Passion (31 page)

Aware of her generous shape, her weight,
Gabriella still could not help but relish this closeness, this
mood….this side of Raith. Being near him awakened all her emotions,
their past, the good and bad things, the healed, and unhealed.
However, it also stirred her unspoken feelings for him.

Turning his head as she raised hers, he
brushed his lips on her temple and leaned back. His eyes were pitch
black. This time Gabriella saw how open and expressive they were,
how free of shadows…

Under all the chaos of other sensations, they
were also aroused. She knew it. She could not help it. Need was
something intertwined with the longing to heal, to comfort, to be
close, to vent—and at the same time, have a safe place to do it.
All the unspoken in him and in herself did not need words. Much of
it, each knew, felt, more intense and profound because of that.

“Take me somewhere…” It was she who said
it.

After scanning her face, he helped her up and
unfolded his frame, reminding Gabriella that though healing, he was
a tall and well-honed man.

He said, “Wait here, while I speak to
Ry.”

She asked one of the maids to fetch her
cloak.

He had his long coat when he returned. They
left, taking a coach she assumed was his father’s. He sent it back
when they exited, and though few servants were about, she knew it
was his father’s mansion they entered.

Raith showed her to his apartments, and
Gabriella noted that though respectful, the servants did not fuss
over him. They were at the rear of the house. The scent of the
blooming gardens permeated the chambers when he opened windows. A
lamp shone beyond the seating area at the bedside.

She removed her cloak, watching him do the
same and pour wine. He had his jacket off as well by the time he
handed her a glass.

Cupping his by the bulb, he drank and ran a
hand through his hair. There was three feet between them, three
feet of amber lit space. Nothing seemed to register beyond him, in
Gabriella’s mind.

“We should have a thousand things to say to
each other. To talk about…” he husked setting his glass down.

She did likewise but walked toward him,
reaching up to cup those lean cheeks. “I need you.”

As if that broke something in him, Raith
covered her hands and brought them down, holding them just behind
her, clasped with his. He began kissing her. She felt a jolt of
fire and dizzying heat. Unlike before, the desperate and lost
before, his sensual mouth was silken, warm, tongue seductive,
gliding through her inner mouth and over her tongue with sensual
hunger.

Breathing sharp, fast, she felt him release
her hands. Those hands went to his shoulders, his arms while she
kissed naturally, passionately, telling him more than the words,
what her passion felt like. The kiss broke enough for him to draw
in his breath. Raith undid his neck cloth and collar. Her hands
took over, sweeping inside his shirt, popping buttons to get to
skin.

He murmured her name. They moved to the
sleeping area, and beside the bed, his shirt off and her hair free
of the combs. Her gown hooks undone, and then the corset and
chemise were dealt with. While he took off his boots, she stepped
out of the velvet pumps.

So caught up in the tight heat of want,
Gabriella was in a haze as he stepped back to view her body—the
lush breasts, full curves, that tumble of dark hair.

Raith glanced at her eyes before his hands
cupped her full breasts, his thumb brushing the large nipples and
making them shrink. After observing those hands a moment, both of
them having done so, their eyes met.

“You are too beautiful for words, Tara.”

She swallowed, dizzy, heady, holding to his
arms having noticed all the scars on his upper body, just before he
bent his head and pushed each breast up for his suckling. She knew,
had known, it would be wonderful. It was so beyond that, so sexual
and erotic, and because it was Raith, so much her
fantasy….Gabriella moaned and then let her head fall back, her
nails digging into his upper arms.

He did not rush, Raith relished and did
variations of licking, suckling, massaging so that he had her
panting, moaning louder and himself breathing heavy and dark.

When he sought her mouth again, lips cool,
moist, she brought her body, her breasts, against his chest, in a
desperate attempt to get closer.

Raith ended the deeper kiss, breathing harder
against her skin whilst he kissed her cheek and ear. He stepped
back and sat her on the edge of the bed, again seeming to look over
her, to savor her image before he was on his knees between her bare
thighs. His hands smoothing over the supple skin of her thighs, he
stared at her and let his thumbs go inward. Reaching her sex, the
pad of one thumb glided in the slickness of her arousal. He brought
it up, parting the curls, teasing tender skin, feeling the jolt go
through her and openly fascinated with the response showing in her
eyes.

