Chapter 16 #2
He set aside his goblet and rose from his chair, so close to her the brass buttons on his coat snagged her bodice. She jumped back as if stung, but he held her fast.
“Don’t you think I understand something of what your decision has cost you, Madeleine?” he demanded, his eyes searing into her own. “Don’t you think I sense your pain? To betray a kinsman, even for the sake of so many—”
“Ye’ll never know the half of how I feel!” Madeleine exclaimed, her voice throbbing with anguish.
She twisted free of his grasp and hurried to the open door, scarcely remembering to limp. She heard his footsteps behind her and she knew she would not escape him. He seemed determined to follow her.
She didn’t stop to think. In one swift movement she slammed the door, bolted it, and whirled around to face him.
Her eyes locked with his as he drew closer. She did not know in that moment if she was staying to protect Lord Lovat, or surrendering at last to the inexorable yearning that had taken over her senses, her body, and her will from the first time Garrett had held her in his arms.
All she knew was that soon she would face her death, by the hangman’s noose if she was brought to trial, or even more unnerving, by a brace of loaded pistols tomorrow night.
She could almost feel the searing bullets ripping into her flesh, and she closed her eyes tightly, crossing her arms protectively over her breasts.
It wasn’t fair, it just wasn’t fair! her mind screamed. Hopeless tears squeezed beneath her eyelids. She had barely lived, had barely loved…
“Madeleine, what’s wrong?” Garrett’s voice called to her, his arms pulling her toward him. They enveloped her, and she sensed a seductive comfort like nothing she had ever known. She pressed against his broad chest, as if she could melt against him and be safe.
She opened her tear-filled eyes. His face was so close to hers, and his breath was warm against her skin.
“Why are you crying, Maddie?” he asked softly and gently. His finger traced a tear down her cheek. “Tell me, sweeting, tell me.”
She heard the words escape her lips with a voice she did not know. It was tremulous and frightened…so horribly frightened.
“Is it true what ye said at the falls, Garrett? That ye dinna want anything to happen to me?”
“Yes, it’s true,” he said, hugging her fiercely. “I’ve been so worried. But now you’ll be safe. You’ve given me what I need to protect you, Madeleine. You needn’t be afraid. Nothing will ever happen to you. Not if I can prevent it.”
She pulled away slightly and looked into his eyes, her slim hands reaching up to cradle his face. “Ye care, then, Garrett Marshall? Truly care about me?”
He nodded wordlessly and held her tighter, so tight she thought he might be able to drive the terrible fear from her heart. She wanted so much to forget the horror that was to come, if only for a little while.
“Love me, Garrett,” she pleaded. “Show me ye care, as a man cares for a woman. I must know…must know…”
“Maddie, do you realize what you’re saying?” Garrett asked huskily, cupping her chin. He searched her face and her eyes. “You’ve fought me all along. I thought I would always be something you hate and despise. And now you ask me to—”
Her kiss silenced him as she stood on her toes and found his lips.
It was a kiss so desperate and so passionate that he groaned against her mouth and crushed her to his chest. She felt him lift her in his arms, felt the rugged strength of his body through his long strides, then fell back against softness and knew she was lying with him on the bed.
Garrett stretched his hard length atop her and pinned her arms above her head with one strong hand. His dark blond hair, loosed from its band, fell to frame his face like a sheaf of gold in the candlelight. His gray-green eyes were alight with a ravenous hunger held too long in check.
“I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you, Maddie Fraser,” he whispered, his breath on her cheeks, her lips, like a sweet caress. “Wanted you so badly I could not sleep from the ache of it. I wanted you so badly that when I finally slept I dreamed of nothing but you.”
He seized her lips, kissing her until she was breathless. “Tell me what you want, Maddie,” he demanded brokenly, his panting breaths merging with her own. “If you truly want me, you must say it. I must be sure.”
“I want ye, Garrett Marshall,” she whispered urgently. “Ye must show me what it is to love—and be loved.”
Her words pierced the turbulent cloud of desire raging within Garrett’s mind. Stark realization gripped him, together with a flood of bittersweet exultation. He released her wrists and brought himself up on his elbows, his fingers buried in her tangled chestnut curls.
