Page 59 of A Remarkable Rogue

No. There was no alternative.

He needed to live again. Sarah would have wanted that. She wouldn’t have wanted him to withdraw from the world and spend the rest of his life living like a monk.

But was he ready for Sydney?

He raked his fingers through his damp hair. Regardless, this tension between them had to end. Boundaries had to be established to put both of them firmly back into their rightful places as nothing more than mission assets.Tonight.

He bounded up the stairs with a fierce determination to make her understand. After all, Sydney was an intelligent, logical woman. He would simply explain to her that although he found her extremely attractive and would very much enjoy being her lover, they were from different worlds and had no future. Therefore, they needed to end their flirtations with all due haste.

Yes, that was exactly what he would tell her. No more delving into pasts and secrets, no more guilt and misunderstandings, no more distractions—

He froze on the top stair.

She stood in the soft light of a single candle as she brushed her sable hair, wearing nothing but one of his old shirts. The white cotton hung down to just above her knees and revealed shapely calves and bare feet beneath, and the wide neck hung off one shoulder, baring its creamy smoothness to the candlelight. All of her was casual and soft, all ready for a warm bed.

He was unable to tear his eyes away from her. Neither could he ignore the sudden pulsing in his groin as he hardened at the sight of her. All the frustration he’d carried inside since they’d met transformed into white hot desire. He wanted her, she wanted him, and he would no longer be betraying Sarah.

It was suddenly that simple.

She looked up and gave a soft inhalation of surprise at his unexpected appearance, and that little breath twined through him straight down to his core. Immediately, tension flashed like a crackle of electricity on the air between them.

“Nate…” His name was a pleading whisper.

He reached her in a single stride, pulled her against his chest, and seized her mouth beneath his.

With a low moan of capitulation, she dropped the brush to the floor and wrapped her arms around his neck to press herself as close as possible. The warmth of her body reached him through the cotton shirt, as did the softness of her breasts and thighs as she molded herself against him.

He tore his mouth away from hers and growled as he left openmouthed kisses across her throat. “You’re wearing my shirt.”

“I forgot to pack my night rail,” she panted out, “and I couldn’t find one of your mother’s.”

Thank God for that.He ran his hands down her body. She quivered everywhere he touched, and his cock throbbed painfully in response.

She dug her fingertips into the bare muscles of his shoulders and back, then shivered deliciously when he took her earlobe between his teeth and nipped a warning that tonight he would not be gentle.

“When I saw you standing there,” she whispered and arched her neck to give him access as he grazed his teeth down her throat, “I thought you’d come up to say you’d made a mistake, that you were still mourning—”

“Hush.”

He cupped her cheek in his palm and tilted her face up to silence her doubts with a kiss. Not just any kiss, but one with a singular focus as his tongue slid between her lips to ravish her mouth the way he planned on ravishing her body.

When a low moan swelled up from inside her, he slid his mouth away from hers and licked his way across her bare shoulder. He wanted to devour her.

“I haven’t been with a woman in years, Sydney,” he muttered against her flesh despite the bruise to his pride. “I might not be able to last very long the first time.”

“The first…” She blinked, then swallowed. Hard. “All right.”

He ran his hands over her body again. But this time when he reached her thighs, he fisted the tail of the shirt and pulled it up, over her head, and off. He dropped it away to the floor.

Gloriously naked, his temptress stood perfectly still and let his eyes hungrily take their fill of her, from her taut pink nipples down the long stretch of legs to her bare toes and back again.

She was beautiful. And tonight, she would finally be his.

He touched his fingertips to her red lips to outline their fullness, then trailed his hand down her throat and over her spiking pulse as it throbbed wildly. His hand slipped into the valley between her full breasts, lower across her stomach to her navel, and then lower still into the curls guarding her sex.

He slid his fingers possessively between her legs as his mouth captured hers in a demanding kiss that left her panting for breath.

He groaned against her lips. “You’re wet.”