Gabriel brushed at that smudge of dirt, lifting his fingers to rub away the evidence of her adventure.The proof that she’d risked her lovely neck…for him.
“Lucy,” he growled, headache subsiding and the fiercest desire he’d ever known rising to take its place, pushing out everything that wasn’t this strong, thrumming need for her.
“Yes?”She was breathless, almost laughing, jubilant with her success.It was like holding an armful of firecrackers, ready to spiral off in sparks with the touch of a flame.
He wanted to be that flame.
“It’s late,” he said, never taking his eyes off her.“Thank you all, for everything.I’ll want to thank you again in the morning.But for now…”
“We’re going.”Dom laughed, clapping him on the shoulder as he edged past them and out the door.“My old bedroom open?I know the way.”
The Drakes slipped out with sleepy, conspiratorial smiles, and Uncle Roman followed them.He paused for a moment, his back to them, to say, “You did well tonight, my lady.Thank you.”
“I didn’t do it for you,” Lucy retorted, gazing up at Gabriel.Her eyes glowed, stars lighting their depths.Gabriel could have looked at her for a hundred years without growing tired of the view.
“I know,” Uncle Roman said gruffly.“All the same.”
Then he was gone, and they were alone in the drawing room.
“I don’t know whether to thank you,” Gabriel said, “or spank you.You marvel.”
Lucy colored prettily and wound her arms around his neck.“You could do both,” she suggested with a naughty grin that reached right down into Gabriel’s breeches and squeezed.
“Whatever you want, Lively,” he said, relishing her shiver and the way she squeaked when he bent to lift her into his arms and carry her to the settee.
They made love in front of the dying fire, the candles in the drawing room guttering out one by one as Gabriel checked every inch of Lucy’s body and shuddered anew at the risks she’d taken, the danger she’d been in.But when he pulled her over him to lie on his chest and said, “Lucy, promise me, never again—” she put her fingers to his lips and wouldn’t let him finish.
The steely resolve in her blue eyes made his throat burn.“I can’t promise anything of the sort.I’d go on a hundred midnight rides to save you.”
He had to kiss her then, craning up to take her luscious mouth which opened for him like her long, slim thighs opened to straddle his hips on the settee.
“Like this?”she moaned against his lips as his straining cock nudged at her soft, wet core.
“Are you too tired?”he crooned, smoothing her hair back and trailing kisses across the small, taut breasts so tantalizingly near his face.“Too tired for one more midnight ride?”
She laughed breathlessly and sat up, eyes flashing.“I’m never too tired for this.”
And then she lifted up and sank back down, swallowing every inch of his rigid prick with agonizing slowness that stole the very breath from his lungs.Gabriel stared up at her, his Valkyrie, hair loose and flying around her shoulders as she rode him to her own bliss, hips rocking in a deep, filthy grind until she shook and cried out.
Gabriel held on until her tremors stopped, then gritted his teeth and made to pull out.But Lucy clamped her thighs to his hips and said, “No.Stay.I want to feel it.”
That was more than Gabriel could withstand.He surged up and tumbled her beneath him, his own hips driving in savage thrusts until the mounting pleasure burst over him in a torrent of bliss.
He tucked her against him, adoring the way she curled her hands around his biceps, holding him in return.She was so sleepy in the aftermath, a warm snuggly bundle, and though Gabriel knew he should carry her upstairs to her own bedchamber, he gave himself one more minute to enjoy the trusting weight of her against his chest.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” he whispered.“You’re a temptress.You make me forget everything but you, and how much I need you.”
He felt her smile against the curve of his neck.“I’ve always dreamed of being wanted like that, but I never thought it would happen.”
Pressing a kiss to her hair, breathing in her sweet-tart lemon scent, mixed now with the familiar smells of horse and leather and night air, Gabriel smiled.In that moment, he truly didn’t care if he never got his memories back.
He had everything he needed, right there in his arms.
Lucy’s voice was soft and clear in the darkness.“I love you, Gabriel.”
“I want you more than anything on this earth.I love you,” he whispered back, heart full, and sank into sleep knowing the nightmares wouldn’t touch him so long as she was there.
ChapterTwenty-Three
