Page 63 of A Rogue's Rules for Seduction
“B-bit late for th-that,” Willa remarked through chattering teeth.
His questions about what she was doinghere, as a storm raged all around them, were forgotten as he saw the blue tinge of her lips, and the uncontrollable shivers that wracked her body.
Still covering his cock with the taxidermy, he strode to her and began pulling at the fastenings of her completely soaked dress. It had plastered to her body, but right now, he wasn’t interested in seeing how it revealed her curves. The task of stripping her was made more difficult by the fact that he was doing it one-handed. Meanwhile, she tried to slap his hand away.
“What the h-hell are you d-doing?” She batted at him.
“Getting you out of these wet clothes before you die from cold,” he said tightly. He wasn’t making much progress.
Hell, there was no help for it. He put the bird on the floor and set to work undoing the buttonsthat ran down the side of her dress.Ifshe would let him. She kept dancing aside and swatting him whenever he reached for her.
“Stand still, goddamn it,” he growled.
“I’m n-not taking off mycl-clothesin front of y-you,” she snapped.
“If you want to freeze to death, fine.”
She looked torn, but a powerful shiver made her entire body shake. It must have convinced her, because she started unfastening her gown. Then she stopped.
“T-turn around,” she commanded.
He rolled his eyes, but did as she directed, turning his back to her.
“Take everything off,” he insisted. “Even your shift.”
She hesitated for a moment, and then pulled at her clothing. As she stripped, he strode back to the fireplace and crouched in front of it. Thank God Longbridge’s servants kept the little house respectably stocked with everything needed to start a fire. In short order, Dom had a decent blaze going, its flames small but getting larger.
While the fire grew in strength, he went to the cabin’s sole bed and pulled the blanket off. Some bit of gentlemanly behavior won out because he turned away from her. As he waited for Willa to finish disrobing, he couldn’t quite resist catching brief glimpses of bare flesh and silken limbs.
“Th-there,” she said, followed by the sound ofher feet padding across the bare floorboards toward the fire. Wet fabric hit the floor. “I’ve l-laid out m-my clothes to dry.”
“Everything?”
“Everything, C-commander.”
He held out the blanket. “Put this on and get in front of the fire.”
She did as he directed, taking the quilt from him and standing before the fireplace. He positioned himself beside her, trying not to think about the fact that she was naked beneath the blanket. Or that he, too, was completely nude.
She looked at his chest, and then quickly turned back to the fire. He resisted the impulse to scratch at the black hair that curled between his pectorals and ran in a line down his abdomen, leading right to the nest above his cock.
Her attention wandered lower, skimming down to his thickening flesh, and then quickly dancing back up to the breadth of his shoulders.
“Wh-what are y-you doing here?” she asked whilst studiously looking away.
“Trying to be alone.”Trying not to haul you into my bed and keep you there forever.
She lifted her chin. “It wasn’t m-my intention to d-disrupt your s-solitude. I w-went for a w-walk, and then Z-zeus decided to sh-show off with a s-storm that w-would drown D-deucalion. By th-the time the rain started, it was t-too late to go back to the h-house.”
“You aren’t getting any warmer.” He clenched his jaw. There was no help for it.
When he faced her, Willa’s eyes widened. And when he started to pull at her quilt, she demanded, “Wh-what are you d-doing?”
“We have to get you warm,” he said through clenched teeth. “Best way to do that is if we huddle close—skin to skin. Don’t argue, Willa,” he added when it appeared that she intended to do just that. “I’ve seen men die within minutes when they fell into the Thames at winter and we hauled them onto the dock. I’m not letting that happen to you.”
She pressed her blue lips together. For a moment, he feared he’d actually have to force her to drop the blanket and hold her struggling body against his.
Finally, she held the blanket open, and he went to her at once, pulling her tight to him. Her arms went around his shoulders, enclosing them both in the coverlet.
