Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

Gabriel tucked Maisie into bed and turned around, watching as Kate did the same to Lorna, and his chest ached.

Having watched her walk away.

Having feared he’d lose her forever.

Knowing she would now always be his to love.

“Rest well, lasses.” He squeezed the aching muscles by his shoulder and tilted his head. It had been the longest day of his life, and he was sure he would sleep any other time, but not tonight.

Kate glanced up, her eyes full of promises.

He never wished for her to leave again, and he would do whatever he could to see her well and truly loved for the treasure she was.

His.

“Sweet dreams, ladies. It has been a day, but I promise we are safe and well. And you are loved.”

She rose from the mattress and stood beside Gabriel, reaching for his hand. She held it tightly in hers. He was struck then how it fit so well in his.

“Is Finn going to heaven with Da?” Maisie asked.

Gabriel was about to answer before Kate softly said, “Your aunt is far too stubborn to allow Finn to be rid of her so easily. ”

He wasn’t certain then if she was only speaking about Finn and Elsie.

Lorna yawned, nestling down farther into her pillow and drawing the quilt up to ears. “Love ye,” she mumbled.

Kate’s head came to rest against his shoulder, and the pair waited a moment as the girls, beyond exhaustion, fell asleep.

“Should we tell them in the morning?” Gabriel whispered, drawing Kate out into the hallway. He checked his timepiece, frowning at the late hour. “That we’re to be married?”

“No need to worry about the time now, love. Pay it no mind.”

When he had arrived at Dunsmuir Castle, time was what he didn’t have enough of. And he feared he still wouldn’t. But could he love her enough for that not to matter?

Kate tugged on his hand and drew him farther down the hall, away from her parents, the marquess, from Elsie pacing the floor of Finn’s sickroom. Drawing him closer to his room as if keeping him a secret.

But beneath the exhaustion etched on her face, he understood it wasn’t that. Not truly. He felt the same bone-deep uneasiness of what could have been lost between them. And the answering ache that rang hollow in his chest.

He would sleep another day. She was right. Time had no control over this moment with her. Nor in the days ahead if he didn’t allow it. For far too long, he feared not having enough time, and in turn, he had missed much of his life because of it.

No more.

No longer.

“Do ye wish me to draw ye a bath, lass?” he asked, closing his bedroom door behind them both. “I ken ye’ve bruises. Let me make them hurt less. Let me?—”

Kate stood before him in his room and reached up to slip the pins free from her hair. Long, black curls fell down to her waist. Her normally cool gray eyes burned with fire, pinning him there by the door, struck.

Christ, she was beautiful.

All tall grace. And power .

Did she have any knowledge of the power she possessed over him?

He should have known it would take a woman as spirited as she to bring him to his knees. He would crawl across the room to her for another taste of her mouth.

“Dinna leave me again,” he choked out. “Please, mo chridhe .”

“Then don’t give me another reason to, Gabe.”

He shut his eyes, swallowing the pain in her words that he had placed there. He had been an arse to her, sending her off, dismissing her as if she meant nothing when she meant everything.

“I—” He cleared his throat, slowly peering up to her. “My father passed when he was thirty-seven, and my brother died by his own hand at the same age. But I canna… I would burn down Scotland to bring ye back to me, safe. Do ye understand?”

Kate licked her lips and tilted her head before turning her back to him and pulling her hair to the side. “Undo my buttons.”

The air was heavy as he crossed the room, eating up the distance between them in long, hungry strides. He bent down and pressed his lips to the base of her neck, snaking an arm around her waist to draw her against him.

“Forgive me, Kate.”

His hands shook as he slipped each button free, pressing his nose into her hair, breathing in the sweet vanilla that lingered in the black curls with the smell of peat and heather. When she arrived at the inn that day, her dress covered in mud and her cheeks pink as she asked for a meal, he hadn’t expected for her to turn his world upside down.

He didn’t know then what she would become to him.

Kate melted against his chest, pressing her back against his front and sighing as he gently nibbled the column of her throat before soothing the sensation away with the cool press of his tongue.

“Help me undress,” she ordered next.

Slowly, he peeled the shoulders of her dress down until it hung loose on her arms. And still, he hadn’t kissed her. Couldn’t.

He was a man driven by some frantic urge to see her safe and well, and he planned to seduce her until she knew how much he loved her. Until she forgave him. Until he claimed her for him and him alone, and she would be ruined for all others.

Gabriel was desperate for her. To feel her. To feel her beneath him.

