In bedding her, he’d set off a craving that intensified the longer he was away from her. Especially after his day in Death’s den. She made him want Life, in all its color and beauty.
The carriage stopped in front of Halstead Hall, rousing Jarret. When they climbed out, one of the grooms came up to tell Gabe, “My lord, you had better look in on Flying Jane.”
His heart dropped into his stomach. “Why?”
With a furtive glance at Jarret, the groom murmured, “You really must see for yourself.”
Jarret asked, “Do you want me to go with you?”
“No, Annabel will probably be waiting up for you, and Gran, too.” They’d sent a rider on ahead to alert the family to their arrival. “I’ll be in shortly.”
As he followed the groom back, he asked, “Is the horse ill?”
“No, my lord. You have a visitor, and she doesn’t want anyone to know she’s here except you.”
That was all the preparation Gabe got before they entered the old stable and he saw Virginia.
Shock and delight froze him in his tracks. How was she here? Why was she here? How the hell had she known he was aching to see her?
Then she turned toward him, and he no longer cared why.
He barely noticed the groom slipping out and closing the door. All he could see was her, and her smile welcoming him home.
He strode up to catch her face in his hands, holding her for a hard, urgent kiss that she returned with great fervor.
Had he thought he needed her, craved her?
He was starved for her—the way a man in a dungeon was starved for light. Because she was his light. She was warmth and beauty and sweet succor, everything he needed to banish what he’d seen in Woburn.
She tore free. “Gabriel, we have to talk.”
“Not now.” He dragged his mouth down her neck, fragrant with lavender, and tongued her throat. “If you had any idea what I’d gone through today . . .”
The image of Benny rose in his mind, and he buried it beneath the desire that had him by the ballocks.
As he fumbled with the ties of her gown, her breath came heavy and hot against his cheek. “I thought you were traveling on a matter of family business.”
“Yes, an awful matter of family business. I’ll tell you about it later—right now I need you too badly. I missed you. You have no idea how much.”
“I missed you, too. But the groom—”
“Is gone. He won’t come back.” He pulled her gown off her shoulders. “No one else knows you’re here.”
“Good,” she said with a shy smile. She tugged at his coat and he pulled it off, then she went to work on the buttons of his waistcoat.
He got her gown open enough to bare one lovely breast. “You got my message?” he murmured just before he closed his mouth over her sweet, tender nipple.
She gasped, and the pleasure echoed through his every vein, sinew, and bone. She still belonged to him. She’d be his forever. And suddenly forever didn’t seem nearly as frightening as before.
“I did . . . ” She clutched his head to her breast. “That’s why I came here . . . Poppy said he’d shoot you if you showed up tomorrow.”
“Then we’ll elope.” He backed her toward the nearest wall. “Tonight. But first . . .”
He opened his breeches and drawers. As he hoisted her up to straddle his waist, her eyes went wide. He knew he shouldn’t take her like some whore in an alley. But the need to drive out the chill in his soul, to be enveloped in her warmth, was so powerful, he couldn’t help himself.
“Sorry, sweetheart, but I can’t move slow and easy tonight.” He worked a hand between them and into the slit in her drawers. She was slick and hot, as eager as he was, and his cock stiffened even more. “I have to have you now, right here. Will you let me?”
Desire flared in her face, and he saw the vixen’s smile he so adored. “I’m already letting you.”
“Thank God,” he choked out, and entered her with one deep thrust.
“Gabriel . . .” she gasped against his mouth. “Oh . . . sweet . . . Lord. It’s amazing.”
Amazing was definitely the word. With her silky thighs bracketing his hips and her delicate arms clasping him about the neck, she cocooned him in a lush tropic of female heat. Life at its most basic; a counter to the ice of Death.
He drove into her in strokes that he feared were too rough, but when she undulated against him, he knew it would be all right. She was a wonder, his wife-to-be.
“My sweet Virginia,” he whispered. “You have me utterly enthralled.”
