Page 31

Earlier, when she’d dressed in dark colors for this evening’s adventure, she’d tucked the silly little lace from Lady Mistree into her bodice, as a sort of luck.

She wasn’t sure what had made her bring it—but if there was a sort of magic to it, perhaps she could use it to help the poor pregnant elephant on the other side of this wall.

Instead of admitting to this, though, she kissed his shoulder. “I thought you were my good luck charm?”

Another snort, then she felt him pull out his timepiece, and wondered how he could see the hour. “It’s almost time,” Cassian grunted, sliding it back into his vest pocket. “Ye ken yer cue? ”

“I wait for you to slip around the backside of the barn. Even if there is a guard on the large door back there, you are confident in your ability to evade him, even with a, and I am quoting here, a shite knee,” she parroted with a smirk.

“I am to count to one hundred, allowing you time to get into position around the corner.” She dragged her hands up her corset to heft her breasts.

“Then I am to distract the guard with my bonny smile and verra fine tits.”

He snorted. “Ye dinnae need to remember everything I said.”

Her voice lowered into what she hoped was the seductive register. “How could I not when it was so flattering?”

With a faint growl, he pushed her up against the wall of the barn and kissed her.

No, kissed her was too polite, too civil a term for what he did.

Without any warning, Cassian ravished her mouth with his own, taking her from playful banter to full-on arousal in a blink of an eye.

She didn’t object—couldn’t object if she wanted to, what with his tongue twisting in her mouth in such a satisfying way—but wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.

Her breasts— Excuse me, verra fine tits —smashed against his chest, her hips cradling his hard length. Cassian pressed forward, gyrating just slightly and wrenching a desperate moan from her throat.

How difficult would it be to tup, here and now? They had a few minutes, did they not? Judging from the way his hands were roaming across her body, he was ready for this as much as she was.

“Cassian,” she gasped, wrenching her mouth from his .

“Christ,” he groaned, dropping his forehead. “I’m sorry, Gabby. I dinnae mean to lose control?—”

Unwilling to allow him to think she was upset with his ministrations—when nothing could be further from the truth—she wriggled in his hold, turning to face the wall of the barn, and yanked her skirts up.

“Gabby, what are ye?—”

She pulled the skirts of her dark gray gown—the most utilitarian of the ones Bull had picked out for her undercover persona—over the curve of her arse and thrust backward, capturing his hardness in her eager cleft. Could he feel how wet she was already?

Cassian’s only response was a groan as he reached for her wrists. He planted them against the wooden wall, holding her there as he pressed forward once more, his cock pushing against his trousers and the split in her bloomers. “Gabby, we cannae…” he rasped against the back of her neck.

Oh, but they could.

“I am practicing being adventurous,” she gasped, grinding her wetness against him, unable to believe how quickly her body responded to him. “Cassian, please .”

With another growl, he dropped his vise hold on one wrist to fumble for the buttons of his trousers. In one swift motion he pulled his cock free and slid it gently into her weeping core.

Only biting down hard on her lower lip—the lip which had so recently been tucked between his teeth—kept Gabby from groaning .

Cassian’s breath was harsh in her ear as he plunged into her again and again.

“Keep yer moans quiet, lass,” he rasped, pressing a kiss on her neck. “Ye’ll never…make a…good spy… good Christ ,” he groaned, slamming into her hard enough to press her against the wall.

Gabby was dimly aware this position was called the Soldier and the Crucible in A Harlot’s Guide , that particularly educational text her Aunt Georgia had shared with her…but it had never mentioned how pleasurable rough sex could be.

And this most definitely was rough, in the most delicious way. “Cassian,” she whimpered.

His hand left her wrist to clamp down around her mouth—too hard, too exciting. Was this what being a spy was like? Frantic fooking up against a wall? Gabby’s eyes rolled back in her head as the pleasure—the excitement—of the moment threatened to overwhelm her.

“Remember…the guard,” he muttered in her ear. “Ye cannae…let anything…disrupt…yer focus .”

Gabby thrust her arse back—oh, God, this angle was even better!—and smiled against his hand. From his heavy breathing, she knew he felt it. His hand moved from her hip to the front of her pelvis, searching among the folds of her skirt for her core.

He didn’t need to touch her skin, not directly. As soon as the heel of his palm pressed above her clitoris, Gabby went wild.

The noises she made—well, thank goodness Cassian was muffling them. He pressed her forward against the wall, her fingers clutching at the wood, as he plunged into her harder and harder. Her pleasure climbed and climbed and he rubbed at her through the wool of her skirts, and when she finally came?—

“Gabby,” he whispered harshly as she mewled against his hand, her ecstasy making it impossible not to make some sound. He’d frozen as she spasmed around him, her hips bucking gently.

As her orgasm faded, her muscles relaxed, and he pulled his hand away from her mouth—oh God, had she drooled all over him? She would need to apologize, except…

Except Cassian had dropped that hand to his cock, pulling it from her and jerking it once, twice…and with a faint grunt, he allowed his seed to erupt across the wooden wall of the elephant barn.

They would…they would have to blame it on Jerry and Steve…

Gabby slumped there, her skirts still askew, her breathing hard, as he tucked himself in as if he were used to doing this sort of thing in the middle of a mission.

He had worked with all men. Surely he was not used to it .

Ah. But they had set up the meeting in the brothel…

Cassian stepped forward, and with no-nonsense movements, righted her clothing. He kissed her once on the mouth, hard, then pulled out his timepiece. “Right on time.”

