Love's Fortress Read online

  “My kind of woman, apparently,” Gideon responded drily. She laughed and he smiled that lopsided grimace of his that she loved. “Why?”

  She didn’t understand his question. “Why what?”

  “Why did you want him there? Because of me? This?” He ran his bent fingers down his scarred face.

  Sarah gasped. “No! I knew you wanted him there. I could see that his being there eased your concerns. I wanted you to stay and I didn’t think you would if I refused to allow Charles to stay with us.”

  “You know me so well,” Gideon murmured, leaning back in the chair. “You have from the moment we met, I think. And I thought I knew you. But today I realized that I do not know you at all.”

  Sarah had known this was coming. She turned her face to the wall. “I heard what you said to Charles. I’m sorry I’m not what you thought I was. I’m not a lady, not really.”

  “I spoke out of turn. That is not what I meant.” Gideon’s response was sharp. Sarah looked at him and he seemed angry.

  “Wasn’t it? It’s clear you wanted a lady for a wife. You said as much in our first interview. You have treated me as if I were. But I failed a test today, I think.”

  “No, you did not. There was no test. To me you are every inch a lady. I failed the test.” Gideon was furious with himself for putting Sarah in this position. That she could question herself this way was his fault entirely. Now that he’d started his confession, he felt compelled to finish it. He owed it to Sarah to risk his pride. “I panicked, you see. You and Charles were gone and I thought you had left me.”

  Sarah gasped and jumped to her feet. “Gideon, I would never. We would never… Surely you know that.”

  Gideon leaned his head against the wall behind him and blew out a breath. They said confession was good for the soul. He didn’t feel good but he did feel a certain lightness at revealing his deepest fear.

  “Yes, I do. But what I know and what I feel are two entirely different things, aren’t they?” His mind flashed back to when he awoke this morning, to the second he realized they both were gone. He never wanted to feel that way again.

  “Gideon…” Sarah sounded as if she wanted to cry. He definitely did not want that. So he sat up and went back to the point he’d been trying make.

  “I did not know that you would like it so rough.”

  Sarah blushed so hard it seemed as if her entire body turned red. Gideon found her blushes charming. “Neither did I.”

  “I should have known.” Gideon had berated himself repeatedly before he gathered enough courage to knock on Sarah’s door. “I should have at least asked you what you wanted. I should have noticed that you were not satisfied with what we were doing.”

  Sarah glared at him indignantly. “Of course I was satisfied. What we have been doing is equally as satisfying as what Charles and I did this morning. I certainly would have said something if I had been unhappy. I am not such a ninny as that.”

  “How could you have known?” Gideon asked incredulously. “I am well aware, madam, that prior to our wedding night you had no carnal experience. I was the experienced one who should have seen what you needed.”

  “Are you so much a rake, then?” Sarah asked curiously. “I did not think you had much experience, particularly since coming back from the war.”

  Gideon could have kissed her then, if she were closer. She had spoken of the war and his injuries with mild curiosity, not morbid, reluctant fascination. As if it were commonplace to discuss it and not as if the mere mention of it would send him screaming from the room. There were a handful of people who spoke to him like that. He was eternally grateful his wife was one of them. “Come here.”

  Sarah did not question his command at all. She simply walked over to him and stood before him, waiting. After the way he acted this morning, her trust in him was humbling. He reached for her hand and pulled her down to sit in his lap.

  “Gideon, surely I am too heavy,” she protested, resisting. “I don’t think your leg can hold me.”

  Gideon was affronted. “Nonsense. It carries me around, doesn’t it? And I weigh a great deal more than you do, even without half a leg.”

  Sarah gingerly lowered herself onto his lap. Gideon jostled her around until he was satisfied with her position. He very much enjoyed the feel of her delicious derriere against his crotch. The thin material of her gown and wrapper were more a tease between them than a barrier. He squeezed her gently and she laid her head on his shoulder. He wore only a shirt with no waistcoat or jacket. Not even a cravat. He could feel her soft breasts pressed against him, and her hair tickled his exposed chest.

