She smiled. “You told me that already.”
“Did I tell you I’ve dreamt ofthis?” A deep, claiming thrust accompanied the last word.
Her eyelids fluttered. “So have I.”
“You’re perfect.”
“So are you.”
“Ha.” Still buried inside her, he grabbed her wrists and rolled onto his back. “Straddle me.”
“What happened to me giving the orders?” Hands splayed on his chest, she pushed herself upright and trembled when his shaft shifted inside her.
“Ride me,” he commanded, his gaze dark and heated. “You can control the rhythm. I’ll match my movements to yours.”
She tensed her thighs, rose up, lowered. He slid his palm from her knee to her hip, then down across her stomach until his thumb circled the area just above their joined bodies. When she fell forward, he captured her breast in his mouth. He bent his knees so her rear rested against his thighs, angling his shaft even further inside her. His fingers never stopped their exquisite torment of steady circular strokes.
Her body clenched, once, twice.
“Gavin,” she gasped. “You’re making me…I’m going to…”
He lifted his mouth from her breast long enough to say, “Do it.” He continued tilting his hips, filling her, stroking her. “Come for me,” he whispered.
She couldn’t help it. She cried out, shattered against him, gripped his torso with her thighs. His shaft jerked inside her, throbbed against her contracting muscles, then suddenly jerked free. He took her mouth in a demanding kiss.
Muscles trembling, she collapsed atop his chest. She lay there several minutes listening to his racing heart slowly return to its normal pace. The musky scent of their lovemaking filled the room.
He stroked her hair from her face, kissed the top of her head, wrapped his arms around her, and held her tight.
“I could make love to you for the rest of my life,” he murmured into her hair.
She nodded against his chest. “I’m going to miss you.”
He paused, tensed, pressed his lips fiercely against her forehead. “If I was ensured of living long enough to follow through on a promise, I would make you one now. You’re not the kind of woman a man can just walk away from.”
She shook her head, lifted her chin to make eye contact with him. “It’s all right. I’ve never been the marrying kind.” At the moment, however, she couldn’t remember why that was. “But I don’t want you to walk away. Not yet. I’m still awake. I want you to stay all night, and love me again. Will you?”
“Of course.” He tilted his neck forward, kissed her. “I can’t help it.”
“Thank you.” Evangeline rubbed her thumb along the edge of his jaw, smoothing the bristly stubble, tracing the line of his scar. “How did you get this?”
“Dueling.”
Her eyes widened. “Dueling?”
“Not over anything honorable, trust me.”
She kissed the scar, then his lips. “Then over what?”
“A girl. My brother’s girl. David caught us kissing and called me out immediately. We couldn’t duel with pistols because we were the only heirs and my father would’ve killed us both. David chose rapiers, said we would fight till first blood. I’ll always believe he meant to slice open my neck. I didn’t blame him, then or now.” Gavin glanced away, as if unwilling or unable to meet her eyes. “I told you I wasn’t a good person.”
“How old were you?”
“Sixteen, same as the girl. David was twenty.”
“What happened to the girl?”
Gavin gave a wry chuckle. “He married her. Not long after, my parents died. I haven’t seen my brother since.”
