He cut off her protest with an impatient sound.“The arguments I used to convince you to accept my proposal had nothing to do with my offering it,” he said.“My position and wealth are such that I would be unaffected by any scandal, short of murder.”
“Perhaps so,” Kate admitted, as she tried to harness her wayward thoughts.What was he saying?She felt oddly edgy, and the tension in the room was palpable, as though the great Wroth himself was similarly afflicted.
“But you have a sense of honor, a code that required you to marry me because you stayed here without a proper chaperone.That’s what Tom said.He told me that he made you… do the right thing.”There.It was out, the worst, most humiliating aspect of the whole business.Now, let him deny it, Kate thought, lifting her chin.
To her surprise, Grayson gave a low growl of laughter that seemed to skim along her exposed skin, teasing her senses.Abruptly she realized that she wore nothing except her shift.
“You insult me, Kate.Do you really think that I would order my life on the whim of that feeble-witted coachman?”Grayson asked.His brow traveled upward in a manner that made her feel foolish for listening to Tom.But, if neither Tom nor gossip had forced Grayson to wed, then why…?
Grayson took a step closer, and Kate knew a sudden warmth, though he still stood away from her.His gaze captured her own, and she saw no amusement, only sober truth.
“I’ll admit that my decision was hastened by the untimely arrival of Raleigh and his friends,” he said.“But I assure you, poppet, that I married you for the simple reason that I wanted to do so.”
“But why?”The words came out in a whisper, as shaky and uncertain as Kate herself.
“A variety of motivations, not the least of which has to do with that lovely gown I bought for you,” Grayson said.He glanced down at the pool of sheer material on the floor, and then up at her face, his mouth taut, as if he were acknowledging a weakness.
Grayson?The man had no frailties, no flaws such as those suffered by lesser mortals.He was all hard competence, all simmering power and intellect.Wasn’t he?Kate shook her head, bewildered by what he was saying.
“I want you, Kate.”
Well, that was clear enough, if she could only accept it.“But I thought you were teasing me before,” Kate protested.“Amusing yourself.”
Grayson did not look amused.“No.Never,” he said.He took another step toward her, and fixed her with his gaze, steady and confident once more.“I want you, Kate.”
“I don’t believe it,” she muttered, half to herself.
“Then I shall endeavor to prove it to you… all night long.”
Kate shook her head, moving backward once more.
“I have wanted you ever since that first night, when I discovered you were no boy.I wanted to feel you beneath me even then.”
“No,” Kate whispered, disbelieving, her flight halted by the edge of the bed pressing behind her knees.
“Yes,” