“Aye. There are many ways to give and receive pleasure.”
Her cheeks bloomed with color, and she lowered her lashes. “Did you learn how to do that when you lived in London, with any of those women who…” Her voice trailed off.
“Women who did such things for a living?” he finished for her. “Nay, Catherine, I never touched a woman like that before. I never wanted to. Not until you.”
She blushed again. “’Twas wonderful,” she whispered, stroking her hand across his bare chest. Then she smiled and leaned up on her elbow to gaze at him, almost stilling his breath when she added softly, “And ’tis even better knowing that turnabout is fair play.”
It was his turn to groan when she reached down to caress the straining, rigid length of him through his breeches. He felt her loosening the laces, her nimble fingers working swiftly; in an instant his erection sprang from its confinement, and she grasped him, caressing him with both hands.
He lost all sense of time and place when she bent her head to him, kissing him gently before taking him into her mouth. In moments he was arching with pleasure just as she had, only he pulled away at the last instant for fear of releasing too early.
“Did I do something wrong?” she murmured, frowning as she sat up to look at him. He tried not to laugh his denial. For a widow with two children, Catherine was more an innocent than most virgins.
Her tumbled hair shone lustrous in the firelight, the pink tips of her nipples just peeking through the silky tendrils. But when she nibbled her lower lip in distress, Gray feared that he might spill onto the floor like a green lad; her succulent mouth was full and rosy, her lips still moist from her ministrations on him. God help him, but the woman could set a stone statue ablaze with desire and she didn’t even know it.
“Nay, Catherine, you did nothing wrong,” he managed to choke when he could command himself to breathe again. “’Twas only too good to bear for longer without…well without—”
Her eyes went wide with comprehension. “Oh.” A moment later, she beamed. “In that case…” Leaning down, she kissed him playfully, and he growled, nipping at her shoulder as he rolled her beneath him. Her surprised shriek quickly faded to a moan of surrender when he pressed himself, hot and hard, between her legs. She arched up to meet him, lifting her knees and pulling him in to stroke deeply inside her slick heat.
Stars danced before his eyes with the pleasure of their rhythmic movements; his hands clenched the fur on either side of her head, even as her fingers tightened on his buttocks, and she began to pulsate around him with another swift climax. She screamed aloud, and Gray groaned with each soft cry that echoed her fulfillment.
“Catherine, I love you,” he said against her cheek when she’d quieted. He lifted himself on his arms to gaze at her, still rocking gently in and out of her. “With all that I am, I love you. Now until I die.”
“And I you, Gray,” she whispered, tears of happiness gathered in her eyes. “Forever.” She gazed up at him, her face glowing with that seductive, angelic beauty that had captivated him from the very first time he looked at her.
He bent his head down to capture her mouth, lost in the erotic and ancient pulse of their hips and tongues, delving deeper, tantalizing, stroking in perfect time. Words of promise and redemption spilled from him, returned by her in soft, throaty whispers. He breathed in her scent, tasted her sweetness, felt her soft, writhing heat cradling each thrust of his hips.
Through heavy-lidded eyes, Gray watched Catherine arch back into the pillows, grasping his arms and sliding her hands up as he stroked deeper. Her fingers clenched his shoulders when their tempo increased once more. She kept murmuring his name, her moans becoming louder as she lifted her hips to his again and again.
But when she wrapped her long, beautiful legs around his waist, he lost control. She cried out again as they peaked together, and he found himself spiraling into bliss so intense that his mind shattered into a million colored stars. The love he felt for her washed over him, then, a shower of beautiful, perfect light that soothed him, healed him, made him whole…
And banished his painful past forever.
Gray still held Catherine nestled close to him several hours later. She was sleeping peacefully, but he couldn’t rest. His brain kept churning, kept reliving every agonizing detail of what she’d told him about Montford’s evil. Even now his skin crawled with disgust and anger over what the bastard had done, not only to Catherine, but to the real Elise as well.
He tightened his arm around her protectively, and she sighed, shifting and nuzzling closer to his chest. Damn Eduard de Montford to hell. He’d pay, by God. Montford would live to regret every moment of pain Catherine and her children had suffered at his hands. This Gray vowed in the silent darkness.
But first little Ian and Isabel needed to be rescued from Faegerliegh Keep.
Studying the ebbing moon patterns that shifted along the wall, Gray reviewed the plan in his mind again. At first light, he’d rouse Alban and gather a contingent of men to prepare a siege on Montford’s estate. He already knew that Eduard had taken his best knights with him to journey with King Henry. Gray’s forces could overcome those left behind in Somerset without too much difficulty.
It should be simple, really. Once they’d subdued Faegerleigh’s guards, Catherine could lead them through the intricate passages of the keep to find her children. They would scoop up the twins, ride out, and be back at Ravenslock before sunset the next day.
He’d already prepared a dispatch to send to the king, explaining their situation. With any luck, Henry’s sense of justice would override the anger he’d feel at Gray’s thwarting his sanctions again.
And if not…
Gray closed his eyes and breathed deep, determined to put it out of his mind for now. It was a moot point. Even if King Henry chose to exert his full power as sovereign and follow through on his threat to remove Gray’s titles and estates as punishment for defying him, Gray knew it would make no difference.
A sweet rush of emotion flooded him at the irony of this sudden turn of events. It was almost as if he’d been given another chance. An opportunity to right a great wrong in a way that he’d never been able to do for Gillian.
And he wouldn’t fail Catherine or her children. On his life, he swore he’d not falter. Never again.
This time, vengeance would be his.
“Milady!”
Catherine rolled over, pulling the coverlet over her ears at the buzzing sound. A fly, perhaps? In a foggy corner of her brain, she decided to speak to Gray about having someone come up to the chamber to search out the pest. It—
