Chapter 15 #3
He sought her lips, urging them to part with the lightest touches of his tongue.
Her response was soft at first, the innocently carnal mouth following his teasing caresses.
She relaxed and leaned against him, and he could feel her attention centering on him, all her vitality pouring into him.
The hairs at the back of his neck bristled in excitement, while heat danced and rioted in every part of his body.
With difficulty, he ended the kiss, cradling her face in his hands, watching her long inky lashes sweep upward to reveal drowsy blue-black eyes.
“Why don’t I send for some champagne?” he suggested. “It will help you to relax.” He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. “And then I want to give you a present.”
Pandora’s dark winged brows drew together. “A literal present?”
Gabriel responded with a puzzled smile. “Yes. How could it be otherwise?”
“I thought ‘give you a present’ might be a metaphor.” Her gaze flicked in the direction of the bedroom. “For that .”
He began to laugh. “I wouldn’t presume to flatter myself quite so extravagantly. You’ll have to inform me later if my lovemaking is a gift or not.” Still chuckling, he bent to press his lips to hers.
He adored her. There was no one like her, and she belonged to him completely... although he knew better than to say that out loud.
A ny of the awkwardness Pandora might have felt while being undressed by a man was eclipsed by Gabriel’s continuing amusement. He kept breaking out into chuckles until she demanded, “Are you still laughing over your metaphor?”
That set him off again. “It wasn’t a metaphor.”
Although Pandora wanted to point out that most brides would not appreciate their husbands laughing like hyenas while removing their clothing, she was fairly certain that anything she said would only prolong his amusement.
She waited until her corset was unhooked, leaving her only in her chemise and drawers, and then she dashed to the bed and plunged beneath the covers.
“Gabriel?” she asked, pulling the bedclothes up to her neck.
“Instead of champagne... may I have a glass of port? Or is that only for gentlemen?”
Her husband came to the bedside and bent to kiss her. “If you like port, my love, that’s what you shall have.”
While he left to ring for a servant, Pandora removed her undergarments beneath the covers. She dropped them over the edge of the mattress and propped an extra pillow behind her.
In a few minutes, Gabriel returned and sat on the edge of the bed. Taking one of her hands, he placed a rectangular leather case on her palm.
“Jewelry?” Pandora asked, suddenly feeling shy. “There was no need for that.”
“It’s customary for the groom to give the bride a gift on the wedding day.”
After unlatching the tiny gold clasp, Pandora opened the case and beheld a double-stranded pearl necklace on a bed of red velvet.
Her eyes widened, and she lifted one of the strands, gently rolling the lustrous ivory pearls between her fingers.
“I never imagined having something so fine. Thank you.”
“Do they please you, sweet?”
“Oh, so very much—” Pandora began, and stopped as she saw the gold clasp, glittering with diamonds. It was fashioned with two interlocking parts of swirling, deeply cut leaves. “Acanthus scrolls,” she said with a crooked grin. “Like the ones in the settee at the Chaworth ball.”
“I have a fondness for those acanthus scrolls.” His gaze caressed her as she put on the necklace. The double strands were so long that there was no need to unfasten the clasp. “They kept you in place just long enough for me to catch you.”
Pandora grinned, enjoying the cool, sensuous weight of the pearls as they slid against her neck and chest. “I think you were the one who was caught, my lord.”
Gabriel reached out to touch the curve of her bare shoulder with his fingertips, and followed the pearl strands over her breast. “Your captive for life, my lady.”
Pandora leaned forward to kiss him. His mouth was warm and firm, shaping hers deliciously.
Her eyes closed and her lips parted, and she was conscious of nothing in the world except the tantalizing stroke of his mouth, and the silky touches of his tongue.
She was lightheaded from the penetrating sweetness of his kiss, her lungs dilating as if she were inhaling hot mist. She didn’t realize the sheets and blankets had fallen to her waist until she felt his hand at her breast. His thumb lightly rolled a strand of pearls across the sensitive peak, back and forth.
A quiver ran through her, and the pounding of her heart strengthened until she could feel it in her cheeks, throat, breasts, and wrists.
