Rules for Reforming a Rake(118)

“You had better rethink that pact, because I’m not going to live my life regretting these last moments... not that I want them to be our last moments together, but if they are, they’d better be spectacular. I’m not letting you out of this room until I have you, all of you, heart, body, and soul to carry with me forever. And when a Farthingale says forever, she means it. Napoleon’s wrath will be nothing to mine if I don’t get my way in this. Please, Gabriel. Don’t walk away and leave me with nothing.”

He meant to refuse. He meant to hold firm and live by the rules that had kept him safe, numb, all these years, but he made the mistake of gazing into Daisy’s incredible blue eyes... eyes filled with love. For him.

To hell with pacts and to hell with rules. Had Daisy managed to get even one of Lady Forsythia’s rules right? The answer was a resounding no, yet she’d captured his heart in spite of it... probably because of it. Her body felt warm and soft as he slipped the shawl off her shoulders and then did the same with her gown, loosening the laces at her bosom to bare her creamy breasts. “Sweetheart,” he said in a whisper, his loins tight and on fire, his heart about to explode. “You’re so beautiful, you steal my breath away.”

She closed her eyes and arched into him as he cupped one soft, full mound in his palm. He teased his thumb across its pink tip and let out a groan as it hardened beneath his touch. He circled his arm around her waist to draw her closer, wanting her soft body crushed against him, needing to wrap her in his protective embrace and bury himself inside her.

He wanted to hear her breathy moans and feel the explosive heat of her passion as she reached her climax. He was lost and could no longer fight it. Giving in, he dipped his mouth to hers and took her in a long, deep kiss that roused a maelstrom of desire in both of them. Daisy was so open and passionate. She held nothing back in her response.

He slipped the gown off her luscious body, and then practically ripped off his own clothes.

Gad, you’d think this was his first time. Well, it was his first time with her. He wanted to make it right, a lifetime’s worth of right. His breath caught at the sight of her bandaged leg. He’d have to be careful with that tender wound.

He settled her flat upon the bed, his gaze soaking in all of her, the cream silk of her skin, her lush breasts and their perfect pink tips, her beautiful long legs. Her hair fanned out across the crisp, white sheets, those long, silken strands as dark as coal against them. Her eyes were as bright as a May sky, a warm, gleaming azure blue.

She wanted him.

She loved him.

He nudged his legs between hers, settling his large body atop her slender frame, though he balanced most of his weight on his elbows. She felt so good beneath him. Too good. He was hard and ready, his skin fiery hot and his muscles tense from the strain of wanting to take it slow with Daisy.

But his wife—damn, that sounded good—was too impatient.

So was he. His finger found the nub of her passion between her thighs and he gently began to stroke her there.

Her eyes shot open and she gasped, but as he continued to stroke and tease, her surprise gave way to heat, and soon her eyes were drifting closed, her body moving against his finger as she softly moaned his name. “Gabriel.”

Lord, she was beautiful. She wanted him. He felt her desire in the moist, liquid heat between her thighs.

An ocean breeze blew in cool, salty air through the open window. He dipped his head, kissed Daisy on the lips, and tasted the honeyed tea she had been drinking. He kissed a trail down her neck, then lower to her beautiful breasts, his tongue flicking across the budded tips, licking and tasting their silken warmth. Her breasts tasted like cinnamon and apples. She was a veritable feast for a starving man... and he’d been starved of real affection for so long. Finding it again, feeling it as sweetly as he did now, was all because of Daisy.

Only because of Daisy.

His heart thundered and blood heated as he poised himself over her and slowly entered her. Her legs wrapped around his waist as he thrust into her velvet opening with a satisfied growl.

“Magic,” she whispered against his ear, her hands on his shoulders and body straining awkwardly and innocently against his, seeking a fulfillment she had never experienced before, but she would soon... any moment now, for he was pushing and thrusting... and she was arching and trembling with heat and need, her body embracing each sensation. Her legs tightened around his waist and she raised her hips to fully absorb his shaft.

Gad, he was about to explode!

Each thrust brought him closer to mindless release, to heat and fire and savage hunger, to a craving for Daisy that would never be satisfied as long as he lived. He would always want more of her.