Page 79 of Along Came a Rogue

“The baby—” He shook his head. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Her chest tightened hard with emotion. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he had no idea the pain he’d cause her if he didn’t give her this last night together. “It’s all right,” she assured him, running her hands over his chest to quickly unfasten the buttons of his waistcoat and strip it down over his shoulders and off.

He glanced down at her with uncertainty.

“Unless—” Her fingers stilled, and she swallowed hard to free the knot in her throat and whispered, “Unless you don’t find me…attractive…like this.”

“Oh, brat.” He cupped her face and kissed her, hard and deep, as if trying to prove to her how much he desired her. “When I said you were beautiful, I meant it.” His mouth caressed her lips, her cheek, her jaw, her neck. “You’re the loveliest woman I’ve ever met, Emily, inside and out. This baby is part of you, and it only makes you more beautiful.”

Hot tears stung at her lashes. If it were possible, she fell in love with him all over again.

With a gentle push of her hands against his shoulders, she rolled him onto his back. Her body may have wanted his, but her heart needed him.

Her hands found his manhood again, and this time, she followed down with her mouth, to pleasure him the way she’d fantasized about since that day in the carriage when he gave her that wicked, wanton kiss between her thighs. If kissing her there brought her that much pleasure, then surely, if she kissed him here…Her hand closed around him to hold him still as she placed a delicate kiss on his tip.

A low groan rose from him, which emboldened her even more. Her lips closed around him to pull him into the moist heat of her mouth and suck gently. When he shuddered, shivering against her tongue, her chest soared that he liked what she was doing to him as much as she enjoyed the pleasure she gave. She tightened her grip and pumped harder up and down his length even as her mouth drew him deeper, savoring the salty-sweet taste of him on her tongue, the essence that was life and love and pure man. Pure Grey.

“Emily,” he rasped, his teeth bared in a strained half-smile of restraint.

His erection jerked in her mouth, and she moaned around him. In response, her body dripped wet for him, all the muscles inside her folds clenching in a hard spasm that made her gasp, with nearly the same intensity as if he were inside her, stroking her with his body.

“Come here, love.” With trembling hands, all of him tense and shaking now, he took her hips in his hands and shifted her carefully over on top of him. “I need to be inside you. Now.”

Not bothering to remove any more of their clothing, with her night rail gathered at her waist and his trousers only halfway down, she straddled him. His strong hands on her hips guided her as she lowered herself, sliding him inside her inch by wonderful inch, until he was fully sheathed by her body.

She sighed and closed her eyes. With one hand beneath her belly for support, her other hand resting on his chest so she could feel his racing heartbeat, she began to slowly move her hips over him. There was no urgency, no hurry to end this and rush into the dawn, and she wanted to savor this moment as long as possible.

He thrust up gently beneath her, and she rocked herself back and forth along his length to meet each thrust, to withdraw at each retreat before he slid deep inside her again. As the arousal inside her grew toward climax, her hand on his chest fisted his shirt between her fingers, and her thighs clenched tighter against his sides. Her lips parted in a soft gasp, her body tensing around him—

Release rose inside her not as the desperate desire she’d experienced with him before but as a billow of warmth, radiating out from her core to fill all of her with his strength and heat. She rolled back her head as her sex quivered around him, his name a soft whisper on her lips in the darkness.

“Emily…my sweet Emily,” he groaned as he released himself, and she sighed again as his life’s essence flowed into her, claiming her as his once more.

When he’d recaptured his breath, he eased back against the pillows and drew her possessively into his arms as she slowly slid off him and nestled against his side. His large body trembled around hers, and she thrilled to think that she did this to him, that she was able to bring him such shuddering pleasure.

She closed her eyes beneath his loving caresses as he gently stroked his hand across her back, her hip, even tenderly across her belly. The moment had been so special, so overwhelming that she hadn’t realized tears had gathered at her lashes until he kissed them away.

“You have no idea how hard it’s been to stay away from you, brat,” he murmured against her feverish lips, “when what I wanted to do was break down the front door, storm up here to your room, and…well, do that.”

When he grinned wickedly at her, she laughed. A peaceful warmth filled her, from the tips of her fingers to her toes, and she slipped her hand beneath his shirt to feel his heartbeat beneath her fingertips. This was how she wanted to stay, to somehow find a way to stop the dawn from coming so she could remain here with him like this forever.

He placed a delicate kiss at her temple. “I also wanted to just hold you in my arms and tell you that I missed you. That I missed your laugh and that radiant smile of yours. That I care about you and that little baby inside you.” His voice came as a trembling murmur. “That somewhere along the road from Yorkshire I fell in love with you.”

Her heart stopped. Grey loved her? She stared at him through wide eyes, not daring to believe…and when her heart began beating again, the foolish thing didn’t know whether to leap for joy or shatter into a million pieces.

“Grey,” she choked out painfully, her traitorous fingers curling into his chest as his heart raced beneath her fingertips. “You can’t…”

“But I do. I lie awake every night fantasizing about you, Emily, and not just how good it feels to be inside you—but dreams of escorting you to the opera on my arm, waltzing with you at balls, and walking with you through the park.” He cupped her face between his hands and kissed her so tenderly, so lovingly that he stole her breath away. “I want to create a respectable home and a life with you, and I want to put children of my own in your womb.” He drew a shaking breath, taking a moment to steady himself. “I’ll admit—this terrifies the daylights out of me. I’d never considered marriage to anyone before, but now…” He caressed a fingertip over her bottom lip and smiled faintly when it trembled. “Now I can’t imagine not being married to you.”

She froze for just a heartbeat as his words cascaded through her, leaving her trembling and pulsating with love, her heart somersaulting with joy. But the pain came crashing back just as fiercely a few heartbeats later, because nothing had truly changed.

Yet the temptation of what he was offering was too strong, and if she didn’t put distance between them right now, she’d lose whatever thin thread of willpower she had left when it came to him. So she slipped from his arms and stood, her hands shaking so much that she could barely straighten her disheveled night rail. “But I have nothing to offer you…” Except heartache and regret.

“Emily, you are everything I want,” he assured her.

She shook her head as the anguish rose inside her. If only it were that simple, they’d be back on the road right now, this time driving furiously for Scotland. The wedding would be easy, but the marriage would be brutal.

“Marry me, Emily,” he cajoled.