OnlyYou (20 page)

Mary grabbed her arm and shook her head. “Let her go.”

Gabriel sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead. This is not
how he had wanted his first meeting with Kaitlyn to play out. It had made him
crazy all those months when every day passed without so much as a word from
her. Not a moment went by in which he did not think of her, both on the
battlefield and off. The memory of her soft, naked flesh pressed up against his
haunted his dreams and caused his attention to wane during conversations with
other officers. And when he was falling asleep, he could hear her voice calling
his name and her laughter floating in his ears.

He had never felt so furious with himself in his entire life
as he did when he read his mother’s last letter and learned of Kaitlyn’s
condition. His fears had come to life. How could he have lost all of his
self-control and put her into this situation?

Unfortunately, he was not able to leave for home immediately
due to an impending clash with pro-British Colonial forces. Out of the
countless battles and skirmishes he had taken part in over the last four years,
he had fought in none so ferociously as he had in that one.

And now the woman was going to pay back his determination
and his devotion by refusing to marry him? The thought infuriated him much more
than the fact that Kaitlyn did not even tell him he was going to be a father.
The moment he felt her stomach, he was struck by how much it had changed since
he last touched her and he became consumed with the idea of making her his by
law, especially after having found out that James Clark had attempted take her
away from him.

“Mama,” Eileen protested loudly, drawing Gabriel out of his
thoughts, “she may be feeling ill again!”

“She is simply upset. This is all quite overwhelming,” Mary
patiently explained.

Eileen shook her head, apparently unsatisfied with her
mother’s explanation. “Katie has been sick for months and I thought it was
because Gabriel was away. But now she is refusing to marry him and I want to
know why.”

Gabriel felt a pang of guilt over Kaitlyn’s physical
difficulties with carrying his child. He needed to go to her. “Go find Paul,
Eileen,” he ordered, hoping to avoid alerting his little sister to the fact
that he had gotten Kaitlyn pregnant out of wedlock.

His sister shook her head and crossed her arms in front of
her chest, staring up at him with the same rebellious look in her eyes as
Kaitlyn had had in hers only moments before. She had obviously been around
Kaitlyn for too long, he wryly thought to himself.

“This is not your concern,” he stated, lowering his voice in
a menacing tone.

“She is going to find out,” Mary interrupted. “We may as
well tell her.”

He shook his head, appalled that his mother would think such
a thing. “It would be improper for her to know about this.”

“And just what do you think would have happened if you had
not come home?” Mary asked, impatiently crossing her arms in front of her
chest. “The baby would have had to come some time.”

Eileen gasped, her mouth dropping open in shock.

“Besides,” Mary continued with a look of resignation, “it
was only a matter of time before she recognized the fact that your father and I
married only six months before you were born.”

Gabriel shook his head in defeat and began walking out of
the room. “Go find Paul, Eileen,” he ordered over his shoulder.

“Do you really think it is a good idea to force her,
Gabriel?” Mary called to him. “She is such a delicate creature, especially
now.”

He paused as his irritation began to slowly pass away. His
mother’s obvious affection for Kaitlyn warmed his heart and softened the edge
of his anger. However, he now knew that Kaitlyn’s strange idea of pride was
what prevented her from writing to him and what now kept her from agreeing to
marry him. He should have pushed for the correspondence and now he was going to
push for this wedding.

And he was not going to take “no” for an answer.

“Find Paul,” he ordered as he walked out into the hallway.

He felt a tugging at his sleeve and looked behind him to
find Eileen looking up at him imploringly. “Gabriel, please do not be angry with
her for not writing,” she pleaded. “Katie has never believed that you felt any
affection toward her.”

Gabriel clenched his jaw tightly, careful to keep the
surprise and disbelief he felt from showing on his face. Was the woman
completely mad? He had asked his mother and sister about her several times a
month during their separation. He gave his home to her as her own and told her
that he would come back to her when they parted five months ago. Hell, he had
even given her money. What more did the woman want?

