He was as temptingly made as the first Adam must have been. God hadn't shirked his duties when creating Gideon Horn. No, indeed. In fact, she wondered if God hadn't put just a jot too much effort into it. He should have given the man something more useful than good looks and a treacherous charm. Humility, for example.
She tried to imagine a humble Gideon, but it was impossible. Such a creature would be beyond even the Almighty's powers of imagination.
He twirled one coppery lock around his finger, and that seemed to rouse her from her stunned silence.
"Stop that," she whispered, a troubled expression crossing her face.
"Why?" he smoothed her hair down over one shoulder, thinking that she had the creamiest skin he'd ever seen, skin that was just begging to be touched. She gasped when he stroked one finger up along the curved contours of her neck. "It's not..proper," she said.
That made him smile. "Proper? We crossed the line from proper to improper right after you left the Chastity. You're on a pirate ship, remember? You're alone in a cabin with a notorious pirate captain..you've lost your proper little cap..and I'm about to kiss you."
As soon as he'd said the words, he knew they were a mistake-and not because of the outrage that filled her face. It would be dangerous to kiss her. She wasn't the woman for him.
But he had to taste her once, just a little taste. So before a protest could even leave her lips, he brought his mouth down to hers.
God knew she was a troublesome wench, with a tongue that could strip the barnacles off a ship's hull.
Sabrina JeffriesHe smiled his dimpled smile. "Well, I've found something in my heart, my love, and it's you. You fill it up so completely that I don't need anything else." His gaze turned solemn. "I don't want to be the river anymore. I want to be the earth that the tree roots in. And I believe that I can, if you'll be my tree. Will you?"
It was too much. She began to cry, though she smiled so he'd know that they were happy tears. "That proposal...is vastly superior...to your last one," she choked out between sobs. "I would very much love to be your tree."
-Jarret and Annabel
What are you doing here?" she asked.
"You forgot something when you left Halstead Hall," he said hoarsely.
"What?"
Her heart lept into her throat as he strode purposefully toward her. "Me.
To stop Maria before she ruined everything, he grabbed her about the waist, hauled her against him, and sealed his mouth to hers.
At first she seemed too stunned to do anything. When after a moment, he felt her trying to draw back from him, he caught her behind the neck with an iron grip.
"Oh," Gran said in a stiff voice. "Beg pardon."
Dimly he heard the door close and footsteps retreating, but before he could let Maria go, a searing pain shot through his groin, making him see stars. Blast her, the woman had kneed him in the ballocks!
As he doubled over, fighting to keep from passing out, she snapped, "That was for making me look like a whore, too!
Must you say things like that in public, for God's sake?"
"What do you mean?"
He lowered his voice to a hiss. "Remember yesterday at the inn? My 'pistol' is making an appearance, thanks to you."
She glanced down at his trousers, which only made them bulge more obviously. Then she lifted a mischievous gaze to his face. "Whatever will you do, now that you're in this...state?"
"Conjugate Latin," he said tersely. "Think of England. Think of anything but you and me doing--Bloody hell, there it goes again, and we're nearly to Rotten Row." He stopped short and stepped behind a bench with a high back that sat near the river.
She stood next to him, pretty as the proverbial picture, her eyes dropping to his trousers with virginal curiosity.
"Would you stop looking at me there? he growled. "You're not helping."
She laughed. "You're the one who started it by trying to seduce me with words. Serves you right if you have to suffer for it."
-Giles and Minerva
I suppose if you were inclined to misbehave, you wouldn't exactly tell me the truth anyway."
"Darling, you have a brother fond of holding a gun on me, a sister who can shoot anything that moves, two other brothers who've repeatedly threatened to thrash me, and a grandmother who buys off constables. Do you really think I'm fool enough to antagonize them by committing adultery?"
It was hard not to smile at that. "An excellent point."
"I think so.
Then she jerked back with a siren's smile that made his confidence falter. "Well." She tapped her chin. "That was a decent kiss, all things being equal." She pressed her hand to her chest. "My heart is, if not quite racing, then heading into a quick walk. But I need a thermometer to determine if and how high my body heated. I shall just go--"
"Don't you dare." He caught her by the arm as she was on the verge of fleeing. "You know bloody well that you responded to that kiss."
With a suspicious glee in her eyes, she tugged her arm from his grip. "I'm not saying I didn't respond-- just that I didn't respond to any overwhelming degree. But it was a good kiss, I suppose. Better than some, not as good as others."
"What the hell do you mean? How many chaps have you kissed in the last nine years, anyway?"
"No more than you've kissed women, I should imagine."
"My God."
"But don't worry-- I don't think the average woman would complain about your kissing. You're perfectly competent."
Competent? Bloody insolent chit. Even knowing she was trying to provoke him didn't ease his wounded pride. "Perhaps we should try again."
-Giles and Minerva
Sharp!" called a voice from outside the stable.
It might as well have been the voice of God Himself, only he wasn't coming to save anyone.
She jerked her hand from Gabriel's breeches in a panic. "That's Poppy! He can't find us like this."
Gabriel stared at her uncomprehendingly for a second.
She shook him. "If he finds you here with me, there will be no wedding, no duel, no nothing except your handsome body speared on that pitchfork over there."
A lazy grin crossed his face. "You think I'm handsome?"
"Gabriel!"
"Oh, all right." He stood and brushed the straw from his skin and breeches."
-Gabriel and Virginia
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