A Rogue of My Own (27 page)

I
T WAS EVENING BY
the time they had answered all the magistrate’s questions and Mary Pearson was taken away. Lilly had held her tongue until then, but she finally asked Rupert, “Are you ready to discuss what you’re doing here?”

“Certainly—with your daughter.” He suddenly swept Rebecca into his arms and carried her out of the room.

“Now just a minute!” Lilly protested behind them.

Rupert didn’t stop, in fact, he was nearly running up the stairs to the second floor. Incredulous, Rebecca pointed out, “She might follow us.”

“She won’t,” he replied with typical male confidence. “I suppose I’ll have to try each of these doors to find out which one is yours, just as you did at my house.”

He was doing just that, but she said, “Or you could ask.”

He glanced down at her. “And you’d tell me?”

“Why don’t you try that one.” She nodded toward the door he’d been about to open.

He entered her bedroom. Flora had been in to turn the bed
down and leave a lamp burning low. He took one look at the bed, centered on one wall, set her down, and marched over to shove it into the corner. Rebecca began to laugh. Why didn’t that surprise her?

But then he was back and picked her up again and actually tossed her lightly onto the bed before he followed her down onto it and stole her breath with a fervent kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Her toes curled. If he actually had anything to discuss, she didn’t care at that point. But that’s always how it had been with him. She could be furious, and her anger would instantly be gone once he put his mouth to hers.

He kissed her a little longer, deeply, lovingly, then he leaned back to say, “Will you please forgive me?”

“For what?”

“For being such a bloody ass. For doubting you. For—”

“Wait.” She leaned up on her elbow. “Are you saying you believe I’m pregnant now? And look at me before you answer that, because there’s not a jot of proof yet to support it.” She ran a hand over her flat stomach to draw his eyes there.

“Taking you at your word? Absolutely.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you.”

She drew in her breath. She searched his pale blue eyes. She saw the so tender look on his face and tears welled in her eyes.

“You do, don’t you?” she said in wonder.

“I resisted that, you know. Loving you is going to be a whole new way of life for me. I honestly didn’t think I was ready for such a drastic change. And therein was my problem. I was thinking too much and making excuses, and ignoring the fact that it was too late. You had already dug deeply into my heart.”

“So you thought driving me away would fix that?”

“I wasn’t trying to drive you off, Becca. I’m not even sure why you left.”

“You were playing the rogue again, tempting me when you had no intention of…oh, I see.” She blushed furiously. “You were serious!”

He chuckled and hugged her close. “You are the most delightfully exasperating woman I’ve ever known, but I love you for that, too. Yes, I was trying to show you how much I wanted you in a typically roguish way without saying the words that scared me. But the only thing I’m scared of now is losing you. So I’m going to show you right now how much I want you.”

He touched her tenderly on her check as he began to kiss her again. That kiss wasn’t just filled with desire, it was filled with so much more. Then he kissed her belly. He gently laid his head on it. Tears of tenderness came to her eyes. She loved him so much.

He was showing her, in so many ways, the depth of his feelings, the care he took with undressing her, his gaze that kept returning to hers, sensually hot and yet conveying so much emotion. He was being careful with her because of her condition. She could have told him that wasn’t necessary yet, but she was enjoying the leisurely pace of his lovemaking while it lasted, and she knew it wouldn’t last long. There was simply too much desire in his expression. His restraint amazed her! She knew it was only for her sake because as he slowly removed her clothes, he was practically ripping off his own.

After her last piece of clothing was tossed to the floor, she stretched in sensual bliss under his hands as he caressed her from head to toe and back again. Hands spread wide, he was reaching every part of her body in that long caress. He even
dipped his thumbs between her legs for a brief teasing moment before he went on to cup her breasts in his hands. He was leaning over her and planting kisses along the way. His silken hair trailed across her already sensitized skin in a highly erotic way.

“So I
was
tempting you?” he said before his mouth closed over one breast and, with a groan, she arched up toward him of her own accord.

Was. Still was. Always would! But when she managed to open her eyes to find his on hers even as he suckled at her breast, she realized he was serious. He wasn’t sure.

“You can’t imagine how much,” she murmured.

“Then you have too much willpower, luv. I really thought I was losing my touch.”

“I don’t think that’s possible,” she gasped out and gripped his hair to pull his mouth up to hers.

The kiss that followed was passionate in the extreme and well met. Rebecca was done with leisurely. She wanted him now! But he wasn’t finished inflaming her senses. He slid one of his long fingers inside her. Waves of pleasure immediately began building in her core and would have put her over the edge had she let it.

But she practiced some of that willpower he’d just mentioned and whispered against his lips, “No.”

“Yes.”

“No, I want
you
inside me.”

He groaned and was so quick to accommodate her, she barely had time to wrap her arms tightly around him before he slid smoothly inside her. Oh, God, the heat of him, the fullness, the amazing length that went so deep. There was no stopping it that time, she was utterly consumed by that incredibly
sweet pleasure that went on and on and was still throbbing around him when he reached his own orgasm.

She held him dearly to her, her rogue, her husband, her love. “Anytime, anywhere, ask, and I am yours,” she thought she heard him say, and she smiled dreamily, but she was still blissfully savoring the aftermath of their pleasure too much to respond more than that. He’d moved half to the side of her to get the bulk of his weight off her, leaving his other half draped over her, a leg over her hips, his arm tight across her chest, his lips by her neck, brushing her skin with feather-soft kisses.

“So it’s not my imagination? You do love me, too?” he asked.

Rebecca had to get her head out of the clouds for that question. She moved her head back so she could see his face. Had he been dying to ask her that? Because he looked so positive, she feigned a stern look. “Really, you don’t deserve to hear that.”

“You’re right,” he agreed, though he wasn’t agreeing at all, he was exuding far too much confidence.

So she added, “Should I try to convince you it’s just your beautiful face I’m in love with? Yes, I think I should.”

“Good God, don’t do that!” he exclaimed, then sighed. “Very well,
that
I deserved. And you’re the only woman who can get away with saying that, you know, but, please, let that be the last time. I’m
not
beautiful, Becca. Only women are.”

“On the contrary.” She gave him a most tender look. “Angels are, too.”

He groaned and rolled her under him again. “I’m not an angel, either. Angels don’t have carnal thoughts like these.” He kissed her deeply.

She certainly didn’t give it another thought. Instead she
found out what it was like making love with this man without controversy between them, when emotions weren’t frayed, when love guided their hands, their thoughts, their hearts, filling them with the most profound happiness.

When she came up for breath a while later, she said, “Oh my. I never thought I’d say I’m so very glad you’re a rogue instead of an angel. But I suppose it’s all right as long as you’re
my
rogue.”