“Does the wedding have to take place tomorrow?” Mary asked,
taking a stance beside Eileen. “If you could wait, we would be able to plan a
proper celebration and it would give the poor girl a chance to become
acquainted with the idea. Besides, you know that the banns need to be read for
the next three Sundays.”

He shook his head impatiently, determined to end the barrage
of questions and comments about the situation he now found himself in with
Kaitlyn. “If you wish to plan a celebration, then plan one but I will not
change my mind about marrying Katie tomorrow. Father Murphy will recommend to
the bishop that a special dispensation be granted in this case.”

He turned away from his mother and sister and jogged up the
stairs, immediately guessing that Kaitlyn had gone to her room. The wooden
floors squeaked beneath his boots as he strode down the hallway and attempted
to guess which of the bedrooms was hers.

Gabriel’s finely tuned sense of hearing detected a slight
sniffle behind the door to his right and he raised his fist, knocking
determinedly upon the heavy oak surface. “Katie!”

“Go to hell!” she replied, her voice muffled.

He cocked one eyebrow over her choice in words and turned
the knob. She had forgotten to lock the door. One corner of his mouth curved up
into a satisfied grin as he pushed open it and found Kaitlyn on the bed with
her back turned toward him.

Gabriel closed the door behind him and locked it. “Are you
going to turn and look at me, Katie?” All of his irritation and anger at her
silence all of these months began to melt away, replaced with a renewed sense
of serenity.

“Did you not hear me the first time?” she asked.

He chuckled lowly and removed his coat, tossing it onto the
chair next to the fireplace. “Yes, I did hear you,” he replied, smiling as he
sat down on the bed next to her. “I find it difficult to believe that the
mother of my child could have such a mouth on her.”

He reached out and touched her waist, gazing languidly up
and down her tempting form. Already he could feel his cock springing to life in
her presence. He groaned and slid his hand to her hip, lightly caressing it as
he leaned down and placed a kiss upon her hair.

Kaitlyn inhaled sharply, acutely aware of the abrupt change
in Gabriel’s demeanor. Every muscle in her body seemed to tense at once as his
palm grazed over the sensitive flesh of her buttocks. His touch sent her pulse
to racing and she felt as though she had awakened from a long, deep sleep,
alive and refreshed.

“We will marry tomorrow,” he whispered into her hair.

She automatically shook her head again, pulling herself out
of the sensual cobwebs his mere presence always seemed to spin around her mind.
She quickly scooted away from him and pushed herself from the bed, resolved to
put at least a few feet of distance between them so she could think clearly.

She walked to the desk and placed her palms flat on top,
leaning forward slightly to take the brunt of her accumulating weight off her
feet. She could hear the mattress rustle beneath Gabriel as he moved.

She closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath,
preparing her senses for the assault she knew was coming. She had to stay
focused and make the insane man listen to reason. They simply couldn’t get
married—it was unfair to both of them. She didn’t want him to feel forced into
making a life-long commitment to her that he wasn’t ready to make. Plus, she
deserved a man who actually
wanted
to be her husband. Her heart ached at
the thought of losing Gabriel to another woman and she was convinced that she
could never feel the same way about any other man. However, she simply could
not marry him just because she was pregnant.

He grabbed her arms from behind and squeezed them gently.
“You will marry me,” he hoarsely stated as if she had no choice in the matter.

Kaitlyn shook her head, feeling tears stinging at her eyes
once again. “I don’t want a husband.”

She felt his body stiffen for a brief moment before he
pressed himself up against her. She exhaled shakily, her skin tingling from the
sudden full-body contact. Already he was erect, his cock prodding insistently
at her lower back. She closed her eyes and hung her head, unconsciously pushing
her ass against him as a slow burn began making its way through her pussy.

“But I want a wife,” Gabriel replied, gliding his hands over
her back and around to her chest. He began rubbing her breasts through her
bodice in slow, agonizing circles.

