She gasped. “Won’t this work better if we are both undressed?”
“We make love one time and now you are an expert?” He wiggled the finger and she nearly came off the bed. He stroked her slowly back and forth until her hips bucked against him.
“Oh… my…” she moaned. How did he know the exact right things to do to her? She’d let him do anything, as long as he didn’t stop. Clarke stroked the tight bead until she burned and broke into a thousand pieces.
“Now I will undress,” he said with a satisfied grin.
Adeline was sure it was record time as he shrugged out of his coat, linen shirt, and breeches.
Her hands grasped his broad muscled shoulders as he covered her. The tip of him pressed against her damp flesh and slid in. He brushed a curl from her face and took her chin. “I was not able to say my true feeling during the church service today. I love you, Adeline. I thought I did back when we were much younger, but it is for so many more reasons today.”
She cocked a brow and asked, “What are these newly added reasons?”
“I love the way you bite your lip when you are thinking.”
“I do not,” she protested.
He kissed her. “You are doing it at this moment. I love that you have created a family out of the battle-scarred ruins of death since my return.”
“I feel David was with us today, happy you are the new Lord.”
“Most of all, I love you for accepting the things I fight to change about myself.”
“We will do it together.”
With this he drove his hips forward and buried deep inside her. She cried out his name wanting to be a part of his pleasure. Grabbing his buttocks, she pulled him tight against her, into her. He responded by increasing the pace. They moved as one until they shattered over the peak together.
Adeline kissed his forehead and waited until he fell asleep with his arms still tightly around her.
She knew he would always love her. Clarke would never let her go.
Chapter One
Ellis Garrison breathed in the scent of fresh cut hay as he refolded the heavy wool horse blanket and threw it over the stable gate. He loved the smell. It reminded him of spring and everything new. He began to straighten when his ears filled with a horse’s panicked cry. The hair on his arms rose.
The cry came again. Good God! He knew the sounds of all his beasts with his back turned. He did not recognize it. It had to be the new horse he had taken on yesterday against his better judgment.
He looked around for his cane. It had been over eight months and he still wasn’t used to using it, or keeping track of where he’d propped it. Why could he never find the bloody thing when he needed it?
The horse cried again, this time the protest mixed with the curses from his stable hand.
He dragged his wounded leg and limped out of the barn towards the shouts. Ellis raised his hand against the bright light and squinted at the sun overhead. The Friesian, Liber, reared up on his hind legs over the stable hand sprawled on his back in the dirt. The man fumbled under his dirty coat and pulled out a pistol.
“No!” a female voice cried. “He’s only scared. Don’t shoot him!”
Callie Dunning? What the bloody hell was she doing here? The feather-brained chit was going to get herself stamped to death or shot if she carried on like this. Should I care? She’d crushed his heart before he’d left for the war.
The stable hand still had the barrel of the pistol pointed at the chest of the rearing horse.
“Give me the long lead,” she demanded.
The stable hand blinked.
“Now! Give me the lead you halfwit!” She stumbled forward and yanked the rope free from the man’s hand, then spun back to face the horse. “There you go—you’re fine. Everything will be fine.” She led the horse towards the far side of the round pen.
The horse stopped and whinnied. Callie shook her head. “No you don’t, come on, let’s all calm down.” Liber cried again but didn’t rear. She took an apple from her pocket. “One more time around without a temper tantrum and this is yours.”
Liber stomped his foot but followed her. Amazing.
Ellis limped into the pen. “I demand to know…”
She held up her hand. “Hush! Do you want to excite him again?”
“What?”
“You heard me.” Her gaze never left the horse’s. “If you scream and yell, you will just excite him. Who knows what he will do?”
“It’s my horse.” How dare she? Who did she think she was? He was the son of the Earl of Garrison and the owner of all these horses. She was, well… trespassing.