For the Sake of His Heir Read online

  He heard the hitch in her breathing. Saw the wordless movement of her lips as she thought through whatever argument that wasn’t going to fly.

  Then her teeth sank into her lower lip and he would swear she was biting back a smile.

  “Is it too late for me to give in gracefully?” she asked, edging closer to him in the mound of snow, her hips sealing tighter to his.

  Adrenaline surged through him so fast he knew he could consummate the whole wedding night right here if she wanted him to.

  “It’s definitely not too late.” He cupped her shoulder to pull her against him. “Tell me, wife.” He let the word hang between them, tasting it on his tongue the way he wanted to taste her again. “How are you going to make it up to me?”

  * * *

  Brianne had been deluding herself to think anything would keep her away from Gabe tonight.

  She’d instigated the snowball fight in a misguided attempt to return to the playfulness of their relationship from years past. Thinking about Gabe’s ex had made her doubt herself and her hasty decision to wed. She’d been longing to return to more comfortable terrain with him, where they could tease one another and have fun.

  But of course that had been naive. Or maybe subconsciously she’d just been trying to push past the discomfort of his ex-wife’s shadow over this day. Either way, Brianne gulped in breaths of the thin mountain air, hoping to cool the fire in her belly. A fire that leaped higher the more Gabe touched her.

  “I can make it up to you by cooking dinner,” she offered, out of her element when it came to flirting.

  “I already prepared the meal.” He shrugged a shoulder like he had all the time in the world to wade through this dilemma, when here he was lying in a snowbank with just a shirt and a sweater between his skin and the frosty white powder. “That’s not going to work.”

  Her cheek rested on his arm, its muscle warm and strong beneath the cashmere and wool. Her breasts were pressed to his chest, causing a pleasurable ache as his gloved hand stroked up her spine through her parka.

  “I could dry your clothes for you since it’s my fault you got plastered with a well-aimed snowball.” She strived to keep things light, knowing she was swimming against the current with all the sparks streaking between them. But it was better than being over her head.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere.” He nodded his satisfaction at the plan. “I can’t wait for you to start undressing me.”

  She opened her mouth to argue and realized she had no comeback. Not while her brain got busy supplying mental pictures of her tunneling her hands under his sweater. Unbuttoning the fastenings on his shirt. Splaying her fingers over the sculpted torso she’d ogled on more than one occasion.

  “I’m going to let you in on a secret that may surprise you.” She tipped her head to his chest for a moment, feeling awkward, then telling herself to get over it. Lifting her face to his again, she blurted, “I’m not all that experienced with men.”

  He didn’t appear terribly surprised. He peered down at her, his blue eyes intent. Thoughtful.

  “Does it make you uncomfortable when I talk about you undressing me?” he asked.

  A shiver went through her.

  “Um. Not exactly.” She tried to identify what it made her feel. “I would say I’m intrigued, but possibly ill-prepared.”

  “Intrigued is good.” The smile he gave her inspired another shiver. “But you’re starting to get cold. I think we should move this discussion to the hot tub.” He pointed to the other end of the snow-covered balcony.

  “There’s a hot tub?” Sure enough, she could make out the shape of it, a chunky rectangle with blue lights around the rim barely visible under a cover of some kind.

  “I turned the heat on in the sauna next to it, and put robes and towels inside.” He sat up, bringing her with him. “You can change in there and meet me in the tub.”

  “Where are you going?” She stood with his help.

  “I’d like to see what I can salvage of dinner so we have something to eat afterward.” Giving her a gentle push in one direction, he moved in the other. “Go warm up and I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Brianne headed to the wooden hut at the end of the house, ducked through the cedar door into the fragrant heat of the sauna and closed the insulated entrance behind her. She ignored the light switch, able to see well enough in the glow of coals in the fire box. She peeled off her coat, hat and gloves, then piled them on a built-in bench. After spotting the thick white spa robes, she tugged off her sweater and jeans, but left her underwear on since she had no bathing suit. She gave herself another minute to warm up in the dry heat before throwing on a robe and darting back out into the snow.

  Squealing at the feel of snow on her bare feet, she padded through it fast and climbed two steps to the hot tub. After lifting off the heavy leather cover and folding it in half, she unfastened her robe at warp speed, tossing it on the cover and sinking down into the bubbling spa.

  She had just closed her eyes and settled into one of the molded seats covered in jets when she heard Gabe’s footsteps on the balcony.

  Was he naked? She wondered, but she didn’t cheat and open her eyes. Well, not until it was too late to tell for sure. By the time she peeked at him sidelong, all she saw was a glimpse of his bare chest disappearing down into the water. A tantalizing hint of corded muscle as steam rose all around him.

  “That feels amazing.” He tipped his head back on the headrest beside hers, and their shoulders brushed.

  Awareness crackled to life.

  “I’ve never moved so fast as I did between the sauna and the tub.” She stared at his profile illuminated in the ambient light from the house.

  She still couldn’t believe she’d married him today. The ceremony had been a blur, with her mind on her grandmother’s health and the news about her stepmother pilfering things from Rose’s few possessions. But the marriage felt real enough now, as she sat mostly naked at Gabe’s side in the middle of nowhere. Snow swirled just above her nose, most of it melting before it landed.

