A Rogue of My Own (11 page)

R
EBECCA SWUNG AROUND SO
fast, the lamp tilted in her hand. She immediately raised up her other hand to keep the glass from falling off its base, too flustered to realize she would have burned herself. But her hold on the lamp balanced out before she did and she quickly shoved it onto the table next to the door.

By the time her eyes lit on Rupert, he was already walking toward her, and he looked as daunting as he sounded. “I can explain,” she quickly told him, completely unaware of how huskily seductive she sounded with her voice still so scratchy from her long performance that afternoon.

He seemed amused now. “When explanations aren’t necessary? You’ve obviously recalled I warned you what would happen if I found you where you don’t belong again. I don’t doubt you were counting on it. So let me assure you that nothing else needs to be said, dear girl.”

She had no idea what he was talking about. His remark that night in Nigel’s room had been something about assumptions—
what was it? “If we meet again in a place where you aren’t supposed to be, I will make assumptions more to
my
liking.”

She drew in her breath sharply. Knowing what she did about him now, she realized he had meant something of a sexual nature. Was he serious? Did he really think she meant to encourage him by showing up here tonight?

She had to correct him. “You’re going to laugh when you realize how far off—”

She didn’t get a chance to finish. He cupped her face with both hands and drew her lips up to his. That quickly it happened again, those amazing new feelings welled up inside her at his very first touch. But, oh, God, that was nothing compared to what she felt as he tilted her head just so, to accommodate a kiss that was so deeply stirring.

It was no lesson this time. Rupert wasn’t even trying to coax her along. His lack of restraint was passionate enough to burn. For a long moment she was completely overwhelmed and simply thrilled to be in his arms again.

“I never laugh during a seduction,” he said as he wrapped an arm about her waist and pulled her up to him so tightly, her feet even left the floor. “Afterwards I’ll laugh with you all you like, luv, but beforehand—I take this very seriously, you know.”

What was he saying? How was she supposed to hear anything with her heart pounding so wildly. He took this seriously? How ridiculous. He did nothing of the sort! He was too carefree in chasing after every skirt around to take any of it the least bit seriously. And he was moving them! With his mouth pressed against hers again, he was slowly walking them farther into that darkened bedroom.

Desperately, before she lost all will to stop him, she tore
her mouth away from his. “You’ve got the wrong idea!” she gasped out.

“Oh, no, there’s nothing wrong about this.” He grinned down at her. “
This
couldn’t be more right. Besides, disclaimers don’t work a’tall when said in such a sexy timbre. Should I warn you just how highly arousing your voice is, Becca? But I suppose you already know that.”

She had meant to sound urgent, not breathless. That darn singing all afternoon, who would have thought it would be her undoing. Her back and legs had come up against—not a wall, his bed! She put up both arms to stop him from closing the distance between them again, but there wasn’t enough space to really make the effort, and her arms ended up around him instead of pushing him away.

“Wait,” she cried before his lips slanted across hers again. She didn’t think she’d be saying any more. She didn’t think she’d want to. She just didn’t think…

The wonder of a man’s body pressed down on hers for the first time was a unique pleasure all its own, yet it wasn’t just any male body. Perhaps that’s what it was, him,
his
body, his weight, his mouth making such a passionate claim on hers that made her relinquish the last traces of resistance and let the pleasure take over.

Suddenly her senses seemed more alive. Or was it just her own desire that was guiding her? She was too innocent to be sure of anything regarding what was happening to her body, but there was no discounting how wonderful it all felt.

“I knew you were going to be dangerous, I just didn’t realize to what extent,” Rupert said as he rolled them to the side so he could get at the fastening at the back of her gown. “But I’ve never been more delighted to surrender.”

He was surrendering? What did that mean!? He probably didn’t know what he was saying. He ought to just shut up and she told him so.

“Why don’t you shut up?”

He contradicted his own statement about laughter. He let out a burst of it now. “Yes, why don’t I?”

The constraints of her yellow off-the-shoulder gown were gone. It felt loosely out of place now, but not for long. He nudged her to her back again and suddenly the gown was whisked off her completely. Another hard kiss from him and the embarrassment she’d started to feel faded away.