“Really?”
“Can’t you see how you’ve addled my brain? Why else would I be taking you here like a wild animal?”
“I like it when you’re wild,” she whispered. “At least when we’re . . . you know.” She rubbed her breasts against his waistcoat, and he wished he’d peeled it off. And his shirt. And her gown.
Later. If they eloped tonight, they could make love in the carriage all the way to Gretna Green.
For now, his instinct was telling him to swive her senseless. Or perhaps he just wanted to be senseless himself, to be taken out of himself by her. By this.
He tried to hold back his release, but it was impossible. She felt too good, and he needed it too much. He couldn’t even finger her in this position, but her moans told him she was feeling something. And when he shifted his angle to drub her little button of flesh over and over with each thrust, she dug her fingernails into his shoulders.
“Oh, yes.” She tightened her legs about his hips. “Oh, Gabriel . . . Please . . . oh, please . . . I want . . . I want . . .”
“Whatever you want . . . is yours.” He thrust into her in quickening strokes that brought him right over the edge.
She followed him over with a cry that he muffled with his mouth. And as she shuddered and shook, and he pumped his seed into her, he kept hearing, I want . . . I want . . .
So did he. Oh, how he wanted. He wanted far more than he’d realized. He wanted her to know every dark secret in his heart, every bit of the past he’d buried. He wanted her to know the real him.
The unexpected thought terrified him. If he gave in to that desire, he could lose her. And suddenly the thing he wanted most of all was not to lose her.
Chapter Nineteen
Virginia felt bereft when Gabriel withdrew from her and her legs came down. The words “I love you” were on the tip of her tongue, but something held her back. She couldn’t bear to not have him return her feelings. Perhaps it would be easier once he was her husband.
As Gabriel left her arms, he looked embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to be so rough,” he said as he fastened up his drawers, then his trousers. “You must think me more of a scoundrel than ever.”
“If that’s what you’re like when you’re a scoundrel,” she said lightly, “then thank God for scoundrels.”
He looked startled. Then he flashed her the grin that always made her quiver. “Enjoyed that, did you?”
She smoothed back an errant lock of his hair. “Very much. Though it did take me by surprise.”
“I know. I just . . .” He turned her around so he could fasten up her gown. “I just needed to forget for a while what I saw today.”
“And what was that?”
“Death.”
She pivoted to stare at him, the harsh word shivering across her skin. “What do you mean?”
“Jarret and I traveled up north to view an inquest. Not since Roger’s have I—”
“You were at Roger’s inquest?”
He stiffened. “Of course. He died racing me. There are official rules for such things. All of us who’d been present had to answer questions and give testimony. Your grandfather appeared, as did other witnesses.”
Did that mean Gabriel had been questioned publicly about how the race had come about? And wouldn’t Poppy have heard that testimony? Because then he would know who’d laid down the challenge, yet he’d acted as if he didn’t. But no one else had ever cla
imed to have heard the truth, either.
Gabriel went on, clearly eager to leave the subject behind. “This inquest was a different matter entirely. Benny was found after being outdoors in the weather for a while.”
She shuddered. She could imagine how awful that must have been. “Was he a friend?”
“You might say that. He was head groom here at Halstead Hall until shortly after my parents died.”
In a few terse words, he explained that over the past few months he and his siblings had been investigating their parents’ deaths. They hadn’t told anyone because they wanted to be sure of the truth first. That was why he hadn’t allowed Annabel to reveal to her grandfather the reason for his sudden trip.
He told Virginia of their attempts to question the family’s head groom and how that had led to their being informed of the man’s possible murder.
“I’ve never witnessed Death quite like that. After being left in the woods for a couple of weeks, Benny’s body was . . . was . . .”
“Unspeakable?” she finished softly.