  “I brought some wine.” He pried open an eyelid and reached behind him to retrieve an open bottle on the step. “It might warm you up on the inside.”

  Also, it might help with the nervous butterflies she had about her wedding night.

  “Sure.” She reached behind him to retrieve the bottle and a glass. “I’ll pour while you warm up, though. I’m still feeling a little guilty for luring you out into the frigid temperatures without your jacket.”

  “It’s not really that cold out.” He watched her pour the first glass and handed her the second. “And you have no reason to feel guilty when we already agreed that payback is forthcoming.”

  Setting the wine on the step outside the tub, Brianne sat sideways in her seat to face him, the hot bubbles bursting all around her shoulders as air injectors worked their magic.

  “Since it’s our honeymoon and all, maybe you’ll feel compelled to grant clemency.” She sipped the wine and appreciated the subtle heat it put in her veins.

  “I do owe you a wedding gift.” He tipped his glass to hers even though she’d already stolen a sip. After the gentle clink, he raised the cut crystal. “Here’s to marrying my best friend.”

  A ripple of unexpected pleasure that he would call her that went through her.

  “Cheers.” She lifted her glass and drank to the toast, feeling the weight of his gaze on her the whole time.

  The nerve endings all along her arms and shoulders went haywire, making goose bumps appear.

  “I didn’t think about a wedding gift for you,” she admitted, setting aside the glass on one of the drink platforms along the outside edge of the tub.

  The curtain of hazy snow and steam around them gave the sense that they were all alone in the world, a veil of cold mist separating them from everything but one another.

&nb
sp; Or maybe the wine was going to her head. She felt a sweet happiness all over to be with Gabe. It was dangerous, perhaps, to feel that way. But she’d never been with a man like him, someone strong and noble, kind and warmhearted.

  And so very sexy.

  Her eyes dipped to the top of his chest above the water as he drained his glass and set it aside, his triceps flexing in a way that made her want to take a bite.

  “I certainly didn’t expect a wedding gift.” He shook his head, a wry smile kicking up one side of his mouth. “We’ll have to make our own rules for this marriage since the regular conventions aren’t going to apply.”

  “Like tonight, for example.” She hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but there it was, floating on the cold breeze before she could take it back. Drawing a steadying breath, she explained herself. “I don’t need to worry about your expectations because—”

  “Because there are none.” He cupped her shoulders with his hands, a warm weight that anchored her in the swirling water. “I thought we deserved this time together to get to know each other as more than friends, but I will be glad just to talk to you tonight. To learn how to make you happy.”

  “I know that.” She wanted to close her eyes and concentrate on how his hands felt on her. To soak up all the sensations of being with him. “You never made me feel like you brought me here for more than that, but still...it’s a wedding night. I can’t deny I’ve been thinking about the possibilities of what that means.”

  His thumbs skated a slow circle over the tops of her shoulders, a subtle touch that set the rest of her on fire.

  “I’ve been doing plenty of thinking of my own,” he admitted. “But that doesn’t mean we have to act on it.”

  If he kept touching her, though, the possibility of her launching across the hot tub to kiss him was very real.

  “When I said I wasn’t all that experienced, I didn’t mean to suggest I’ve never been with a guy. Of course I have.” Though she had kept her virginity longer than any of her friends, haunted by her stepmother’s taunts long after they should have lost their power to hurt her. “I just don’t feel like I ever got high marks. You know?”

  “Sex shouldn’t be a graded assignment.” He said it with one-hundred-percent seriousness.

  But she laughed anyway, because it was a strange conversation for a wedding night. “Right. I get that.” She flipped a damp piece of hair out of her eyes as she warmed to the discussion. “But when I decided to lose my virginity, I think I was probably...too determined. I did some research and felt well-prepared, but in the end—epic fail.” She shook her head, remembering the expression on her boyfriend’s face afterward. It hadn’t been blissful pleasure.

  More like being shell-shocked, maybe.

  “The thought of you researching to the point of being overprepared is going to animate some very good dreams for me.” He never stopped touching her. His thumbs trailed down the satin straps of her bra in the back. Then in the front. Over and over. “It’s my turn to be intrigued.”

  “I think I was studying techniques that were too advanced for a beginner.” She shrugged, the water around her splashing with the movement. “But I don’t like looking foolish, and I’d waited so long to give sex a try that I put a lot of pressure on myself not to make it obvious that I was a first-timer.”

  “What about afterward?” Gabe’s knee grazed hers under the water and she didn’t skitter away because it felt too good. “Didn’t things get better once the first time was out of the way?”

  “I wasn’t keen to repeat the experiment at the time.” She retrieved her wineglass and took another small sip. “But now, I think maybe I’d like to.”

  Nine

  Go slow.

  Gabe repeated the mantra to himself, waiting to move—waiting to breathe—until he was certain his revved-up body got the message. He bit the inside of his cheek and focused on the sting because he sure as hell wasn’t going to ruin Brianne’s second time. The pressure was on to make sure the night was perfect after the first experience had underwhelmed her so thoroughly she hadn’t cared to try again.