“Part for me,” he murmured, deep and raspy.
When she accommodated, he glided his finger in deep, holding a
moment and then in and out of her while he kissed her nipples and
flicked them with his tongue.

Teeth sank in her lip, she felt him urge her
back, felt him lift her thighs wide and high, before his mouth was
there, tongue rubbing, and lips suckling those nerves. Fingers
tangled in the comforter, Gabriella arched and lifted her shapely
backside into his movements. The sheer aggression in him, the
intense way he laved, tasted, and even thrust his tongue in her,
had the world spinning and the tight fire in her combusting in
moments.

Panting, her lashes lifting, she saw him
divest his breeches, and noticed his scars below too, but was
stirred by the potent maleness of his body, the full thrust of his
sex. Gabriella helped him as he nudged her back on the bed.

He felt exquisite between her thighs,
masculine and warm.

His forearms braced at her shoulders, the
head of his cock poised at her entry, Raith looked into her still
pleasure filled eyes. “No pain this time.”

“It wasn’t so bad…”

His thumb over her lip stopped her speech. He
began moving inch by inch inside her. “It wasn’t good either, and
you haven’t the nature or the body for a less than pleasing
lover.”

She was tight. Gabriella could tell. Watching
his expression, she knew he was being cautious.

“You like this?”

He grunted and closed his eyes a moment. “I
like it.”

She bent her knees higher on his side,
helping her body and his. The slick heat of her did the rest.

She heard his groan and knew it was
pleasure.

Raith began the movements, carefully, but
that did not satisfy either of them. Having bit his neck and
shoulder, she glided her hands down his back, low, and arched her
neck to plead, “Don’t hold back. We need this. We need
to….feel…”

She did not finish because he half raised,
looked at her with glittering eyes, and began to move, firm, deep,
in and out while his hands lifted her hips.

“Yes.”

Raith echoed that and then rasped, “Hold onto
me.” He sped his movements so that there was no end to the
sensations for either of them.

When he came she had the feeling it caught
him by surprise.

Later, washed and laying on her stomach,
Gabriella had her eyes closed. Raith was kissing her spine and
playing with her hair. He had planted soft kisses up the back of
her legs, over her backside and had glided his hands over that skin
too.

She finally rolled and then leaned over him,
taking in the quieter look of his eyes and his mussed hair. His
body felt good, warmed, and his scent stirred her as much as his
touch. She stared at his mouth so long it was doubtless telling.
That mouth was soft, sensual, and he could do incredible things
with it.

His palm went over her breast he met her
gaze, and he brushed the nipple.

She felt his sex stir and harden against her
thigh.

Gabriella stretched and kissed him, loose,
erotic, then positioned herself astride him. With his hands on her
hips, she kissed him more, still soft, sexual. By the time she
lifted and took him inside their breathing was not steady.

“Christ,” that escaped his mouth as she began
to move. Raith was lost now, taken, pleasured, and awed by the
dusky skinned Gypsy who moved sensually on him. He arched, held to
her hips, played with her nipples and watched through half lowered
lids as she leaned her head back and undulated, moaning, whispering
her pleasure in a woman’s voice, a woman’s power and need.

When he felt the climax threatening, he
rolled her to her back, her legs over his shoulders, and finished
with short, quick, hot thrusts that had them both groaning loud
between sexual words.

They bathed and dressed. Raith intended to
take her back to her father’s house. However, they were kissing
again, lovers kisses now that they had been intimate. He lay her
back down and pleasured her, brought her to climax again, so it was
nearly dawn, when they were at last in a hack he hired.

Although they should have been tired, neither
were. Sitting by the curb before going in, Raith studied her in the
grey light he reached for her hand.

“I’m going to see my mother and Uncle.”

She smiled. “That’s wonderful.”

