Belinda leaned away and frowned down at him. “What is that?”
He laughed. “I know you do not care for that word, my love, but I forbid you to get yourself killed or go into battle without me.”
A sad smile pulled at her lips. “I do not know if I can promise either of those things, Gabriel. I hope to grow old and gray with you, and I will endeavor to do exactly that.”
“As your husband, I command you not to get killed.” He pulled her bottom tight so that her center rubbed against his already responsive cock.
She wiggled, reached under her skirts and released the belt that held her sword and dirk. The weapons clattered to the floor. Her hand settled on the bulge in his trousers. “I am not your wife yet, my lord.”
“That is why I have to speak to your father.” He pulled her tight again trapping her hand deliciously between their bodies. “But you did not answer my question.”
Confusion marred her pretty face. “What question was that?”
“What if your father refuses to give his blessing?”
Belinda rose from his lap and stood before him.
He hated that she moved away from him. His cock screamed to sink deep inside her immediately.
She walked to the door. She was leaving him to wonder about the answer. But she did not leave the chamber. Instead, she pushed the bolt into place and turned back toward him. She pulled that wonderful string at the top of her skirts and they fell to the floor revealing her tan trousers and high boots. Her bodice had ties at the front, which she tugged until they loosened enough to pull away. She wore nothing beneath and stood naked from the waist up. Releasing the fall on her trousers as she walked toward him.
He nearly embarrassed himself, he was so aroused.
“I’m going to need help with these boots.”
He got to his feet, lifted her up and deposited her on the bed. Then he tugged at her boots. They were heavy with the weapons she had tucked into each one. He removed her trousers with one tug.
Shamelessly, she looked up at him from the bed as she leaned back on her elbows.
Gabriel divested himself of every stitch of clothing within seconds. He mounted the bed and hovered over her gorgeously muscled yet feminine form. He kissed her neck, and she tilted her head to one side moaning her approval of his kisses. “Answer my question.”
He backed away until his mouth hovered above her sweet mons. She still said nothing. He licked a path between her nether-lips. She bucked off the bed and cried out. “Answer.”
“I will tell him to go to hell and marry you anyway.”
His cock jumped, yearning to be inside of her, but he wanted to make her scream first. Plunging his tongue between her thighs, he licked and sucked.
Her fingers found their way into his hair and she clutched his head pressing him deeper into her core.
“Gabriel?”
“Yes, tell me what you want, Bella.”
“More,” she commanded.
“More of this or something else?”
Her hips were several inches off the bed. Gabriel held her ass cheeks in his palms. He slid his thumb forward until it circled her slit and pressed inside.
She cried out, “Gabriel, I want you.”
His cock throbbed and her words were almost too much. He pulled her to the edge of the bed and stood between her bent legs. Holding one calf in each hand, he drove into her. His grunt mingled with her cry when he was finally buried deep inside her warm sheath.
“Dear God, Bella. You feel so perfect.” He slid almost all the way out before thrusting forward again.
Belinda’s closed her eyes, her head turned to one side and her fists clutched at the bedding. She was in a completely helpless position. Under any other circumstances with anyone else, that would be impossible for her to take. However, with him she was at ease. She exposed herself utterly, and he saw no signs of panic. He saw a woman totally enraptured in the throes of passion.
He continued pumping forward and back. Her head rocked from side to side and small cries and gasps escaped her open mouth. He was rushing quickly to completion. Wrapping one of her legs around his waist, he used his free hand to rub her sensitive bud. She screamed and her canal pulsed around him drawing his own rapture over the edge.
Gabriel moaned, grunted and emptied his seed into her, while her body milked him for every last drop. He collapsed onto the bed next to her and pulled her up and into his arms, kissing the top of her head. “I shall never have enough of you, Bella.”
A hint of a smile played across her lips. “I certainly hope that is true. I am not the kind of woman who will look the other way if you take a mistress. I am the type of woman who will beat you to within an inch of your life should you do such a thing.”
He hugged her tighter and chuckled. “You will never have to fear that, sweetheart.”
She snuggled against him. “So you will go and speak to father soon.”
Trepidation underlined her words.
“I have to go and get cleaned up. I imagine your parents are about the same thing as we, so I have some time.”
She blushed at that. Of course, no one likes to think of their parents in the lovemaking act.
“I will see him shortly. And you, when will you speak to him?”
She leaned on her elbow and looked down at him. He tucked a strand of her mussed hair behind her ear. His fiancée looked thoroughly sated and wanton.
“I will wait until after dinner. Perhaps he will have some wine and it will make him more affable.”
“I wish you good luck.” He leaned up and kissed the tip of her nose.
“I wish you the same.” She pressed her lips forcefully against his, plunging her tongue into his mouth much the same way he had been plunging his cock into her a few moments earlier.
Gabriel could get lost in those kisses all over again. He gently pushed her away grasping for control of his desires. “I am getting up and dressing before you ravage me again.”
