Page 92 of The Baron Takes a Bet
“Wedon’tneed a doctor,” Gavin hissed as he followed her to his bedchambers.
“Don’t you dare tell me no,” she countered.
“Here, see for yourself.” He shrugged off his coat and rolled up his blood-soaked sleeve.
Though it was messy, the cut was only superficial. Holly shook her head, undeterred.
“I see nothing that would keep me from ordering a doctor.”
“He may come first thing in the morning. I refuse to be poked tonight.”
“But it needs to be cleaned.”
“You can do that,” he said as they entered the room.
“Fine,” she said hotly, coming around the bed to wipe his arm with the hot water-soaked cloth the servants had just left.
She pressed against the wound, and he wondered if she was trying to make him wince. He watched as she made short work of tending his arm, even wrapping it in bandages like a skilled doctor. When she was finished, she sat back and stared at him.
He could not express the fury bubbling inside him since leaving Clemet Club. He felt as though he might choke on hiswords if he spoke, but the anger in Holly seemed to dissipate as she tended to his wound.
“I didn’t want to make that dreadful man notice me,” she said, her voice quiet, if not defensive. “But I didn’t want him to know our connection, either.”
Gavin stared at her, begrudgingly aware that she had done the correct thing. Regardless of her intentions, however, it still infuriated him.
“I wanted to kill him,” he said slowly. “And throttle you.”
She glanced at him, startled.
“Whatever for?”
“For going there in the first place. Not to mention making him stare at you so much,” Gavin said, his hand gripping hers as he pulled her towards him. “I never want you to behave like that ever again. God save the next man who leers at you.”
Holly’s bottom lip dropped as she stared at his mouth, now only inches away.
“Gavin—”
But he wouldn’t hear her explanations. Instead, he pulled her closer, kissing her with a heat he had only ever experienced in her presence. Never had he ever felt this sort of custody, as if he were possessed by some devil that commanded he care for her and only her.
As he pulled her on top of him, he knew that he was desperate to keep her. He had never known fear until he saw her enter that card room. All good sense had gone out of him, and he had barely been able to catch the tell from Kilmann. She was too much in his thoughts, too steadily ingrained in his life. He wanted her with him constantly, and it was a struggle to concentrate on anything other than her whenever she was in the room.
“You’re an addiction,” he whispered against her mouth as he broke their kiss, mad with desire for her. “I can’t think properly when you’re near me.”
“Gavin,” she breathed, kissing him back as she pushed what was left of his shirtsleeves down his shoulders, careful not to hurt his bandaged arm.
His hands dug into her sides as her legs fell to either side of him. He wanted her bloody dress off, but she was kissing him, moving her hands over him as though she needed to feel him, and he couldn’t think straight. It was animalistic, but he savored every bit of it.
His hands slid down her neck and pulled at the bodice of her gown, tearing it slightly as she gasped against his mouth. She didn’t stop or scold him. She was as possessed as he was. He dropped his head, sinking against the pillow as he took the tip of her bare breast into his mouth, eliciting a moan from her, which only fueled him.
Shifting, he undid the front of his trousers as she gathered up her skirts. Never had two people been more in sync and insane with desire, he mused as her hips came up and she sank onto his shaft.
Gavin’s brow scrunched together at the painful pleasure of finally feeling her around him. It was devastating and brilliant. He knew there would never be another place where he would be more tortured or more at peace than in her arms.
God, how he loved this woman.
Holly shifted, grinding herself against him in a way that caused his mouth to drop open. He was her servant, her anything if only she would command him. Her gentle, shaking voice saying his name genuinely undid him, for the tremble in it proved that she was just as much at the mercy of him as he was to her.
“Gavin,” she whimpered, her breathing shifting to short gasps.