She hissed as he tugged the dress down her arms, and it collapsed around her feet in a puddle of fabric.

The constable and his men had hauled Duncan away only hours earlier, and probably for the best. If Gabriel ever saw him again…

He touched her with soft grazes, sliding his fingers over her shoulders and down her arms, untying her stays until she was free of those as well. She exhaled a heavy, pained breath, layer by layer, until she stood with her back against his front, naked.

“Katherine,” he whispered, his voice a low rasp. “Christ, what you do to me.”

She leaned back and rested the back of her head against his chest, peering up at the ceiling and slowly swaying her hips to some imaginary song.

“Do ye ken how much I love ye?” He splayed his warm palm over her flat stomach, dreaming only of giving her children, of growing a family with her. And to think he had almost allowed fear to rob him of that.

Time and years, all unknowns.

“We are all given a handful of years in this life, Gabe. I want mine to be with you, however many that may be. I don’t want to think about what could happen. Love me now, here. Show me. Make love to me. Please .”

Her voice broke, and he pushed his hand farther north up her body, trailing his rough fingers over the gooseflesh of her abdomen as she shivered beneath his touch, finally coming to cup her left breast in his hand, and gently teasing her nipple between his forefinger and thumb.

“I was coming after ye, do ye ken that? Ye wouldna have made it an hour before I chased ye down. I might be a lot of things, but I’m nothing without ye, mo leannan. Forgive me. Marry me. And I’ll love ye till my last breath.”

She pressed her bare bottom against his hips, sighing as he moved his touch to her other breast, slowly undoing her with each stroke of his hand.

He was desperate for her, the cockstand in his trousers beyond uncomfortable, but he didn’t wish to rush this. Didn’t want to miss this moment with her because he hadn’t thought he would ever have a second chance. However foolish he had been…

No, not foolish. Headstrong. Stubborn.

A damned eejit.

Kate pressed her chin against her shoulder, meeting his eyes with hers, full of want and something else altogether.

Reassurance.

Or maybe it was comfort.

All he knew was the same feeling ran through him like a jagged dirk, leveling him.

She was his, but it wouldn’t be good enough.

Duncan had gone after her because he had been too proud or afraid or whatever damned feeling it had been that stood between him and that marquess.

As if he had been threatened by such a man when he knew where her heart had belonged.

Romantical .

“What’s funny, darling?”

Gabriel pressed his lips to her temple, never wishing to look away from her, but he needed her mouth against his. He needed her fire.

Katherine Bancroft was a woman who possessed him body and soul and burned, forcing him to see that for once he had settled into a life he thought controlled by a small amount of years, forced to be spent correcting the wrongs of others.

When in actuality, he had a life to discover and make his own.

And she had taught him that. This beautiful woman…

He spun her around and cradled her face in his hands, bringing his lips down to hers, desperate and crushing. Not gentle. He would take her apart in pieces, in slow touches and rough caresses.

She opened her mouth to him, his tongue pressing against hers, tasting the sweet wine they shared when they returned home and saw Finn settled with the surgeon to help settle their nerves.

Kate whimpered against his mouth, her fingers deftly unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it down his shoulders.

He winced, pain searing across his chest.

Her lips, so soft, so…

It was maddening.

They broke apart, and she tossed his shirt to the floor beside them.

“Gabe.” A sigh laced with need. His very favorite sound. And yet he didn’t wish to stop kissing her, half afraid he would discover this was all some twisted dream.

“Let me feel ye, lass,” he moaned. He reached and brushed his hand against the warm, damp curls between her legs. She pressed against his touch, whimpering as he parted her with his fingers, and stroked the bud at the top of her cleft.

She backed away from his touch suddenly, retreating toward the warm fire. She grabbed a blanket from the bed and tossed it to the floor, then pointed, waiting for him to join her.

Kate undid the falls of his trousers and released his cock, taking it in hand.

Gabriel tossed his head back and moaned.

Time.

He wouldn’t let it control his life any longer, but this with Kate? He wished to savor her and take her quickly at the same time. To rut her like a wild animal, driven with the need to know she was safe and his and wouldn’t leave.

“Say it again, darling,” she whispered, her eyes heavy-lidded.

“What?”

“That you love me. That you wish for me to be your bride.”

The air charged between them, only the sound of the firewood snapping and cracking in the fireplace to the wild drum of his heartbeat in his ears.

