Ascension (22 page)

Pride swelled in his chest. She feared nothing, and he admired that in her.

The earl turned toward them once they were inside the towering stone foyer. There were very few ornaments in the castle. It remained gray and a bit dark. Stairs led up to a landing. To the right a set of open doors led into a large open room. Inside the sounds of fighting drew Gabriel’s attention. He walked to the doorway. Four men and two women were sparring with swords. The clash of steel was loud and jarring.

The earl’s voice drew him away from the door. He introduced them to a young woman with oriental features, perfect skin, exotic eyes and full lips. “This is Mei Lin. She is a new student here. She will show you to your rooms.”

The Earl turned, took his wife’s hand and the two walked up the steps to the landing, turned right and disappeared from view.

“Hello, Mei Lin. I’m Belinda and this is Gabriel.”

Mei responded with perfect English diction. “You are Lillian’s friend.”

Belinda’s smile brightened. “I am. You must be the girl who she brought to school last week.”

Mei nodded, but didn’t smile. “She is very kind.”

“Yes, she is.”

She turned and started up the steps. “You’re rooms are on the third level. I will show you.”

They followed the young woman up steps and down hallways. The castle sprawled in every direction and Gabriel had to pay close attention to their direction. He didn’t want to be lost in Castle Brendaligh.

After dropping Belinda off at her room, they found his room just down the hallway. Mei Lin left him immediately.

The room was sparse, but he had lived in worse in France. A bed, desk and washbasin were the only furnishings. The walls were stone and no rug warmed the floor. He left the room immediately and walked down to Belinda’s room. He knocked.

“Come in.”

He opened the heavy oak door and entered a room very similar to the one he’d just come from. “Not exactly lush.”

“They resemble cells, rather than rooms. I supposed the students spend little time in their rooms. When I was in training in London, I had little time left for more than sleeping and eating.” She sat down heavily on the bed.

Gabriel took a seat next to her. She still smelled faintly of flowers even after the long journey. They had stopped at posting houses and inns along the way, but he was wrung out. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to his side.

She gave no resistance, sliding up next to him and resting her head against his shoulder where it met his chest.

“Bella?”

She sighed. “Yes.”

“What exactly do you hope to gain from our coming here?”

Another despondent sound pushed from her lips. “I suppose I had hoped that my father would open his arms to me and tell me how sorry he is for having lied to me all these years. Or at least, how sorry he is that his business nearly cost me my life.”

He gave her a squeeze. “That seems an unlikely outcome.”

“Indeed.” Another sigh. “At least mother seems happy. He looked as if he actually loves her. It is rather amazing.”

“Why do you say that? She is his wife.”

She pulled away from him and looked him in the eyes. “I could not stand it when you were in France, Gabriel.”

“Yet you were willing to give me up,” he reminded her.

“I did not want you to get hurt or killed because of what I do. My feelings on that matter have not changed. I still fear that you will be killed and I will be to blame.”

He smiled and cocked his head to one side. “Don’t you think it is possible that your father stays away in order to keep danger away from you and your mother?”

She frowned, and he had to hold himself back from kissing her pouting lips.

“I agree that might have been his excuse up until the point where I was kidnapped three years ago. But we have seen nothing of him since then and it must have been obvious to him that the enemy knew our identities and we were in danger. At that point, he should have come home and told us everything. Knowledge is an asset in such cases.”

He admired how assured she was. “Your father is old fashioned. He may not see it that way. You will have to ask him for his reasons, if it bothers you this much.”

She leaned back into him and rapped her arms around his waist. “I intend to.”

Gabriel relished the pressure of her body against his. “Would you like me to accompany you?”

Her head shook against his chest. “I think this is something I should do alone. You may speak to him about having the wedding here in the next few days if you wish.”

“I intend to address that issue before dinner.” He said it a bit more forcefully than was necessary.

She laughed. “Do not worry, Gabriel. I will not run off. I have given my word.”

“And if your father forbids the wedding?”

She pulled away again. Her eyes were wide. “Why would he do that?”

“I do not know. Fathers are strange when it comes to their daughters. He did not seem very pleased with me outside. He thinks I should act the part of a proper English husband and forbid you to fight.”

“What do you think?”

He leaned forward and his lips pressed against hers.

Her mouth opened and their tongues slid together as if they were desperate for a taste of the other.

His heart pounded and his breath became ragged. Kissing her cheek, he uttered, “As far as I am concerned we already belong to each other. I do not want to change anything about you, Bella. I love you just as you are.”

Her long, soft sigh was enough to have him straining against his smalls.

She turned into him and swung one leg over his lap so that she straddled him. She kissed him with renewed passion, practically devouring him. He could feel her trousers, and the weapons she had tucked under her skirts bruised him. Somehow, the knowledge that she was always at the ready for a fight aroused him even more.

Her lips slid to his jaw.

“I forbid only one thing,” he added.

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.

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 years. 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.”