Sarah Gabriel (30 page)

Kate smiled. “Go on, and be careful with Daisy on the stairs,” she told them. “And my darlings, tell Aunt Effie you will need baths and fresh gowns. The bonny dresses that we had made for the wedding are ready for you upstairs. Aunt Sophie knows just where they are.” Rosie and Lily giggled with delight. Then each one took Daisy’s hands and headed for the corridor.

“Will you come upstairs?” Rosie asked, looking back.

“Aye, soon,” Alec answered, watching Kate. “I’d best help Aunt Katie get cleaned up. She’s all covered in chocolate.” As the children left through the door leading to the back stairs, he reached out and took her by the waist.

“I’m not quite covered in chocolate,” Kate said, laughing.

“Enough for me, and you are so very”—he kissed her, drawing his lips over hers tenderly—“so very sweet like this”—and he tasted her with his tongue, so
that she caught her breath against his mouth and pressed herself to him, cupping his face in her hands.

“Sweetness,” she murmured against his mouth, “is not what I am best known for, sir.”

“I am partial to tartness as well, so we’ll get along fine,” he whispered, and while his lips met hers in a deep, wild kiss, he traced his hand over her bodice, where her creamy bosom swelled, lush and so soft, the incredible feel of it making him feel urgent, desperate, unable to wait. Lowering his head, he pushed aside her translucent lace kerchief, whose demure charms had been distracting him for several minutes. He kissed the top of her breast, dipped his fingers inside the rim of her stiffened bodice, and felt her sway in his arms as if her knees gave out.

“Alec,” she said breathlessly, “where can we go?”

“The pantry,” he murmured, lifting his head to kiss her mouth again, “where we can lock the doors at both ends. Or the cool storage room, just behind that wall—” He pushed her a little that way, while he bent to kiss her bared shoulder.

“Oh,” she breathed. “Cook will be back soon,” she said, circling her arms around his neck. “There is a little place out the back door, past the kitchen garden.” She took his hand and tugged. “Where the chocolate is stored—the place that’s full of tins and boxes and crates.”

“Excellent thought,” he said, and stopped then to sweep her up into his arms, kissing her, his tongue meeting hers, tasting the rich warmth of chocolate and
inhaling its sweetness in her hair, upon her skin, filling his senses until he could hardly bear it. “No one will come out there—they have more than enough cocoa in this kitchen to keep them out of the storage shed for quite a while.”

“At least until it’s time to dress for our wedding,” she breathed, tracing her tongue lightly around the shell of his ear while he carried her through the back door.

“Oh, at least,” he agreed, stopping long enough to capture her lips again, drawing back as he carried her down the path through the kitchen garden and hurried toward the shed. “And when the ceremony is done, would you like to slip away to the storage shed again?”

“I would love it,” she whispered. “And I love you. I would go anywhere with you—anywhere at all.”

“Let’s start with this, then,” he said, and reached out with one hand to open the shed door and carry her inside.