Page 68 of In Search of a Husband
She raked her hands through his hair in answer. It felt as if he would burst through his trousers. This hadn’t begun in the cabin, but earlier. The first day she walked into the inn, the prideful lift of her head as she confronted him, the heat in her eyes.
“I dinna mean to stop now. Ye understand?”
“I don’t wish you to.” Kate bracketed her hands on his face and methis eyes. “My reputation has already been ruined, Gabriel. Ruin me, well and truly. Carry me upstairs and show me what it’s like to be with a man who cares.”
He trailed his lips over the column of her neck, pushing aside the delicate Bedfordshire lace.
“Please, Gabe.”
His knees buckled at her request.
“Run upstairs, lass. Now.”
CHAPTER 18
The unladylike truthof it was, Kate would have reclined back on the worktop in the kitchen and let Gabriel strip her bare.
Her body thrummed with some unanswered need that burned in her bones. She was achy and frustrated, and she wished only for Gabriel and his body to bring about her pleasure.
Instead, he had growled in her ear to run upstairs.
And she had, retreating to his room now as he stalked toward her. She clasped the doorknob behind her with her back pressed against the door.
Waiting.
She licked her lips as he approached, her heart drumming in her ears.
Before she could say a word, he picked her up and opened the door, closing it with his boot. He strode across the room and gently laid her on the bed, crossing her hands and pinning them above her head.
“Here, ye’re mine,” he whispered.
She closed her eyes, nodding.
“Kate,mo leannan, I willna touch ye unless ye want it, understand?”
The air left her lungs at the desire in his voice. “Yes,” she sighed,pulling him closer. There were too many clothes between them. “Please.”
Gabriel bent down and crushed his lips against hers in a searing kiss, pulling at the dress. “I will buy you a new one. A closet full of them, darlin’.”
Then he ripped the front of her dress open, exposing her chemise and shortstays.
“Too many damn layers,” he mumbled.
“You really thought you had to work for all the fastenings, hmm?” she teased.
“Say it again and I’ll kiss that fresh mouth of yers.”
Instead, she reached for his shirt, tugged it from the waist of his trousers, and yanked it upward, chasing his lips as he straightened to take it off the rest of the way. Her giggle died as she gazed up at him, his erection pressing at the seam of his trousers, and realized she was choosing herself.
Society had told her she was ruined, so she would truly ruin herself with someone who cared for her. She would fall apart in his arms and feel a man inside of her and ride out her pleasure and not be shamed for the want of it. If men could do so, then so would she.
What did she have to lose when she already had lost it all in the view of society?
Your heart.
She reached up and traced her hand over his bare abdomen, her eyes heavy-lidded. His skin burned against her fingertips.
And suddenly, the urgent fire that had exploded between them no longer felt as if she would miss it. She forced herself to be present and traced her hands up her waist to her breasts.
