Wicked Deception by Karolyn Cairns Page A

hers. He pumped long and hard within her while he held her
against the door, driving deep, making her claw at the wood panel
and met each thrust with wild abandon.
    They slid to the floor, clothes flying
in their desire to be closer. Gabriel could no longer fight his
need for her. She sobbed incoherently as he kissed her flesh. He
was touching her and making her writhe under every dizzying
sensation with devastating intensity. When he rolled her under him
on the Persian rug, her legs wrapped around his hips, urging him to
make her his once more.
    He held himself above her, his face
filled with dazed satisfaction as they rocked upon the floor in
earnest, her hands digging into his buttocks, eyes wide with
unmistakable desire.
    “ Oh God, I want you so,” he
murmured as he burrowed his face in her hair, thrusting deep inside
of her. “Hold me tight, my love, and never leave me
again.”
    Catherine whimpered as he drove deeper,
biting his shoulder to keep from crying out in ecstasy. The
rightness of this moment made her want to weep with dismay as her
body met his with unabashed delight.
    “ I love you, Catherine,” he
whispered hoarsely as he brought her to such maddening heights she
wept, her face pressed into his neck, her nails gouging into his
back.
    She didn’t want to hear him as his body
bore hers into the rug again, her cries stifled by his hungry
kisses. Gabriel took his time, lavishing her body with such tender,
passionate attention she was stunned to feel the answer in her own
body.
    His hands and lips adored every inch of
her. When he rose above her once more, she became the aggressor,
her hips moving hungrily under his, her moans cut off by his fierce
kiss. At last he brought her to a shuddering end, holding her to
his sweaty chest until they tumbled apart breathing
raggedly.
    Catherine sat up, unable to meet his
gentle expression. His hand stroked her back as she drew her knees
to her chest and stared at her pile of clothing strewn about the
room. She felt disgust to know she had betrayed Nicholas and felt
so little remorse over it. The way Gabriel made her feel was too
wonderful to not give into.
    “ We did nothing wrong here,
Catherine,” he told her as he sat up and grabbed her chin, forcing
her to look at him. “We belong together. You might have forgotten
that once, but the last hour brought it all back. Don’t tell me you
don’t love me. I can see it in your eyes.”
    “ I love my husband too, or
have you forgotten him already, Gabriel?” she replied bitterly and
jumped up to find her dress, refusing to look at him. “What we have
done here is wrong! How can I face him now?”
    Gabriel made a disgusted noise, wanting
to toss his knowledge of Nicholas’s bastard at her but refrained.
His friend was no saint. He found signs that Nicholas was
unfaithful while she was in Ireland. A lady left behind her silk
drawers in his friend’s bed. They were not his wife’s. Catherine
would never be caught dead in such a decadent bit of scant
underwear.
    “ What happened here was
meant to be,” he insisted as he got up and helped her by tying up
the back of her dress and buttoning it. “Admit it to yourself,
Catherine.”
    She knew she couldn’t lie to him. Her
green eyes filled with remorse and avoided his glorious nudity, now
bared to her gaze. “I’m married. We can’t do this again. See that
Giles is sent to me tomorrow. I dare not give into this
again.”
    Gabriel looked furious. “You would
pretend this never happened? Oh, but my dear, I have no wish to
forget at all. You won’t avoid me now, Catherine.”
    “ Stop it,” she begged as his
hands turned her. She couldn’t bear to look upon him, knowing they
had sinned greatly by giving into their feelings. “Don’t press me
for more. I won’t allow this to happen again.”
    Gabriel glared down at her. “The fact
it happened at all tells me you feel as I do, Catherine. You want
us both. Admit it and we will deal with this.”
    Catherine