Page 74 of A Duke for Stealing
It wasn’t just lovemaking he wanted from her. He wanted her touch. As frequently and as close as possible.
“Are you disappointed?” Rose murmured from his chest.
Everett let out a laugh, then stroked her hair.
“Heaven’s no,” he replied. “But I…” he searched for the words for these new feelings he was struggling with.
“I am not like this,” he said at last. “I have never been so tempted, so teased by a woman as I have by you. My plan for this evening was to take you to the Devil’s Masquerade and allow you to explore some things. I never meant to take things this far.”
Rose lifted her head from his chest, her blue eyes sparkling with clarity.
“Wetook things this far,” she replied. “We got here together.”
And that is what worries me. I am accustomed to creating the mess. Notbeingthe mess.
But a mess is what he’d become. A needy, lustful mess that was barely able to fight for control of himself.
“So we did,” he agreed, saying it as much to himself as to her.
As if content with his answer, Rose lowered her head back to his chest and snuggled deeper.
This was also new. He was not used to lingering after he’d had his way. He’d get dressed and go home. But he was home, and it was Rose’s home, too.
“I should take you upstairs,” Everett murmured, “Put you into a real bed.” Yet even as he said so, he wrapped his arms around her back. His mind screamed at him to stop, to distance himself- yet his body refused.
“Not yet,” Rose said with an exhausted sigh, snuggling into him. “I want to stay here a little longer.”
Take her upstairs. Put her in her own bed. This is not who we are.
No! We like this. Wewantthis. With her. She’s ours.
The conflicting thoughts railed at him, making him grimace. He thought he was starting to want to change- but then why was there such panic gathering in his mind?
Confusion poured through him as he turned his head and stared into the flames. He didn’t know what to do. So, he did what Rose wanted to do.
“Alright,” he whispered, holding her close. “We’ll stay here. Just a little longer.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“What do you think?” Rose asked Edie.
She looked in the mirror and turned around. Edie giggled.
“Well, I have certainly never seen a lady in trousers before, Your Grace. I am not sure what to think.”
Rose smiled and let out a laugh of her own. She wasn’t sure what to think either. However, her abdomen was still sore from the ferocious taking Everett had given her, and she hoped that the trousers would provide a little more comfort for her planned horseback riding with Everett that day.
In truth, she was hoping he would get a chuckle out of the way she looked, too. She hoped to get anything out of him, actually. It had been two days since they’d woken up curled around another in the London House, and from the moment she’d opened hereyes and found him staring quietly at the ceiling, she knew something was wrong.
She’d asked him, but he’d told her that it was nothing. Their ride home was quiet, yet he hadn’t pulled away from her when she’d lifted his arm and curled up into his side. Then, when they got back to Stapleton, it was as if he’d disappeared. Just as he had been in the beginning, Everett seemed too busy for her. There had been no more visits to her in the library, no more joining her for bedtime stories with the twins. No shared meals.
She had thought once they’d consummated their marriage that they would have gotten closer. Instead, their intense act of pleasure had seemed to have driven them back apart. Rose had allowed the distance at first, wanting to be patient for him to return, and then, as she woke up that morning, she’d decided she’d had enough.
She sent a message to the stables, ordering the stable boys to ready two horses for her and Everett, and she was going to take a ride with him and discover what was going on with him.
“Your Grace, are you quite sure you want to ride today?” Edie asked as she buckled Rose’s riding boots for her, “The weather is turning as we speak. It will rain.”
“That is alright,” Rose replied, fond memories filling her mind. “His Grace and I have been caught in the rain before. It is not so bad.”