He nodded. “I hadn’t seen him in nineteen years. After our parents died, Gran took us into town to live and Oliver kept the estate closed up, so most of the staff was let go. But I wouldn’t have known him even if I’d seen him every day. His face . . .” A ragged breath escaped him. “It wasn’t easy to look at. We were only able to identify him by a ring he’d worn when Pinter had questioned him.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“I’m not. It finally impressed upon me that I don’t want to die.” He leveled a bleak gaze on her. “I don’t want to end up broken and bleeding in some field somewhere. I don’t want to be left in the ground to rot before my time.
“But I don’t know how to stop it from happening. If Celia doesn’t marry, then racing is all I have. And if I let fear of death make me cautious, I can’t win.”
The fact that he shared his fears touched her. “Surely you can make money some other way than by racing. You could bring Flying Jane to Waverly Farm. If Poppy or one of your brothers could be persuaded to lend you the entrance fee for that first race—”
He snorted. “Your grandfather isn’t going to give me money, and you know it. And my brothers don’t have lots to spare for a risky investment. I wouldn’t feel right asking them.”
“But it would be just this once. And if you won a race with her, they’d get their money back with interest.”
With a rueful smile, he reached up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. “As you said last week, that’s a lot of ifs.”
“But it’s something. In the meantime, you could help Poppy race his horses and run the stud farm.”
“So that Pierce can inherit it all when your grandfather dies? Where will that leave us?”
She swallowed. “At least it won’t leave you dead. Besides, why are you so sure that Celia won’t marry?”
“You did meet my sister, didn’t you?” he said dryly.
“She’s very pretty.” “It’s not her looks I’m worried about. It’s her strong disinclination to marry.”
“She seemed very eager to champion you.” She cupped his cheek. “I’m sure she’ll do the right thing when the time comes. Don’t borrow trouble, Gabriel. It will all work out.”
“Ever the sunny optimist, aren’t you?” He pressed her hand to his lips. “You’re assuming that your grandfather will even let me within a mile of your place. He already said he wants to shoot me. Are you willing to elope?” he asked, a hopeful note in his voice. “We could leave tonight.”
“I’d prefer that you settle your differences with him beforehand.”
He pulled away from her, then went to pick his coat up off the floor. “How the blazes am I to do that?”
“He needs to know the truth about the night when you and Roger made the wager. And he needs to hear it from you.”
His jaw went taut. “You mean you need to hear it from me,” he snapped. “You won’t let it alone.”
“That’s not true,” she said steadily. “I know in my heart that you’re a good man. But Poppy needs to be sure you’re a man of good character. He has to feel you’re worthy of me, and that means knowing the truth. Otherwise he’ll never—”
The door to the stable swung open. “Good God, Gabe. Are you ever going to come—” Lord Jarret stopped short, glancing from Virginia to Gabriel. “Sorry, old chap. I assumed you were still coddling your Thoroughbred.” His gaze shot to the coat in Gabriel’s hand. “I . . . um . . . didn’t mean to interrupt. Annabel said she needed to talk to you, and I guess that’s probably moot now. I’ll just leave you two to . . . whatever you were doing.”
“No need.” Gabriel donned his coat. “Virginia and I were merely discussing our elopement. It seems her grandfather is opposed to the marriage and is out for my blood, so we’re going to eliminate that problem by hastening to Gretna Green.”
“Gabriel.” He was running from everything, from the truth, from the past. He had to stop. “You know perfectly well that I didn’t agree—”
“If you’re planning on an elopement,” Lord Jarret said, “you’d best come inside. Gran needs to hear this.”
Looping an arm about Virginia’s waist, Gabriel led her toward the door.
“Listen to me—” she began.
“How long do you think it will take us?” Gabriel asked his brother, pointedly ignoring her. They proceeded to discuss the logistics of the elopement as the three of them crossed the courtyard.
Perish the man. Why wouldn’t he listen?
They’d entered the house and were headed for the drawing room, when they were accosted in the hall by his grandmother.
