Chapter Seventeen #3
“Then I’ll need to work harder, hmm?” When he inserted two fingers, pumping them in and out of her convulsing passage, she bucked against his hand. As she squirmed, he twisted those digits to massage a spot on her spasming flesh he knew from past experience would drive her insane.
“Ga-bri-el!” The word was long and drawn out in a keening wail he hoped wouldn’t wake the children.
“There are no words for how you make me feel.” Her thighs trembled, while over and over contractions squeezed around his fingers still deep inside her.
“All the time, no matter if we’re like this or not. ”
“No words are needed.” With a grin, he withdrew those digits and pulled away. She could do nothing else but collapse backward, apparently boneless. “Yet I am still not done with you, Mrs. Bright, so onto the bed with you, if you please.”
She watched him with half-closed eyes as she reclined against the pillows. “How am I so fortunate as to have you for a husband?”
With a snort, he joined her on the bed. “Perhaps it was fate’s plan all along.”
“Mmm, perhaps. I am not going to question it, though.” As his arms came around her, she drew a hand down his body and curled her fingers around his painfully erect shaft. “And I am trying, Inspector, to have faith that we will always come back to each other after the cases we work.”
“So am I, and it will be easier when Kourier signs the partnership papers.” Unexpectedly, moisture rose into his eyes, for they were a team in every sense of the way.
He claimed her mouth in a gentle kiss, but her touch, every squeeze she gave his stones, threatened to send him over the brink.
Shifting his position, Gabriel caught her in the cage of his arms, keeping the bulk of his weight on his elbows while he settled between her splayed legs.
“I adore you, sweeting, and I will search to the ends of the earth for you if ever you are lost from me.”
“I know.” She released her hold on his equipage. “I will do the same for you if that time should come.” When she met his eyes, his heart trembled. “Put it from your mind in this moment, for we are both safe, the children are safe, Henry and his wife are safe, as is Adelaide.”
“True.” His voice was hoarse and ragged from strain.
It wouldn’t be long until his control snapped.
Far too emotional from the events of the day, he set out to kiss her senseless.
Pressed into her embrace, with her fingers furrowing through the hair at his nape and her body soft and pliant beneath his, the sensation of falling assailed him as it always did when he was with her, loving her.
Her fingers glanced along his shoulders. “There is just us in this moment.” When she nipped a line of feather-weighted kisses beneath his jaw, need shivered over him.
Unable to answer her with words, he trailed his lips along the column of her throat and the soft skin called to him.
He continued over her collarbones then took a pert nipple into his mouth, spent copious moments teasing that bud to the best of his ability.
When Mary moaned, he switched his attention to the other tip.
God, but he couldn’t have enough of her lush body—of her.
Everything about her teased or challenged, and in turn, all of it aroused him.
Eventually, he returned to her lips and endeavored to introduce himself to her all over again.
“Gabriel…” She danced her digits along his shoulders, swept them over his chest to rake through the mat of hair there. The muscles in his gut clenched; his shaft pulsed with urgency. “I need you.”
“I’m here.” He kissed her again, for her lips were all too addicting, made love to her mouth.
With a knee between hers, he splayed her thighs.
“Unless you completely exhaust me right now, this will not be the only time you and I come together tonight.” His hold on control was slipping.
The tip of his length glanced over her opening, and he sucked in a breath, for she was wet and waiting for him.
“I certainly hope not,” she said softly, and when she flashed a smile, he was completely lost in her. “We are celebrating our anniversary, after all.”
“Ah, Mary.” Gabriel took possession of her mouth once more and at the same time, he thrust into her honeyed heat. Oh, she felt all too marvelous, like being welcomed home to a place he’d no idea existed before he’d met her. A sigh of contentment left his throat. “Damn but you feel incredible.”
“I adore this moment.” Mary adjusted beneath him, pulling him to her as she wrapped herself around him. He fit all too perfectly in the cradle of her hips, and she held him there, their bodies joined, both safe and protected.
“So do I.” He held her gaze and grinned. “It’s perfect, like you.”
“Ha, such a charmer.”
