Page 39 of A Scandalous Destiny

She agreed with another nod. “But now he hates me,” she choked out.

Gabe pulled her into his arms and held her. “No one could ever hate you,” he soothed. “He isn’t happy, but he’ll come around. He could have made things much worse for us, but he didn’t.”

And Sophie knew that was true, but it still didn’t make her heart hurt any less.

“In three weeks, we’ll do all of this all over again, but with your family surrounding you.”

She held onto him tightly. “But then there won’t be a blacksmith muttering Gaelic we don’t understand.”

He laughed, like she’d hoped he would. Then he pulled back to look down at her. “I know a few Scots from the army. You want me to ask one of them to come speak gibberish to us?”

Sophie shook her head. “All I require is you, Gabe. I don’t care who else is there.”

“You are in luck.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll be right beside you from here on out.”

Someone cleared their throat near the innkeeper’s desk, and Sophie and Gabe glanced in that direction. An older woman in a mop cap hefted a traveling valise onto the desk with a thud. The innkeeper’s wife, no doubt.

“Mrs. Prideaux,” the Scottish woman began. “His lordship left this with me in the event ye remained with us this evenin’.”

Goodness. A traveling valise? Sophie disentangled herself from Gabe’s hold and approached the desk. It certainly was one of Papa’s. It had a very tiny Beckbury crest in the leather near the very top. Sophie’s heart began to pound as she opened the latch.

Looking into the open valise, Sophie thought she might cry. Papa had done this kindness for her even as angry as he was. She ran her fingers over one of her favorite dresses, a soft lilac with a darker bodice and sleeves. A comfortable pair of kid slippers, a silky chemise and a soft cotton nightrail were even lower in the bag along with a brush, two more dresses, and her favorite hair pins.

“See,” Gabe said, the deep timbre of his voice making Sophie’s belly flip. From behind her he placed his hand on her waist, warming her all the way through. “He does love you.” Then he chuckled lightly. “It’s just me he hates.”

Sophie smiled and blinked her tears away. “No one could ever hate you,” she parroted his own words back to him as she spun around to face him. Goodness she loved him, the adoration in his hazel eyes, the strong line of his jaw, the breadth of his shoulders, and the self-deprecating smile he sported. She could live to be a hundred and she’d never tire of gazing at this man. Her husband. He well and truly was her husband.

“So long asyoulove me.”

“I’ve never stopped,” she replied.

“Then, Mrs. Prideaux, I would very much like for us to continue on to our chambers.”

CHAPTER 17

Just as soon as they reached their chamber, Gabe placed Sophie’s valise on a table by the window and then turned on his heel to gaze at his bride. It had been such a long road to get here. He had wanted her so desperately all those years ago, and back then he could have never imagined that it was possible to want her even more than that. But he did. He wanted her even more now.

Standing there in a borrowed homespun gown, her golden locks less than properly coiffed, and her pretty blue eyes beckoning him closer to her. It was a power he couldn’t resist and wouldn’t want to even if he could.

Gabe crossed the floor, closing the distance between them. He brushed his fingers across the apple of her cheek, relishing in the softness of her skin. “You are the most lovely girl in the world. You always have been.”

Her lips turned up to a radiant smile. “I hardly think that’s true.”

“You’ll have to take my word for it,” he replied, and then dipped his head down to brush his lips across her smile.

Sophie melted against him and Gabe wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her steady as he deepened their kiss, tangling his tongue with hers as heat rushed through his veins and his cock stiffened even more than it had been along their journey to Scotland.

Gabe unbuttoned the back of her dress, and as it slipped from her shoulders, he kissed his way down her neck. When he cupped her breasts, she sucked in a breath and Gabe smiled against her skin.

“G-Gabe,” she breathed out and clutched the edge of his jacket as he kneaded her breasts with his hands. “Oh, Gabe.”

“Dear God, Sophie,” he said as the rest of her dress slipped down her body, leaving her completely bare in his arms. After all, they’d only managed to find adressfor her that first day, no stays, no chemise, nothing to separate them at all...except for his damned clothes.

Gabe squeezed her hip and kissed her quickly once more before turning his fevered attention to his own damned buttons. Standing there, looking at her, he’d never seen anything more beautiful. And he’d been right all those years ago, her breastswerethe most lovely things in all the world. And now they were his most favorite things to touch.

As though she knew what sort of affect she had on him, Sophie’s smile lit up the chamber. Then she placed her hand over his on his buttons and said, “I can do it.”

Gabe swallowed. He let his hands fall from his jacket, and Sophie’s quick fingers slid each of his golden buttons through their holes. When she was done, she opened his jacket wide before running her fingers over his shirt-covered chest, making his muscles ripple beneath her touch and making him groan from need of her in the process.

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