Page 53 of The Rake is Taken

“I missed you so much I ached,” he whispered without prologue. “I love you. And I think we should get married.”

“I’m not marrying a man who comes to me smelling like a trollop,” she returned, her mind going wild with possibilities as jealousy scorched a path through her. She gave him another shove and tried to roll from beneath him.

He replied by grasping her shoulders and giving her the lightest shake as if trying to wake her up. “I’m finished with that life. I’m done playing the role of the fickle wastrel. The bruise was gained by acting the heroic knight. For you.” He kissed her brow, her ear, her lips, silky strands of his hair sliding across her cheek as his lower body moved into an even deeper press against her. “Nothing happened.Nothing. There is no one else for me. There’ll never be anyone else, Tori. I haven’t touched anyone since the dreams started, not even that night in the Blue Moon. She was uninvited, and I sent her away after you left. Once you were in my mind, there was no room for anyone else. I told Ashcroft that I don’t own you. But you ownme.”

Victoria sank to the mattress and closed her eyes. Finn’s staggered breath streaked her cheek, her collarbone as he laid his brow on her shoulder in defeat. His arms came around and under her, drawing her into his body, letting her feel the rough pounding of his heart through her nightdress.

She had a choice.

She could trust a man who’d never shown her he was anythingbuttrustworthy. A generous, patient, intelligent man, one who secreted his true self from the world; a man who was temperamental, arrogant, even obnoxious on occasion; a man who liked to laugh, sometimes at her expense. An impish charmer. A false-bastard who, because of his profound love for his brother, wasn’t going to try to change the ton’s impression of him. Not even for her.

With this choice, she would gain a new family in Julian, Piper, Humphrey, Simon, and Belle. Be able to join the League fully and put her gift to use. Learn to manage her talent, maybe even learn to control it.

With this choice, she’d be accepting the love of a man she didn’t want to be apart from for one moment for the rest of her life.

So, therewasno choice.

Cradling his face, she directed those astounding eyes to hers. “What were you doing down there on the veranda?”

He blinked, nonplussed. “I’d just let Belle know what I was planning to ask you. Since I can’t discuss it with your father, your family, as tradition demands, because they’ll toss me out on my arse, I wanted to discuss it with someone in mine.” A slow flush crept across his cheeks, and he ducked his head to keep her from seeing it. “And I was nervous. Trying to figure out some brilliant thing to say when a floral arrangement landed on my head. Then I just blurted it out anyway, the most graceless proposal imaginable.”

“Oh, Blue,” she whispered, her heart breaking. “You don’t have to convince me.”

“That I love you? Want you? Need you?” His hands slipped low, bringing her hips against his with a shift and rock that sent stars spinning through her universe. “That you’d be crazy to turn me away when you’re my world? Yes, I do. I will. I’ll spend every day for the rest of my life convincing you. Because you’re going to give up so much if you decide to keep me.”

She’d already decided to keep him, butafterwould be an excellent time to tell him, she thought with a smile. She was burning up, the pulse between her thighs so constant it was making her entire body tremble. Visions of everything they’d done before shimmered through her mind like light through a frosted pane. Pulling his mouth to hers, she soothed his bottom lip with her tongue because she knew he liked it. Knew this would make him put his hands on her that much faster.

His response was swift, her nightgown flowing up and off her body to float to the floor. His waistcoat and shirt soon followed, his boots, trousers, drawers, until their bodies were a naked, molten press, air ripping from their lungs, hands seeking, caressing, delving. The kiss he pulled her into was ferocious and uncontrolled, deep-throated, glorious. They fit, knee to knee, hip to hip, chest to chest, finding a blinding, blissful cadence as they sharpened each other’s need to a fine point. She gasped, taking a harsh breath to find the sheets in a damp tangle, the pillows and counterpane in a wad on the floor.

