Page 116 of Rogue of My Heart

“Once they confess their love, it should be easy for you to break the engagement,” she went on before stopping her pacing and her explanation with a gasp. “I know! Oh, Christian, it’s pure brilliance.”

“Yes, it is,” he said, admiring the light that seemed to surround her. He paused, then said, “What is?”

She strode toward him, closing the distance between them. “This is more than a way to unite Lady Aoife and Lord Garvagh in true love. This is a way to resolve your property dispute as well.”

For a moment Christian frowned. “It is?”

“Yes.” Marie clasped his arms, sending spears of fire through him that settled in his groin. “Don’t you see? You can offer Lord Garvagh Lady Aoife’s hand in marriage in exchange for the property rights your families have been disputing for so long.”

Christian arched one eyebrow doubtfully. “Now who’s being the medieval one? Brides are not bartered for land anymore.”

“I know, but my guess is that Lord Garvagh will be so grateful to you for releasing Lady Aoife from her engagement that he’ll give you whatever you want.”

“Will you give me whatever I want?” he asked. The question surprised him, and for a moment, they both blinked in shock.

Then Marie let out a breath and shifted her arms to rest over his shoulders. “Oh, yes, Christian. I will give you whatever you want and then some.”

She surged into him, slanting her mouth over his. Every reasonable voice within him said he should push her off, cast her aside, and go about life the way a serious, stoic gentleman in the midst of an incalculable loss should. For a change, he didn’t listen to a single one of those voices. He wanted Marie wrapped around him. He wanted her under him. He wanted to be inside of her. He wanted her in his life forever.

He kissed her back, not caring about anything else but the sweet taste of her mouth and the way her tongue tangled with his when he thrust his into her. She accepted him with a moan of longing that sizzled through his blood and had him hard in seconds. Her fingers combed through his hair as he fumbled for the fastenings of her skirts and whatever other parts of her he could reach to undress her as quickly as possible.

“I love you, Marie,” he said between desperate kisses. “I love you more than I know.”

He wasn’t sure if his words made sense. What did make sense was the way her skin felt against his as they worked together to remove her clothes and move to his bed.

“You can make fun of me for enjoying nudity as much as you want,” he panted as he unclasped her corset while she fumbled awkwardly to unlace her boots—two actions he wouldn’t have thought were possible at the same time. “But you must admit, it’s a damned sight more convenient than all these clothes.”

“I’ll never wear clothes again,” Marie vowed as they tangled and flopped their way through undressing her.

It was madness—so much that he found himself laughing as one of her boots got stuck in his bedcovers before she could remove it and as her chemise ripped when he tried to pull it over her head. Undressing was chaos, but they managed to accomplish enough of it to slide their bodies together with absolute bliss.

“Oh, God, this feels so good,” she sighed as he stroked his hands along her sides and nibbled at her neck.

“So good,” he echoed, grinding his erection against her hip.

He wanted to touch her everywhere at once. He wanted every part of his body in contact with every part of hers. He cupped one of her breasts and brought his mouth down to suckle her nipple, eliciting sounds from her that had his balls drawn up tight with expectation. She tasted of salt and wonder, and the way she wriggled under him as he teased her to greater heights of pleasure was better than anything he’d ever experienced before. He switched to her other breast, rolling her abandoned nipple between his fingers and thumb as he suckled the other, then pinched lightly.

Her response was electric. She cried out wordlessly, arching into him. He didn’t know how he was going to hold out long enough not to embarrass himself with his lack of control. Her response to the way he kissed across the flat of her stomach and explored between her legs left him hot and throbbing.

“Christian,” she panted his name as he pushed her thighs apart and kissed the inside of first one, then the other. “That’s…that’s…ohh!”

He drew a deep cry out of her as he explored her with his lips and tongue. She was so eager for him that he had to grip her thighs tightly and hold them apart so that he could tease her clitoris with his tongue. Something told him that she liked the way he handled her forcefully as much as she enjoyed what his lips and tongue were doing. That something resolved into a deep gasp and a cry as her body convulsed in orgasm at his touch.

It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever experienced, and he wanted to experience all of it. He repositioned himself as fast as he could, thrusting into her with a satisfied cry, then holding himself within her for a moment. The sensation of her inner muscles squeezing and milking him was too much to resist. He moved decisively within her, feeling his control shatter with lightning speed. All he wanted to do was be one with her, now and always. All his heart longed for was to spill himself inside of her and to feel whole again.

He came with a thunderous jolt of pleasure, his whole focus narrowing into the pleasure that coursed through them both as he emptied himself inside of her. It was magical beyond telling, filling him with life and joy. The feelings were so wildly perfect that as soon as the bliss of orgasm began to subside, he lost every last ounce of energy he’d been holding onto and collapsed half on top of her.

“I love you so,” she panted, embracing him with her arms and legs and sighing in contentment. “You are mine, and don’t you ever forget it.”

“I won’t,” he promised hazily, already feeling the weight of sleep descend on him.

And there was another shade of guilt he hadn’t yet experienced. He was a cad for falling asleep minutes after coming inside of her. But for the first time in days, his heart and soul felt light. For the first time, he felt safe, as though everything would be all right after all. It wasn’t an insult to her that he drifted off quickly, it was the greatest compliment he could possibly give.

Eleven

Marie had won. She knew it as certainly as she knew she loved the sound of Christian’s deep, sated breathing as he slumbered after making love to her. She knew it like she knew that, come what may, the two of them would be together for the rest of their lives and all of eternity beyond. She could feel that the spell of grief that had trapped Christian in its web was breaking and that he would soon be thinking like himself again.

She also knew that there was still work to be done.