Page 37 of The Dangerous Love of a Rogue
‘So, tell me…’ his fingers raised her chin, ‘how may I prove that we are meant for one another?’
She could not answer, she could not draw air into her lungs. It didn’t matter; his lips pressed to hers. It was unlike any other kiss they’d shared – it was not urgent or hurried, or persuasive. It was just a touching of lips.
A sigh escaped his mouth when his lips left hers and the side of his nose stroked across hers. ‘I’ve thought about you all night.’
Her head tipped back, away. ‘So, we are back to seduction.’
He laughed as his hands braced her waist and shook her gently. His hands made her feel safe not in danger.
‘Lord, I love you. You have convinced me of it,’ he said. ‘You are the only woman who can say no to me. I adore you more because you fight me. You just do not trust me enough.’
‘Enough to do what?’ The wordsI love yourang in her thoughts, but they had been casually said with a pitch of amusement. He had said in his letter he did not even know what love was.
‘To become my wife, obviously, sweetheart.’
‘What would it be like to be your wife?’ When she looked into his eyes this closely, the hazel had streaks of colours, amber, ochre, copper, cinnamon. She looked beyond the colours, trying to see into his soul. She could not see any artifice. People were not all one shade, one attitude; they were a myriad of attitudes, beliefs and emotions. He was not all bad, there was good too.
Put us together, Mary, darling, make us one, a single being. I want you. I cannot say I love you, not yet, I do not even know what on earth love is, but I do know that I cannot sleep for thinking of you, or avoid dreaming of you.
‘I hope we will be happy. I want to make you happy. We will buy our own estate and make it a home. It need not be large. It will take time to become profitable, but I will make it so.’
I think of you and I lose my breath. I see you and my heart begins to pound. I hear you and my spirit wants to sing. I am yours, Mary. Be mine.
‘How will you be with our children?’
His smile dropped, and his gaze turned inward as he pondered the idea.
If he was unable to give her an immediate answer without thinking about it, that was surely evidence his earlier words were not a lie.
Her palm rested against his cheek. She did not see the man who watched her in ballrooms. This was who he was beneath the pretentious rogue. This was the Drew who had written those impassioned words.
‘I have never thought of having children,’ he replied solemnly.
He was human, as vulnerable as any other, no matter his reputation.
‘But I would like our children.’
Mary lifted onto her toes and touched her lips to his, briefly, as he had done.
‘Perhaps, God willing, we will have a dozen.’ A broad smile parted his lips and his eyes shone with a new light. ‘You must teach me how to be a father, as you will teach me how to love you.’
Hewasa good man, people just didn’t know it. She longed to prove to her parents that there was good in him.
‘Are you tempted?’
‘To marry you?’
He shook his head, the smile lilting on his lips. ‘Stop doubting me. I am not speaking of physical intimacy.’
‘Yes.’ The word slipped out before she had chance to consider it. Her heart had said it. ‘I am tempted.’
His lips pressed to hers in a strong kiss.
When he broke the kiss, his nose stroked hers again, in a sensitive gesture of affection. ‘I love you. I really think I do.’
And I love you.She did not say it. She did not dare. Her head did not trust him enough yet. But her heart…
His hands tightened around her waist and he picked her up. She clung to his shoulders.