She still felt the chill in the room. It wasn’t cold enough for a fire yet, but it wasn’t warm enough to lie there in her underclothes, either. But even that became barely noticeable when his hand settled over one of her breasts. He was unlacing her chemise, but in such a slow manner. A touch here, the trace of his fingers along the upper edge of the thin chemise, a kiss on one shoulder to lower the strap there, a long caress to her waist to pull open the strings of her petticoat. All the while his mouth kept returning to hers. If she even thought about protesting this undressing, it was too fleeting to fully form in her mind.

But she did think that she’d like to see some of his skin as well. Fair was fair. Enough light was coming in through the open door to offer a clear view of him, now that her eyes had adjusted. But she couldn’t mention this desire aloud.

She picked at the shoulder of his jacket instead, until he noticed and removed it. She then picked at the shoulder of his shirt. He got that message, too. Much, much better. But he didn’t stop there, and she wasn’t prepared to see
all
of him.

Her breath caught in her throat and stayed there. In no way could she think of him as an angel now, but the rogue was magnificent. No wonder his conquests were legion. Beautiful face
and
body, his black hair skimming his shoulders, he went so far beyond temptation in just looks alone, before he said a single sensual word, before he applied his skilled touch. It was incredible how enticing this man was. Was it even possible for a woman to resist this much visual stimulation?

He moved back in range of her hands so she didn’t have to try. She couldn’t get enough of touching him. The silky steel of his long arms, the thick, corded neck, the powerful, hard muscles on his back, the sinewy ripples on his chest under her fingertips. She didn’t realize he was watching her in suspended wonder.

She couldn’t imagine the myriad emotions that crossed her face as she touched him, or how her fascination aroused him. With a groan, he lowered his head and his mouth found hers again, his tongue thrusting inside for a long kiss before his tongue was suddenly laving at her breast, then surrounding it with his mouth, and she did some groaning of her own. He was like a furnace, his heat surrounding her.

Her petticoat was lifted out of the way, her drawers tossed aside, and suddenly she had more heat than she bargained for as his body covered hers and he thrust inside her. Her cry was caught by his mouth. She knew what it was, she had just forgotten to expect it, which was probably a good thing.

Without any anticipation to make her tense, the discomfort was minimal and too brief to interfere with all the other sensations inside her clamoring for notice. He might have gone dead still at her moment of pain, but he was still deep inside her and touching the most sensitive spot he could have found. He didn’t have to move at all for her orgasm to suddenly burst around him, and yet another soft cry escaped her, this one of immense pleasure, which sent him over the edge as well.

It was the most sublime moment. Oh, how she wished it could have remained so.

Y
OU SAVED ME FROM
embarrassment my first day here,” Rebecca said shyly. “When you told me that there was no costume ball that night, after Elizabeth had convinced me there was. I never did thank you for that warning.”

She was lying in Rupert’s arms, a thin sheet draped over their entwined legs. He’d pulled her there and was holding her rather tightly, which was all right, since he was also caressing her most tenderly. She was loath to end the embrace, though she knew she would have to return to her room soon.

“That was you?” he replied. “Yes, of course it was. I should have remembered the hat.”

That easily, the tenderness was gone. It was the hat. It must have reminded him of the second time he’d seen her wearing it—in Nigel’s room. She’d thought they had moved beyond that, but apparently not.

He stopped caressing her. He didn’t push her away, but she had a feeling he’d like to. She sighed to herself. She’d behaved outrageously. She’d let herself get completely carried away by a
rogue’s seduction. She should have known better than to put herself in a position where it could happen, but she didn’t regret it. However, she would now leave, before he spoiled what had been for her the most wonderful experience of her life.

She sat up, started to move her legs off the bed, but couldn’t. The bed was situated oddly in a corner of the room. She hadn’t really noticed it before because she’d been facing Rupert. But now she encountered a solid wall blocking her exit, leaving her with the options of scooting slowly to the foot of the bed—or climbing over him. Had he purposely positioned his bed this way to make it more difficult for his conquests to leave him until he was ready to let them go?

