Sarah Gabriel (30 page)

Read Sarah Gabriel Online

Authors: Keeping Kate

BOOK: Sarah Gabriel
12.51Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Kate smiled. “Go on, and be careful with Daisy on the stairs,” she told them. “And my darlings, tell Aunt Effie you will need baths and fresh gowns. The bonny dresses that we had made for the wedding are ready for you upstairs. Aunt Sophie knows just where they are.” Rosie and Lily giggled with delight. Then each one took Daisy’s hands and headed for the corridor.

“Will you come upstairs?” Rosie asked, looking back.

“Aye, soon,” Alec answered, watching Kate. “I’d best help Aunt Katie get cleaned up. She’s all covered in chocolate.” As the children left through the door leading to the back stairs, he reached out and took her by the waist.

“I’m not quite covered in chocolate,” Kate said, laughing.

“Enough for me, and you are so very”—he kissed her, drawing his lips over hers tenderly—“so very sweet like this”—and he tasted her with his tongue, so
that she caught her breath against his mouth and pressed herself to him, cupping his face in her hands.

“Sweetness,” she murmured against his mouth, “is not what I am best known for, sir.”

“I am partial to tartness as well, so we’ll get along fine,” he whispered, and while his lips met hers in a deep, wild kiss, he traced his hand over her bodice, where her creamy bosom swelled, lush and so soft, the incredible feel of it making him feel urgent, desperate, unable to wait. Lowering his head, he pushed aside her translucent lace kerchief, whose demure charms had been distracting him for several minutes. He kissed the top of her breast, dipped his fingers inside the rim of her stiffened bodice, and felt her sway in his arms as if her knees gave out.

“Alec,” she said breathlessly, “where can we go?”

“The pantry,” he murmured, lifting his head to kiss her mouth again, “where we can lock the doors at both ends. Or the cool storage room, just behind that wall—” He pushed her a little that way, while he bent to kiss her bared shoulder.

“Oh,” she breathed. “Cook will be back soon,” she said, circling her arms around his neck. “There is a little place out the back door, past the kitchen garden.” She took his hand and tugged. “Where the chocolate is stored—the place that’s full of tins and boxes and crates.”

“Excellent thought,” he said, and stopped then to sweep her up into his arms, kissing her, his tongue meeting hers, tasting the rich warmth of chocolate and
inhaling its sweetness in her hair, upon her skin, filling his senses until he could hardly bear it. “No one will come out there—they have more than enough cocoa in this kitchen to keep them out of the storage shed for quite a while.”

“At least until it’s time to dress for our wedding,” she breathed, tracing her tongue lightly around the shell of his ear while he carried her through the back door.

“Oh, at least,” he agreed, stopping long enough to capture her lips again, drawing back as he carried her down the path through the kitchen garden and hurried toward the shed. “And when the ceremony is done, would you like to slip away to the storage shed again?”

“I would love it,” she whispered. “And I love you. I would go anywhere with you—anywhere at all.”

“Let’s start with this, then,” he said, and reached out with one hand to open the shed door and carry her inside.

About the Author

SARAH GABRIEL
, a former college instructor, has a Master’s degree and most of a Ph.D. in medieval studies. An experienced writer and historian, her fascination for all things Scottish and her love of the romance genre led her to write historical romance. Of Scottish and Irish descent, Sarah has traveled extensively in Scotland and England. She has studied art, healing therapies, music, martial arts, archery, and falconry, and hopes to include all of those interests (and more) in future stories. She lives in Maryland with her husband, three sons, and a Westie.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Other
AVON ROMANCES

C
OURTING
C
LAUDIA
by Robyn DeHart

D
ARING THE
D
UKE
by Anne Mallory

G
YPSY
L
OVER
by Edith Layton

A M
ATCH
M
ADE IN
S
CANDAL
by Melody Thomas

R
ULES OF
P
ASSION
by Sara Bennett

S
CANDALOUS
by Jenna Petersen

S
TILL IN
M
Y
H
EART
by Kathryn Smith

Coming Soon

A K
ISS
B
EFORE
D
AWN
by Kimberly Logan

S
CANDALOUS
M
IRANDA
by Susan Sizemore

And Don’t Miss These
ROMANTIC TREASURES
from Avon Books

A M
ATTER OF
T
EMPTATION
by Lorraine Heath

T
AMING THE
B
ARBARIAN
by Lois Greiman

T
HIS
R
AKE OF
M
INE
by Elizabeth Boyle

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

KEEPING KATE
. Copyright © 2005 by Sarah Gabriel. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

ePub edition April 2007 ISBN 9780061746147

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)

Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

Canada

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900

Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca

New Zealand

HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited

P.O. Box 1

Auckland, New Zealand

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz

United Kingdom

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

77-85 Fulham Palace Road

London, W6 8JB, UK

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk

United States

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

10 East 53rd Street

New York, NY 10022

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com

Other books

All Art Is Propaganda by George Orwell
El sol desnudo by Isaac Asimov
The Emerald Comb by Kathleen McGurl
Untamed (Wolf Lake) by Kohout, Jennifer
Atlantis and the Silver City by Peter Daughtrey
Her Soul to Keep by Delilah Devlin
Back to the Streets by Treasure Hernandez
Hard Ground by Joseph Heywood
Heart's Betrayal by Angel Rose