Reclaimed Love: Banished Saga, Book Two (44 page)

“Clarissa,” Gabriel whispered. “I love you so.”

“I know,” I said with what I hoped was a seductive smile. I faltered as I rested my hands on the waistband of his pants.

He chuckled as he kissed me to distraction. “Lift,” he murmured as he pulled my shift over my head. He bent to kiss my belly as he pushed my drawers down my legs.

Embarrassed by my nakedness, I dove toward the bed, burrowing under the covers. I heard his carefree laugh and the sounds of him disrobing. I peeked over the edge of the sheet as his side of the bed dipped with his weight. He lay on his back with his head resting on a bent arm.

He turned toward me, a half smile lighting his face. “Hello, darling. You seem too far away.”

I clutched the sheets to me and moved toward him, inadvertently stripping the bed as I moved.

“You’ll be rolled up like a caterpillar soon,” Gabriel teased. He reached out with one hand and touched my cheek. “Let me hold you, love.”

I released my grip on the sheets and inched toward him. I settled against his side, gasping at the feel of him against me. “You’re like a furnace.”

“That’s one way of looking at things,” Gabriel said with a humor-laced voice.

“You smell good,” I said as I leaned forward to kiss his neck. “Woodsy and musky and male.” I kissed his ear. “My man.”

He groaned, and I felt him tense beneath me. “I’m trying to behave here, Rissa.”

“Maybe I don’t want you to.” I kissed his flexed bicep resting by his head and moved down toward his shoulder and his chest. He reached forward and brushed my hair away from my face, tangling his fingers in the long strands. “Love me, Gabriel.”

He moved, flipping me onto my back. I tensed, fighting memories of Boston. I closed my eyes and a tear leaked out. Gabriel kissed it away.

“Clarissa, look at me.” He traced my eyebrows. “Open your eyes.”

I did, meeting his concerned stare.

“It’s me. Gabriel. You’re here with me, in Missoula.”

I nodded, releasing a stuttering breath. “I’m trying, Gabriel.”

He kissed me as he rolled me onto him. “You have all the control, darling. You decide what we do and don’t do. I will not frighten you again.”

After a few moments, I squirmed on him, rubbing against the light coating of black hair on his chest.

He groaned, gripping his hands into my hips. “This reminds me of when you fell on top of me after knocking me off the ladder. Even then you knew how to torment me.”

“Gabriel! You couldn’t have thought of me in such terms.”

“I admit, I was more concerned with not blacking out or becoming violently ill in front of you. But believe me, I was aware of your feminine charms.” He stroked a hand down my back, and I arched into his caress.

“I love your touch,” I whispered as I kissed his jaw. “I love how you’ve only ever touched me with respect.”

“Always, my darling. Always.”

I took a deep breath and hitched one leg on either side of his hips. He groaned and released his hold of me to grasp the mattress.

“Show me, Gabriel. Show me what we can have.”

He stared into my eyes, while I saw love and hope reflected in his. “With pleasure, my darling.”

***

I AWOKE TO BRIGHT SUNLIGHT filtering through the thin curtains. I lay on my side, cradled next to something warm. I pushed back against that warmth, gasping as I heard the gentle snore in my ear turn into a grunt and realized in my half-conscious state that I was abed with Gabriel. Naked. And, most wondrous of all, happy.

I started to ease away, but his arm around my belly tightened for a moment.

“Let me hold you a bit longer, love,” Gabriel said in a voice slurred with sleep. He kissed my nape after mumbling those words. I attempted to relax against him, and his arm tightened reflexively for a moment. “Sorry,” he said as he loosened his hold.

I felt a huff of breath against my nape. “If you think any harder, you’ll hurt yourself,” he whispered. “Relax, Rissa.”

“I can’t.”

Suddenly he released me, and the protective cocoon I had felt in his embrace disappeared. “Forgive me for being selfish and wanting to hold you. I didn’t mean to scare you again.”

I turned toward him, seeing him laying on his back with one arm flung over his forehead and with his eyes staring dully at the ceiling, the blankets and sheets tangled around his belly. I reached out to him, softly tracing the contours of his chest. He flinched, but I hoped not in a bad way.

“Gabriel, it’s not what you think,” I whispered. “I admit, when I woke last night, I was frightened. But I’m not now, and I wasn’t afraid a few minutes ago when I woke up.”

