Page 127 of Ruthless with a Rogue
Skin met skin, and their shared stuttering breaths echoed through the chamber.Finally complete.His fingers tightened on her hips, his body’s way of demanding they stay like this forever.
He didn’t understand how he got to have this.He didn’t understand how he’d gotten so lucky.He didn’t understand why this magnificent woman had chosen him.
She pushed back his misbehaving waves, and it was like they were so attuned to each other she could read his thoughts.Because she paused, her gaze searching his.Then she leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead.
“I love you.”Another to his brow.“I love the arrogant arch of your brow.”His cheekbone.“I love how your blush paints you right here when your confidence slips.”His jaw.“I love how sharp your jaw gets before you’re about to say something cutting.”The corner of his lips.“I love how your smile hooks up on this side when you let your walls down.”His lips.“I love your filthy mouth.”Her hand came to rest over his heart.“I love how deeply you love.”She cupped his face.“Your loyalty.The lengths you go to protect those you care about.”
He swallowed hard, the pressure behind his eyes building.He let out a watery chuckle.“Careful, clever girl.That’s quite the long list.It might go to my head.”
Livy shook her head softly.“You deserve to hear them.I’d name every reason if it were possible.”Her voice dropped to the barest whisper.“But I couldn’t possibly.When it comes to the number of reasons I love you, the limit doesn’t exist.”
She lifted in a torturous glide and then sank down.“But I can show you.”
His lungs seized.It was all too much, too overwhelming, so he answered in kind, showed her, rather than spoke, the depth of feeling he didn’t think he’d ever be able to voice.Words would never do what he felt for this woman justice.He crushed his mouth to hers.It was stripped of gentleness and grace, nothing but harsh, hungry fervor.Lips tasting, sucking, tongues coming together, delving deep, all raw and fierce emotion.
Her body chased their rhythm, the urgency in their kiss carrying over to her hips.Fingers grasped, digging painfully into flesh, as though they could anchor themselves inside the other.Because that was how deep their love ran.The heat between them had perspiration trickling down his neck, their sweat-slicked skin gliding together.Because that was how hot their love burned.
With each glide of her hips, she proved to him that he had her.And with every drive of his tongue, he proved that she had him.And that’s all they needed.As long as they had each other, they’d have everything they needed.
Her hips grew erratic, her rhythm faltering.And then the next time she sank onto him, he hit a place inside her that had pleasure streaking down his cock.She stayed there, grinding against him, an unbroken storm of sensation assaulting him.Her moans grew louder, their ecstasy building in tandem.
She fluttered around him, and he couldn’t hold back.He fisted her hips and planted his feet while he thrust up into her.A cry tore from her, and he swallowed the delicious sound.She clamped down on him, her body convulsing, and that was all he needed to topple over with her.His grunt mixed with her continued cries as he drowned in bliss, downed in Livy.
He never wanted to resurface.
63
Livy
LivysnuggledintoDerek’sneck, breathing him in, all man and fresh soap with a trace of smoke.She couldn’t wait to spend the rest of her nights just like this.Technically, she should go back to her chamber tonight…but it wasn’t as though Aunt Mellie or the dowager were going to say anything.And her father hadn’t arrived yet.Aunt Mellie had written to him after the fire, and he’d packed up and left for London immediately, according to his return letter.He should be here any day now.Which meant…
“My papa will be arriving soon,” she murmured.“You’ll speak to him straight away?”
His chest vibrated beneath her in a rumbling laugh.“I would jest about you being eager, but I’m not waiting any longer than I have to.I’ll be securing a special license the moment I have his blessing.”
“So certain you’ll have it, are you?”she teased.
His muscles went tight for the briefest moment before relaxing again.He scoffed.“Every parent in the ton has been trying to get me to marry their daughters for years.”
She pulled back and gently pulled his chin, so he faced her.“I was teasing, love.I promise you don’t need to be nervous.He’ll give his permission.While a bit absent-minded and lacking in affection, my father loves me, and all that will matter to him is thatIwant to marry you.”
“I’m not nervous,” Derek grumbled.
She patted his chest.“Of course you’re not, dear.”
“You’re humoring me.”
She smiled up at him and threw her leg over his hip, entwining them even tighter.She sighed.He was so deliciously hard.“I am.And I promise I always will.”She trailed a finger down his nose.“I’m so happy I found you that day at the Chesterfield Ball,” she whispered.
His green eyes softened, and he dusted his knuckles over her cheek.“You have no idea how much truth is in that statement.I was lost, disappearing more and more every year.You found me, Livy.And you brought me back, refused to let me fade away.”
“Mmm,” she hummed.“Apt, that.Considering you’re the only person to ever see me.And appreciate what you saw.Perhaps that’s how it is when two people are perfectly matched.We can’t hide from each other.”She smiled, then wrinkled her nose and bounced excitedly as something dawned on her.“It’s like you’re my inverse function!Together, we undo each other, leaving only who we truly are beneath, a pair irrevocably intertwined.”
He buried his head in her neck and groaned like he was in pain.
She frowned.“Derek, are you all—” And that was when she noticed it, a certain persistent part of him pressing against her thigh.
“Christ, Livy.That mathematical tongue of yours…it’s like an aphrodisiac.Is that a thing?Arousal by integration?”
