Through The Leaded Glass (22 page)

“
I’m all yours,” she groaned,
kissing him every bit as feverishly as he had her.

He tumbled them back onto the bed, twisting so
that he took their fall. Kate sprawled on top of him and Alex hid
his smile against her neck. She was his to do with as he
wished.

He could think of many things.

Kate raised herself up on her palms and
flipped her hair back. Her bodice gaped open, tipping small, high
breasts with sweet rosy nipples toward him. Kate nipped his nose
and Alex remembered to look up, but, by God, it was difficult to
do.

“
See something you like?” She shook
her shoulders and he loved that she liked to tease.

“
Oh, God, yes, Kate.” Somehow
though, all ability to return her jest left him. There was nothing
funny about what he was feeling. It was intense, heavy, filling him
with such an urge to make her his that it’d scare him if he let
it.

He ran his hands along her thighs, then up her
back, pushing her dress higher, lifting her breasts to his
mouth.

“
Oh, Lord, Alex,” she
panted.

Liking the sound of that—both her panting and
calling him lord—he flicked the tip. She pressed herself further
into his mouth. He suckled her, and she groaned, writhing against
him, her moist mound throbbing against him. It was almost his
undoing.

He wrapped his legs around hers and rolled
them over.
Control
. He needed to regain some and soon. He
framed her face, her eyes fluttering open, the green so deep he
could lose himself in them. She touched the tip of her tongue to
her lips and it was no use. He took her mouth again, his tongue
dancing on hers, licking, tasting; he wanted her too badly to
control this.

He struggled with the ties of her gown,
finally ripping through them to get it off of her.

Kate chuckled and he looked at her. “This
amuses you?”

“
No way, Tarzan. This makes me
hot.”

A reference he didn’t comprehend, but its
meaning was as clear as the desire in her kiss. He grinned and
pushed the gown off her other shoulder, down, until her arms were
imprisoned at her sides.

“
And this, Kate? Does this make you
hot as well?”

Her eyes widened and her teasing grin turned
yearning. She nodded and arched her back. “Oh, God, Alex.
Yes.”

He bent his head, blowing against the moist
nipple begging for his attention. “I prefer Lord Alex, but God will
do, I suppose.”

Her laugh mixed with a groan as she strained
against her gown. “Please Alex, I want…” Another small moan as his
tongue circled her tight nipple. “I need… to touch you.”

Alex pulled away, sucking gently on the
sensitive skin, sending more shivers rippling through her. “All in
good time, Kate.” He kissed the underside of a breast. “We’ve got
all night.”

“
I think there’s a song in there
somewhere,” she moaned as he pulled her gown down to her waist.
Kate wiggled her hips to help him, but that sort of help he didn’t
need. Anymore and it would end his “all night” boast in seconds.
That could not happen. This would be a night she’d never forget.
One to carry with her for the next five hundred years.

He shoved the gown down her legs, sliding down
her body with it ‘til he stood at the edge of the bed. His breath
caught as moonlight shimmered over her pale skin, caressing her in
shadows, her breasts glistening and pert in the cool air. Her
stomach fluttered and Alex almost forgot to breathe.

“
Um, Alex? It’s a bit chilly in
here.”

“
Then allow me to warm you.” He
wrapped his fingers around her ankles, feeling her pulse in the
soft spot behind the bone. She might jest, but she was as aroused
as he was. He tugged her legs, sliding her down until her knees
bent over the edge of the bed.

Her smile fled as she realized his intention.
“Warm me?”

Alex hid his smile as he knelt before her. She
was brazen yet vulnerable, an enticing combination. “Yes, Kate.
Warm you. Make you hot.” Her scent filled him, his body humming
with desire.

“
Oh, God, Alex,” she muttered as
his mouth descended.

“
I keep telling you, Kate.” He blew
on her curls. “It’s
Lord
Alex.” Her response got lost in a
long moan as Alex set himself to the act of pleasuring
her.

He licked and suckled, hard, then feather
light. Quickly, then slowly, long strokes of his tongue on every
part of her, tasting, pleasuring both of them with this one act.
When she squirmed against him, he caught her hips, holding her
still, at his command. She groaned into the quiet night and Alex
rewarded her with the thrust of his tongue inside her.

She bucked and her core swelled, moist and
glistening from her and from him. He spread her legs wider to feel
every beat of desire as it surged through her, and slipped a finger
inside. Then two, her core clenching around him. She gasped and
gripped his hair, pulling him into her, pulsing against him. Her
cries grew tighter, closer, her breaths shallower as she writhed,
the muscles in her calves flexing against him as the sensation
overtook her, her back arching, her breasts flushed and pouting.
She called out his name, a long drawn-out cry, and drenched his
fingers as she came.

She was beautiful and, for now, she was his.
He would appreciate this gift while he had it.

He claimed her then, crawling up her body and
thrusting inside her tight wet heat and, God above, it was as if
she’d been fashioned for him and no other.

Her arms slid over his shoulders, pressing
into the muscles of his back, kneading, stroking, her nails curving
into his flesh, their half-moon indentations marking him, and Alex
closed his eyes, willing that thought away.

“
Alex?” She kissed his ear. “Are
you okay?”

He nodded and forced the words out. “Yes,
Kate. Just… give me a moment.”

“
Take all the time you want. This
feels amazing.”

It did.
Too
amazing. It made him wish
for things he couldn’t have. Not the least of which was—

That child she’d assured him wouldn’t
happen.

But, God’s blood, did he want one.

But to have her take it with her when she
left… That, the double loss, would be the end of him.

