Page 41 of When the Rogue Returns
“You’re not,” he said blithely. “You’re coming to my... er...” He glanced about. “My settee. That’s perfectly respectable.”
“Not with whatyouwant to do on it,” she grumbled. “And it’s notyoursettee. This isn’t even your house, for pity’s sake.”
When she tried to move away, he pulled her back, eyes gleaming. “My host won’t mind, I promise.” Swiftly, he undid the rest of her buttons. “If we ruin anything, I’ll replace it.”
“You can afford that?” she said dubiously.
He shoved her riding jacket off and tossed it aside. “I can afford whatever it takes to have you again,lieveke.”
Little sweet one.The Flemish endearment reminded her powerfully of her homeland, and it melted her asMausinever had. She really ought to stop him. She really ought not to be standing here like a ninny, smelling his musk oil scent and gazing at his crooked smile.
His crooked, seductive smile, which destroyed the rest of her objections. She remembered how it had curved his lips whenever he’d come toward her in the tiny bedchamber in their apartment. She remembered seeing it and knowing what it meant, and thrilling to the promise of it.
Blast him.
Breath quickening, he untied her chemisette and tossed it away to expose her far-too-revealing riding corset, with only a hint of chemise peeking above it. She went still as his gaze drifted down to where her bosom was half-uncovered. He skimmed the back of his hand along the swells of her breasts with a tenderness that made her heart flutter.
Foolish heart. No matter how much she lectured it, it was still ridiculously susceptible to him.
As if he’d guessed it, his eyes locked with hers. “Tell me you don’t want me as much as I want you. Tell me that you never once missed our marital bed in the past ten years, and I will let you walk out of here right now.”
She closed her eyes, hoping that not seeing him would make it easier to lie—but his fingers felt like fire on her skin, and the scent of him, so close, made her head swim, and she could no more speak than she could run from the room.
“That’s answer enough for me,” he rasped, then he turned her swiftly around so he could work loose her corset ties with frenzied movements.
Swaying against him, she felt the rigid bulge of his arousal against her bottom, but before she could even react, he’d slipped his arm about her waist to pull her into him more firmly.
“I wanted to do this Saturday night,” he murmured in her ear as his hands pushed down her corset enough to close over her breasts, kneading, teasing. “I wanted to strip you naked and take you right there, against that pillar; to claim you as mine before God and everyone.”
“That would have sparked a public riot. What would your family have said?”
“My family?” He slid one hand down her skirts to cup her between her thighs, and his tone sharpened. “Ah. You mean the baron.” He rubbed her roughly, making her gasp, then squirm. “Who whisked you away from me while I was still trying to get control over myself.”
A control he was denying her now, by inciting her with wicked caresses. One hand tormented her above while the other pleasured her below.
Exquisite torment. Dangerous pleasure. Both she could ill afford.
She dug her fingers into his muscular thighs, but she couldn’t make herself shove free of his grasp. “Rupert brought me home...” she managed, “because I... asked him to.”
“Because you were too much a coward to face me.” He tweaked her nipple, and the piercing pleasure made her moan.Verdomme, he’d always known how to rouse her.
Turning in his arms, she untied his banyan and shoved it from his shoulders. “I’m facing you now,” she whispered as she shimmied out of her loosened corset and tossed it aside.
With a groan he untied her chemise and pulled it down just enough to bare her breasts, then bent to take one in his mouth, then the other, tonguing her and teasing her and driving her to distraction. A growing urgency made her undulate against him and he backed her toward the bedchamber door, halting only long enough to dispense with her skirt, petticoats, drawers, and stockings, which he dropped into a heap about her feet.
“I missed you,” he murmured as he ran his gaze over her. “I missed this.”
The wildness in his eyes called to the wildness in her heart, reminding her of the Victor she remembered, the one who couldn’t keep his hands off her, whose gaze ate her up like a dragon feasting on virgins.
Except that she was no longer a virgin, even if she felt like one after so many years of abstinence. And with him standing in front of her, tempting her, it was hard to be cautious.
Part of her had to know if their lovemaking had been as perfect as she remembered. The Victor she’d created over the past decade was crumbling, but she still wasn’t sure how much of him, how much of hermarriage, had been illusion and how much had been real. She had to find out.
All the same, evenshewas surprised by her next words. “Take your clothes off.” That throaty voice didn’t even sound like hers.
Heat and surprise flared in his face. “Grown bold, have you?” he rasped, but he practically ripped the buttons from his shirt in his haste to remove it.
“Yes.” She let her gaze drink him up as he shucked off his trousers. “I had no choice but to change if I wanted to take care of myself. I’m a different woman now. Are you sure you can handle that?”