He kissed her slowly, his tongue sinking deeper, deeper, until she moaned at the pleasure of it.
She tried to squirm free of the covers, forgetting everything but the need to be closer to him.
In the next moment he had her stretched out on the mattress, his fully clothed body covering her naked one.
The masculine weight of him was satisfying and exciting, his aroused flesh jutting against her stomach and between her thighs.
As she writhed upward into the stimulating pressure, she felt as if butterflies were dancing and fluttering inside.
Gabriel breathed as if he were in torment, claiming her mouth with long, fevered kisses, murmuring darkly as his hands roamed over her.
“Your body is so exquisite... so strong and soft... the way it curves here... and here... God, I want you so much... I need more hands to feel you with.”
If she’d had the breath, she would have told him that he was quite dangerous enough with two.
Wanting to feel his skin, she tugged at his clothes.
He moved to help her, although the process was complicated by his reluctance to stop kissing her for more than a few seconds at a time.
One garment after another was flung over the side of the bed, until his naked body was revealed, flushed and golden, his torso smooth except for his hair-roughened chest and groin.
After risking a glance at the startling sight of his erection, Pandora’s stomach clenched with nerves, and she pressed her face against his shoulder.
Once, on one of their rambles around the estate, she and Cassandra had glimpsed a pair of small boys splashing in a shallow creek, while their mother, a tenant farmer’s wife, watched over them.
The boys had been naked and hairless, and their private parts had been so innocently small as to be hardly noticeable.
This , however, would have been noticeable at a hundred yards.
Gabriel’s hand came to her jaw and nudged her to meet his gaze. “Don’t be afraid,” he said thickly.
“I’m not,” she said quickly. Perhaps a little too quickly. “I was only surprised because... well... it’s not like a little boy’s.”
Gabriel blinked, and amusement deepened the creases at the outer corners of his eyes. “It is not,” he agreed. “Thank God.”
Taking a deep breath, Pandora tried to think past the attack of nerves.
He was her husband, and a beautifully made man, and she was determined that every part of him would be dear to her.
Even this rather intimidating part. No doubt his former mistress would have known exactly what to do with it.
The thought awakened Pandora’s competitive instincts.
Now that she’d asked him to discard his mistress, she could hardly prove herself a poor replacement.
Taking the initiative, she pushed at his shoulder, trying to urge him onto his back. He didn’t budge, only gave her a quizzical glance.
“I want to look at you,” she said, pushing again.
This time he rolled easily, lying down with one muscular arm curled behind his neck.
He looked like a lion sunning itself. Propping herself up on an elbow, Pandora set a tentative hand on his midriff, the flesh lean and tightly knit with muscle.
She leaned over him to nuzzle the coarsely silky fleece on his chest. His breathing changed as she used the tip of her tongue on a flat male nipple, raising a tiny, diamond-hard point.
When he offered no objections, she continued to explore him, trailing the backs of her knuckles to the sleek line of his hip, and down toward his groin, where the sun-colored skin became silkier and warmer.
As she reached the verge of softly springy curls, she hesitated and glanced up at his face.
The trace of a smile had vanished. His color had heightened, and his lips had parted as if he wanted to speak but couldn’t.
For such an articulate man, Pandora thought wryly, her husband had certainly chosen the wrong time to keep his mouth shut.
A few instructions, a suggestion here or there, would not have gone amiss.
But Gabriel only stared down at her hand as if spellbound, and breathed like a broken steam boiler.
He seemed positively helpless with anticipation .
Some mischievous corner of Pandora’s heart relished the discovery that this large, virile creature wanted her touch so badly.
She scratched her fingertips lightly through the coarse, silky hair, and the heavy shaft twitched against the taut surface of his stomach.
A faint groan came from over her head, while the powerful muscles of his thighs contracted visibly.
Feeling braver, she scooted down on the bed and delicately grasped the rigid length of him.
It was as hot as a fire-iron, and very nearly as hard.
The skin was satiny and fever-colored, and judging from the way he shivered, intensely sensitive.
Fascinated, she dared to fondle up and down the shaft, and molded her fingers over the tight-mounded weights below.