  “You did not answer my question,” she said quietly a few moments later.

  “Hmm, did I not?” Gideon murmured. “Do you suppose other married couples discuss these things?”

  “I certainly hope so,” Sarah responded. “How else are people supposed to figure out what they’re doing? Now answer the question.”

  Gideon chuckled. “I see I shall have no pride left by the time I leave your room.” He sighed. “I have never had someone like you before.”

  Sarah hit him lightly in the chest. “That is not an answer. What do you mean, someone like me?”

  Gideon was completely honest with her. “A lady. Innocent, honest, passionate. Free.”

  “Free?” Sarah asked. “You mean free with her favors?”

  Gideon shook his head. “No. I mean free as in I didn’t have to pay you for it.”

  “Oh.” Sarah sounded completely shocked. “I…I…oh.”

  She felt incredibly good in his arms. Gideon ran his hand up her back into the loose, thick fall of her hair. He stroked the warm strands that flowed beneath his fingers like silk. She smelled like those flowers again. He nuzzled his nose against her temple and kissed his way down her cheek. She didn’t hesitate to turn her face up for a more thorough kiss. It was a gentle exploration rather than a passionate prelude, but his ardor rose, just the same. Based on her response Sarah was not unaffected either.

  “What do you want?” Gideon whispered in her ear. He bit her lobe and she squirmed pleasantly in his lap. He wrapped a hand around her hip and rubbed her against his erection. “Tell me.”

  “You.” Her reply was breathless.

  “How?”

  “I…however you want.” She answered in between soft, wet kisses. “I love it with you however we do it.”

  Gideon groaned. There were so many things he wanted to do with Sarah. Only some of them were possible, but he was now determined to try all that he could. “Are you sure? After this morning with Charles I’m afraid you might be too sore.”

  Sarah pulled back reluctantly. “Charles didn’t hurt me. I told you that.”

  He pulled her back with the hand buried in her hair. “I didn’t mean that. But sometimes when a man is rough, even if the woman wants it that way, she could be sore afterwards.” Their faces were mere inches apart, so close he could feel her breath on his lips. He leaned closer and ran his nose over her cheek and then rubbed her nose with his. Every part of him craved a touch of her.

  She shook her head slightly, careful not to break their contact. “No, I feel fine.”

  “I want to be inside you.” Gideon was hoarse, his desire growing each time she moved in his lap against his hardening cock.

  “Yes,” she said with a sigh. “Please, Gideon.”

  “Turn around.”

  “What?” Sarah was obviously confused by his command. Her eyes had gone unfocused as they kissed and he watched her try to regain her composure.

  “Turn around. I want to take you from behind.”

  Sarah’s eyes grew wide and she blushed. “How?” she whispered.

  Gideon smiled. “Let me show you. Turn around.”

  “In your lap?”

  Gideon tried not to laugh at her consternation. “Yes, in my lap,” he told her patiently. “Turn around, straddle my thighs and sit back down. With your gown pulled up.”

  Sarah did as directed
, but before she could sit down he told her, “Take the wrap off first, please.”

  When she sat back down Gideon ran his hands under the gown pooled around her hips. He slid them up, taking the gown with them. “Let’s take this off too, shall we?” he murmured in her ear. He let his hands detour to cup her breasts, the weight of them warm and heavy in his palms. He was getting overheated, and sweat trickled down his back. He pushed the gown up and over her head and then sat back to enjoy the view.

  Sarah shivered. Her legs were spread wide, her bottom a perfect heart where it rested against him. Her back was beautiful, long and graceful, arched as she held herself in his lap with her hands braced on his thighs. He brushed her long hair over her shoulder. “You are hurt,” he murmured, running his fingers over the bruises and scratches on her back.

  “Am I?” Sarah asked with surprise. “From the tree?”