“Am I the first?” he asked gently, yet with a hint of desperation. He sensed her answer, yet he needed to hear it from her own lips. He could not fathom why it mattered so much to him, but it did. If there was no lover, perhaps he could dare to hope her heart was yet free.
“Aye,” Madeleine breathed. “Ye’re the first.” She reached up and trailed her finger down his clean-shaven cheek to his lips. She traced the sensuous curves of his mouth, her eyes brimming with wonder and passion. She smiled ever so faintly. “And I’ve never known a kiss such as yers, Garrett.”
A ragged sigh escaped his throat, wrenched from the depths of his soul. He captured her in his arms and kissed her deeply, knowing that he had been given a most precious gift. A gift to be savored, treasured, and awakened slowly. He reluctantly pulled away from her lips and rose from the bed.
“Dinna leave me,” Madeleine moaned, her eyelids fluttering open. Her whole body ached, her reeling senses acutely aware of his absence. She felt cold, missing the warmth of his weight upon her, until a flush of heat raked her from head to foot.
What a glorious sight to behold! Entranced, she leaned up on her elbow, watching in bold fascination as Garrett undressed swiftly before her.
A thrill of anticipation shot through her as his powerful body was bared before her, revealing the masculine perfection she remembered so vividly from the loch.
Her eyes raced over him, drinking in his male beauty, the hard ridges and angles, the knotted muscles, as his every lithe movement was illuminated in candlelight and shadow.
“Come to me, beautiful Maddie Fraser,” he bade her suddenly, his voice a husky whisper that rocked her to the very depths of her being.
Shivering uncontrollably, she bounded from the bed and flew into his arms. His warmth enveloped her, his bronzed skin both rough and smooth beneath her frantic touch.
Their lips fused and parted as his tongue stroked hers, searching, delving into the velvet recesses of her mouth even as his hands expertly divested her of her gown and petticoat.
“Fairest Madeleine, you are my Rosalind,” he murmured as he turned her around, one arm hugging her slender waist. “I want to see every beauty you possess, to know it, taste it, touch it.” He trailed fiery kisses across her shoulder while he deftly pulled her chemise over her head, then buried his face in her hair, inhaling its fragrance.
She let out a small gasp of pleasure as his hands disappeared beneath her drawers and slowly crept up her body, grazing her hips, his fingers caressing her belly and the narrow curve of her waist. Then he cupped her full breasts and squeezed, ever so gently.
Madeleine jumped in breathless surprise, moaning when his thumbnails grazed her taut nipples.
He teased them until she was light-headed and giddy, certain that her knees would buckle beneath her.
She felt a hardness straining against her backside; his arousal was most evident.
She blushed furiously, thrilled by her wanton imaginings.
Suddenly Garrett knelt behind her, his hot breath fanning along her spine. He slowly slid her linen drawers over her hips and down her legs, then followed with her stockings. He lifted first one slender foot and then the other, kissing and caressing each in turn, his breath tickling her toes.
“You won’t be needing this, I trust,” he whispered, running his hands lightly between her thighs as he untied the strap holding her dirk and tossed both weapon and sheath onto a chair.
She gasped sharply as he nipped her bare bottom, then he twirled her around, his palms plying and stroking the silky length of her.
She threw her head back and reveled in his sweeping touch, feeling as if he would caress every inch of her body.
His voice came to her as if in a dream, his whispered words from a text she knew nearly by heart, Romeo and Juliet.
“ ‘O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.’ ”
Tremors of breathless excitement rippled through her limbs as Garrett kissed her navel and his fingers strayed ever so briefly into the soft chestnut mound at the juncture of her thighs, then he rose to his feet and caught her in his powerful embrace.
“Sweet Maddie,” he murmured thickly, smothering her slim throat, her shoulders, and her breasts with kisses. He sought her lips, and she was lost in oblivion, scarcely aware he had lifted her onto the bed.
She was drunk with his touch and powerless against the dizzying sensations wracking her body. Her flesh burned from his countless kisses. Her blood sizzled and surged through her veins, filling her completely with liquid heat.
So this was the magic! This was the mystery between men and women, this was the caring, the wanting, the loving that she so urgently sought, so desperately needed.