Gabe turned from the door with a tray of food in his hands and a smile on his lips.
“Tha’ was a maid. Are ye hungry?”
At the sight of the tray, Mary realized just how ravenous she was. She had not eaten since yesterday’s luncheon.
The loud rumble of Mary’s stomach filled the room, and Gabe grinned, the motion pulling at the scabs forming on his lips. Mary sheepishly placed her hands over her middle and Gabe laughed.
“I will take your stomach’s word for it,” he said, winking an amused blue eye at her.
He brought the tray to the bed.
“Shall we use our imaginations?” he asked. “It will be an alfresco meal, but inside and atop a dishevelled coverlet.”
Something about his willingness to try for humour brought a pleasing warmth to her chest.
She clambered onto the bed.
“I sent the curricle away this morning with an elderly man from Brighton.”
The bed dipped with his weight as he sat atop it, the tarnished silver platter placed strategically between them.
Mary settled her skirts around her ankles and gazed eagerly at the array of cheeses, meats, breads, and fruits. The scent alone was enough to have her salivating uncontrollably.
“This man knows not to give your direction?” she asked.
He motioned for her to eat and she reached enthusiastically for a piece of cheese and bread and took a bite of both. Oh heavens! What deliciously fresh bread.
“As a matter of fact…” Gabe selected a handful of berries and began popping them in his mouth. “I spoke at great length about my plans to ride west. I knew better than to trust him to keep information to himself, so I gave him incorrect information in the hopes that Lady Kerr, her brutes, and the other traitors will believe him.”
Mary ate a succulent slice of roasted ham, then followed that with a plump grape.
Gabe cleared his throat. “I must apologize to ye, Mary.” His blue gaze rose to meet hers. “I didnae believe ye when ye suggested Lady Kerr as a possible suspect. I shouldae trusted yer instincts and watched her fer suspicious activity as well. I apologize fer nae listening. I was verra, grievously wrong.”
Mary’s chest swelled with gratitude. “Thank you, Gabe.”
She unfolded a napkin and laid it on the mussed counterpane.
“I hate to cut our ‘alfresco’ meal short, but we must go.” Gabe dabbed at his mouth with his napkin. “It will take us at least ten hours te reach London from here and it is already half of nine. We must report t’ Hydra and find a way te disappear until the ball, else our identities may be compromised.”
Mary placed several chunks of cheese, two rolls, and slices of meat into the napkin and folded it up.
“Excellent thought.” He filled his own napkin and tucked it into his pocket. “Shall we go?”
“No.”
“No?” He imitated her accent.
“No,” she said. “I wish to have a look at your wounds to ensure they are sufficiently clean and bind them once more before we leave.”
“Ach, Mary, donnae fash yerself. They are nae as deep as they appeared.”
“I will not have you get infection while in my care, Gabriel Ashley.”
He sighed. “Verra well.”
He quickly rose and removed his clothes down to his breeches, stockings, and boots. Mary watched in awe and, she was slightly ashamed to say, with rapidly growing desire. His body was rippled and sculpted, hard and sleek.
There is no time, Mary dear. Keep your lustful thoughts buried deep until you have more time.
She doctored him in as detached a manner as she could manage, but for the odd hiss of breath at a particularly bad amount of bruising.
“How does it feel?” she asked as she finished cleaning the last of his wounds with a wet cloth.
“Fine.” The deep cadence of his voice sent a quiver through her.
Detached, Mary. Do not allow his stunningly beautiful male body distract you from your purpose. Escape the traitors and return to London.
Mary finished binding his body with torn strips of clean linen she requested of the innkeep.
“That will do nicely.” She turned her gaze up to his face and was arrested by the sight.
His no-longer-swollen but scabbed and badly bruised face was dark with the heat of desire. She had seen that expression on his face in the evening yesterday and twice through the night. He wanted her.
Her body heated in response to his lust, a quivering anticipation bubbling through her, spreading its way through her body until it settled at the heart of her feminine place. Her breasts grew heavy within the confines of her dress.
Mary licked her suddenly dry lips and his gaze dropped to watch.
His muscles twitched as he moved to take her in his arms, but another knock at the door halted him.
Gabe cursed soundly as he began dressing himself.
Placing a hand over her thundering heart, Mary moved to stand behind the door. “Yes?” She called.
