Page 23 of When the Rogue Returns
“So you really expect me to believe that you’re cousin to a Scottish baron.” Her voice turned acid. “And not that you’re insinuating yourself into her life for some devious purpose.”
They’d reached the other box, so he dragged her inside and pulled her behind a pillar where no one could see them from the theater. Thrusting her against it, he braced his hands on either side of her shoulders to glare down at her.
“My devious purpose is to unmask my wife,” he growled. “You can hardly blame me when I find her frolicking with a rich baron.”
“Frolicking?”she exclaimed, half laughing. “Are you mad? I keep telling you, Rupert and I are just friends!”
“You’re either blind or a fool.” He lowered his head. “He watches you whenever he thinks you don’t see. He stares at you as a man stares at a beautiful woman. Perhapsyouconsider him a mere friend, but I assure you, he does not. I’m a man—I can damned well tell when another man covets my wife.”
Her stunned expression told him that she truly hadn’t realized that Rupert’s feelings for her ran that deep.
Then she steadied her shoulders. “Even if you’re right, even if he does have an interest in me, why do you care? You don’t want me, so—”
“Don’t want you?” he said incredulously before he could stop himself. His eyes fixed on her mouth, and his heart began to thunder in his chest. “Now you reallyarea fool.”
Then, driven by the rampant need that had been boiling up in his blood ever since he’d seen her this afternoon, he seized her mouth with his.
♦♦♦
ISA FROZE ATthe touch of his lips on hers. She ought to fight. She ought to shove him away. But years of wishing for this very moment kept her motionless. His mouth was exactly as she remembered, tender and needy, driving her blood into a fever. His hands moved to grip her head and she covered them with her own, fully intending to push them away.
Instead, she rose into his kiss, parted her lips for him, let him slide his tongue into her mouth to tantalize and tease her. It was the most exquisite madness. And she didn’t want it to end.
Suddenly they were young again, stealing kisses wherever they could, too hungry to wait for later, when they could be alone. He drank from her mouth with a slow knowing that roused her blood, and she let him, the way she’d always let him in the old days.
After a moment of heady, silken kisses, he whispered against her lips, almost reverently, “Isa,myIsa.” Then, as if reminded of what stood between them, he said ina harder voice, “My little temptress.”
And this time when his mouth took hers, it was no longer tender. It was hard and fierce and raw, taking what it wanted with no apologies. The scent of him swamped her as he thrust his tongue into her mouth over and over, more savage than sweet.
Which thrilled her even more. The husband she’d once adored was here in her arms at last. He’d hunted her down, and he was kissing her as if ten years were but a pebble in the ocean. She exulted in it, mad fool that she was.
She slid her hands into his beautiful hair, holding him tight, not wanting to let him go. With a groan, he skimmed his fingers down her neck to brush her shoulders, then moved them lower to cup both her breasts.
A wild fever erupted in her brain. She pressed herself into his hands, and that was all the encouragement he needed to fondle her shamelessly. She felt it even through her gown and corset and shift, felt her nipples bead beneath his deft caresses. It had been so long, so very long, and he was here and she wanted him so badly she could taste it.
He must have felt the same way, for with a groan he undulated against her, his hardened shaft reminding her of the last time they’d made love, the last time he’d been inside her, the last time—
“Ah,Mausi,” he murmured. “My sweetMausi.”
The word resounded in her brain, a chant from years ago that no longer held true.
She shoved him back. “Stop,” she hissed. “I am not yourMausianymore. If you wanted to keep yourMausi,you shouldn’t have abandoned me.”
His dazed expression gave way to hot, hard anger. “Youwere the one who called our marriage a mistake.Youwere the one who said you wanted more than I could offer, who said you were going off to find a better position.” His eyes glittered at her. “When actually, you were running off to spend the money you made from those stolen diamonds.”
She gaped at him. “What are you talking about?”
Pure rage flared in his eyes. “You know damned well what I’m talking about.”
Her breath felt heavy, thick. “I don’t. Truly I don’t.”
A muscle jerked in his jaw. “So you’re denying the theft? Denying that you made that imitation diamond parure so you and your bloody family could steal the royal diamonds?”
Why did he keep talking as if the theft was her and her family’s fault alone?
“I’m denying that I ever called our marriage a mistake,” she said in a low hiss. “I don’t know where you got such nonsense, but I never said any such thing. I was in love with you. Why would I have—”
Lady Lochlaw’s voice drifted through the door from out in the hall. “I’m sure they’re around here somewhere, Rupert. Do not fret so.”
