Adams, Eve - The Banished Bride [Brides of Bachelor Bay 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (4 page)

“Because we’d be alone. Andrew is still in San Francisco and everyone else is here.”

Her eyes flashed in a smoldering response better than any words. She wanted to play as much as Noah did. He saw it in her hungry expression.

“I do feel a bit of a headache coming on all of the sudden. Perhaps it’s best if you take me home
now
.”

Perfect.

Chapter 3

Amelia’s Journal, Saturday, August 12
^th
, 1865

Port Steele, Washington Territory

I can hardly breathe. Noah Gallagher escorted me home tonight and then hinted at things to come before he left again. I have no idea where he disappeared to, only that he promised to return and asked that I be in my night robes. I know it’s wrong, but I don’t care. Noah excites me far beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I cannot wait to see what he has in store for this evening. Everyone is still at the dance and we will be all alone. I’ve confided in my dearest friend, Patience Steele, of my feelings for Noah. However, having two husbands all to herself, I do not believe she fully appreciates my plight. Even she agrees with Lizzie that I should marry Andrew and settle down. Oh, but how I want so much more! I’ve received my fair share of kisses, but I’ve never done anything beyond that. What things will Noah be able to teach me? From the rumors around town, he certainly has the experience to teach me much. Since I’ve decided I shall never marry, what harm is there in having a bit of fun?

* * * *

Amelia Prescott closed her journal and pushed it under the seat cushion when she heard the front door slam. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she grabbed a fan to cool the heat throbbing in her cheeks.

Trying not to move too quickly, she lifted her robes and relocated to the door of the parlor and peeked out. Shock held her speechless as she watched the youngest of the four Gallagher brothers remove his hat and hang it on the coatrack next to the front door.

He kept his brown hair short to tame the curls that none of the other brothers had, and that made him look all that much wilder than the others. He wore it brushed back to reveal a strong jaw and a fierce bone structure. His features were so perfect that he should pose for a bronze statue like the one of Benjamin Franklin that graced the front of Boston’s City Hall.

She peeked out a bit more to catch a better glimpse of him. He whistled as he removed his vest and shoes, leaving him in nothing but a shirt, trousers, and socks. When he rolled up his sleeves to reveal tan, well-muscled arms, Amelia licked her lips.

He undid his collar a few buttons, and several dark hairs poked out from the vee of the shirt opened on his chest. Oh, Lord Almighty. Amelia grabbed her fan and moved it faster, but it did nothing to cool the heat she now had pulsing through her body.

Her hand touched the door to push it open ever so slightly. Noah had started to walk into the great room but stopped suddenly, and a jolt of surprise sent her jumping back when he backed up and glanced her way.

Oh, no. He had to have seen me. How am I going to explain me standing here, spying on him?
She raced over to the chair and grabbed a book off a shelf along the way. Opening the book, she then threw herself onto the couch and pretended to read it just as the two doors slid open and the object of her obsession stood there.

Noah Gallagher in all his glory.

She took her time glancing up at him, knowing her body’s reaction would give her away whenever she looked at him. Her nipples twisted to peaks, and the throbbing coursing through her body centered between her legs.

“Hello, Noah.” Her voice sounded hoarse, distant. She cleared her throat. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

He lifted one dark brow as he took a step into the parlor. “Is that so? I could have sworn I saw you standing at the doors just now.”

“I fear your eyes are failing you.”

He grinned, and it did wicked things to her senses. “I see you followed my instruction and are in your night robes.”

“I still don’t quite understand why you want me in my night robes.”

His eyes twinkled with a diabolical look that had her nipples twisting hard. “Do I need to spell it out for you?”

Amelia swallowed thickly but said nothing.

“How interesting you are reading upside down.”

She blinked at him, and shock plunged through her body. When he crossed the room and reached for her, she forgot how to breathe entirely.

He grabbed the book and turned it right side up. “The book,” he explained, “was upside down.”

Flutters of delight and shock waves of arousal fought to take over the beating of her heart. Her reaction to him frightened her and excited her at the same time.

She hid her gaze beneath her lashes and caught the way his fingers brushed across her hand. She kept her expression still and swallowed thickly.

“What is vexing thee?” Noah took a seat next to her, and not at the other end of the couch. No, he sat scandalously close, his thigh nearly brushing hers.

“No one talks like that anymore, Noah.” She batted her eyes at him, the urge to flirt far too great to pass up. “Why, you sound just like a handsome knight from centuries ago.”

“Handsome, you say?” He scooted closer.

Her heart flip-flopped. Did she really say that aloud? Now that she’d said it, she wasn’t going to take it back. She knew firsthand how much a man loved to be flattered. Fluttering her gaze beneath her lashes, knowing the effects it had on men, she watched as Noah’s brown eyes glazed over.

She lifted her fan up and hid her face until only her eyes peered out behind the lacy material. “Are you stunned by my revelation? Surely you’ve had other women inform you of your looks.”

