Page 50 of The Duchess Debt

“You’re timing is perfect, though,” he explained, Adam’s blackmail completely forgotten. Or ignored. “I could use a break.”

Leaving his discarded clothes behind, he untied his horse and swung up onto its back. He turned the gelding into a tight circle and pointed toward the river on the far side of the pasture.

“Fancy a race?” he challenged. “Are you a good enough rider to keep up?”

“No,” she shot back, allowing him the distraction from his brother. For now. “I’m good enough to win.”

He gave her a grin, tapped his heels to his gelding’s sides, and galloped off.

Helena gave chase. Sitting low in her saddle, she urged her mare to go faster, her heart pounding with excitement and her blood coursing at the thrill of the ride. She knew she could never beat Gabe, despite her boast, not even while riding astride as she was. His large gelding was simply too fast, eating up the ground beneath him in large lengths, and her smaller mare wasn’t made for racing. But the fun was in the chase.

And oh, what fun it was! The two horses galloped across the fallow field to the river, then followed along it toward the far end of the pasturelands. Their horses’ hooves pounded across the turf, and the wind whipped against them, stinging at her cheeks. But the day was warm, fresh, and bright, and for a moment, they could both let go of the problems plaguing them and simply enjoy the rush of speed and the joy of being free.

Despite its much smaller stride, and most likely because he refused to give his mount its head, Helena’s mare followed closely at his gelding’s hindquarters. When they rushed down into a small valley where the river curved away toward the oak plantations, he galloped on straight and up to a strip of abandoned cottages. In the sunshine, their whitewashed stone walls stood out brightly against the green grass around them and the green-brown ribbon of the river, appearing secure and timeless despite their missing thatch roofs and broken blue shutters.

He jumped off his horse. When she rode up next to him, he reached up to pull her from her saddle and eased her to the ground, sliding her down her front. The sudden closeness of him electrified her, so did the way her senses filled with the musky scent of him, of male, sweat, and leather. Her lips parted beneath the heat of his stare on her mouth, only to soften willingly when his mouth seized hers in a hungry kiss. Her hands ran up his chest and across the damp shirt that clung to his abdomen and shoulders, to tangle her fingers into the soft hairat his nape and pull his head down until his lips melded against hers and her body melted against his hard one.

“Gabe,” she moaned pleadingly against his lips.

He swung her into his arms and carried her toward the cottage. Helena wrapped her arms securely around his neck and buried her face against his shoulder, the adrenaline of the race and the pounding of her heart coursing hot blood through her until her skin tingled and her belly tightened with anticipation.

He kicked the old door open with his boot and brought her inside. Sunshine slanted through the missing roof and warmed the abandoned cottage. Pieces of broken pottery lay scattered across the hard-packed dirt floor, and the only remaining piece of furniture was a long wooden table shoved up against the wall beneath the broken window. A lone pot dangled precariously from a rusted hook by the cold hearth. Cool, quiet, isolated…perfect.

He set her on the edge of the table, and his hands went to her hair. He knocked her tall hat to the floor and pulled out the pins that held her chignon in place, scattering them across the room. Then he shoved his hands through her hair and spilled it freely over her shoulders and down her back, until it cascaded around her, as wild and free as their chase across the fields. She could feel her heart racing with his, heard the quickening of his breath, and gave over to the sudden desire flaming between them.

“Gabe,” she whispered and parted her lips in invitation.

With a groan, he cupped her face between his hands to hold her still as his mouth descended onto hers again, and his tongue began to thrust possessively between her lips. The fierce need behind the sudden embrace stole her breath away, and the ravenous way he devoured her kiss made her head swim. An unspoken promise gripped her that he wanted to consume more than her kiss, more than the deep taste of her he couldclaim with the strong plunge of his tongue between her lips—he wanted to devour all of her.

God help her, she wanted exactly that, too. She wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted herself into his embrace, begging him to give her more…and to take all he wanted of her in return.

Reckless excitement flared through her, and she closed her lips around his tongue to suckle him in time to the throbbing that sprang up between her legs. Her reaction brought a possessive growl from the back of his throat, one she answered with a whimper of surrender.

He tore his mouth away from hers to give her a momentary reprieve, but he didn’t step back. Instead, he stared down at her as he raised his hand to his mouth and bit into the leather fingers, then pulled the glove from his hand and dropped it to the floor. The slow movement contradicted the rush of need only seconds before, and the juxtaposition sent a jarring heartbeat thumping through her, landing between her legs with a hard thud.

His eyes never broke contact with hers as he removed the second glove.

Then he reached down for the hem of her riding skirt and pushed the yards of material up her legs until it lay gathered in thick folds around her waist. The rush of cool air against her bare thighs and the growing heat between rippled a shudder through her, and her hands clasped his shoulders, desperate to keep him from leaving her. Her breath came in quick and shallow pants of eager anticipation, and when his hands brushed up her legs and teased at the bare flesh of her inner thighs, she nearly burst out of her skin. His fingers traced invisible patterns against her skin, moving closer to her throbbing core but teasingly never touching her where she ached most. When his fingertip sank into the seam between her thigh and pelvis, afrustrated cry tore from her, and she fisted his shirt in her hands as she leaned back to gaze up at him, only to lose her breath at the wolfish expression darkening his face.

He said nothing, but she knew what he wanted to do, what he needed to hear—

“Yes,” she rasped out between gasping breaths, the desire inside her rising so swiftly that she couldn’t help but tremble.

With a groan signaling the end of his self-restraint, he dropped to his knees in front of her. He shoved his large hands beneath her bottom and pulled her forward until she rested precariously on the very edge of the table and grabbed at its edge to keep her balance, although truly, that had vanished the moment he had lifted her from her horse. His hands parted her thighs wide, and he lowered his mouth, claiming her with his hot lips.

Helena gasped at the hungry need of his insistent mouth. His licked over both sides of her inner lips, tracing over each with soft flutters, until the tip of his tongue dared to flick against the swelling bud buried at the top of her folds. The soft sound on her lips turned into a low moan of shivering pleasure, only for her to lose her breath completely when he began to thrust his tongue inside her the same way he’d ravished her mouth only moments before.

She closed her eyes and surrendered to the pleasure he gave her and to his relentless need to give it. This wasn’t an act of overwhelming passion, although she couldn’t deny the immediate desire that had flared instantly between them and now demanded to be satiated—it was an act of unspoken love, each seeking comfort and solace in their raw need for the other. She would gladly give him the absolution he sought in her, just as she would find her own in him.

Her fingers went to his head between her thighs and tangled themselves in his silky hair as he continued to plunderher feminine folds, thrusting and licking and sucking in turns until she wanted to explode. The silent cottage around them was filled with the erotic sounds of his wet mouth pleasuring her, enjoying her, claiming her—soon mixed with a low whine of choking pleasure from her own throat.

He pushed at her legs until she was spread open wide to his mouth and hungry gaze. He closed his lips around the throbbing nub at her core and sucked.

“Gabe!” Her hips jumped off the table with a spasm of pleasure. Yet it wasn’t enough; her greedy body craved more, and she held fiercely to him, folding her body over his head and shoulders in a desperate need to somehow bring him even deeper inside her, to bring him completely beneath her skin and keep him there forever. Where he belonged.

“Again,” she ordered between hard pants, her thighs shaking around his shoulders. “Oh, please—again.”

The deep sound of his chuckle vibrated against her, and he did as she bade, this time flicking the tip of his tongue against her even as he pulled her into his mouth with a hard, long suck.