Petals on the River (72 page)

advised, pressing himself against her buttocks to illustrate his

statement.

Shemaine lifted a bare foot and stroked it along his hard calf. "As long

as I can hear your footsteps, you'll find me waiting in anticipation."

His hand slid over the tantalizing curve of her hip and wandered

downward along the side of her thigh as he leaned forward to caress her

cheek with the gentle brush of his lips.
 
"Will you wait for me here

until I get back?"

Shemaine cast him a look of surprise over her shoulder.
 
"Would you not

rather have me cook you the morning meal?
 
We hardly touched the food

that Hannah sent home with us.
 
She'll be disappointed to learn how

little we ate of it."

Gage chuckled softly.
 
"I'm sure Hannah would understand if we were to

tell her, but I see no need of that, madam, do you?"

A sigh of delight slipped from her as his mouth slid down her throat and

across her shoulder.
 
" Twould only make Hannah wonder what we were

doing."

His laughing breath warmed her skin.
 
"Considering the number of

children she has given birth to, I'm sure she'll be able to guess."

Shemaine wondered if all couples were as active on their wedding night

as they had been, but she immediately remembered that a few of her

friends in England, after becoming brides, had voiced their aversion "to

everything that went on in a marriage bed." She, on the other hand, had

been immensely thrilled and pleasured by Gage's passion.
 
"'Tis best to

be discreet," she reasoned.
 
"We wouldn't want anyone to think we spent

the whole night in a private orgy."

"Ahh, but we did, madam," Gage replied, his voice imbued with humor.

Smiling, Shemaine nestled in cozy contentment against him.
 
"I know,

Gage, but no one else need know that.
 
They'd really be inclined to

think you married a wanton."

Her husband sighed, as if in rueful reflection.
 
'It seems there's no

help for it.
 
Truth has a way of coming out."

Shemaine gasped in a feigned display of temper.
 
"Oh, you cad! You

English rogue!
 
You use me and then abuse me!
 
What a contemptible knave

you are!"

Laughing in glee, she would have scrambled from the bed, but Gage flung

out an arm and pulled her back.
 
For a moment, they wrestled in playful

abandon until he threw a thigh over her thrashing limbs. Spreading her

arms out wide, he pinned her wrists to the mattress and rose above her.

"Did I not tell you how much I relish having a beautiful wanton in my

bed?" he whispered, plying her soft mouth with sultry kisses.

"If I'm a wanton, sir," she rejoined, readily adjusting herself to

accommodate his encroaching weight, "then you're the one who has made me

insatiable for the delights to he had between a husband and a wife."

She spoke partly in jest, but mostly in truth, for he had aroused her

ardor provocatively, sweeping her to heights of unimaginable ecstasy,

making her eager for more of his attention.

Gage braced on his elbows above her, and his brown eyes burned with a

consuming fire as they caressed her face.
 
"Think of what we can learn

together, my sweet."' "You mean there is still that which you do not

know?" Shemaine asked in amazement.

Gage was amused and yet a bit staggered by the idea that his bride

thought him completely knowledgeable about women.
 
"There is much I have

to learn, my sweet, especially about you.
 
If we're fortunate enough to

live out our lives together, then I'm sure you'll come to read me like

an old book that you've memorized over the years.
 
I hope you won't

become too bored with me."

Shemaine scoffed in light-hearted skepticism.
 
"Hardly that, Mr.

Thornton!
 
Truly, I fear the reverse may prove true."

"Never!
 
"

"The morning sun is rising," she reminded him softly.

"Aye, I know, and I suppose I must let you go, but only if you promise

not to get dressed," Gage bargained.
 
"That first morning you were here,

when you were scurrying around in the kitchen, trying to cook us a meal,

I have memorized the way you looked then, all soft Ls and unfettered

beneath your nightclothes.
 
I tell you trulyj madam, my senses were

besotted with the way your garments clung to your backside and breasts.

Your nipples seemed eager for attention, and I was even more eager to

give it.5' Shemaine moaned, recalling her own disquiet that morning. "So

that's why you were looking at me so hard."

Gage slid his hands from her wrists inward along her arms and then

downward over her breasts.
 
"You were so alluring, I wanted to have my

way with you then and there." He grinned as he added, "And many times

thereafter."