The giggle that filled the room was another thing he would put on his list of things he could listen to for the rest of his life. She was a complete distraction from everything rational. Not to mention, the terrors of the world he had unwittingly stepped into.
Chapter 13
Belinda had never before set foot inside her father’s Scottish retreat and now she was about to knock on the door of the inner sanctum. The doors to his study were closed. Her stomach churned with nerves. Her earlier bravado over the inevitable confrontation had somehow slid away from her. Clenching her fists, she finally knocked on the heavy oak door.
“I am in no mood, Belinda,” The earl bellowed from within.
The familiar rage she associated with her father immediately replaced any fear or worry. Turning the handle, she shoved the large doors open. “Nor am I, Father.”
“How dare you enter when you were not invited? Has all of your training failed you? Have you no sense of right and wrong?”
The room was not overly large, but filled to the ceiling with books, most of which had worn bindings and uneven pages. Many of them were so old she saw no titles on their frayed backs. Her father’s study carried the musty odor of the very old books. A thick wool rug in dark blue covered the stone floor. The only furniture was a small desk and two chairs. Weapons of every kind hung from the walls between the towering shelves. Swords, knives, guns and even a mace decorated the room. The man himself stood behind the desk with his hands flat against the top, and he narrowed his eyes in her direction.
“I have replaced such silly social customs with new training as you are well aware, Father. I will not be left standing in the passage because you are too much of a coward to confront me.”
“Coward!” His bellow shook the books on the shelves and he slammed his palms down on the desk.
She stormed over to the desk and placed her own hands on its surface. Her father towered over her, but she didn’t care. “You have avoided me for three year
s. You sent Brice to train me rather than have me come here and invade your little fiefdom. Were you afraid that my presence would undermine your authority?”
“My reasons for having you trained in London are none of your business, neither as a daughter or a soldier in this war, Belinda. You are out of order.”
He was right of course. She took a step back and sat in the chair facing him. “My apologies, Father. I am being rude and that is not my intention. I just want some answers and I believe that you owe them to me.” Belinda’s heart was pounding against her breasts. If he denied her now, she would lose this battle.
The redness in the earl’s face paled, and he sat too. He ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “What do you want to know, Belinda?”
She released the breath she’d been holding. “Why have you hidden in Scotland?”
His bluster returned. “I am not hiding. Dammit…” He closed his eyes momentarily. When he opened them, he reasoned. “I have been in this fight for a very long time and had hoped to protect you and your mother from the demons by staying away.”
“But when I was kidnapped and it was obvious that your plan was no longer going to keep us safe, why did you not alter your tactics?”
Her father smiled. “I sent Brice to you when you decided to become a hunter because you and I have a difficult time getting along, Belinda. I will cite the last few minutes as proof of that. I did not come home because your mother still required protection. Somehow, the demons know about you but they have not attacked her. You should not have brought her here.”
“I find your logic faulty, Father. If you had been honest with your wife and daughter over the last three years, we might have stayed away. As it is, you left me little choice. I had to come and I could not very well leave mother all alone in London.” She kept her voice very even but anger simmered just under the surface.
He laughed at that. “Perhaps. We will have to keep our own views on the matter. I would like to discuss something else, Belinda.”
“What is that?”
“Tullering was in here earlier asking to marry you immediately.”
Her heart pounded for an entirely new reason. “I have agreed to marry, Gabriel.”
“Yes, so he said.”
Her instincts told her that he was playing at something. “I have been betrothed to the Earl of Tullering since we were children, Father. Why are you being elusive?”
He stared her down in a way that as a child she used to fear. Now she merely waited for him to speak. “Tullering is a fine man. My concerns are with the desire to marry so quickly.”
“We have waited long enough,” she said.
He frowned. “Are you with child?”
“Of course not!”
Her father narrowed his eyes. “Do not play with me, Belinda. I know you have ruined yourself with him.”
She leaped from the chair. It was all she could do not to pull her blade from beneath her skirts. “Have you been spying on me, Father?”
He stood as well and his face reddened again. “You are my daughter.” His voice echoes around the room.
“And that is your answer for inexcusable behavior.”
“My behavior. You give yourself away as if you were a common whore and then have the nerve to speak of my behavior.”
Her hand slid into the false pocket in her dress and gripped the blade. She tore it through the opening and jumped up on the desk before pressing the sharp edge to her father’s throat.
The earl countered, but not in time and Belinda easily kicked his dirk from his hand. It thudded on the carpet. She would have sworn she saw a glint of pride in his eye before his rage returned.
Belinda spoke through clenched teeth. “I will marry Gabriel and the state of my virginity will never again be a matter for discussion. Is that clear father?”
“I certainly hope I’m not interrupting anything important.”
The voice came from a man standing in the open doorway. Belinda didn’t move.
Her father spoke with calm, cordiality, as if he did not have a sword to his throat. “Not at all, Cullum. My daughter and I were just discussing her wedding plans. Belinda, may I introduce you to Drake Cullum, the leader of the Company.”