He nodded, not smiling but studying her. “I
have to start over, or rather, start anew. And though part of it is
beyond denying, a truth, I have to do it without…”

She finished softly, “Without someone of your
past, some unfinished relationship, and guilt, whatever? You have
to do it on your own.”

He nodded.

Gabriella slid up and took his hand, watching
him lace their fingers. “I want that for you. For the both of
us.”

He looked down, bringing her hand to his
mouth a moment. “I’ve no right. I should not even voice it…I want
your happiness too. But I want…you.”

He lifted his head, his pitch eyes steady.
“If I say I love you, knowing my past, ours, and everything we’ve
still to heal, would you believe I know how to love you? Aside from
making love, Tara. I mean to be a partner and everything love
means?”

Her eyes shone but she knew this conversation
was important to them both. “I understand it. All the layers of it.
I loved you years ago, and yet there were moments…”

She sighed and loosed her hand to touch his
mouth. “I want you. In many ways, I need you. I do not feel whole
without you. I want to explore all the passion, the right kind,
with you. But… I want you in that place of no ghosts, no guilt, and
no doubts. I want both of us—to know it is because of something
more than what we have had and where we’ve been together.”

He took her in his embrace. After kissing her
softly, his thumb brushed her lips, and his eyes that shone. He
said before letting her out, “I owe your father a talk, an
explanation. Although, he is glad to have you in his life. As a
man, I saw the questions in his eyes. This is not the day for it,
but he will know I took you away tonight. I do not have pretty
answers for the past, not even noble ones, in some people’s eyes.
But I owe him.”

She nodded.

When they were out, He stood with her by the
door and softly kissed her again.

“It’s not your fault.” She said quietly when
he stepped away.

Raith turned.

“The plan, me, whatever you think you’re
guilty of. I would have done it all anyway, and likely not lived.
And…as bad as being with him intimately was, as much as it became
torment to see what my mother and others likely suffered, I had my
own dark and tormented reasons for needing to. Not healthy, I know,
but hate and anger, grief, it gets like a poison…”

Searching his face, she met his gaze and
whispered, “I didn’t stay and do it your way because I had to. I
did it that way—because I knew it would work—and I stayed, because
I loved you and I understood you. I wanted you to have peace and be
whole, but I understood your darkness and silence, and my lashing
out…”

He stepped back toward her. “I knew that.
Not, that you loved me, but I knew…”

She smiled a bit and nodded.

He touched her cheek. “I sank further into
the dark and coldness because I found myself wanting you. I was
tormented by guilt, true. I fought every feeling not connected to
her. I’m sorry.” He kissed her softly and when arising said, “If
there’s a reason we survived this… if there’s such a thing as
forever. Do you think we know how to make that forever good for
each other?”

“I do. I do think so.” She smiled at him. “We
are terribly passionate people, Raith. Much of that passion has
always been for each other. We once used it in darkness, but in
life, in really living, there is no limit to what we can do.”

He smiled too, and it captivated her. It
displayed his handsomeness in a completely new light. “You trust
me.”

“I do.” She nodded.

His smile faded but his eyes were full of
emotions when he turned and got in the coach.

Gabriella slipped inside and up to her rooms.
He loved her. She felt it in every eloquent movement and
expression. He loved her, but he wanted her to believe he did so
for the right reasons.

Chapter 12

Caroline walked into the study in the middle
of their shouted explanations.

Silence fell.

Shored up by whiskey and Gabriella’s words,
she drew herself and looked at her father first. “I didn’t expect
to run into him, and I did literally. I never anticipated anything
other than what was expected of me. I never thought to feel or
think anything—other than what everyone assumed, I did. I never
wanted… to disappoint you.”

She turned to Jules next. “I knew someone
would ask for me, someone father and society would approve of. And,
you, were the enviable prize. Before I met Blaise, I would have
gone through the motions. I would have done everything expected of
me. I do not have to tell you what that is. You know what your
perception of me is. It is my fault, or perhaps the fault of the
world we move in. it hardly matters. I even thought I could do
it…afterwards. I thought of society, of father, of everything I was
supposed to be—and was not anymore. I don’t know—I never
expected…to meet anyone or feel anything like that…”