Page 32 of Ruthless with a Rogue
Beautiful.
Derek leaned forward, his free hand landing on the latch of the door.He pushed the door open and pulled back before he lost control and fell on her like a starving man.A shuddered breath left her, and she quickly scooted toward the open door.Her shoulders lifted as she drew in a large breath, then she glanced back over her shoulder.
“In your dreams, Lord Dunmore.”
With that, she hopped from the conveyance with the assistance of his footman.
He bit down on his cheek, the sharp pain doing nothing to calm his raging lust, even as a low laugh rumbled deep in his chest.Because she couldn’t be more correct, the bloody minx.There was no way he was getting that woman out of his fantasies until he had the real thing.
The door slammed shut, shrouding him in darkness.In the next breath, he had his breeches undone and his cock in hand.He hissed between his teeth at the aching relief.He was so strung out from watching the effect his words had on her that he was seconds from release.His ballocks raged at him for the denial he’d suffered all night, drawn up tight, ready to burst.
He quickly pulled out his handkerchief, and his eyes sank shut as his fist shuttled over his length.Visions of his clever girl filled his mind.Blue eyes looking up at him from her knees.Tear-streaked cheeks.Swollen rosy lips.Golden tresses wrapped in his fist as he fucked—
His orgasm tore through him, his body going whipcord straight as pleasure crashed into him.He curled over himself, chest heaving, lungs desperately trying to draw in air.Bloody fucking hell.If frigging himself to thoughts of her was that intense, he couldn’t wait until he finally had the real thing.
And he would.
He’d have her.
His clever girl.
20
Derek
Derekswirledhiswhiskyas he stared blindly at the crowd in Grambler’s Gentleman’s Club while he waited for Rafe to arrive.All the colors blurred together until all he saw was…her.Blue eyes.Gold mask.Black silk dress.She’d looked glorious in that silk the prior night, adorned with that mask befitting a queen.He’d love to see her in nothing but the finest of fabrics.Or nothing but that mask.He cocked his head.Nowthatwould be a sight.
He couldn’t wait to discover what she was like when she finally let go.Surrendered to him.When she stopped trying to fit into society’s confinements all so she could win the affection of some idiot.Mr.Warren Thorton.The lily white-handed fop.Derek scoffed, lips curling.The man wouldn’t know what to do with a woman like Miss Forester.He was practically a child at one-and-twenty.Derek highly doubted the fop knew how to give a woman an orgasm.Or thought one was an accomplishment.Miss Forester deserved orgasms.Multiple.Derek would wring so many from her she’d be begging him to stop.
He squeezed his eyes shut at the same time he pushed down on his breeches.Dear fucking God.This woman had him so high-strung he wasn’t going to be able to go out in public soon.But the thought of her mid-throw of pleasure?A shaky exhale fled him.Giving a woman pleasure gave Derek a high unlike anything else.A rush so intense it was as if her ecstasy flowed through him.
Derek also had a feeling, based on Miss Forester’s silent admission the prior night, that said fop was intimately acquainted with a certain pair of lips.His hand shook, his whisky sloshing in his glass.He shouldn’t be jealous.Derekdidn’t getjealous.He’d never cared about the paramours of any of the other women he’d bedded before.It had to be becausehehadn’t had her yet, but the imbecile had.The imbecile didn’t deserve that kind of gift.
Bloody fucking hell.He scrubbed a hand down his face.He needed to get the woman out of his system, or else he’d never be able to focus again.He needed a new tactic to endear himself to her.Seducing her with lips and hands and words hadn’t worked.It hadn’t necessarily been afailure.Her defenses seemed to be weakening.Their little foray atThe Devil’s Eyehad definitely been a step in the right direction.But it hadn’t been enough.Her resolve was admirable—well, it would be if it were directed at anyone other than himself.He needed to find something else.
His fingers drummed on his thigh.Miss Forester’s uncertain expression back in his private rooms flickered through his mind.The hesitation in her question,Do I look presentable?She’d never donned something so fine; that much had been obvious.She had only worn poorly altered and patched garments.He threw back his whisky.Now that was a thought.
Movement close by caught his attention, and then a large form blocked the light of the club, shadowing where he sat.Derek turned and grinned at the towering lout who stood before him—just as dark, twice as broad, and a half-head taller than Derek’s six-feet-one-inches.
Derek raised his glass in greeting to his best mate.Rafe gave him a curt nod, the white puckered scar that ran from the corner of his eye to his jaw prominent despite the low candlelight of the clubs.That nod was equivalent to a hug in Rafe’s language.
At that moment, one of the ladies working at the club wandered over.Giggling, she trailed her hand across Rafe’s shoulders, then pushed her generous bosom up against his back, running her hands around to his front and lower, indecently lower.Derek grinned—some would arguedecentlylower.
“Your Grace, if you’re looking for entertainment tonight, Shelley and I are looking for company.”
She glanced over at Derek, and her grin turned hungry.“Ah, Lord Dunmore.Would you join as well?There’s nothing quite like a night with the two of you.”
Derek could practically see the woman salivating—both for the pleasure and the purse she’d receive from such a night.
Rafe gently extricated the wench’s hands from his person and murmured to her, “Check back in with me later, Rose.”He nodded in Derek’s direction.“I would like to catch up with Lord Dunmore.”
She pouted, emphasizing her red-rouged lips, then sauntered off.
Rafe collapsed into the chair beside Derek with a heavy breath and poured himself a glass of whisky.“You know, I think we may be somewhat of a legend here,” he mused.“After that night last year, when you and I entertained four of the wenches at the same time.”
Derek chuckled.“I had rope burns on my wrists for weeks after that.”
“The girls still talk about how you got them both off with your hands tied behind your back.”