  Gideon closed his eyes as the image of Sarah and Charles fucking against the tree flashed through his mind. His first reaction when he’d seen them was a rush of desire so strong it nearly unbalanced him. Sarah pinned to the tree, helpless and moaning as Charles fucked her fast and hard, the muscles in his powerful arms flexing as he held her there, his hips pumping. He had not confessed to Sarah that part of his anger had been his reaction to them. Sarah had aroused him, but Charles had too, just as much as Sarah. He’d thought those feelings for Charles would go away now that he had Sarah. They had not. If anything, watching him with Sarah had intensified Gideon’s desire for him.

  “I assume so,” he finally answered. He rested his hands on her shoulders and then slid them down her back, molding his hands to her skin, feeling the movement of her muscles under his palms and the delicate bones of her spine with his thumbs. He traced her ribs with his fingertips and she shivered again.

  “Gideon, please,” she begged sweetly.

  “Please what?” He knew he was pushing her. But he wanted to see that side of her he’d seen this morning. She always welcomed him into her body with passion and enthusiasm but not the wild abandon he’d seen earlier. He needed to discover how to bring her to that point.

  “Please, I need you.” Her voice trembled.

  “I’m right here.” He punctuated his reassurance with kisses to some of the bruises on her back as he cupped her breasts.

  “Inside me,” she pleaded.

  Gideon pulled her back a little more on his thighs and found her mound with his hand. Her curls were thick and rough on his palm, damp with arousal. He loved the way they felt against him when he was fucking her. He pressed his finger into her entrance, teasing her with gentle thrusts, rubbing around the edges of her opening. “Like that?”

  Sarah shook her head as her breathing became irregular. “That feels marvelous, but no.”

  “No?” Gideon teased. He pushed his finger in all the way, cupping her sex so his palm pressed on her clitoris. “Like that, then?”

  Sarah made a sound halfway between a gasp and a hiccup and moved her hips, her inner muscles gripping his finger as her nails dug into his legs through his trousers. Oh yes, she liked that.

  “Mmm,” she murmured. “Yes, like that.”

  “Is that all you need?” he asked, injecting a tiny bit of his own desperation into the question.

  Sarah laughed. It was the low, sensual laugh she used when they were in bed. The one that only he and Charles had ever heard. “Oh no. I’m going to need much more.”

  Gideon smiled behind her. It had become a bit of a joke between the three of them, the notion of more, going back to their wedding night. “I still have more to give you,” he assured her with as much innuendo in his tone as he could produce.

  Sarah laughed again, and he felt it on the finger inside her. Felt her laughter from the inside out. God, he adored her. He worshipped everything about her. It was frightening. He didn’t like being as vulnerable as he’d proven to be this morning.

  He undid the fall on his trousers and shoved it down. When he pulled his cock out from his underclothes it was a relief to be free of the restriction of clothing. “I want to fuck.” He was deliberately crude. Sarah shuddered and a rush of wetness coated his finger. She liked that. He suspected as much. Charles could be rather crude when they were in bed, and though Sarah tried to hide it he had noticed that it aroused her.

  “Oh, good,” Sarah purred. Gideon laughed. He couldn’t help it. She was so different than when they’d first met.

  He tried to position her so that he could get inside but it was awkward. Damn, damn, damn, he thought. “Can you bring your legs in between mine? This isn’t working,” he admitted reluctantly.

  Sarah did as he told her, laughing as she almost fell off his lap. “I’m afraid I’m not as nimble as you think,” she jested.

  It eased Gideon’s tension, as he was sure she meant it to. He gripped her hips and pulled her in close and his cock brushed against her plump bottom. He jerked as if he’d been burned. “Damn, I love your derriere,” he muttered.

  “What?” Sarah asked in astonishment. “My…my bottom?” She sounded so affronted that Gideon laughed again.

  “Yes, your bottom,” he said, imitating her horrified tones. “It’s a plump, soft handful.” He demonstrated by cupping one cheek in his good hand and squeezing. Sarah jumped a bit in his lap. “One reason I want to fuck you this way is so I can look at this,” he squeezed again, “while we do it.”

  “Do men like that sort of thing?” she asked in tones equally offended and fascinated.

