Page 52 of Gambling with the Earl
“To give you a chance to reconsider.” He sat up, drawing her against him. “What we have done so far…” He pursed his lips. “Kitty, you are still a maid. Still intact for your wedding night.” He dropped a light kiss on her mouth to stop her protest.
“I will never marry,” she protested. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him everything. “It matters not. I only want you.”
“And I you,” he spoke against her shoulder. “And I will be unable to resist you for much longer.” He pulled away from her and glanced down towards his breeches. “Do you not see the effect you have on me?”
She followed his gaze to where a significant bulge strained at the wet fabric. Acting purely on impulse, she reached out her hand and stroked it with her fingers. At once, Guy groaned. A deep, guttural sound.
Emboldened, she spanned out her hand and ran it down the length of him, delighting in his clenched muscles, his thinly held restraint.
“Stop, I beg you,” he whispered. “I would not ravish you here, where the midday sun threatens to scorch your flesh.”
He was right. The small amount of shade they had enjoyed was disappearing rapidly as the sun rose higher in the sky.
“Where then?” she breathed.
His eyes bored into hers and she held his gaze, proving her intentions. She would not stop now, for all his fine words.
“There is only one place in the castle where we are guaranteed privacy.”
“The tower room,” she guessed, uncaring, so long as she might show him how much he meant to her. Before she left him, forever.
He paced over to the pile of clothes, sunlight dancing on his toned flesh. “You should put this on.” He held out the shirt she had brought for him. “I do not believe the dress is salvageable.”
It was a sodden mess of sand and saltwater, pulled all out of shape and heavy in her hands.
“But what about you?”
He smiled, lighting her desires afresh. “I am the Earl of Rossfarne. If I fancy a dip in the sea and return to the castle half clothed afterward, who is to stop me?”
She bit down on her lip. “I have no such freedoms.”
He helped her on with the shirt, buttoning it securely to cover her decency. She breathed in the scent of him. If only she might keep it, always.
He cleared his throat. “There is a separate door. If you reach the castle from the cove and head straight for the north tower, you will see it.” His grip tightened on her shoulder. “But no one will see you.”
Her heart thudded inside her. This would have been where the old earl took his wanton women—as well as scared girls from the village, compelled to comply with his enforcement of Prima Nocta. And now she was preparing to follow in their footsteps.
“I will go in the usual way. And I will meet you at the tower room,” he paused. “Unless you change your mind.”
Chapter Fourteen
Guy’s heart beatlouder than his footsteps as he paced through the Great Hall and ran up the tower stairs. One thought pulsated through his mind, beating like a great resounding drum.
Will she come? Will she come?
He couldn’t blame her if she chose to stay away. After all, he had placed the decision in her hands and with it, the seed of doubt in her head. Needs must. Her choice must be made with a rational mind.
Not that his mind was in any way clear. Not when the feel of her was imprinted on his skin, the taste of her in his mouth.
He paused as he passed the entrance to his bedchamber, noting with some small part of his brain that the door had been left unlocked. Such had been his haste to get to the beach earlier. His hands went automatically to his breeches, but the pockets were empty. The keys must still be in the room.
So be it. He hadn’t the patience to search for them now. Not while his whole being burned for her. Kitty. The enigmatic maid who had somehow calmed both his horse and his own frenzied demons. She had shown him kindness. Broken through his barriers. And all the while, her green eyes captured him in a spell of her own making. One powerful enough to chase away the darkness, even before she ran her palms over the bare skin of his back.
He slowed to a walk on the final flight of steps. Here the stone treads were narrow and slippery. But he was no longer afraid of injury. He slowed only to prolong this moment of not knowing.
If she wasn’t there, he would not pursue her.
He emerged onto the half-landing and his eyes adjusted to the gloom. The sight of her made him warm with relief.
