Page 78 of Along Came a Rogue

But no matter how daring his entry, he had no right to be here.

“Then you can just leave the same way.” She glowered at him. Arrogant, egotistical, stubborn…oh, the devil take him! Giving an irritated sigh, she placed her hands on her hips and turned toward the door. “And quickly. Before I call for Thomas—”

Grey’s hand clamped over her mouth from behind, his lips at her ear. “I need to see you, brat.” When she hesitated, his hand covered hers and tenderly squeezed her fingers. He slowly caressed up her arm, and goose bumps sprang across her skin. “Please.”

His deep voice seeped into her back and straight through to her breasts. Her nipples tightened traitorously beneath her night rail, and she couldn’t bring herself to step away from his warmth. She nodded, and his hand slid away from her mouth.

“What do you want?” she demanded, but her voice sounded not at all threatening as she let him take the hairbrush from her hand and set it on the vanity, most likely to keep her from brandishing it at him again.

“I wanted to make certain you were all right after this afternoon,” he answered gently. Then he turned her to face him. “Are you all right?”

She swallowed hard. “You need to leave—”

“Emily.” He brushed her hair over her shoulder, tenderly tucking a stray strand behind her ear, then repeated with grave concern, “Are you all right?” They both knew he wasn’t referring to the accident.

Her chest sank. How was she supposed to answer that? If she told the truth, that her heart had shattered from having to reject his marriage proposal, he would only pity her. She couldn’t bear that. And if she lied, he’d leave, and God help her but she didn’t want him to go.

Exhaling slowly, she demanded, “Why are you really here, Grey?” She tried to move back, but he stepped forward, closing the distance between them and taking her shoulders in both his hands to keep her close. “You were here earlier. I’m certain Thomas told you that I wasn’t harmed by the phaeton. As for the other…” She raised her hands to push at his chest, but instead of moving him away, her fickle hands clasped his lapels. “I was very clear with my refusal. There’s nothing more to be said.”

“There are volumes left unsaid between us,” he drawled, lifting a disbelieving brow.

“No, you—”

“Damnation, brat!” His hands slid up to cup her face, drawing her toward him even as he stepped her backward across the room. “I can’t lose you. Don’t you understand that?”

He kissed her, openmouthed, hard, and hungry, like a starving man wanting to devour her. She shuddered from the intensity of him even as she wrapped her arms around his neck and welcomed his kiss.

“I won’t lose you,” he promised, his words frustrated and fervent as his mouth slid away from her lips to caress along her jaw and down her neck.

“But I don’t want to hurt you, Grey.” Her fingertips dug into the hard muscles of his shoulders and back as she sought to pull him closer even as she knew she had to let him go. “And that’s exactly what will happen if I marry you.”

“How could you ever hurt me, Emily,” he groaned as his tongue darted out to lick at the throbbing pulse at the base of her neck, “when being with you brings me such joy?”

She rolled her head to give his mouth access to her throat, then bit back the whimper of pleasure rising on her lips when he pulled loose the bow at the scooped neckline of her nightgown and pushed the material aside to trail his lips across her bare shoulder. Heat swirled through her and landed with a shiver between her thighs.

A soft shudder of arousal swept through her. It had been so long since she’d touched him and kissed him, so very long…How did she survive the past weeks without him? Dear God, how would she carry on when he left?

“Grey,” she whispered pleadingly, unable to find the willpower to step away.

“Only you, Emily.” His words tickled against her throat, her ear, her cheek as he swept his mouth back to capture her lips with an aching groan. “I haven’t been with another woman since you.” He kissed her so tenderly, so lovingly that she sighed against his lips. “And I don’t want there to be anyone but you ever again.”

A soft sob tore from her, and she knew she was lost.

Her body pressed hard against his, welcoming his hands stroking over her as the two of them carefully moved backward across the room toward the bed. His palms fluttered over her breasts and across her hips. Everywhere he touched, heat prickled beneath her skin and left her yearning for his body to invade hers, for his heart to love her.

He lifted her into his arms and placed her on the bed. As he knelt over her, he stroked his fingertips across her cheek and down her throat to the hollow between her breasts. “No matter how hard I try, I can’t quit you, brat.” A shiver fell through her, a soft mewling of arousal and need passing over her lips as his fingertips drew tantalizing circles against the inside swells of her breasts. He smiled at her reaction. “And neither can you.”

Her heart pounded with equal parts desire and bittersweet pain. She knew she should push him away and end this now, but she needed him too much. Tonight, she wanted him—all of him…his laughter and his smile, his strong arms holding her close, his body moving so satisfyingly inside hers. She would deal with the pain tomorrow.

Somehow.

She reached down between them to unfasten his trousers and free him to her seeking eyes and hands. A shiver swept through her at the sight of him. Already he was hard for her, thick and hot, and tonight, for this last time, he was hers. When her fingers closed around him, a guttural sound of pure need tore from the back of his throat.

Without a trace of shame, she began to work at him as he held himself poised over her, one hand sliding up and down his shaft while the other circled the flat of her palm over his enlarged head. Drops of his essence gathered at his tip. With her thumbs, she rubbed them over his skin until he was slick in her hands and easier to stroke as boldly as she knew he craved. She tightened her grip on him, squeezing his thick girth and sliding the soft skin against her palms over the steely hardness beneath until his body stiffened and he shook.

He was ready for her, and with her hot wetness gathered between her clenching thighs, the sweet ache of arousal pulsing inside her, she was more than ready for him.

“Grey, please,” she whispered as her hand grabbed her night rail and pulled it up to her hips, baring her trembling thighs to the cool night air. “I need you.”