OnlyYou (25 page)

General Washington had understood and accepted Gabriel’s
resignation. General Cornwallis had just surrendered two days prior to Gabriel
receiving Alexander’s letter, so the main threat from the British was over. It
was simply a matter of time until their forces would leave their land.

He had ridden for two days straight, only stopping long
enough for his horse to rest and eat. His mind whirled the entire time,
wondering if Clark would use his absence as an excuse to take Kaitlyn away.

Then he would begin to wonder if Kaitlyn would willingly go
with Clark. After all, the man seemed to have a talent for being around when
she needed someone.

He rapped his knuckles against the heavy wooden door and
clasped his hands behind him. Muffled voices sounded from the other side and he
thought he had detected a faint movement of the draperies in the window a few
feet away.

Finally, the door opened. Alexander Ross threw him one of
his infuriating grins as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Well,
well, Captain. It is good of you to come by.”

Gabriel immediately stepped inside without waiting for an
invitation. Normally he would not have been so rude as to barge into a man’s
house uninvited, but his Katie was somewhere inside and he had to get to her.

“Where is she?” he asked, his eyes falling on James who was
leaning against the doorway to the parlor.

James dropped his eyes to the floor, his scowl intensifying
as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“My dear sir,” Alexander quipped, “are all the Irish as
uncivilized as you?”

Prudence swept in from the parlor at that moment and
playfully smacked her husband on the arm, flashing him a withering look. Her expression
changed to one of sweetness and serenity as she turned to face Gabriel.
“Kaitlyn will be quite pleased to see you, Captain O’Connor. Please follow me.”

Prudence turned and began climbing the stairs. At that
moment, James walked toward Gabriel who simply brushed past him without a word
as he followed Alexander’s wife.

“Your lovely mother and sister were here for most of the
day. Apparently, they had lost your wife in the crowd of refugees. It took ages
for my husband and Mr. Clark to find them,” Prudence commented. “My cousin, who
lives on the north side of town, has been generous enough to take them in until
you were able to come for them.”

Gabriel nodded though Prudence was turned away from him.
They finally reached the top of the stairs and he followed her down the hallway
to a closed door.

She turned and tilted her head as she smiled up at him.
“Kaitlyn might be asleep.”

His chest felt tight. “Thank you, madam, for all of your
assistance. We are indebted to you.”

“Just promise to bring your wife to Philadelphia more often.
I would adore seeing her again.”

He nodded again and Prudence slipped quietly away. He
grabbed the doorknob, pausing briefly to take a deep breath and calm his
nerves. His stomach tensed as he turned the knob and quietly pushed the dark,
wooden door open.

His eyes were met with darkness and he stepped inside,
silently closing the door behind him. Little of the early evening light
filtered in from between the curtains and he stopped momentarily until his eyes
adjusted. Soft, rhythmic breathing reached his ears and he turned toward the
sound. His eyes fell onto a large bed and a still form tucked beneath the
covers. He strode over to the window and quietly opened the curtains, careful
to keep the light from falling directly on Kaitlyn.

He could not seem to take his eyes off her as he slowly made
his way to the side of the bed, noticing the tiny bundle tucked into Kaitlyn’s
chest as she lay sleeping on her side.

His heart felt heavy as he gently brushed a strand of hair
away from her face with shaking fingers. Dark circles rimmed her eyes and her
breathing was shallow. He could tell from a single glance that she had been
through a harrowing ordeal and was now completely spent.

Though his arms ached to take her and their child into his arms,
he instead walked around to the other side of the bed and slumped into the
chair. The last thing his Katie needed was to be woken up when she was so
obviously exhausted.

* * * * *

Squirming in the crook of her arm, the baby emitted a small
whimper, pulling Kaitlyn into consciousness. Her eyes slowly fluttered open,
looking down at her child who was turning his little head toward her. His mouth
was wide as he opened it, arching his back.

Though physically still weary and unable to see very well in
the dim light, she was somehow able to free her left breast from the nightgown
and guide the baby’s mouth toward it. Running through the midwife’s
instructions in her mind once again, she waited until her son’s mouth was as
wide as possible before bringing him on to suckle.