She pulled her blade away from the tender skin at her father’s throat and jumped to the soft carpet as quietly as a cat.
“Drake Cullum, Lady Belinda Clayton, my daughter.”
Drake Cullum was tall and broad, but it was not his physique that impressed Belinda. His eyes held something dangerous, something that commanded attentions and did not brook disagreement. It was little wonder that this man controlled the demon hunters. He impressed her as the kind of man who could run the world if he chose to do so.
He spoke in a low, deliberate cadence that demanded attention. “Ah yes, I had heard that the prodigal daughter was coming to Scotland. I expect it was inevitable, David. You really must start to think of her as a soldier and not a little girl.”
He approached smoothly and extended his hand.
Belinda took it, and he bowed over her fingers. “A pleasure to meet you, Lady Belinda.”
“Mr. Cullum.” She gave a small curtsy just as she might if she were meeting a gentleman at a ball.
“Were you planning to kill your father?”
The corners of her mouth turned up. Even her father smiled “It had occurred to me, sir, but no. I was only trying to make a point.”
“And did you?”
Her father’s eyebrows rose.
“I believe so,” she said.
“Good, then we can talk business.”
The earl laughed. “I did not think you’d come all the way from Edinburgh on a social call, Cullum. There is only business with you.”
The earl came out from around his desk and shook the hand of the head of the demon hunters. He then opened that same hand and indicated that Cullum should take the seat behind the desk.
Belinda had to keep from gaping openmouthed. Her father never gave way to anyone, yet he obviously held Drake Cullum in such high regard that he offered him the more powerful position in the room. She would file that information away for analysis at a later time.
Drake sat down.
“Should I leave you two to your business?” she asked.
“Not at all.” Drake cut off her father who she was certain was about to say, yes. “This meeting involves you as well.”
Gabriel strode into the study through the open door. He shut it behind him. “Then it involves me as well, Mr. Cullum.”
Drake’s eyes darkened. “I see.”
Gabriel turned and walked closer. The two men stared at each other for a long moment. Neither one spoke, but they communicated in some primal way. The room brimmed with tension.
Her father cleared his throat. “Um, may I introduce The Earl of Tullering, my future son-in-law? Tullering, Mr. Drake Cullum.”
Neither one acknowledged the introduction. The dark stares continued for an uncomfortable moment.
Drake finally looked away. “Welcome to the Company, my lord.”
Gabriel nodded.
Drake did not get out of his chair, but the choppy tempo and crisp tone of his voice warned them all that he was at the end of his limit of indulgence. “I am only going to tell you this once and you should listen too, David. The Company does not care that Belinda is a woman. She is a soldier in this war and her treatment shall be equal to her skills. Neither one of you will gainsay my orders based on her sex or relationship with you.”
Her father actually took a step back. A drop of sweat trickled down his temple and a creased formed between his browns.
Gabriel straightened his spine and narrowed his eyes. “You misunderstand my demands, sir. I have no doubt as to my fiancée’s abilities. She is the finest warrior I have ever seen in battle. She is also my life, and I will not have you dictate her fate without being included.”
Belinda’s face warmed. She ha
d no idea why she was blushing, but the way Gabriel spoke about her filled her with pride and love had her cheeks aflame.
Gabriel crossed his arms over his chest.
Cullum kept his gaze locked on the young earl’s. He took his time before commenting and tension sparked between the two men. Finally, Drake took a deep breath and leaned back in the chair. “I did not realize the extent of your attachment. Many marriages among the people of your station are those of convenience. I can see that is not the case here. I will endeavor to keep the two of you together, my lord. I can see your point. I would not wish for either of you to become distracted by the unknown fate of the other. It can be uncomfortable to have a loved one on an alternate assignment. The result has not been good in the past.”
Drake Cullum’s eyes dimmed with sorrow, but it was gone an instant later and she questioned whether or not she had seen it at all.
Belinda had been silent long enough. “What is it you want me to do?”
“Yes, back to the business that brought me all the way to the north country.” Drake leaned his elbows on the desk.
Belinda tucked her sword away, hiding it beneath her skirts. Her father sat down. Gabriel moved to lean against the wall of books to the right.
“I understand you were almost captured again the other night.” It was a statement rather than a question.
“I was attacked. I do not believe I could have been taken.”
“Why was I not informed?” Her father’s voice rose for the first time since Drake had entered the study and he pounded his fist on the desk.
Could it be that he was concerned for her safety? After all, he was her father, even if he treated her miserably.
Cullum shrugged. “It was a small incident and Lady Belinda is likely correct. She could not be taken by two demons. She is far too skilled for that. Next time they will be better organized. I’m sure of it.”
Gabriel remained leaning against the books. He gave no outward appearance of distress, but his eyes shone with danger. “You seem fairly certain that the demons will make another attempt to capture Belinda.”
Cullum nodded. “They are trying to draw us out from the highlands. They also believe that as a woman of noble birth she has greater value than the poor women they sacrifice regularly.”
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