Of course not. She was being silly. The bed had no doubt been in that position when he’d moved into the suite and he hadn’t bothered to move it.

Having lost the warmth of his body, a sudden chill reminded her that she was half-naked. Her chemise was bunched about her waist. Feeling some belated embarrassment, she pulled up her chemise. Her petticoat was in the same position, and with the strings untied would slide off her hips the moment she stood up, so she corrected that, too, before she started to slide toward the foot of the bed. At least her coiffure was still mostly in place, thanks to Flora’s skill. She only needed to adjust a few hairpins so that nothing would look amiss.

“Giving up such a prime advantage?” she heard him say behind her. “I’m disappointed, ’deed I am.”

He didn’t sound disappointed, he simply sounded sarcastic. Why was he being so unpleasant after what they had just shared? She should be the one outraged that he’d made love to her instead of listening to her. But how could she be angry over something so beautiful that she still felt the bubbly glow of it?

She said nothing until she was on her feet and had snatched up her dress from the floor and tossed it over her head. “I don’t know what you mean, but then you say a lot of things that make no sense to me.”

“You’re mumbling.”

She sighed and pulled the dress down off her face, then condensed her remark to “What advantage?” as she slipped her arms into the quarter-length sleeves.

“Your bare breasts of course, as if you don’t know. A very pretty distraction.”

He was just being his usual naughty self, she supposed. A little more tact would have been appreciated considering her highly emotional state. All positive emotions, but still, it wasn’t every day one lost her virginity to a rogue…good God, this was what John Keets had tried to warn her about! If anyone found out, it wouldn’t just result in her losing her post at court, it would be her ruination! But she quickly tamped down the fear that started to rise. No one was going to learn of this, and it could instead lead to something even more wonderful….

She gave him a shy smile, but it was a mistake to look at him again. He was lying there facing her in sublime repose, raised up, leaning on one elbow, his wide, bare chest in full view, the thin sheet barely covering the hip his other arm rested on. The long, lean hardness of his body, the perfection of his face, his silky black hair in sexy disarray—my God, did he even know what a feast he was for her eyes?

“Stop it!” he snapped. “Ah, a better advantage after all, I see.”

She blinked. Another ambiguous remark was just too much for her. “Why would I need an advantage?” she asked in genuine confusion.

“Don’t you? Hmm, I suppose you could reason that such an extreme sacrifice for the cause was enough. I’m impressed at your sense of dedication. Tell me, is she getting desperate now that Nigel is out of the country? Can’t figure out what he’s up to?”

“She?”

“Don’t play ignorant now, Becca. It doesn’t become you. You know very well we’re speaking of Sarah.”

She drew in her breath sharply, beginning to understand. “
We
are doing nothing of the sort. You’ve made some ridiculous assumptions tonight. Is this yet another test? Or are you looking for a means to assuage your guilt?”

He snorted. “What guilt? I took what you offered. I gave you ample time to bolt, but you didn’t. You don’t think I would have tried to stop you, do you?”

“I had information for you,” she said, her voice rising in indignation. “I couldn’t leave before I gave it to you, and you
didn’t
let me do that!”

“Did I tie a gag over your mouth?”

“You know very well you kept interrupting me!”

“Rubbish. You were sent to pry information out of me—by any means. Did you really think I’m so stupid that I wouldn’t figure that out?”

His derisive tone hurt her the most and prompted her to reply, “No, you’re just stupid! Nigel told me you could be trusted to pass information to. That’s why—”

He cut in, “Nigel wouldn’t have said anything of the sort. He knows very well I can’t be trusted with any woman.”

She could believe that! But his doubt made her so angry she just wanted to get out of there. Furiously, she glanced around the floor for her last article of clothing, which she refused to leave behind.

“Looking for these?” he smirked.

He was twirling her drawers about on his finger. She snatched them out of his hand with a gasp and turned around to put them on. Hearing his tsk behind her because she was denying him a view of her bare legs just infuriated her all the more. She was halfway to the door when she realized her dress wasn’t fastened and she couldn’t do it herself.