“It’s Richie, missus. Me master said t’ tell ye when we was done hookin’ up the hack n’ t’ see if’n ye were ready t’ go.”
She turned to glance back at Gabe, who stood already nearly fully dressed, then turned to call through the door, “Thank you, Richie. We will be down directly.”
She listened for Richie’s retreating footsteps then moved to retrieve her trunks.
Gabe left his cravat untied and ran his fingers through his hair before placing a dark hat atop his head. “Are ye ready?”
* * *
The dim rays of sun shone through the hackney’s window, lending a soft glow to the dingy interior. The sounds of the horses’ hooves thundered along the narrow, wet road and the ill-sprung wheels jostled the hack’s inhabitants. Rain pounded the roof as they drove, echoing the deafening din of Gabe’s hammering heart.
An involuntary groan escaped him for the hundredth time. Why? What the devil had possessed him to sit beside Mary when a perfectly acceptable seat was across from them? Her alluring body brushed against him with every movement of the carriage. Two damned hours he had been sitting in this hack, filled with want for the alluring woman.
He was teeming with lust, rampant with a burning, aching, urgent, smoldering desire. It was driving him mad.
Damn. Her scent filled the hack. The flowery, hypnotic aroma made him wish that he could lick it from every inch of her body.
His palms and forehead were damp with sweat, his cock was straining against the falls of his breeches and his entire body was tense. Gabe closed his eyes and allowed a litany of blasphemes to flow through his mind.
He loved her, damn it. He could not risk her safety by continuing on with her, by fogging his mind with emotion, thus endangering both of them. But by God he would do anything to have her again. And again. And again…
Another groan escaped him and his eyes snapped open as he shifted in his seat.
Mary turned her gaze on him from her view out the window and released a short, arousing gasp.
“Gabe!” She touched her small cool hand to his forehead, the contact sending a shock of awareness through him. “You’ve a fever!” She worried her bottom lip. “Oh, Gabe, perhaps we had better stop at the next inn and have another look at—”
“No!”
Her eyes widened in shock at his harsh tone.
“I apologize, Mary. We donnae have time te—”
“But look at the state of you! You are in no condition to be riding for the next eight hours in this ill-sprung hack. It’ll jostle you to death!”
“It’s nae the hack that will be the death of me, Mary.”
“I do not understand.” A delicate frown furrowed her brow and Gabe’s control snapped.
“I cannae—” He broke off as he crushed his bruised lips to hers in an all-encompassing kiss.
His breath came heavily through his lust-flared nostrils as his tongue tangled with hers.
Without breaking their kiss, Gabe sank to his knees on the carriage floor before her, pulling her skirts up past her thighs. With trembling fingers he fumbled with the buttons of his falls.
“But your fever,” she broke their kiss to gasp.
Gabe shook his head. “’Tis nae a fever, Mary. ‘Tis want, plain and simple. I want ye…so badly.”
“Oh,” she breathed. “Oh, yes, Gabe.”
Finally free, he reached beneath her skirts to slide her arse toward the edge of the seat. The seat was just at the right height for him to slide himself deep within her silken heat and kiss her soft mouth simultaneously. They fit perfectly.
She moaned against his lips as he reached the hilt. He responded with a soul-deep growl before pumping frantically into her, taking exactly what he craved, what he needed. And, by damn, did he need her.
His fingers dug into her hips as he drove into her, again and again.
Breaking their kiss, Mary’s head dropped backward, exposing the soft underside of her jaw and her beautifully arched neck. He bent forward, following the line of her throat with his tongue, still pumping deep into the depths of her womanhood.
“Tha gaol agam ort, Mary,” Gabe whispered in Gaelic against her neck. I love you, Mary.
She moaned as he thrust faster.
“Bheir mi gràdh thu fad mo bheatha. You agus cha robh duine eile.” I will love you my whole life. You and no other.
He felt the force of his completion build to fever pitch, but he held back.
Desperate, he released her arse with one hand to rub his thumb into her sweet folds.
“Oh,” she breathed. “Oh, Gabe!”
Her breath came in erratic huffs as she clenched around him. He watched as she came apart, her body tensing as her pleasure took her.
Gabe let himself go, holding her tightly against him as he pumped his seed deep inside her.