“You do?” Her voice was nearly breathless as her nipples
immediately stiffened, straining against her clothing. Tiny currents of
pleasure shot through her breasts and directly to her clit. She bit her lower
lip to keep from moaning out loud.

It had been too long. Her entire body ached for his touch.
In the dark of the night she would often recall details of how skilled he was
at bringing her to the peak of orgasm, causing her to lose all sense of time
and existence. Even now, as she was fighting to remain lucid enough to have a
serious discussion about a life-changing decision, she was having a difficult
time not thinking about just how much she needed Gabriel to touch her, to bring
her to fulfillment, to fuck her.

“Though it pains me that you do not wish to marry me, I will
not leave here without your submission,” he stated emphatically, his breath as
uneven as her heartbeat in her chest. “We will be man and wife. One day you
will understand that it could have been no other way.”

The man actually sounded like he wanted this. Kaitlyn fought
desperately to maintain an ounce of objectivity, convinced that she must
somehow be hearing his words differently from how he meant them.

“You’re only saying this because I’m pregnant,” she accused,
attempting to rip his hands away from her chest.

He gripped her breasts tightly and clasped her closer to
him, the tops of her thighs digging into the edge of the desk. She frantically
clawed at his fingers, feeling the beginnings of sobs building within her
chest.

“You are my woman.” His voice hardened brutally. “I wanted
to make you my wife before I got you with child. Now I come home to make good
on that promise to myself and what do I find? Another man attempting to take
you away from me and you refusing me.”

Kaitlyn halted her struggles at the anguish she heard in his
voice. Her chest rose and fell heavily against his hands.

“Is it Clark?” he bitterly demanded.

She quickly shook her head, surprising herself by doubting
her so-called common sense. Had she been right all along? Did Gabriel actually
care about her?

And was it enough to ease her mind into consenting to the
marriage even if he did not declare himself to be in love with her? Was she
willing to risk her pride and hope that he would eventually utter those three
little words she longed to hear from him?

He grabbed her hair and gently yanked her head back, forcing
her to look him in the eye. “You swore to me that I would be the only man you
would think about.”

“You are,” Kaitlyn whispered as exhaustion swept through
her. She no longer had the strength to fight both her emotions toward Gabriel
and her desperate physical desires.

As if he could sense her weakness, his lips came down on
hers hard. The kiss was savage, meant to stake his claim upon her. She
responded eagerly to him, feeling her knees weaken as the last threads of her
control snapped.

He tore his lips from hers and dragged them across her cheek
to her neck, leaving a path of fire in their wake. She felt his teeth graze
across her skin, sending chills coursing down her spine.

“I need you,” she found herself whispering, barely aware of
anything other than the welcome heat of his body and the growing dampness of
her engorged pussy.

A deep growl escaped his throat, thrilling the very core of
her. She felt him lifting her skirts from behind and she leaned forward,
placing her palms upon the desk again. Her ass was quickly exposed to the cool
air of the room, her skin puckering into tiny goose bumps.

His warm, calloused hands smoothed her skin, flushing it
with warmth. She leaned further forward, pressing her buttocks against his
palms and exposing the inflamed lips of her pussy to him. One of his hands forcefully
grabbed an ass cheek as the other hand delved between her thighs, soothing the
wet folds of her labia with his fingers. She whimpered as the ache in her pussy
began to build.

Gabriel groaned, his senses assaulted by the sweet,
tantalizing aroma of her aroused pussy and the feel of her slick folds beneath
his fingers. His woman seemed to be made of pure silk and he longed to sink
himself into her quivering flesh.

Kaitlyn was his. He could not imagine she would respond so
eagerly to any other man. He loved how hot he could make her and how, within
moments of touching her, she was ready to wrap her long, smooth legs around his
waist and allow him to fuck her into oblivion.

She would marry him. And then, when the war was over, he
could spend every night with his shaft deep inside her eager slit, bringing her
to the same heights that she brought him.