“I’ve never felt what I feel with you,” he murmured as he took her nipple between his teeth and sucked hard, drawing a pleasured cry from her. “I never imagined.”

Body shaking, she followed the hair trailing his chest, drawing circles over his flat belly, his hip, his thigh. He lifted slightly to encourage more. She took him in hand, smoothed her thumb over the silky tip and stroked his length, slowly, then with greater speed, just as he’d shown her. His mouth fell away from her breast as he rolled to his back with a hushed groan, the most arousing sound she’d ever heard come from him.

“There, love, ah, yes.” His head tilted, neck arching, lids fluttering. His fingers burrowed into the sheet, curling into a fist as he tried to control himself. She stared, enthralled, about to arrive herself just from watching him. She didn’t know how to do what raced through her mind, so she simply obeyed the compulsion. They’d whispered about it in the still twilight that first night as he patiently answered her questions about lovemaking but…

Slowing her touch, she dragged her lips down his neck, traced his collarbone, licked his hardened nipple, shadowing that crisp path of hair she so loved down his body. He gasped, his belly tightening when she pressed a hard kiss to his navel. He was trembling, his skin flushed, his hands rising to settle in her hair. His low murmur of agreement gave her courage.

It stunned, she thought as she sank her teeth into his hip, that she could draw such a fevered response from him.

When he could have anyone, he wantedher.

“I won’t be able…to last…” He caught her wrist as she took him in her mouth, trying to stop her. But the effort was half-hearted. “Christ, I can’t,” he moaned, hips rising off the bed.

He tasted wonderful. Like soap and the slightest tang of salt. Rigid but his skin so smooth, a remarkable contrast. He was lost, his words unintelligible, his breaths stuttered. And she was lost inhim. Her peak close, she kissed her way down his length. His hand came around hers, guiding her strokes. Fast, fierce, tight. His other found its way between her legs, and with a delicious twist, he slipped a finger inside her. His thumb settled over that lovely hidden spot, the dual assault all it took to push her over the edge.

“Finn, oh, Finn,” she murmured, dropping her head to his thigh as the explosions rocked her body. Wave after wave, pulsing, pounding.Blinding. Until she was boneless, her muscles lax and uncooperative, her carnal task forgotten.

With what sounded like laughter, he took control, pulling her atop him. She gazed down at him, skin tingling, dots spotting her vision. “Where am I?” she asked and braced her hands on his chest with a hitching exhalation.

He smiled wickedly, cupped the nape of her neck, and brought her lips to his. She felt him move into position and with one gentle push, thrust inside. Settling his hands on her hips, he helped her establish the rhythm. It felt much different than having his weight atop her. Amazingly different. In control different. With an empowered sigh, she released him from the kiss, rose high, and moved with him. Rode him with long strokes, a languid rhythm, until he was close to leaving her, then back. Again and again.

She felt wanton, animalistic, bared to her soul. Mindless, dazed, frenetic. There’d been no way to anticipate how this sensual, intimate act would bond them.

“Now,” he urged and slipped his hand between them, touched her once, lightly, and she knew nothing but astounding pleasure. Closing her eyes, she let him lead her as body and mind parted. Colors burst behind her eyelids, her sensitive skin stung. With a wanton moan, she collapsed, and he rolled her over without missing a beat, his thrusts frantic, his lips, his hands, his teeth, all over her.

He whispered a harsh string of French as he shuddered, his arms closing around her. Falling to his side, he brought her with him, kissing her cheek, her shoulder, her collarbone. After a delayed moment filled with only their terse breaths permeating the room, he reached to tuck the destroyed sheet around her, smooth the hair from her face. Such a thoughtful, compassionate man. Even when she opened her mouth to speak, and he rejected her with an outstretched hand. A tender, tolerant, exhausted gesture. “Sleep,” he mumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow. “Food.” He yawned and hauled her closer. “Once you’ve decided.”

She tugged at his chest hair. “Oh, I’ve already decided.”