  “This man does,” Gideon growled in her ear and she shivered. He let his fingers caress the crease between her cheeks and Sarah caught her breath. “I’ve heard a man and a woman can fuck here too,” Gideon whispered suggestively.

  “What?” Sarah practically screeched. Gideon winced. “Well, this man and woman most definitely are not.”

  She was indignant, but Gideon didn’t miss that fact that her breathing was ragged and she gave a telltale squirm in his lap. “Charles told me about it,” he added nonchalantly. “He said two men can have a woman at the same time that way.”

  Sarah sat stock-still in his lap. “Have you two ever done that?” she whispered.

  “No,” Gideon whispered back. “But I’m of a mind to try it someday.”

  “Someday,” Sarah said primly, “is not today.”

  “No, it isn’t,” Gideon agreed. He wrapped his arm around her waist and raised her up a bit. He guided his member into place with the other and then sat Sarah down on it. He slid inside and Sarah adjusted her position and took over. She pulled off him and then pushed back, her beautiful bottom pressing against him as she took him as deep as he could go.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Oh, Gideon,” she said in a thready, quivering voice. “It feels so good. Better, even, than before.”

  Gideon couldn’t answer. With her legs pressed together between his, she was incredibly tight. She was small to begin with, and this position caused her sweet little sheath to nearly choke him with pleasure.

  They began to move in complementary rhythm, Sarah pulling off as he pulled out, sliding down as he flexed his hips upward. They were both straining, moving fast within a matter of minutes. But suddenly Sarah’s hand slipped off his thigh and Gideon had to catch her before she fell.

  “Oh damn,” Sarah muttered.

  “Sarah,” Gideon chided breathlessly. He laughed as she tried to get back into position.

  “My legs are mush,” Sarah told him helplessly. “Help me.”

  So far Sarah had been doing as much work as Gideon. Gideon wanted to fuck her. He wanted to be in control. He wasn’t sure he was physically able to do it anymore, but he needed to try.

  “Get on your hands and knees on the floor. Can you do that?” he asked roughly.

  Sarah nodded. She held his hand for balance as she knelt on the floor. She went down on all fours, presenting her bottom to him with a saucy little grin over her shoulder. “Hurry, Gideon.”

  She was like a mare in heat presenting
herself to a stallion. And that was how Gideon wanted to take her. He wanted to mount her and fuck her hard and fast until she cried out. He could see the lips of her sex peeking through her curls, red and swollen and wet. She looked like a woman who had already been fucked today. And she had. Twice.

  Gideon’s heart raced as he braced his hands on the edge of the chair seat and lowered himself to the floor. He let his arms absorb most of his weight. First his stump and then his knee met the floorboards. It didn’t hurt. He slid over to where Sarah waited for him.

  “Are you all right?” she asked in concern.

  “I’m fine.” He forced himself not to be too abrupt. He came up against Sarah and she sighed with pleasure. His eyes nearly crossed. He could feel the plump heat of that bottom even better this way. But he couldn’t see it. He pulled his shirt off over his head and threw it aside. That was better. He didn’t bother with preliminaries. He just pulled his hips back and thrust. Although his stance was slightly uneven, she was still at the perfect height. He held on to her generous hips and pumped into her.

  “Gideon,” she moaned. He slid closer, his legs almost under her, and she gave a cry. “Yes! Oh Gideon, right there,” she cried out. “Is your leg all right?” she asked after a moment as she panted. “Does it hurt?”

  Gideon laughed. “All the feeling in my body is concentrated in one spot. Nothing hurts.”

  Sarah laughed back breathlessly. “Good. Then fuck me hard.”

  Gideon responded by pounding into her, and their legs and hands slipped on the slick wood floor. Sarah sank lower and lower to the ground, and Gideon followed. Soon they were splayed on the floor, Gideon still fucking her as hard as he could. Sarah was crying out with each thrust, whimpering as he pulled back. He’d found something inside her, something that was clearly giving her a great deal of pleasure.