Page 156 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 5-8

‘I want you.Here...’ she breathed, and the confession halted whatever air had made it into his airways.

And still he could not move. Could not join her at the table’s edge.

‘Please,’she said, and his heart hammered.

If he took her here, now, that would be her memory of them.

The first memory of them coming together. He did not want that.

What do you want?

His gaze moved over her swollen lips. Proof of how strong their desire was. How strong it had always been.

And yet, it was not the same. He was not the same. She was not the same. He didn’t know why. Only that it was different.

The people who had met at that charity event were not here.

Something snapped inside him.

Released him.

She deserved more. And so did he. He moved then. Claimed her chin beneath his thumb and forefinger, ignoring the rasp of her breath, the shudder she made as her bottom lip trembled.

She deserved more than quick satisfaction. More than an indecent encounter anyone could see.

‘I can take you here,’ he told her, and his erection pulsed. ‘I can fall to my knees and taste you again. I can make you come with my mouth on you, with my fingers. I can ready you for me. I can do all those things.More. I can thrust inside you, right here. Right now.’

The delicate tendons in her throat constricted. ‘But you won’t?’

His thumb and forefinger gripped her chin more tightly. Forced her gaze to stay locked on his. Because he hated what his confession had caused her. He saw it. A flash of doubt. Of pain.

She thought he was rejecting her.

‘Do not,’ he growled, ‘doubt how much I want this.’ He released her chin and sought her hand. Claimed it and brought it between them. Placed her open palm on the part of him that ached for her.

‘Do not doubt,’ he said again, the hardness of him pulsing beneath her fingers, ‘how much I want you, Emmy.’ Her eyes blazed. ‘I want you in every way imaginable. To be inside you...’

He closed his eyes because it was painful to resist. A deep hurt was growing inside him with his every word that opposed his frantic desire.

‘Then why won’t you?’ she asked, her fingers on him. Tentatively she stroked him.

He opened his eyes. ‘We deserve a bed,’ he breathed raggedly.

He knew what he wanted now. Her in his bed. To savour her. To keep her there between the sheets where she couldn’t escape. Wouldn’t want to leave. Today. Tomorrow. Or ever.

‘A bed?’

‘I would prefer our bed in Mayfair,’ he said, his abdomen flexing at the flash of an empty bed. Their bed. Abandoned by her.

‘But we would never make it that long.’

His confession caused him to tremble at the effort it took to restrain himself. The effort of not doing what she’d asked him to do and take her. Here.

But he would not.

‘You’re shaking,’ she gasped.

‘As you will be,’ he promised. ‘If you let me take you to bed. I will make you come so hard your knees will shake.Uncontrollably. And then I will do it again, and again, until all you know, all you understand, is this. The need pulsing between us. A need that never dies. That always wants more.’

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