She gasped as the strange sensations of an eager newborn
tugging at her nipple and areola shot through her breast. She had done this
numerous times over the past four days but each time felt as surprising as the
first. Laughing softly, she said, “Take it easy, little one. You’ve got another
one waiting for you on the other side.”

A low, familiar voice sounded in the darkness. “Katie?”

Craning her neck so she could peer over her shoulder, her
eyes widened in disbelief, finally coming to recognize the face that she could
never seem to get out of her mind.

But it couldn’t be him. Could it? Perhaps her exhausted and
emotionally raw state was causing her to hallucinate.

She breathed deeply and his earthy, masculine scent
surrounded her, causing her heartbeat to quicken. Her limbs, previously cold
and limp suddenly felt warm and energized and her stomach flipped.

The face moved toward her and the mattress sank beside her.
Heat and solid muscle stretched out against the length of her body and she
gratefully leaned against the sudden support.

He felt too real. But, still, her mind refused to accept it.
Her lips were dry, her throat threatening to close up on her as she whispered,
“Gabriel? Is that you?”

“Yes, Katie. I have come for you,” he throatily replied as
he softly, almost tentatively, brushed his firm lips against hers.

Tears burned her eyes as sobs of relief swept through her.
It was him. After months of cold, lonely nights and the arduous journey to get
herself and their child to safety, he was finally here by her side.

“Shhh,” Gabriel crooned, slipping his hand around her waist
and holding her tightly against him. “I resigned my commission and I will not
be leaving your side again. This I swear to you on my father’s grave, Katie.”

He caressed her hair as she turned toward their child. Hot
tears rolled down her cheeks as she kept the sobs in check so as not to disturb
the baby contentedly nursing at her breast. It was over.

She was safe. And he hadn’t forgotten about her.

Several minutes passed as they lay together in the darkness,
only the rhythmic suckling of their babe breaking the silence. Kaitlyn’s tears
finally slowed to a halt and she allowed her body to relax against Gabriel’s,
almost melting into his heat.

The baby’s eyes closed and after several moments, he allowed
his mother’s nipple to slip from his mouth as he fell back into an easy sleep,
satiated and warm.

Gabriel’s lips pressed firmly against Kaitlyn’s cheek.

She smiled to herself in the darkness as she gazed into the
peaceful face of their child. “It’s a boy. I thought I’d call him Jonathan,”
she whispered.

Gabriel remained silent as he laid his head upon the pillow,
resting the side of his face against the back of her head. He reached out to
softly caress his son’s soft, dark hair.

After several moments slipped by, she worriedly whispered,
“We can change it if you don’t like it.”

“No. Jonathan suits him. ’Tis the very name I had thought
of.”

“Then why are you so quiet?”

He sighed heavily, his hot breath stroking her ear. “I was
just lying here wondering how I should tell you that I love you.”

Kaitlyn froze, barely daring to breathe. “What?” she timidly
asked, afraid that perhaps she had misunderstood him.

He chuckled into her hair and squeezed her impossibly
tighter. “I love you, Katie. I have since the moment you gave up your boots for
one of my soldiers.”

Her heart ached. Though she hadn’t allowed herself to think
about it, she now knew that she had always loved him. Too afraid to get her
heart broken, she’d silently longed for him to utter those words. And now here
he was, saying them while she had their baby snuggled up against her side. Her
mind whirled at how strange her life seemed and yet oh-so-right at the same
time. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, thankful that whatever it was
that ripped her from her dreary life in the future had brought her here to this
moment in Gabriel’s arms.

“Why did you never tell me?” she whispered.

“I do not know.”

For the first time since she had met him, he sounded
vulnerable and confused. She threaded the fingers of her free hand through his
and squeezed them tightly to reassure him. “I love you too.”

Gabriel nuzzled her neck lovingly. “As soon as you are
strong enough, I will take you home.”

Home. Unexpectedly, that word now had new meaning for her.
But was anything left of the house? Did they even have a home to go back to?

