have been epochs. Time ceased to matter when he touched her.
Stay with me like this,she wanted to say.Give me tonight. Give me tomorrow.
But just when she wondered if she might convince him, Gabriel gently pulled away from her, dropped a kiss on her hand, and rose from the bed. The absence of his warmth brought cold that resembled the frigid air of a winter morning.
When he turned to her, his countenance had gone distant.
“You’re no longer in the little apartment in Alsergrund with me,” she said. An ache spread through her chest. “Nor are you here in this room.”
Gabriel paused. “When I sleep, I go where you can’t follow.” Then, with a sigh, he padded to the connecting door. “Get some rest. Tomorrow, we’ll be leaving Meadowcroft for Devon for your safety.”
When he closed the connecting door, Lydia felt its echo in her heart. That connecting door might as well have been the entire distance to Russia.
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