“I am not sure. But I do not want to walk with you with all those people about. I am always sharing you now. We have had little time together, the way we did in Langdon’s End.”
He faced her. “We were lovers then. This is how it is when you are friends. You often see each other in the company of other friends.”
She went over to him. “Must it be that way? Can’t we have time such as we did in the garden last week? My time is poorer when you are gone, and only half-joyous when there are others with us.”
“Poorer?Poorer?” He strode into the chamber. “Eva, you demanded a promise from me, and I have kept it. However, Iam a madman when I am with you. Can you even imagine what hell this has been? I do not just miss your company, damn it. I hunger for you. I walk around insane with lust while I play the visitor’s guide and the good neighbor. So do not ask me to attend on you in private and provide amusement so your time is notpoorer.”
“I do not need amusement. I don’t. I need—” She reached out and placed her palm on his chest. Warmth. She needed warmth. She closed her eyes and savored the connection under her hand.
“Eva, you are in grave danger of being ravished, and honor be damned. Remove your hand and step back.”
She opened her eyes and looked at her hand. “I cannot remove it. It is stuck.” She moved it across his chest, under his coat. “Oh, look. It can move. Not totally stuck. Just too heavy to lift, I suppose.” She caressed up, over his shoulder, feeling all the bones and muscles that gave it such an appealing form.
He suffered it, showing more stoicism than she wanted. What happened to honor be damned? She stepped closer, so his scent filled her head. Her lips hovered an inch from his chin, tantalizing him. She smoothed her hand down between them lower yet. His stomach tensed when she passed over it. His erection brushed the back of her hand. She closed her fingers around it through his trousers.
“Damnation, Eva.” His fingers stretched through her hair, holding her head against his chest. He turned her head so her face angled up. He claimed her with a kiss full of the hunger he spoke of. He throbbed in her hand, getting larger and harder. She embraced him with her other arm, and skimmed her fingertips down until they traced the hard swell of his bum.
Her arousal spun through her hotly, colored with the contentment of returning to a familiar place.Once again. There can be little harm in that.
Their bodies entwined, joined by reckless passion and desperate kisses and grasping embraces. She wanted more. More closeness. She pulled his coat down and he shrugged it off. Her own garments annoyed her. She wanted him totally touching her, his skin on hers and his body overwhelming her. She broke an arm free to try and reach back to unfasten her dress.
“There is no time.” He pushed her so she fell onto the bed. He knelt beside it and lifted her skirt and chemise. “Come here. Closer.”
She knew what he intended. “No.”
“Yes.”
“I will scream.”
“Cover your mouth.” He moved her himself, lifting her hips and shifting them to the bed’s edge.
She did not resist. She did not want to. She parted her knees and waited breathlessly for the first kiss. All of her waited—urging, yearning, throbbing. When it came, she groaned with relief, then with astonishment at how the sensations destroyed all sense. Again she moaned. It turned into a begging cry. With her last bit of sanity she pressed her palm against her mouth.
She made no noises to be heard after that. They stayed inside her. Making her frantic. The pleasure built and built, and her eyes teared from the intensity. The scream of her release also remained inside her, multiplying its effect, lengthening the exquisite pitch of delirium.
She reclaimed the world and opened her eyes. Gareth stood in front of her, hot-eyed, aroused, overwhelming her with the power of his sex. She pushed herself up and reached to release his lower garments. When they dropped she caressed his phallus.
“Kiss me. Do you understand what I mean?”
For a moment she did not. Then she looked up at him.
He flipped her over. “I am too far gone, anyway.” He made no more requests. He gave no instructions. He moved her as he pleased, until she knelt low with her hips high. He pushed up her garments again, until he exposed her bottom and legs.
He made her wait. He caressed her bottom. “It is hell that I want you so badly.” He pressed his erection between her thighs, but not in her. It touched and pressed that most sensitive spot. She gritted her teeth to try and control the shudder of need that screamed through her. “When you are dancing at the ball, remember how you feel right now, Eva. Remember the bastard who can make you weep with desire.”
He entered her, taunting her with his slowness. Again and again he tantalized her until she did weep, silencing the sounds with the bedclothes. Then gentleness disappeared and he took her harder than he ever had, until another release crashed through her in a cataclysm of howling sensations.
She collapsed on the bed. He did not. Sounds penetrated her stupor. She looked over to see him locking the door. He returned and sat on the bed.
“Damned boots,” he muttered. He pulled them off. He shed his shirt and trousers, then turned and unbuttoned her dress.
When they were both naked and lying side by side, he began the passion again.
***
Gareth rolled onto his back after the convulsive pleasure subsided. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Long shadows danced on the nearest wall. The light outside the windows showed dusk gathering to the east, but orange streaks enflamed the western sky. The window framed it all like a picture.
Beside him on her back, her head facing away, Eva watched too, as if she memorized it.
