The Taming of Victoria Colton

Chapter Twenty

Vicky nodded. “Definitely silly,” she told him pointedly.

“I can think of far more appropriate adjectives to use,” he rumbled seductively, taking yet another step towards her and effectively closing the space that separated them.

“I’m sure you could.” She smiled. “But I like mine.”

He slid his fingers against the span of her slim waist, gently tugging her towards him, and she came without resistance, the tips of her breasts grazing the front of his coat lapels. “You would, you little hellcat,” he murmured.

“So,” she informed him with a catch in her breath and he revelled in watching those eyes of hers darken with longing, the subtle dilation of her pupils. “As you can see, I had to think about this very carefully.”

“Indeed.”

“Any moderately intelligent woman would.”

“Naturally.”

“And I consider myself of above-average intelligence.”

“You are a veritable bluestocking.”

She gave him a sultry smile. It made his body yearn and he spanned the fingers of his other hand against her cheek, gently tilting her face towards his mouth.

“You can understand why, then,” she murmured, her eyes downcast, “I had to think about whether I’d be willing to marry you.”

“Victoria?”

She raised passion-dazed eyes up to his enquiringly.

“Mmm?”

“Shut up.”

She wasn’t going to and she even opened her mouth to say something further, but Gabriel didn’t allow her the opportunity. He brought his lips down on hers with such exquisite force he thought he could never get enough of the taste her and when she opened beneath him, submitting to his ardency, it was like coming home.

He groaned with the pleasure of it, delving his tongue deep within her mouth and finding no barriers of resistance. She tasted sweet and pure, deliciously innocent and intoxicating. His body palpated with the feel of her crushed against him, came alive with the heat emanating between them. He was like a man starved for the taste, the feel of her, and while he longed to cherish these moments, to languish over her, at the same time he could not get enough of her, he wanted more and he wanted it now.

She entwined her arms around his neck and clung to him, submitting fully and sweetly to him, and Gabriel groaned. He pulled her against him, letting her know what she did, how much he needed her, and revelled in her gasp of pleasure and in the way she shifted her belly against that incredibly hot and hard part of his body. It was amazing how suddenly she could drive him from insane heights of madness to ecstasy in just a moment. But she could and Gabriel knew it was because it was her; it was Victoria, and not some other woman, but someone more special and meaningful to him.

Poignantly, he realised that this moment, this one perfectly cohesive moment when he was about to join his body with hers, would be one of the most important pinnacles of his life. Gabriel gently broke the kiss, longing to imprint the image of her just as she was into his memory, and caught his breath. God, she was beautiful and, lost in passion as she was, Victoria made his heart skip a beat. Her cheeks flushed and her lips slightly parted and swollen from his kisses, Vicky stared up at him with dark, questioning and slightly confused eyes.

“Gabriel?” she breathed. “Is something the matter?”

He smiled languidly. “No, darling,” he told her tenderly. “Nothing is wrong at all. Everything is perfect.” He kissed her playfully on the nose. “Just perfect.”