“True,” he answered with a grin and scooted an inch closer. After licking his lips, he added, “But never quite so eloquently.”

She giggled and folded up her fan long enough to playfully slap him on the shoulder before jerking her hand to spread it and bring it up to her face in one swift move.

“I see you must be over your dilemma with Andrew.”

She hissed in a breath as the sharp pang of realization slapped her across her cheeks. Flirting only covered so much. When the harsh truth reared its ugly head, it couldn’t be denied. Swallowing thickly, she turned her gaze away before the telltale tears swelled her eyes and distorted her features.

He’d released her. Without regard to her feelings, might she add.

“Forgive me,” Noah stated quietly and rested his hand on her shoulder, sending a shard of chills attacking her skin. “I had no idea you were still so upset about your fight.”

“A fight I could recover from,” she whimpered. “He just…just…let me go.”

“Insanity.”

She whipped around to face him, and shock slammed into her when he’d scooted close enough so the warmth of his breath tickled her senses. “I couldn’t agree more. Why would he release me? He’s down in San Francisco more than he’s home. I should have been the one unhappy with our courtship, not him.”

Noah nodded and leaned forward slowly. “Perhaps he feared he’d return home one day to find his beloved with another. You do have many men in line to court you, lovely Amelia.”

“I would never.”

He spiked his brow. “What prompted the fight that forced Andrew to release you, and by telegraph no less?”

Closing her fan, she set it on her lap and kept her attention on it. “It was only a few callings and a simple peck on the cheek.”

“With men other than your betrothed,” he countered and smoothed his hand across her shoulder before curling his hand and running his knuckles along her bare neckline. She shuddered but didn’t protest. “And it wasn’t the first time Andrew caught wind of stories of you dancing and flirting with other men many times.”

Guilt weighed on her, and she sagged her shoulders. He opened his hand and worked the muscles in her neck. It felt so good that she closed her eyes and released a long breath. “It was all in good fun.”

“For you, most certainly.” He brought his other hand up and turned her to massage the muscles in her shoulders with both hands. “But for Andrew, there was no fun in not knowing whether you’d still be his when he returned.”

She stiffened when his hands wandered down to the middle of her back, but she didn’t ask him to stop. She’d dreamed of having Noah touch her for as long as she’d dreamed of Andrew touching her.

“What I believe you need,” Noah said in a raspy voice, his lips brushing against the exposed skin of her shoulders, “is something to take your mind off of your recent heartbreak.”

Oh Lord. She sucked in her lower lip and bit down. It was highly improper for a single woman to live under the same roof as a single man, let alone spend the evening alone with him. At least at Hattie’s dance hall they had the public to keep them from doing anything and the gossips like Lucy McTaggert from spreading word that they’d done so much more.

For close to a year she’d denied her feelings for Noah and concentrated all of her energy into flirting with every eligible bachelor in Port Steele to occupy her thoughts and stop her from acting on her feelings.

Yet here she sat, Noah’s fingers moving across her back until he flattened his palm against it. He then curled his fingers around the upper part of the sleeve of her robe and slipped it down past her shoulder, delivering heated kisses with his lips wherever he exposed skin.

He then hooked his fingers on her other sleeve and slipped it down, running his lips across her shoulder.

“Your skin is like silk, Amelia.”

“Noah,” she whispered, not sure what else to say. She’d never had a man touch her like this.

“Look at me, Amelia.”

She sucked in a breath before obeying his command. When she turned to glance up into his smoldering brown eyes, she lost the ability to breathe altogether. Hunger, stark and undeniable, had darkened them to almost black.

“Tell me, why is it you blush every time our eyes meet? Do I frighten you?”

More than you know
. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t you?” The rasp in his voice both thrilled and gave her cause for alarm. Although she’d had fantasies about Noah and him making her one of his sexual quests, she’d never imagined they’d ever act upon it.

Noah Gallagher was, by definition, a philanderer. Amelia had heard what some of the other ladies in town called him—“lothario.” She had to ask Hattie Red what that meant. When Hattie informed her that a lothario was a man who seduced women for fun, Amelia couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to be one of those women.

“Stand for me.”

“Why should I stand?”

He pulled her to her feet and turned her to face him. She stared up into a gaze that stared back at her, his expression hard, unyielding. Those dark eyes sent pulses of heat twisting inside her. She swallowed tightly and waited for his answer.

But he didn’t give one, at least not verbally. He cupped his hand behind her neck and leaned toward her, pulling her to him. Slanting his lips, he gently brushed his mouth across hers.

Her breath caught as harsh realization hit her hard. She shouldn’t be doing this. What if someone walked in on them? What if Andrew came home early and caught them like this? He’d be devastated.

His tongue darted out and tickled against her lips, parting them for his taking, and the guilt at kissing another man faded like the darkness when the sun came up. And then he really kissed her, his tongue flicking against hers as he burrowed his kiss into her.