Page 72 of The Lady's Last Mistake
“I would never force you to marry me.”
Rather than setting his mind at ease, it only seemed to offend him. “I am not Renfry,” he growled. “I will not use you and set you aside.”
“What if I ask you to?” Incomprehension swept his face, but she only felt a new stroke of clarity. “Renfry lied. I gave myself to him because he told me he would make me his wife. With you…you’re not making a false promise to lure me in. Ichooseto give myself to you simply becauseIwant it.”
Grant scrubbed his palm over his mouth again. And withhis unbroken reluctance, pangs of shame began to heat her cheeks. Here she stood, practically begging him to make love to her…and yet he hadn’t wavered in his resistance. The great Lothario, the debauched physician lord, the man who was rumored to chase anything in a skirt…would not have her. She licked her lips, the desire to flee formidable. But her pride was too fierce to run back to her room in humiliation. No, she would go with her pride intact.
“I see,” she said, her voice tight. “The risk is too great for you. I understand. Forgive me.”
Cassie turned and with her back straight as an arrow, reached for the door. A hand slammed up against it, holding it shut. Grant had crossed the room and come up behind her at lightning speed.
“Please,” she said, the presence of him hot against her back. “If you don’t want me, let me go.”
“You have no earthly idea how much I want you.” Each rasping word scraped up her spine and pressed underneath her skin. Her legs went soft as the hand not bracing the door curled around her waist. He hauled her against him, and her eyes fluttered shut as the hard wall of his chest caught her, his thickly muscled thighs bracketing her legs. Cassie gasped, and the sound was joined by another: the unmistakable click of the door’s lock as Grant engaged it.
Her blood bubbled as he wrapped both arms around her and sealed her to him.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” he whispered against her neck. Then, with his lips against the lobe of her ear, “Are you absolutely certain?”
She nodded, or at least tried to. Her body wasn’t responding to what she wanted it to do.
“I need to hear it, Cassie.” His hands curved inward around her hips, splaying wide and reaching lower.
“Yes,” she sighed, the pitch broken and pleading. It would have embarrassed her to have sounded so undone—if Grant had not spun her around and smothered her half-formed answer with his mouth. He chased it with a coarse groan of his own.
She draped her arms around his shoulders and clung on as the assault of his kiss began. The last of his resistance cracked and dissolved. Grant’s tongue twined around hers, the kiss claiming and desperate and she couldn’t breathe. Nor did she want to if it meant parting from his mouth. Carnal sparks lit off inside her as he walked them in small steps closer to the bed, his fingers tugging roughly at the sash on her robe.
She took in a gulp of air as Grant shifted his mouth to her throat, where he pressed hot, openmouthed kisses.
“Cassie.” His teeth abraded her skin, and his hands pushed the robe from her shoulders. It fell to the floor. “My God, the things I want to do to you.” He filled his palms with her backside and kneaded her through the linen shift. He lifted his head to look at her. Firelight played over his face, his eyes dark with craving.
“I want those things too,” she whispered.
His gaze dimmed with a glint of warning. “You might come to regret saying that.”
She went still, though her heartbeat thrashed. Was he still trying to push her away? She wouldn’t allow it. “I’m not afraid,” she said. “Tell me. What are you going to do to me?”
With a devilish grin, Grant released her. She lurched,despondent, as he took a step backward and put an arm’s length between them.
“As you were the one to come to my room, I believe I amyoursto command tonight. So, you tell me, my lady—what do you want me to do?”
Cassie’s mouth went dry, and she was suddenly nervous again. “Isn’t what I want clear?”
He shrugged, attempting for nonchalance. But his eyes were busily devouring her, the firelight likely rendering her shift near transparent, as his was.
“I’m a man who likes detailed instruction.”
She faltered. It had taken more courage than she’d imagined just to come here and tell him that she wanted to feel pleasure with a man. To tell him every detail? Cassie’s stomach flipped. She couldn’t do it.
Grant saw her doubt and winked. “Might I make a suggestion?”
She nodded, slightly embarrassed by the eagerness of it.
“Perhaps I am wearing too many articles of clothing,” he said, pulling at his shirt with his thumb and forefinger.
Oh. She licked her lips, her pulse stuttering again as she understood. “I…I want you to…” She could not believe she was going to say it. “Take off your clothes.”
A slow, sinful grin bowed his lips, and with languid motions, Grant gathered his shirt with both hands. Lifting his arms, he peeled it up, over his head, and then discarded it onto the floor. Cassie’s pulse quivered in her throat. Firelight gilded his taut shoulders and the chiseled lines of his chest and abdomen. Her breath ceased entirely when she realized his fingers were moving at the buttons on the fall of his trousers. He wasn’t stopping. He was heeding her command.On the next unsteady throb of her heart, his trousers and smalls were on the carpet, his feet stepping free of them.
