Page 48 of The Rogue’s Redemption

“If your sister and her husband do not come around to our way of thinking, I will take you back to Brockburg with me, and you can convince them later.”

He pulled her to her feet.

“I am not leaving here without you. We’ll have our whole lives to make things right.”

Reid brought his head down, claiming her lips, her mouth, her soul. She kissed him back with all of the longing she’d felt the night before and still felt now. He pulled back, just a bit, and took her lower lip between his teeth. He then kissed that same spot, slowly and gently, tugging and teasing. When Reid lifted her up against him, she grabbed him around his neck. He carried her to the edge of the table, sat her down, and gave her mouth the same attention he’d given it before moving her.

But this time he stood between her legs, his hands pushing them open until their bodies were pressed together.

Closer. She needed to be closer.

“Are we agreed?” he asked.

When he pulled away, it took Allie a moment to recover.

He wanted her to disobey the one person who’d always loved her. But she’d realized something in the whole Covington mess. While she still needed Gillian’s love—and, indeed, always would—she no longer needed her cosseting. She was no longer a child. Allie could decide what she wanted, and she wanted Reid.

“Aye,” she said, feeling his breath against her face. Their eyes locked, an agreement passing between them.

“I will not leave here without you,” he repeated.

Reluctantly, she responded, “Neither will I let you go.”

It was not the way she wanted it to go, but as Aidan had said, they were at war. She, Reid, and Aidan on one side, Gillian and Graeme on the other. The outcome would not be as dramatic as that of the war being waged inside the solar of Highgate Castle, the one that would determine the course of the border clans’ future. But it was her private battle, and to her it meant everything.

She intended to win.

Reid reached up and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. That touch, so tender, strengthened her resolve. Gillian may think she knew all there was to know about Reid, but she was wrong. There was a softness in him that he did not allow others to see. Both sides did exist in the same man, but his loving nature was stronger than the front he put on for the world.

“Why do you push people away? There is such goodness in you—”

“And darkness too.”

“So you say. But the goodness is stronger. It slips through even when you don’t mean for it to happen.” She threaded her fingers through his and laid them atop her lap. He still stood between her legs, the position more intimate in some ways than the day before in her bathtub.

“Just like there is a passion in you that demands to be set free.”

Her expression had given her away. She couldn’t stop thinking about that moment, his hands on her, inside her. Would it always be like that if they married?

“I never . . . I never knew.”

“And now you do.” He leaned toward her and kissed her, slowly at first. She reveled in the softness of his lips, the slow, sensual movement as his mouth glided across hers, his tongue demanding attention. When the kiss became more insistent, she met his demands with some of her own.

Releasing his hand, Allie reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Reid’s groan encouraged her, and as she gave herself freely to him, she tried to forget about her sister and all the stumbling blocks that still lay between her and Reid. She allowed her fingers to stroke the side of his neck—

“Ahem.”

Reid pulled back as they turned toward the interruption.

“Aidan?” She pushed Reid away, embarrassed to have been caught in such a position.

“I’m unconvinced such behavior will convince either Gillian or my brother to your cause.”

Heat rushed up from Allie’s neck to her cheeks. He was right, of course, but it seemed every time Reid was near, she was compelled to touch him, feel him next to her. She chanced a glance at Reid, who looked anything but embarrassed.

In fact, he was . . .

“You’re gloating,” she accused.