They communicated without words, for none were needed.
She would always be there to help and support him no matter what he faced, and he vowed to do the same for her.
Being partners with a woman in every aspect of life was a beautiful thing.
While she held onto him with her arms looped about his shoulders, he pushed into her heat with slow, measured precision, wishing to draw the act out for as long as he could.
Logically, he knew that wasn’t possible, for he was well and truly primed to explode.
Deeper and deeper he plunged, joined far greater than just the mere press of bodies.
“Yes!” As her cries of enjoyment came faster, Mary dug her fingernails into his back, moved her hands down his spine. She clutched his arse cheeks, holding him impossibly closer, her hips moving in time to his. Sweat had their skin gliding against each other; they exchanged pants of breath.
Everything shared. Just as it was always meant to be.
With every thrust, every stroke, tingling sensation raced up his member and settled into his stones. Release wasn’t far off. “I’m nearly gone.” And they had barely gotten started.
“We can go slowly the next time, but we always seem to rush these moments.”
“Can I help it if I am scandalously in love with my wife?” Over and over, he claimed her body, rocking them both, leaving her with no doubt as to how he felt about her.
Perhaps wanting to join their souls, he drove deep into her core.
She met his gaze, held his head between her palms, her expression reassuring, and he knew they would weather every storm that came against them until they both grew old.
Then the urgency riding him changed into voracious hunger and undeniable need.
With a ragged moan, Gabriel continued to thrust, his hands on her hips holding her steady as he claimed her.
“Give me more; give me all of you.” She put a hand between them to worry the nubbin at her center, and her moans blended with his as she held him.
He grinned as he labored to keep himself together. “Tell me what you need.”
“Only you. Ah!” When she shattered, she buried her face into the crook of his neck, which half-muffled her screams of pleasure, and she was beyond beautiful.
She whispered his name over and over like a prayer, and as her core contracted around his length, he uttered a curse and pushed through those waves.
All too soon he surrendered to the vortex he’d created with her.
A heated tide of bliss washed over him so intensely he caught his breath and gave himself over to it.
Loath to have the coupling end, he thrust once more to prolong the act, but he was done.
As his pulse pounded in his temples and roared in his ears, and his length pulsed, he collapsed on top of her, wrapping her in his arms.
Minutes, perhaps hours later when he came back to himself and Mary stirred, he rolled off her and onto his side. “I think we both needed that after what today brought us.”
“Agreed, and it was splendid. It reminds me we are only responsible for creating our own happiness; we can’t save everyone.”
“Perhaps.”
Her smile held an exhausted edge as she laid a hand on his chest. “I am truly fortunate to have you.”
“Yes, you are.” With a wink, he leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“Cheeky.” She laid a palm to his chest. Before she could say anything, her stomach growled loudly. “We should probably seek out whatever food is still in the kitchen. I haven’t had food since our rushed tea.”
“I could eat, but I’d rather do something else.”
Mary bumped her hips into his. “This, again, so soon?”
“I am not a young man anymore. I’ll need a bit of a refractory period.” He kissed her then pulled away. “Dress in something warm but not fancy.” Afterward, he threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood.
“Why?” She levered up on an elbow to stare at him.
“I want to take you somewhere.”
A frown tugged at the corners of her mouth. “It’s far too late for that; I’m tired and achy, for someone was quite enthusiastic tonight.”
He couldn’t help his smug grin. “Well, what was I supposed to do with a beautiful, naked woman in my suite?” Then he blew her a kiss. “It will be worth your while, I promise.”
An hour later
No 14
Bedford Square
Camden
After Gabriel assisted Mary out of the carriage in the rain, he quickly escorted her up the short walkway and to a blue-painted door. Once he’d fished an iron key out of the pocket of his greatcoat, he manipulated the lock then pushed open the wooden panel.
“Whose townhouse is this?” she asked with confusion heavy in her voice.
“Ours.” There was a certain measure of pride in his chest as he pulled her further into the entry hall. “It is bigger than our current townhouse, but not as enormous as Boddingford’s, and this is where we will live for the foreseeable future.”