Page 79 of The Bridal Quest

"Yes." Her heart was pounding so hard that she thought he must hear it even from the floor above her. "I am here."

"Irene!" Feet pounded down the stone steps, and he came to a stop on the landing, looking down at her. His eyes were dark in the dim light; his skin seemed stretched tautly over his facial bones.

"My answer is yes," she said, unable to hide the little catch in her voice.

He took the stairs two at a time and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her up and burying his face in her hair. "Irene, Irene ... I've been half mad. I thought I'd been an utter fool, leaving like that, making you choose."

He kissed her ear, her hair, her face, as his words spilled out. "I was about to go back and tell you that I was an idiot, that I would wait for as long as it took you to decide."

Irene let out a delighted chuckle. "But you needn't, for I am here now, and I have decided. I want you. I want to marry you."

"Then we are of one mind." He swept her in his arms and started up the steps. "That is no doubt a first for us—and it may be the last time, as well."

"You think that we shall argue?" Irene asked him, opening her eyes wide in mock dismay. "But, my lord, we shall be as one."

"If you ever stopped arguing with me, I am sure I would not know what to do. In fact, I think I would be certain that something was very, very wrong."

Gideon carried her into the room he had made in the tower and set her down, kicking the door closed behind them. He stood looking down at her for a long moment, then set her on the floor and cupped her face in his hands.

"Lady Radbourne. My wife," he said experimentally.

"I am not your wife yet," she reminded him.

He took one of her hands and raised it to his mouth, kissing her knuckles. "We are promised now. Bound. I will tell my grandmother tomorrow, and then I shall go back with you to London to formally ask your brother for your hand. But I have received the only answer I need tonight."

He opened her hand, turning it up and laying another kiss in her palm. "I have only one requirement," he said, then kissed her hand again.

"And what is that?"

"That we be married soon," he replied, a wicked grin curving his lips.

He traced the line of her jaw, watching the progress of his finger as it curved down over her chin and onto the tender flesh of her throat, gliding lower and lower until it skimmed the soft fleshy tops of her breasts and slid down into the dark crevice between them.

Irene's breath caught in her throat, and her heart began to hammer like a mad thing. "Have you no patience, sir?"

She cast a long golden look up at him from beneath her lashes, full of invitation, and was rewarded by the faint trembling of his fingertip against her skin.

"I have no patience at all where you are concerned," he answered, and his smile was a little vulpine. Yet Irene found it did not frighten her at all; it only stirred her blood more.

He lightly traced the neckline of her ball gown across the tops of her breasts with the fingertips of one hand, then spread his hand out flat across her chest before sliding it up to curl around her neck.

"I want you now," he said thickly. "And always."

He bent his head to brush his mouth across hers lightly, returning again and then a third time, tracing the seam of her lips with his tongue. Irene drew in a little breath of surprise at the intimate touch, and she felt him smile against her lips as his mouth settled onto hers.

He kissed her for a long, leisurely time, exploring and teasing sensation after sensation from her. She felt as if all her muscles and bones were melting, and she leaned into him, her hands going up to his chest to support her.

Gideon spanned her waist with his hands, holding her upright as his mouth continued to plunder hers. When at last he raised his head, she sagged weakly against him, her cheek upon his chest. He bent and kissed the top of her head, murmuring her name.

"You are so beautiful," he told her. "You looked like a goddess tonight. Rich and golden. All I could think about was putting my hands on you."

He matched his actions to his words, sliding one hand down her back and lingering over her hips. With the same slow care that his lips had used on hers, he caressed her. moving his hands slowly, intimately, over her. He turned her so that she leaned back against him, and she went easily, willingly, luxuriating in his touch. Looping one arm around her waist, he held her against him, while his other hand smoothed over her breasts and down onto her stomach.

Gently he aroused her through the material of her clothes, his fingertips teasing over the sensitive tips of her breasts and curving beneath them to cup their weight, then sliding down over the flat plane of her stomach and abdomen to delve into the notch between her legs.

Irene let out a startled noise then, stiffening a little at the unexpected touch, but his fingers moved slowly, gently, igniting the myriad of sensitive nerves that gathered there, and before long it was a soft moan of pleasure that escaped her lips. Moisture flooded between her legs, and she was aware of a deeper, hungrier yearning.

She moved against him, rubbing herself against his body behind her, and she was pleased to hear his low groan. The sound of his desire further stirred her, and she realized that she wanted very much to arouse him as he had aroused her.