Page 63 of In Search of a Husband
When Kate openedher eyes again, night had swept in, and the storm had died down to a gentle rain pattering against the roof of the cottage.
Her once shivering body felt as if she had awokeninthe fire and not beside it.
She closed her eyes with a soft sigh, realizing she was warm because Gabriel hadn’t let go. Selfish as it may be, she didn’t wish to wake him or leave just yet.
“How are ye now, Kate?” His whisper was rough against ear, and she smiled, this time shivering from the pleasure racing up her spine. She had never felt so safe, so protected.
“Good.” She stared into the fire for a moment, fixed on the way the flames still danced in the hearth, throwing heat into the small stone cottage. They couldn’t be far from Dunsmuir. There wasn’t much reason to delay their return with the rain nearly stopped.
But it wasn’t often she had Gabriel alone, in the quiet, with him not marching around. And maybe it was because she was lonely, or because she rather liked the frustrating man, but she didn’t wish to let this pass.
She rolled over, still naked beneath her blankets and pushed up to one elbow, gazing down at him spread across the mattress like a mighty giant. A very handsome giant.
“You don’t wish for me to leave?” she asked, falling into the warmth of his eyes.
He shook his head, seemingly as transfixed on her as she was on him.
“I don’t know where I belong.” She had said as much the other day,and since then, it had been this nagging feeling she couldn’t shake. “But I don’t want to leave either.”
“Help me open the distillery,” he said. “Ye’ve a great mind for business.”
She smiled, even if her heart broke a little. She wished to stay for far more than the distillery. Mainly, she wished to stay for the man who gazed up at her now as if she were the center of his world. Even if he wouldn’t admit as much.
“The girls will do fine enough now that Elsie has returned.”
“But she doesna wish to stay.”
“If Finn takes his head out of his arse, there’s a chance she willna.”
“There’s history between them?”
He raised his eyebrows. “For her to tell, but aye, there’s history between ‘em.”
Gabriel reached up and pinched one of her curls between his fingers. “Yer hair is so soft.” He spoke as if wonderstruck.
She smiled, even though she was certain she was sad.
“I…” He cupped her jaw in his hand, drawing her eyes back to his. “I dream of ye, Kate. Before that kiss in the kitchen, and I’ve dreamed of ye since. I’m goin’ mad from wantin’ ye.”
She pressed her face against his hand, closing her eyes.
“Tell me ye want the same, lass.”
Kate Bancroft knew for certain the things she hated in life: mud most recently being added to the list. But Gabriel MacInnes was not one of them.
She wanted more than was logical. She craved him, his nearness. She wished to be wrapped in his arms and to lose hours kissing the big giant of a man. Her Scottish giant.
And yet, she was afraid of what would follow.
Of what would happen if she let up control and followed her heart and all its bad choices. What if she trusted that feeling in her gut? The one screaming at her now that allowing herself to be close to Gabriel would never be a mistake.
She traced his lips with her other hand before softly saying, “I do.”
“Thank Christ,” he said, his voice ragged. He hauled her up on topof him and braced her face with his large hands. “I need to make one thing clear.”
Kate swallowed, feeling the anticipation buzzing in her limbs.
“I don’t want ye because of London. I want ye for the woman who’s here with me now. The one who is on a damn mission to save everyone with that big heart of hers. That one, and only her. And I promise to treat ye better than?—”
