Page 8 of The Runaway Heiress (The Gilded West)

Chapter Eight

T he stark need in his eyes as he approached might have filled Sophie with apprehension had she had the time to process it before Gray pulled her into his arms. But he moved so fast she barely had time to keep her heart from exploding from her chest before his mouth covered hers.

His fingers gripped her arms and pulled her tight against him as he plundered her.

His tongue pushed inside, mating with hers with an insistency that caused such an immediate, responsive arousal in her that it left her breathless.

Sophie loved the solid press of his chest against her breasts and moved her palms against the hard planes as they made their way to his shoulders and then up so her fingers curled around his neck and twined in the silk of his hair.

She loved his hair and had been aching to plunge her fingers into the richness.

But they couldn’t stay still. There was too much of him to explore.

They greedily sought to cup his strong jaw as it moved with his kiss before moving back down to curl around the breadth of his back and pull him closer.

He groaned low in his throat and dropped his hands to fill them with the fleshy globes of her nearly naked bottom.

Sophie marveled at the languorous heaviness that settled low in her belly in response.

Then he squeezed hard and she broke the kiss to gasp at the thrill that shot through her groin.

An answering flood of heat pooled between her thighs.

His hot breath fanned her lips, sending sparks of electricity prickling across her face.

His lips brushed hers, but softer this time, and then she was moving backward in a controlled fall that ended with him raised above her on the bed.

She opened her eyes to question him but was caught in the intensity that met her gaze.

“You’ve been kissed. Now go to sleep.” And he pushed himself off of her to flop on his back beside her.

Sophie laid there breathing heavily, trying to come to terms with what was happening to her body.

She knew he was right to stop, and was fairly certain what the pulsing of her body meant, but she didn’t care.

It became clear to her that everything had been building to this.

She should be angry with him for not helping her escape.

She should hate him for thwarting her. But those thoughts had hardly even raised their heads.

So she closed her eyes and laid there by his side until she could get herself under control.

It didn’t help that the bed was so small he was pressed against her from shoulder to hip, that his scent permeated her senses and refused to let her calm down.

But finally she felt herself return to some measure of normalcy and she rolled on her side to give him more room while raising herself on an elbow to look down at him.

He lay there with an arm thrown over his eyes and she noticed, with quite a bit of pleasure, that he was still breathing heavily.

She took note of the strange band of leather tied around his wrist, wondering what it meant.

Her appreciative gaze traveled over the rest of him until it came to a stop on the hand that rested on his stomach.

Before she could stop herself, she reached for his gracefully long fingers and brought them to her lips.

His eyes jerked to her then and she smiled as she met them. “Thank you for the kiss.” She did not relinquish his hand and in response his fingers curled around her own. “Thank you for stopping, too. I never knew you were such a gentleman.” She teased.

“I’m not.” He was not teasing. “You’re innocent. I wouldn’t take that from you.”

Sophie thought about that for a while. Yes, she was innocent, strictly speaking.

But he’d made her feel things innocents were probably not supposed to feel and she suspected those feelings to be rare.

Feelings she may never have again. Particularly if she escaped, which she had every intention of attempting, and especially if the worst happened and she married Anton.

This night had been given to them as a gift, maybe she’d realized it even as he’d led her away from the gaming hall.

It was their one night to explore what was between them.

Their only night. She’d be a fool to let it pass.

If she escaped, it would be a nice memory, if she went to Anton, it would be the only thing she could keep of her own.

Anton was expecting a virgin, but she’d deal with that later. Maybe he’d divorce her, she mused.

“What if I gave it to you?”

Gray went stone still as the words settled between them. She watched his face as he processed them and held her breath. Her heart fluttered in her chest when he turned and rose on his elbow in a pose identical to hers. But he was bigger, so she had to look up at him.

“Are you?” he asked.

His husky voice raked her skin, sucking the air from the room. The heat emanating from his body made her feel too hot. Along with her heart palpitations, it left her momentarily dumbstruck. “W-what?” she finally managed to stutter.

“Are you giving me your innocence?” His thumb brushed her knuckles in a light caress that left them tingling.

“Yes,” she whispered. It seemed inappropriate to say the word too loudly.

His breath warmed her cheek as he breathed slowly in and out. But his gaze had left her face to settle on their joined hands. “You don’t know how often I’ve thought about it.”

“You’ve thought about me?”

He nodded. “I’ve thought about how I want to take you away. How I want to disappear with you so you’d be mine.” His gaze met hers after he said that and she felt its jolt all through her body.

His words set off a spark within her and momentary bout of bashfulness began to fade away. She laid back and his hand automatically moved to rest on her stomach. “So maybe for tonight we can pretend you have run away with me,” she said.

Something deep and visceral crossed his face and his hand tightened in her chemise. It was her only warning before his mouth crushed hers.

“Ow!”

Gray pulled back immediately at her cry of pain. “Your gun,” she explained in a whisper, already reaching to pull him back. It had dug painfully into the soft flesh of her hip.

Gray sat on his knees to untie the leather thong from his thigh and unbuckle his gun belt, hardly waiting for it to drop to the bare wood floor before he was on her again. His clothed body covering her almost naked one.

“Sorry,” he whispered against her mouth.

She welcomed the weight of him on her and parted her lips to his kiss.

His tongue swept into her mouth, filling her body with a new level of excitement because now she knew the kiss was only the beginning.

But soon his lips left hers to brush hot, open-mouthed kisses across her cheekbone to the lobe of her ear and down her neck.

A calloused hand moved roughly to push the chemise down her shoulder and then even lower until her nipple strained against the fabric briefly before pushing free.

The hand immediately covered her lush breast and kneaded, surprisingly gentle despite his urgency.

His thumb moved slowly over the pebbled tip.

Sophie arched into his touch. He was still kissing her neck but she remembered what his mouth felt like on her breast and wanted to feel it again.

So she twined her fingers in his hair and pulled him down to the one he had just exposed to the night.

His husky laughter caressed her skin, making it prickle, but he obliged and in moments she felt the moist heat of his mouth close over her.

The tug of his lips brought about an immediate twinge of pleasure she felt deep in her core.

When his teeth scraped her, she arched involuntarily against him.

He responded by grinding his hips against her thigh.

The hard ridge of his manhood pressed hot against her and she instinctively knew she wanted, needed, to get to that.

Her hands left his hair and in moments one had found a gap between them and had moved down to feel him through the soft fabric of his pants.

“Ah, Sophie,” he gasped against her skin.

She chewed her bottom lip and let her palm slide along the ridge, marveling at his length and how he responded to her touch.

His hips bucked lightly against her stroke so she experimented with her power and squeezed gently, wringing a strangled cry of pleasure from him.

But then he pressed himself firmly against her thigh, stopping any further play on her part.

“Don’t stop, mon coeur . I need you.”

His mouth took hers hard one more time before pulling away, stopping only to hook a finger in the second strap of her chemise and tug it down, exposing her other breast. Gray placed a tender kiss on the pink nipple before leaving her to sit on the edge of the bed.

His boots fell with two soft thuds onto the hard floor before he stood and worked the buttons of his shirt.

His skin gleamed in the low light as he shrugged out of it and tossed it to the chair to join her pile of clothes.

Sophie’s lips parted in surprise when she saw the twin tattoos.

They were various geometrical shapes etched in a black band around each of his biceps.

Shirtless, wearing nothing but his trousers, and with his hair hanging loose except for the one braid, he was beautiful.

She moved to her knees in front of him, torn between wanting to see more of him and needing to touch what she had only imagined before.

Her fingertips lightly trailed over the peaks and dips of his smooth chest before her palms dared to press against the warm flesh.