  Until now.

  It was the “until now” that made him hunger to bury himself inside her. Show her how pleased it made him that she’d chosen him even after whatever had happened that first time. He breathed deep, more turned on than he’d ever been and knowing he couldn’t act on it. Yet. Or at least not the way he wanted to.

  Go slow.

  “How about we start with a kiss?” His gaze lowered to her delectable mouth.

  With his fingers curved around her shoulders, he could feel her quick intake of breath. The trip of her pulse under the heel of his hand.

  She shifted closer to him in the swirling water, her knee pressing higher on his thigh as she repositioned herself. Then she raised her hands to his face, her damp fingers sliding along his jaw.

  Gazes locked, he watched her until the last moment, when the feel of her lips sent a bolt of heat up his spine. She tasted like cabernet and snowflakes, sexy and innocent at the same time. Unbidden visions of her researching “advanced” sex techniques flickered across his mind’s eye.

  Go slow.

  Shoving the wild imaginings out of his head, he tipped her chin up to kiss his way down her delicate throat. Her skin was hot despite the cold night air and the flurries that were gaining momentum. She smelled like exotic flowers, like the gardens she coaxed out of the earth. He inhaled the fragrance, stronger behind one ear, and combed his fingers through the damp hair falling out of the haphazard clasp.

  Brianne gripped his forearms and pulled herself so close she was half-sprawled across his lap. Having her hip nudge his erection was not helping the go-slow approach. Her breasts pressing against his chest fulfilled several of his fantasies, and he did everything he could do not to peel off the satin cups of her bra to feel all of her. Instead, he gently nipped her neck. Her ear. Her fingers splayed wider on his chest, her touches more urgent as she arched to give him better access.

  He took his time kissing places along her collarbone and shoulder, licking a path under the bra strap until she raked both satin strips down herself.

  “I want more than kisses,” she demanded suddenly, her dark eyes blazing with a new fire he could see even out here, under the stars. “I am ready.”

  He reminded himself that her idea of being ready for more probably wasn’t the same as his. But he gladly took the opportunity to flick open the clasp of the satin bra and let it float away on a tide of bubbles. She filled his hands and then some, her softness making him impossibly harder. When she arched her back, her breasts lifted out of the water, rivulets streaking down her skin as he bent to kiss first one taut peak and then the other. She rocked against his lap, her throaty moan a plea for more that he damn well wanted to give her.

  “We should go inside.” He gauged the distance from the tub to the bed in the master suite, just on the other side of the sliding glass door nearby.

  “I’m having fun, though,” she whispered in his ear, her lips lingering to kiss him there. “I hate to stop.”

  “It’ll only be for a minute.” He wanted her in bed, where she would be most comfortable. If Brianne’s second time was going to happen, he wasn’t going to risk a hot-tub encounter. “If you stand up, I’ll wrap that robe around you and have you inside before you can blink.”

  She glanced over her shoulder and nodded, grinning with a playful sexiness. “Okay. If you insist.”

  Springing out of the water, she wrapped her arms around herself while he lunged for the robe to cover her. He moved the wine bottle off the steps and then bounded out of the tub himself before plucking her off her feet and carrying her inside. Her light laughter revved him higher, assuring him she was fully on board with his haste. What an incredible surprise this woman was turning out to be.

  He toed the French door closed with one foot while
he carried her into the master bathroom, setting her on the tiled surround of the raised garden tub. Still in his cotton boxers, he was dripping water everywhere. He took two towels off the warmer near the shower and handed her one, keeping the other to dry himself off. He dug another towel out of the closet to throw on the floor so she didn’t slip.

  “How was that?” He watched her wring out her long hair and then dab it dry.

  “Getting out of the water wasn’t nearly as bad as when I went in. I’m warmer now.” She set aside the towel and turned dark eyes toward him. “And less nervous. Thank you for that.”

  He wrapped his towel around his waist and pulled her to her feet. “I’m glad you relaxed.”

  “It helped to feel like I warned you.” Her wry smile, he now knew, hid an old hurt.

  He planned to do whatever he could to heal that. Now, and every other night they were together. Tipping her chin up, he grazed her lips with his and breathed her in.

  “I should warn you, too.” He tunneled his fingers through her thick, damp hair. “You’re going to forget everything that came before tonight.”

  Folding her in his arms, he kissed her, and it was better than all the times he’d secretly thought about it. He could taste her passion, and she met his hunger with a new need of her own.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, arching against him, and it wasn’t enough. He carried her to the bed, making sure she stayed in the moment with him, very ready to make good on his promise to her. He could tell from the kisses that this was going to be better than anything he’d ever imagined. Anything he’d ever dreamed.

  He laid her in the center of the bed. Her dark eyes were bright with passion, her hair spilling in every direction on the starched white pillowcase. He stripped off his towel and boxers and she surprised him by shrugging out of her robe and wriggling out of her panties. She lay before him, gloriously naked, and for a moment, he could only stare. His mouth went dry, and his body ached for her with a desperation he’d never felt for another woman.