He turned wounded eyes to me. “Then what is it? I’m trying my best to be gentle and patient, and all I seem to do is hurt you.”

“No, no, you don’t! Hurt me, I mean. I started thinking, and I couldn’t stop, and it made me nervous.”

He watched me. “Nervous about what?”

“Did I please you last night? Is it normal to want to lie in bed and hold me in the morning? Or is it because you can’t bear to do it all over again?”

He watched me with a fierce frown for a moment before breaking into a huge grin. If he laughed, I knew I would start crying. He reared up, gripped my shoulders, and soon I was laying on my back with him looming over me. He traced my cheek, my eyes and my forehead with reverence, a fierce joy enhancing his blue eyes.

“I only ever dreamed I would be able to hold you like this,” he whispered. “I began to worry it would forever remain a fantasy.” He leaned in for a tender kiss.

“I hold you because I can’t imagine you sleeping anywhere but beside me. I love the feel of you. I wanted a few more minutes so I could regain my strength and hopefully convince you to make love with me again.”

He watched my eyes the entire time he spoke, and I found I could not look away.

“I would think, after last night, you would have no doubts as to your desirability or
our
ability to find pleasure together.”

“Gabriel,” I whispered. “I love you so much, and I don’t want to disappoint you.”

His eyes flashed with a deep emotion. “I will never tire of hearing you tell me that you love me.” He leaned in for another kiss, before he eased away with a teasing smile. “Why would you ever think you would disappoint me?” he murmured as he kissed my collarbone.

I tried valiantly to continue with the conversation, though it was becoming increasingly difficult. “Because I’m … I was…” I trembled as he nipped the soft skin underneath my ear.

“Clarissa, you were exactly as I dreamed you’d be,” he whispered. “Giving, loving, passionate. I know there were a few moments when ... when you were reminded of what happened before,” Gabriel said in a husky voice, looking up to meet my eyes. “And I am sorry for that. I tried for it to be as good”—a gentle kiss to the underside of my chin—“as wonderful”—another kiss to my shoulder—“as I had always hoped.”

“It was, Gabriel.” I reached down, threading my hands into his hair. “It was. Thank you for understanding when I—”

“Screamed like a woman possessed and took a few minutes to calm?” he asked with a chuckle and a kiss to my breast.

I realized he had begun to work his way down my body. “Gabriel,” I said.

He looked at me again. “Let us find a way to banish him from what we have, darling. And if that is with humor, that is good. Passion would be even better,” he murmured as he bent to kiss my belly button.

I gasped and, after a split second, arched into him. “Gabriel.” I sighed. “You have no idea how amazing that feels.”

“Besides, my love,” he said with a grin, “I think you have your concerns backward. You should worry that I disappoint you, not the other way around.” At another of my gasps, he leaned in toward me, kissing me again, and all need for conversation became secondary to our need to touch each other.

***

I LAY SPRAWLED across Gabriel’s chest as he lazily drew circles on my back. “Are we expected anywhere today?” I murmured.

“No,” Gabriel said. “Though, if we don’t leave these rooms, people will talk.”

“I’m too tired to move. And I find I no longer care about gossip.”

“Sleep, love,” Gabriel said with a soft kiss to my hand.

He continued to play with my fingers as I hovered between wakefulness and sleep. I bolted upright as I heard a loud crash downstairs in Gabriel’s workroom.

“If they think they can scam me into more damn chivaree-drink-buying a second time…” Gabriel growled as he moved to slide out from under me.

“Goddamn it, I said don’t go up there!”

I heard Colin’s voice and then another dull thud. Was he fighting someone? I shook my head from side to side in an attempt to wake up.

“She is the woman I plan on marrying, and you can’t tell me what to do.”

I froze in place. All pleasure leached away at the sound of that refined voice.

“I’m going to kill that son of a…” Gabriel hissed as he pushed me off him and jumped up, looking for his pants. He had just buttoned them, and was bare from the waist up, when a clatter of footsteps came up the stairs.

I sat with the blankets drawn around me, my hair framing my face, and my eyes so large I thought they would pop out of my head. I tried to calm my breathing for fear I would faint. I watched as Cameron burst into the loft, coming to a halt as he saw me across the room on the rumpled bed. His shaggy blond hair hung limply to his collar and a large tear rent one of his jacket sleeves. He watched me with a wild look in his eyes—lust, scorn and rage emanating from him.