Shemaine lifted a hand and threaded slender fingers through his black,

rumpled hair.
 
"If I had known what awaited me, I would have been eager

to wed soon after we left the London Pride.
 
You do have a way about

you, Mr.
 
Thornton.
 
Truly, when I think of what I've been missing, I

wonder if I should feel envious of all the women you've made love to

over the years."

A dark brow twisted upward dubiously.
 
"What do you think me, madam?
 
A

rapacious libertine?
 
Have I not assured you that I've been selective

with the women I bed down with?" Lifting himself off her, he snuggled

alongside and braced up on an elbow to grin down at her. "Besides, when

I first started searching for a mate, you were not old enough to catch

my eye.
 
Why, you're no more than a babe now."

"Do I look like a babe?" Shemaine queried, feigning a pout. Stretching

sensuously for his consideration, she won his unswerving attention.

"Nay, madam, and that's a plain fact." The amber-lit brown eyes blazed

with fiery warmth as he watched her pale body writhe invitingly upon the

bed.
 
"Has anyone ever told you how perfectly beautiful you are without

your clothes?
 
Especially this delectable portion here." He was

caressing her breasts and was struck by the sharp contrast between their

fairness and his sun-bronzed hand.
 
The morning light streaming in

through the pine boughs outside the window gave the luscious globes the

look of alabaster.
 
The lure of such perfection was irresistible, and he

leaned down to savor the delectable sweetness of a pale peak, branding

her with the white-hot heat of his mouth and halting her breath with the

warm caress of his tongue.

"If you continue along this path, sir," she whispered tremblingly, "be

assured t hat I'll be unwilling to let you go until you finish what you

start."

Gage was also having second thoughts about leaving and would have

proceeded with his manly bent except that his wife's stomach growled,

making him cognizant of her lengthy fast.
 
"I suppose you're hungry for

food."

"I'm famished," Shemaine admitted, and then giggled as he growled in

mock anger and threatened to take a playful nip out of her breast. "I

can't help it!
 
You're a slave driver."

"Slave driver, eh?" His laughing breath brushed her ear.
 
"And here I

thought I was being lenient with you.
 
Should I show you what demands

I'd make if you were not still tender?"

"Oh, yes!"

Her enthusiasm made him laugh with hearty mirth.
 
Thus far, he had found

no hindrance to his incessant demands.
 
Nor would he, it seemed. "I

will, my sweet, but you'll need nourishment to give you strength. So, my

little bird, it must be after you're fed.
 
Now get you up, wife, and

cook a meal fit for your husband."

Shemaine gasped in surprise as he whipped the covers back, leaving them

without a stitch.
 
Laughing, she scrambled across the mattress, only to

find him moving quickly after her.
 
As she came to her feet, she

realized he was already rising behind her.
 
Catching hold of the corner

post, she sought to swing herself around it, but she could not escape

his reaching arm and was promptly swept backward to that wonderfully

exciting form.

"You shall't escape me, vixen," Gage rasped near her ear as his hands

moved over her body in slow, provocative caresses.
 
He turned her, and

his descending mouth snared hers as he clasped her tightly to him.

Shemaine answered him with quickening passion, eagerly pressing her soft

curves to the steely hardness of his, but it soon became evident to them

both that if they did not desist posthaste, the chores would never get

done.
 
Reluctantly Gage set her from him.

"Alas, I must milk the poor cow ere she bursts." Yet his hands came up

to leisurely stroke her bosom while his eyes caressed and admired the

tempting roundness.
 
"Though I'd much rather stay here and milk the

sweet nectar from these pale breasts."

Sitting back upon the bed, Gage pulled her close between his thighs and

hungrily mouthed the luscious fullness until Shemaine's strength waned.

She melted against him with no more resistance than a rag doll. His own

driving need began to goad Gage, and he gave up trying to resist,

becoming more purposeful as he pulled her silken thighs across his.

"Did you always ride sidesaddle when you raced your stallion across the

fields?" he whispered huskily.

Somewhat confused, Shemaine searched his face.
 
"Not always."

I l Gage's lips curved with seductive enticement.
 
"I know you've ridden

astride.
 
Does it pleasure you to do so?"

A glimmer of understanding dawned, provoking a responding smile from

Shemaine's lips.
 
"Aye, when I have a fine stallion beneath me."

''What think you of me, madam?"