Gritting her teeth, she marched back and sat on the bed next to him.

“Fix it!” she said angrily.

He didn’t play dumb. How could he when she was presenting him with her gaping dress?

He did sigh though as he sat up and said, “I suppose I must.”

He ended up taking ten times as long to fasten the gown as he took to undo it. Deliberately, she didn’t doubt. But when he finished, he planted a soft kiss on her bare shoulder. It was the last straw.

She shot to her feet and turned around. “How could you turn this into a battlefield? You know very well I’ve agreed to help Nigel. I gave you his note, didn’t I?”

“What note?”

“After you kissed me in the hall.” When he still looked confused, she shouted, “The one I threw at you!”

He didn’t look confused now, in fact, he looked angry. “Nice try, luv, but that was nothing that Nigel would have sent to me.”

“It wasn’t? Well, whatever it was,
he
asked me to give it to you.”

“That’s about as far-fetched as it can get. I’m sure you can think of something more believable.”

“Do you realize you’re calling me a liar?”

“Was I not obvious enough for you to be sure? A liar, a thief, oh, and now I suppose I must add—tempting seductress. How the hell did you develop
that
trait and remain a virgin this long?”

Rebecca was incredulous. He thought all of that and still he’d made love to her? What a despicable rogue.

With a fulsome glare, she told him, “I’m going to say this only because I feel I must. Nigel assured me the prince would vouch for him. I had hoped that would happen tonight, but it didn’t. And while I have already come across the sort of information Nigel asked for, I don’t feel I can give it to him without hearing from the prince first. But you, for some stupid reason I can no longer fathom, I trusted you to at
least
not be a detriment to our country. And Nigel did say that you could be given whatever oddities I found out about. So I came here to let you decide if the information I have warrants immediate attention, or if it can merely be passed along to Nigel at your leisure.”

“What information?”

“Lady Constance was sent to the city this morning to deliver a note for Sarah. The girl was so upset about having to venture into London alone again that she ignored Sarah’s warning to keep the task secret and told me about it. If secrecy hadn’t been stressed, I might not have thought it was anything out of the ordinary. But in either case, I couldn’t let her go alone when she was so clearly upset about it, so I offered to accompany her. And that is what I was doing here tonight. I came to tell you about Lord Alberton and Sarah’s interest in him.”

Rupert didn’t appear the least bit surprised or concerned, and the reason became clear when he said, “I’d think an
intelligent young woman like you would surmise that I already knew this, since I saw your coach at his house. I must congratulate you, though. That really would have been a splendid excuse, all quite plausible, except for one thing. I’d already asked you what you were doing on Wigmore Street and you gave me quite a different answer. Or are you admitting that you lied to me this morning, when you told me that your maid was visiting a friend?”

“I merely said she had friends in town, not that she had any on that particular street.”

“You implied it.”

“You were interrogating me again!” Rebecca shot back. “I took offense.”

“So let me get this straight. Not only did you lie instead of taking that perfect opportunity this morning to deliver your information, but you’re also saying that you let a little indignation take precedence over something you now deem important enough to warrant your breaking into my room? Does that about sum it up, m’dear?”

“No, but this does. After the horrible treatment I’ve had at your hands, I’m done with this whole affair. I won’t be helping anyone anymore, least of all someone who calls you a friend.
You
can tell Nigel that and lay the reason for it at your own door. Good night, Sir Rogue,” she ended scathingly. “You’ve earned your title well.”

She marched to his door, but at least she had the presence of mind to recall her earlier concern about a scandal and look both ways down the corridor to make sure it was empty before she hurried away. Rupert didn’t try to stop her. In a daze of angry thoughts, she got lost after all and ended up running up a grand staircase and down the queen’s corridor! Two royal
attendants turned her back around right quickly, and she took better note of her directions after that until she was safely in her room. Elizabeth’s snoring didn’t even bother her. She was mired so deep in hurt and angry thoughts over what had happened tonight that the palace could have fallen down around her without her noticing.