“Wh-What?” she managed.

Another kiss, and she felt his lips pull into a smile around hers. Then he stepped back. “Start counting, love. At one hundred, Gus and I are both counting on ye for a distraction. ”

And then he was gone.

Oh .

Oh yes.

Yes, there had been a reason they were here, hadn’t there? Lurking out here, in the dark of night, in the shadows of the elephant barn—Elizabeth! Elizabeth was inside, and Gabby needed to examine her! With Sir Dickie’s pronouncement, the only way she could examine the elephant was?—

Should you not be counting ?

Oh dear.

Um.

How long had passed? Seventeen, eighteen seconds?

Gabby pushed away from the wall and patted at her hair, wondering how disheveled she looked. Twenty-three, twenty-four .

Who knew it was possible to fook up against the wall like that?

In such an…an energetic way? She supposed she should be pleased Cassian’s seed wasn’t dripping down her thighs at this moment, but she could confess a feeling of…

well, abandonment each time he pulled his cock from her to spill outside her body.

Thirty-seven?

Forty-two?

How much time had passed?

Oh dear.

Gabby took a deep breath, pressed a hand to her bosom—as if that could control her breathing—and pushed away from the wall.

While she hadn’t exactly excelled at counting, Gus and Cassian were depending on her.

If she dallied too long, Gus’s pocket watch would tell him the hour had passed and he would worry.

She closed her eyes and forced herself to count to fifty, slowly and steadily.

There. She blinked up at the glow of the moon behind the clouds. That should be the full amount of time, shouldn’t it?

She stepped around the corner of the barn before she could talk herself out of it. Committed now, she tried for a nonchalant stroll while also kicking as much gravel as possible, so the guard would turn toward her.

“Halt! Who goes there?”

Oh good, it had worked. It was young Carter. And wasn’t he taking his job just a little too seriously?

“Hello there!” she announced cheerfully, trying for a light tone; trying to sound like a brainless ninny, and not a wanton intellectual who’d just been thoroughly tupped up against a wall like a harlot. “Nice evening, is it not?”

“Is that ye, Miss Butcombe?” Carter called, lowering his rifle. “Ye’re out late.”

“Yes, Sir Dickie asked me to take a look at that infection on the poor zebra’s leg.” She was close enough now to see the man, one of the younger guards. Good . “I passed the stables on the way back—and goodness, the braziers must be burning hot tonight. ”

“What?” the man blurted, stepping toward her.

Shrugging, she pretended to pass by on her way toward the manor. “I could smell the smoke from the braziers all the way in the ungulates’ enclosure.”

“But—there’s no braziers!” Carter took a few aborted steps in the direction from which she’d come. “It’s the middle of summer!”

“Oh, that is right,” she giggled—actually giggled—as she waved dismissively and sauntered toward the gardens. “I wonder why it smelled of smoke, then?”

“Fire,” the guard announced, almost to himself. Then with another yell of, ” Fire!” he ran off around the corner of the elephant barn.

In a moment, Gabby darted to his abandoned post and wasn’t at all surprised to find Cassian there already.

“Here,” he muttered, thrusting a dark lantern at her. “Just a sliver of light, please.”

She took it and fiddled with the mechanism, but when she looked up, he was watching her in bemusement.

“What?” she whispered.

“Smoke? Braziers?” His lips curled as he leaned forward and claimed her lips for a quick kiss. “Perhaps ye would make a good spy.”

“I am a brilliant woman.”

“ My brilliant woman,” he growled, and Gabby…

Gabby was grateful he turned to the door and rapped a complex rhythm twice—once six feet up and once down by his knees—because she couldn’t respond. Couldn’t make her throat do anything .

Because in that moment, she realized the truth: she loved Cassian Grey and wanted him. Wanted to be his woman. Wanted to help him raise Gus, to empower the lad to do something he loved, wanted to consider more children with him, wanted to grow old here at Inverlochy with him.

But until Bull answered her telegram, there was no hope of that.

Besides, she had an elephant to think of.

The barn door opened with the faintest squeak, and Cassian slipped through. “Augustus?”

“That was brilliant, Da!” came the lad’s hushed whisper. “You were right on time.”

Swallowing her recent revelation and trying to calm her trembling heart, Gabby followed, allowing the lantern to fall over the reunion.

“Did anyone see ye, lad?” Cassian was patting his son all over, looking for injuries. “Ye were safe?”

“Safe as houses,” the lad announced proudly. “Are houses safe? Anyhow, the delivery went exactly as Gabby said it would.”

“You still have cabbage in yer hair,” his father grumbled, pulling out an offending leaf. “Hiding in a wheelbarrow of cabbages to sneak into the barn—what kind of fool idea?—”

“It worked, did it not?” Gabby halted him in a low voice before Gus could announce it had been her idea…from past experience. She smiled at the lad. “They snuck you in, just as you expected, and you waited until you heard your father’s signal?—”

“And then I unlocked the door.” Gus moved back to push the door closed. “Just in case he comes back.” Before Cassian could do more than grunt in approval, his son gestured toward the back of the barn. “Come on. Elizabeth is lying near the birthing trench the doctor ordered to be dug.”

Oh, that was a good sign, wasn’t it?

Taking a deep breath, Gabby straightened her shoulders and followed after the two male humans she realized she wanted to share her life with. She was finally— finally —going to be allowed to examine the pregnant elephant, without all the silly restrictions her lies had placed on her.

It was time to do the second most important job which had brought her to Inverlochy Castle.