“You bastard! How dare you touch her, turn her into nothing more than a common whore. You worthless swine,” Cameron snarled.

I paled at Cameron’s words as bile rose in my throat. Gabriel moved around the bed to stand between Cameron and me, shielding me as best he could.

“I’d thank you to speak with more respect toward my wife, Cameron,” Gabriel growled.

“That marriage is not binding,” Cameron argued. “She is bound to me.”

“We were married at St. Francis Xavier Church yesterday, with Father McInninny saying the mass. And I can assure you, we”—a quick glance at me and my disheveled state—“had a splendid evening.”

“You couldn’t possibly want her,” Cameron sputtered. “Not after…”

In a few long strides, Gabriel gripped Cameron around the throat and pushed him against the far wall. Gabriel’s long arms prevented Cameron from inflicting any real damage on Gabe, and soon Cameron focused on just breathing.

“Not after you so brutally attacked and raped her?” Gabriel growled. “Not after you tried to break her spirit?” Gabriel shook him so that Cameron’s head
thunk
ed against the wall.

“You never understood that her spirit was too great to break. That she was always too good for your little inconsequential world. And you will never understand that my love for her is boundless.”

He released Cameron, feigning to the left to dodge Cameron’s intended blow to his midsection. Gabriel backed up to stand beside Colin, whose right eye was swelling shut. “I will not give you the satisfaction of killing you and ending your misery. I will not allow you to take me away from Clarissa now that I’m finally reunited with her.” He shared a long look with Cameron filled with loathing.

“I would like you to leave,” Gabriel said. “Leave Mrs. McLeod and me alone. You have no business here, and no claim to anything.”

“No,” I called out from the bed. I clambered out of it, wrapping the sheets around me protectively. “No, not yet.” I marched over to them to stand next to Gabriel with Colin backing up a step to stand behind me. As I approached them, I nearly tripped on the long sheets. Thankfully Gabriel reached out to prevent me falling and possibly stripping myself naked in front of them.

I turned to face Cameron, flushing from my clumsiness and from the nerves fluttering in my stomach. I studied him, any polish and charm chipped away from his long journey across the country.

“How dare you presume to interrupt my honeymoon?” I asked, causing Cameron’s jaw to tighten. “If you never understood I would escape you and come to the man I love, then you are as dense as Sophronia thought.”

“You will never get their money,” Cameron rasped as he massaged his throat.

“When will you learn that I never wanted it? That I never desired to be a part of that constrictive society? I only ever wanted Gabriel and a life I could be proud of.” I watched him for a moment, taking a deep breath as I forced myself to remember that horrible afternoon.

“I want you to know that, no matter how hard you tried to ruin me—” At this my voice broke. I felt Gabriel’s hand at the small of my back and was comforted by his support. “To ruin my chance for happiness, you have not succeeded. And you never will. I refuse to allow you to tarnish what I have with Gabriel.”

“I need that money,” Cameron claimed.

“When will you learn that I don’t care?” I stared at him a long moment with scorn and derision lighting my eyes before I turned away, into Gabriel’s arms.

He tucked the sheets around me tightly and kissed my head.

I realized in that instant that I had not understood fully how fortunate I was to have married Gabriel until now. He was willing to fight for me, but also willing to stand beside me and support me as I fought my own battles.

“This isn’t over,” Cameron said in a low, angry voice.

I turned to look at him, standing tall with Gabriel behind me. Gabriel placed his hands on my shoulders, and I reached up to link one of my hands with his. “But it is over, Mr. Wright. I am a married woman. There has been nothing between us for three years,” I said with a tilt of my chin upward.

Gabriel squeezed my shoulders. “Leave, Cameron, while you can still walk.” Although his voice sounded calm, the vicious undertones caused Cameron to pale.

I watched as Cameron moved down the stairs with Colin at his heels and then heard Colin leading Cameron out the door. I trembled but fought back tears.

“Clarissa? Gabe? May I come up?” Colin called out.

“Yeah, for a few minutes,” Gabriel said as he moved toward the living area and collapsed into the large oversize chair. He pulled me down so that I sat on his lap. “Let me hold you,” he murmured, and I realized some of the trembling came from Gabriel.