Part 37 (1/2)
”Don't die. You've already done that,” she teased in a low tone. ”You came back to live for me, live with me. As my husband, and my mate.”
”How can I be your husband?” he asked barely audibly, his expression guarded but his soulful eyes so full of longing.
”Darling,” she chided, ”you think too much. Kiss me.”
He did. As his lips pressed hers, she could feel his trembling restraint. It maddened her. Why was he still holding back even now? It would not do.
She gripped his shoulders and deepened the kiss, parting his lips with a hungry stroke of her tongue. He moaned as she invaded his delicious mouth. She cupped his face so he could not turn away from her in all his blasted chivalry.
”You're still holding back?” she whispered after a long moment, her heart pounding after that pa.s.sionate kiss.
Finally, he blurted out what was bothering him. ”I just can't believe you'd still want me after what you saw me do up on that mountain.”
She lifted her eyebrows. ”Is that what's wrong?” Then she frowned, realizing that he felt exposed. ”Surely you are not ashamed of it.”
”Not ashamed.” He shrugged, looking away. ”But it is a bad business, and I wish you had not seen it. That's all.”
”Gabriel, Leon prepared me for this, and so have all the losses I've known. These were evil men. They deserved what they got,” she answered in a hard tone. ”And for my part, I shall never be too cowardly to look and see and know what you and all those like you sacrifice for people like me and for the greater good.”
He eyed her intently as he listened.
”What you make yourselves become may be dark and terrible, but it is beautiful at the same time, you know. Your selflessness, your courage. You are what the poets call sublime, my love. You see? I understand...you. And there is no part of you that I cannot love. I want all of you. Even your ferocity. Yes, I want that, too,” she whispered. ”Let me taste it. I know you'd never hurt me.”
”Never,” he echoed hoa.r.s.ely.
”I want to belong to you,” she murmured as she held him. ”No matter what may lie ahead. I need you, Gabriel.” She paused for a long moment, staring into his eyes. ”Make love to me.” She saw him hesitate one last time, but she clutched at his black jacket, pulling him closer. ”Don't push me away! Not even for honor's sake. I know you will say I'm a princess, but I am still a human being-I'm a woman, and you are the man I love. My royal blood does not make me some divinity, above the needs that others feel. By G.o.d, if you can't see past the crown, I will throw it away and go back to your farm with you, or India, or anywhere-”
”Don't talk like that.”
”I don't care,” she whispered in trembling defiance. ”There is no point in anything if we are not together.”
”Then we shall be.” He drew her hands to him and placed one on his chest while he kissed the other in burning hunger. ”Sophia, I want you so much.”
”Do you?”
”Love you,” he breathed against her fingertips.
”Yes. Take me to you, my wolf, my warrior. Lay me down.”
He raised her off his lap without another word and rose, leading her back into the cave.
The moment she followed him into the dimly lit intimacy of their shelter, he pulled her to him and swept her into his arms. As his mouth swooped down on hers, both of them were already on fire. Sophia moaned under his ravis.h.i.+ng kiss while he dragged her clothes off her slowly and laid her down on the mound of furs.
She tore his jacket off his shoulders, but first he had to remove an a.s.sortment of holsters, sheaths, and his ammunition belt. When he had fought his way free of his personal a.r.s.enal, he ripped off his jacket and threw it against the wall. Sophia helped him with his black s.h.i.+rt. He peeled it off over his head and when he gathered her to him again, she whimpered with desire at the feel of his hot, bare skin against hers. The taut, supple power of his hard muscled chest against the yielding softness of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s seemed to entrance them both.
Sophia was so aroused she almost felt that she might faint. She relaxed more deeply into their primal bed while Gabriel kissed his way down her neck and made a feast of her body, on his hands and knees above her.
Her chest heaved and her skin tingled as his lips traveled down her chest, her waist, her hips and thighs, skimming every curve. She cried out in pleasure, arching under him as he claimed her swollen nipple; his hot, wet mouth kissed and sucked it firmly before moving to its twin. Mere moments had pa.s.sed and he already had her writhing. She had not realized how much her body had hungered for him and savored the memory of his hands, or how well she had remembered the skills and sensations he had begun teaching her that night at the farmhouse. She was so ready for more.