He thrust once more, feeling the rise of his
seed, knew he would not last much longer. Not with the way she
moaned and moved and clenched him.

Alex thrust again, reveling in it. One more
time. And another.

And then it began, that churning need that
threatened to take his sense and make him want to pound into her
until he found his release. Gritting his teeth, Alex slid back out.
Just to the tip.

Kate clenched her legs and pressed her heels
to his thighs. “Alex, what are you doing?”

“
Protecting you.” And
himself.

She laughed and squeezed her legs again. “I
told you, I’m fine. Well, considerably more than fine. But you
don’t have to pull out.”

“
No, Kate.” He groaned. “You have
to stop. I don’t think I can—”

He gasped when she tweaked his nipple. Kate
hid her smile. Mr. Chivalrous was just a little too in control at
the moment. Time to take him out of himself. Just as he had
her.

She ground her hips against him, clenching her
inner muscles around his shaft. He was close and she wanted to ride
that wave with him.

“
Kate—”

“
Sssh. Trust me, okay?”

She kissed him, her tongue taunting him, and
he groaned into her mouth. “I don’t think I have a choice,” he
said, pulsing inside of her.

“
Nope. You don’t,” she laughed,
clenching him once more.

“
Lord, Kate,” he said as he
withdrew from her, only to thrust in seconds later.

“
Mmmm. I believe that’s Lady Kate.”
Coherent speech was slipping away. The man just felt so damn good.
Like no one ever had before.

He drove into her again and Kate met him
halfway, that thought repeating over and over like a mantra with
each pounding thrust.
Like no one ever had before, like no one
ever had
…

He rose, and together they looked where their
bodies were joined and Kate felt her heart quiver at the image. It
felt so right.
He
felt so right.

So where the hell did that leave her? Here? In
the fifteenth century? Giving up Emma? Her job? Everything she’d
worked for? Everything she wanted?

Then he kissed her. Gently. Almost
reverently.

Maybe that’s not such a bad
idea.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling
him back onto her, into her. She needed his pounding thrusts to
stop thinking and just
feel
.
That’s
what she needed
now, his strength and desire to take her over the edge.

Alex obliged her, plunging over and over,
until, with their heavy breaths echoing in the room’s stillness, he
cried out her name.

“
What have you done to me, Kate
Lawton?” he whispered, his warm breath fracturing what little of
her composure remained as he laid on top of her. “You
are
a
witch. What magic have you brought from your century?”

“
No magic.” She wrapped her arms
around him, his weight feeling so good. “Just me.”

He kissed her. “Perhaps
you
are the
magic,” he said, his next kiss starting them on another journey of
star-scattering passion.

Kate didn’t have the strength—nor the will—to
refuse.

And that scared her more than the thought of
never finding her window.

***

The man tapped on the cottage door with a
stick, hating the need for skulking around in the dark. He should
be in his bed in the early hours of the morning with attendants to
serve him. But the arrival of “Lady Katherine”—he snorted, yes she
had looked so “ladylike” when Alex left her bed an hour ago—had
thwarted that plan.

He banged on the door again. The stupid
freeman slept like the dead.

He looked behind him where the man’s dog lay
trussed like a Christmas goose. The sleeping draught he’d put in
the man’s dinner had ensured the success of this plan, as did his
habit of sharing everything with that stupid animal.

He raised the stick again. He was going to
have to break the damn thing down.

“
Er, wot’s happenin’?” came a
groggy voice from inside.

Finally. “Don’ open yer door, Lawrence,” he
said, disguising his voice through a cloth. “I’ve got yer dog
hidden, with a sword at the ready. So unless ye want the thing t’
be deader than a rabbit fer yer dinner, ye better do what I tell
ye.”

That woke Lawrence up. The man heard the push
of bedclothes to the floor, the frantic scrambling as the freeman
jumped to his feet, the quick strike of a flint.

“
Middy! Where are ye? Middy!”
Belongings were tossed about.

The man looked at the skinny animal behind a
rubbish heap. He’d tied the thing so tightly he could barely make
out what it was. It wasn’t going anywhere.

Especially if Lawrence didn’t
cooperate.

“
Listen t’me, Lawrence,” he growled
through the door.

“
What d’ye want?”Luckily for
Lawrence, he was a smart man—for a freeman.

Luckily for
him
, Lawrence had a grudge
against Alex. Perfect for his purposes.

“
Yer t’go to the earl an’ tell him
ye saw a tradesman on the road t’London with a cartful of things.
One of ‘em bein’ the window our lord wants.”

“
I have nothin’ to say to Lord
Shelton.”

The man shook his head. Lawrence was a
buffoon—but that’d work to
his
advantage. These peasants
didn’t understand true power and authority.

But they would.

“
Ye do and ye will if ye want t’
see yer Middy again, ye hear?” He waited for Lawrence to realize
the threat. “Ye tell him the man is half a day’s ride from here and
when he’s gone, ye’ll have yer Middy back. If ye don’, ye’ll never
see her again.”

Lawrence sobbed and the man smiled. Fear was
such an effective weapon, as was that stupid notion of love— for an
animal
, no less. Combine them and he was invincible. Look
what power he’d had with that sheep and the mare. Alex had been his
to command.

“
Don’ hurt her. I’ll do what ye
want.”

“
Then ye best get to it. The sun
will be up soon. A perfect day for our lord to travel to
London.”

Chapter
Eighteen

Kate woke early, surprising, considering the
night she’d had. Alex was an early riser, a fact she should
probably be grateful for since she had a feeling that him being
found in her rooms by the maid wouldn’t go over so well.

She stretched, feeling an ache in every
muscle. Now
that
was a way to spend the night.