As if he could read her thoughts, he stated, “Everything is
fine. The retreating British veered north and missed our land by several
miles.”

“You were there?”

“I passed through on my way to you,” he explained, placing a
soft, comforting kiss upon her neck. “I cannot say if looters have ransacked
the house. It was not something I was concerned with. I could only think of
getting to you. And to our child. For all I knew, Clark had you halfway to
Virginia.”

The irritation in his voice was not lost on Kaitlyn. She
laughed softly and pulled his hand up to her mouth to kiss it.

Yes, this felt right.

Chapter Nineteen

“Did you know that Munroe had the intention of asking Eileen
to marry him?” Gabriel asked, tossing a book onto his desk in annoyance as he
stared out the window at Henry Munroe riding away from the house on horseback
as light February snow danced around him.

Kaitlyn laughed. She should have known by now that she couldn’t
sneak up on him. She quietly locked the door of the study and silently padded
her way toward him, slipping her arms around his waist.

Pressing her cheek against his broad back, she breathed in
the woodsy, masculine scent she loved so much. “Yes, I did know.”

“Why did you not warn me?” he asked, twisting in her embrace
until he had her pressed intimately against his hard chest.

She had to tilt her head all the way back to gaze into those
wonderfully warm brown eyes. “I didn’t know when it would happen. All I knew
was that they would get married. I told you not long after we met that she
would marry.”

“You did not mention Munroe,” he grumbled, contradicting his
sour mood by placing a gentle, loving kiss upon the tip of her nose.

“And what’s wrong with him?”

“He is a man.”

Kaitlyn couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of his
statement. She knew it to be a simple fact that he didn’t think anyone was good
enough for his baby sister but she couldn’t help but tease him a bit. “Would it
be better if he were a woman?”

Gabriel cocked an eyebrow at her. “A woman?”

She nodded, attempting to keep at bay the smile threatening
to spread across her lips. “Two female friends of mine from college got married
in Massachusetts a few years after we graduated.”

He tossed her a skeptical look and rolled his eyes.
“Sometimes I just cannot believe the things you tell me about the future,
Katie.”

She laughed again. This time, however, it was sultry. Mary
had Jonathan and Eileen was busy naming her future children. For the first time
in three months a crying baby couldn’t interrupt them and Kaitlyn wasn’t about
to let the moment pass by.

Neither was Gabriel. Hauling her up against his chest, he
brought her eyes to his level and hungrily pressed his lips to hers, smothering
the low, animalistic groan rumbling in his chest.

She fought back the smile of pleasure at how quickly he had
read her mind. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her feet dangling in
midair and lightly swept the tip of her tongue across his lower lip. He shuddered
in response and whirled her around, depositing her upon the top of his desk.

Quickly finding the hem of her skirts, he shoved them over
the tops of her creamy thighs.

“I do not care what you hear outside this room,” he growled,
grabbing her bare hips forcefully. “My son will not starve if you are absent
from him for a few moments.”

Her eyes turned smoky as she locked onto his stare. Pleasure
rippled through his stomach to his straining shaft as she parted her legs
widely, exposing the glistening, pink lips of her pussy to him. He had never
thought a woman to be capable of surprising him over and over again, causing
him to want her more each day.

“I do hope it lasts more than a few moments,” she replied,
her voice husky as she tucked her slender fingers into the waistband of his
breeches and began pulling them down over his hips.

Kaitlyn could hardly believe that her lust for this man had
turned her into such an aggressive woman. Back in grad school, she’d never have
dreamed she could ask a guy out, let alone seduce him. And now, here she was,
practically spread-eagled on the man’s desk in the middle of the day,
desperately trying to get at his cock.

Gabriel’s chest rose and fell heavily as his pants fell
around his ankles. “It has been almost a week. I cannot make any promises.”

She laughed quietly, licking her bottom lip as she stared
down at the purplish head of his cock peeking out from under his shirt. A drop
of pre-cum oozed from the tip. “Well, then I guess you’ll just have to make me
come first.”