“What the devil is taking you so— Oh.” Mrs. Plumtree spotted Virginia and smiled. “Good evening, Miss Waverly. Annabel said that your grandfather threatened to shoot my grandson if he went to Waverly Farm to propose marriage tomorrow. Are you here to warn Gabe?”
“Actually—”
“We’re eloping, Gran,” Gabriel broke in. “I know what you said about no elopements, but—”
“No, no, my boy, you go on and elope,” Mrs. Plumtree said cheerily. “Just make sure it’s legal. Make them give you something written—none of that haveycavey Scottish nonsense about your word being good enough.”
“Of course,” Gabriel said.
“But I don’t want—” Virginia began. “What can I do to help?” Mrs. Plumtree went on. “If the general is anything like me, he’ll be up in a few hours, and you’ll want to be well under way before he discovers that Miss Waverly has gone. He’ll probably come here first, and we’ll stall him, which will gain you some time.”
Virginia was growing annoyed. “I really don’t think—”
Lord Jarret said, “The phaeton won’t be as comfortable for traveling, but it’ll be quicker. You can take my coach, but the coachman hasn’t had a chance to rest from our journey. Then again, neither have you.”
“Stop it, all of you!” Virginia cried. “I don’t want to elope!”
Muttering a low oath, Gabriel tightened his arm about her waist like a manacle.
“You don’t want to marry my grandson?” Mrs. Plumtree asked, casting a pointed glance at Gabriel’s intimate grip on her.
Virginia colored. “Of course I want to marry him. But I want to do it right. I want Poppy’s permission.”
Mrs. Plumtree clucked her tongue. “Given what your grandfather told me the night of our dinner, he’s unlikely to give it. His exact words were, ‘One way or the other, I’ll make sure that she never marries your scoundrel of a grandson.’ And if he’s talking about shooting Gabe, it doesn’t sound as if he’s changed his mind.”
“You’re damned right I haven’t changed my mind!” cried yet another voice from the doorway.
Sweet Lord. Poppy, with a footman trailing him.
“I’m sorry, madam,” the footman said, “but General Waverly refused to wait in the—”
“It’s all right, John,” Mrs. Plumtree said.<
br />
Virginia eyed her grandfather with concern. He looked harried and tired, his hair sticking up everywhere. “What are you doing here, Poppy?”
He strode up to her with a scowl. “After our discussion, I couldn’t sleep. I went to your room, thinking I’d talk to you again about it, but you were gone.” He shot Gabriel a murderous glance. “How did you convince my granddaughter to do something so blasted idiotic as to ride over here in the middle of the night? Anything could have happened to her. She could have been accosted on the road or lost her way in the dark—”
“He had nothing to do with it,” Virginia cut in. “I came here because you were talking about shooting him in the morning.”
“She came to warn him,” Mrs. Plumtree pointed out, a gleam in her eyes. “You can’t blame her for that. It speaks well of the girl.”
Poppy turned his glower on Mrs. Plumtree. “The only thing it speaks well of, woman, is your machinations. And I don’t blame Virginia. I blame you and your blasted family, and their interference in matters that aren’t their concern.” He turned to scowl at Lord Jarret. “Next time you send your wife to my house passing messages behind my back, sir, you’d better be prepared for trouble.”
“I did not send my wife to your house,” Lord Jarret protested.
“That was my doing.” Gabriel tugged Virginia closer. “I wanted Virginia to know I’d be back to marry her as soon as possible.”
“She’s Miss Waverly to you, boy. And you’ll marry her over my dead body.” Poppy held out his arm. “Come, Virginia, we’re going home.”
Virginia gazed up at Gabriel and said softly, “Tell him. Tell him now.”
He stiffened, then scowled at her. “This is not the time.” “There’s no better time. You said on that night we waltzed that you wanted to make amends to my family. Well, this is your chance. He needs to hear it.”
She could see him withdrawing, see him pulling into himself like a turtle into its protective shell, but she persisted anyway. “Make him understand.”
To Wed a Wild Lord Page 23