“For arguments sake, let us pretend that we will leave Dunster and never return,” she said softly. “You and I could never legally marry, Gart. Any children you and I had would be bastards. Please know that I would run with you this very moment if it was just me but I must think of my children. I do not know if it is fair to them to make such a decision affecting their future. We would be selfish to think only of ourselves.”
He gently took her hand and brought it to his lips for a sweet kiss. “I am a selfish man,” he admitted quietly. “If I want something, I take it.”
“In this case, it is not that simple.”
He appeared downcast, his lips against her fingers. “I realize that,” he murmured. “But I am offering happiness and love for the rest of your life. You would never know fear from me, only protection and security. Does that not outweigh the lure of Julian and his empire?”
She watched him kiss her hand, feeling the excitement his warmth brought. The only kiss she had ever known was Julian’s, and that didn’t compare to what Gart was doing. The bolts of lightning were tearing through her. Now, she was coming to understand what a kiss really meant. Gart had shown her that.
“As I said, if there was only myself to think about, there would be no question,” she whispered. “I would go with you this very moment. But we must think of the children.”
“Iamthinking of the children. They cannot live their lives in fear of their father. Who is to say that when they grow older, Julian will not beat them also? Is Romney’s inheritance worth that risk?”
She knew he meant well but it wasn’t as simple as he pretended it was. She also knew that, deep down, he understood that. Right now, Gart was only thinking of what he wanted and little else. Without an argument, Emberley laid her head against his armored shoulder, swamped and overwhelmed with a situation she had never believed she would ever face. It was exhausting.
“Let us speak no more of it today,” she said softly. “I think we both need some time to understand what has happened.”
He looked at her blond head against his arm. Then he shifted, winding his big arms around her and gazing into her deep, blue eyes. He took a moment simply to gaze at her, to acquaint himself with the feel of her in his arms. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world.
“I already understand what has happened,” he said quietly. “I have finally found what I have been looking for all of these yearsand I will have her. I am not sure how yet, but I will. Mark my words.”
Emberley gazed up into his eyes, the features so strong and handsome. “I still cannot believe it,” she admitted. Then she lifted an eyebrow at him. “It would have saved us a good deal of trouble if you had declared your intentions about eight years ago.”
He laughed softly. “I do not think I could have,” he told her. “Erik would have run me through. As it is, he still might rise from the grave and come after me.”
She giggled. “I think he would have been very grateful.”
“For what?”
“For trying to save his sister from hell.”
Gart’s smile faded as he gazed into her lovely face. He didn’t have anything to say to that. Closing his eyes, his lips slanted gently over hers.
The first few seconds of the kiss were soft, gentle, tantalizing. But soon enough, he was intoxicated with the feel and smell of her and his senses overwhelmed him. The lightning flashed again, this time swamping them both, and he pulled her into a crushing embrace, his tongue invading her sweet mouth. But it still wasn’t enough. He had to have more.
Emberley had never been kissed with such passion. At first, Gart frightened her with his onslaught and she tried to pull away, but very quickly, she realized that she wasn’t frightened at all. Gart was powerful and manly, and she realized that she craved him more than she had realized. As his mouth left hers and blazed a heated trail down her neck, all self-control left her. She could no longer resist him. She’d never known such heat or lust in her life and, with a gentle growl, she snaked her hands underneath his mail and tunic to make contact with his muscular body.
Her heated hands caressed his tight abdomen, flesh against flesh. Gart went mad. He ripped his mail off, then his tunic, and didn’t remember doing either. All he remembered was the feel and taste of Emberley. Her fine surcoat disintegrated beneath his hands, the sounds of material ripping filling the chamber. Before either of them realized it, she was nude but for the hose tied to each leg with a silk ribbon. When Gart realized her state of dress, it threw him over the edge. He latched on to her mouth and picked her up in his big arms.
Emberley wrapped her legs around his waist, as a child would, her arms around his neck as he carried her to the bed and carefully laid her down on the coverlet. He suckled on a delicate earlobe but she turned the tables on him, latching on to his shoulder and suckling his smooth flesh. He groaned as she moved to a nipple, hissing when she latched onto the peaked flesh and suckled hard. It was driving him out of his mind. With his last shred of sanity, he released his breeches and they collapsed around his knees.
Grabbing Emberley by the hair, he pulled her off of his chest and settled himself between her legs, his hands moving to her ripe, full breasts and loving the feel of them. She was round and lush. His heated mouth suckled her tender nipples, first one breast and then the other, and Emberley whimpered softly as he lapped and drew at them. His hands were everywhere, caressing her, acquainting himself with her body, before moving to the fluff of dark curls between her legs.
He could feel the moist heat against his fingers as he stroked her. Being that Emberley was not a virgin, she didn’t flinch from his touch. Although sex with Julian had been a duty, she still knew something about it. Julian had made sure to educate his naïve wife.
Emberley grasped Gart’s hand and pushed it up against her pink folds and Gart took the hint. He stroked her intimately,invading her responsive body with his big fingers and listening to her weep softly with joy. His mouth was on her breasts, her ribcage, nibbling along the curve of her torso as his fingers stroked in and out of her. Finally, when he could stand no more, Gart lifted himself up and thrust firmly into her slick, heated body.
Emberley cried out softly as he drove into her, lifting her pelvis to his, wrapping her slender legs around his hips and drawing him in deeper with every stroke. She held him tightly with her legs as her hands wandered to his buttocks, her fingers invading the crease between his hard cheeks, touching deeply intimate places.
Gart was so highly aroused that he groaned as he felt her little fingers, seeking his private crevices, and he gently removed her probing fingers. He knew if she continued that he would spill himself too soon, so he took both hands and stretched them sensually over her head, tenderly trapping her as his great manhood thrust deeply into her.
Emberley was lost in a haze of delirious desire. She could feel every one of Gart’s thrusts deep inside her, touching her womb, feeling her tremors of pleasure begin. As his mouth moved down her neck to her breasts, a powerful climax came over her, followed by another. Gart was merciless as he felt her walls tighten around him, wanting to prolong her pleasure and his own.
Eventually, he could no longer hold his concentration and he spilled his hot seed deep into her beautiful body, feeling every last tremor with the greatest of pleasure. But even as he went through the throes of his release, he could feel her climax yet again and he continued to move deep within her, not wanting the experience of their first coupling to end. It had been the most powerful personal experience of his life.
When their sweating, heated bodies slowed to a halt, Gart found himself looking Emberley in the eye. He was still buried deep within the soft, moist haven of her sweet body. They just stared at each other, shocked at the power of their mating. It was more than either one of them could have imagined, an experience that went above and beyond simple passion and emotion. It delved into the realm of the soul. Gart leaned forward and very gently, very sweetly, kissed her on the lips.
“I love you,” he murmured against her mouth. “For all time, I will love you and only you.”