“Ye’re to be my wife, Kate. Mine . And I will love ye each and every day. I will see yer belly round with children to fill up this castle and dance with ye in the kitchen while ye bake. And turn a blind eye when ye bring home another lonely heart because…”

He reached out and brushed back the hair falling around her face, then reclined back onto the floor, and drew her down to straddle him.

There were worse things that could happen—this moment between them never taking place. To never watch the golden light dancing wildly from the fire over her long limbs. The way her pulse beat delicately at the base of her throat, or how the freckle marking the soft flesh between her breasts beckoned him, calling him to press his lips there.

“I need ye. Christ, forgive me, and I’ll spend each day loving ye and treating ye like the gift ye are.”

Kate grinned, her legs straddling his waist and her eyes watery.

“I only ever wish to have a choice.” She raked her hand back into his hair. A soft touch that was an undoing, stripping him from what he knew of the world as if she were Delilah herself bringing down the giant. “To be your wife, I mean. I would have agreed at the inn. I could see it in your eyes…”

Her voice trailed off, and her hand came to rest on his chest, above his heart, her brows drawn in concentration.

“I forgive you, Gabe. And I love you, even when you are so…”

She pulled her gaze away and peered at the fire. His hands reached up her body, skimming up her hips and waist to rest at her ribs. He could feel the delicate bones beneath his touch and see the first bloom of a bruise.

“I’m what?”

Kate leaned down and pressed a kiss against his forehead, her breasts brushing against his chest. Sweet torture.

“I think you might be the only person who knows me, truly. We are not perfect, you and I. And Lord knows we are both headstrong, but…” She drew up and kissed his cheeks, then his lips for a moment, running her tongue along the seam of his mouth. “I came to Scotland looking to run away because I feared there was nothing left for me, and I found a home instead. Leaving was the hardest thing I’ve had to do, and I never wish to be parted from you again. ”

“Then dinna.”

“There you go, attempting to be charming.”

“Would you rather me growl?”

“I’ve a fondness for it.”

Gabriel did so, half in jest, until her quim pressed against his cock, and then he did so in earnest, pulling her onto his lap. “Wrap yer legs around me, lass.”

His cock pressed against her entrance, and she issued the softest sigh. “There now.” Her long legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer to her. He lifted her chin and kissed her, softly, tenderly.

“Are ye sure ye’re well? I can have the surgeon examine you again.”

Kate reached between them, guiding his cock to her entrance. “I am many things, darling, and he assured us both earlier that I will heal. But I’m not strong enough to resist you any longer, please. Don’t make me wait.”

“Ye wish to feel me inside of ye, moving inside of ye?”

She reached back into his hair and tugged, moaning as she tilted her hips. His cock slipped against that sensitive bud between her legs.

“Do ye feel me now, mo leannan? Do ye feel what ye do to me?”

She tilted her hips as he pressed against her entrance, slowly, until she opened to him, and he slid into her warm heat.

Gabriel groaned, cradling her against him as she seated herself fully.

“Shh, now.” He brushed back her hair and kissed her shoulder, grazing his teeth over her skin. “Gentle, now.”

Kate rested against his chest, her arms tightly around his neck, and slowly moved her hips, testing a slow rhythm.

“Damn it,” he hissed. “It feels too good, lass. I…”

“Shh,” she whispered. She brought her mouth to his and kissed away the last of the thoughts that swirled in his mind. Nothing else mattered except this.

This with her.

Bloody brilliant.

Kate rocked against him, her muscles tightening under his touch, her skin warm and slick against his as they both panted .

“No’ yet, wait,” he ordered, thrusting against her in a quick stroke. “Together, lass. We’ll find our end together.”

Kate tightened around him, rocking faster as he met her movements, as desperate and needy.

“I wish to spend in ye, to have my seed in ye. Do ye understand? Ye’re mine. Say, aye .”

She pulled her mouth to his and kissed him. “Yes.” She dug her fingers into his shoulder as his balls tightened, and Kate’s quim pulsed around him before he spent inside of her.

And for a moment, silence.

Just their bodies wrapped together by the fireplace in his room, the air perfumed with the smell of sex, and her lips and hands caressing him as if to reassure herself they could share such pleasure. That it hadn’t been some fever dream.

Kate collapsed against his chest, resting her forehead against his. Gabriel reclined back onto the pillow on the floor and drew the blanket over them, his eyes heavy and his heart happy.

And not a worry, for once, about dying young.

Or there not being enough time.

Only that he loved this woman more than life itself, and he wished to love her, and she had agreed to be his wife.