She raked her fingers through his hair, letting him slide more deeply between her legs. His hand grazed expertly down her side. Somehow she was naked now except for the knife strapped to her thigh, but never breaking his kiss, his clever fingers unbuckled the strap and took her last defenses away. After setting her weapon aside, his hand returned to her thigh. Her heart slammed in her chest as his smooth touch ran up the inside of her leg. Gabriel all but sobbed with need as he found her core drenched with antic.i.p.ation.
Kissing her with fierce, impa.s.sioned depth, he reached down and quickly unfastened his black leather riding breeches. Sophia helped him, caressing his waist; her hand glided downward over his taut, quivering abdomen, glorying in every chiseled ridge and steely contour. He reached back for the nearest blanket, pulling it up over them, while Sophia groaned as her wandering hand came to the thick base of his c.o.c.k, sprung up huge and hard from amid the thatch of coa.r.s.e hair at his groin.
Her hand closed around his shaft. He shuddered violently as she stroked upward. The length of him seemed never-ending, inch by inch, and she wanted it in her.
He let her play for a moment longer, but then, with an air of thrilling command, he captured her hands and gripped them gently above her head on the luxurious furs. He kissed her neck as he entered her slowly.
Her body accepted him with a hero's welcome. He was burning and tense, as hard and as smooth as forged steel as he claimed her. She watched him helplessly, panting; the glance he gave her brimmed with so much pent-up need and emotion.
”Love you,” he breathed again as he lowered his head and glided his lips atop hers with a sweet, nuzzling kiss.
Sophia was dying for him. She knew that she had been made for this moment, this man.
His silken lips still lingering against hers, he paused when his luscious incursion reached her maidenhead.
But if Gabriel feared she was going to stop him, he was badly mistaken. He waited only long enough to afford her a brief chance to change her mind.
Her fingers splayed down his broad back and clutching at his burning shoulders gave him her answer, a.s.suring him that she had no such intention. His chest heaved against hers; he lunged; she let out a small, fierce cry against his mouth, welcoming the pain of being joined to him at last.
He kissed her with slow, tender deliberation while she trembled beneath him, overwhelmed by the mix of pleasure, pain, and the heady knowledge that her mate had claimed her as his own. She had marked him with her virgin blood.
There was no turning back for them now.
He remained with her, still and gentle, holding her in the glorious safety of his arms. ”I adore you,” he breathed.
She could not say why his tender whisper brought tears to her eyes, as if her heart was breaking. Or maybe it was finally being healed from so many losses, so many years of isolation. She could only pet him and hold him, too choked by the lump of emotion in her throat to utter more than his beloved name. ”Gabriel.”
”I'll always belong to you, sweet. Does it hurt?”
”Doesn't matter. I love you.”
He closed his eyes and kissed her brow, holding back his desire with a will until she was ready.
It didn't take long. She shrugged off the pain despite his enormous size. He had waited so long-they both had. She did not want to put either of them through another minute's torment. All she wanted was to give herself to him completely.
Again, she let her body tell him when she was prepared for more. He was toying with her hair, which she was sure must look thoroughly untamed after two days without a brush. She kissed his cheek and then nibbled his iron jaw, where a dark scruff had begun to form, rather like the one he had worn at the farmhouse.
”More, please,” she growled in pleasure.
He flashed a roguish half smile at her quick recovery.
”My girl,” he murmured in fond pride. He settled down onto his elbows, planting them on either side of her head as he went on stroking her hair. ”You're a fighter, too, Sophia. That's why we belong together.” His lazy smile turned sober. ”I'm so lucky to have found you. Of all the farmhouses I could have leased.”
”Darling, it was fate,” she said, then drew him down to kiss her anew.
He began to love her with a slow, tender rocking. She draped her arms around his neck, her lips lingering against his jaw. His taut panting by her ear as he caressed her made her realize that he was still holding himself back.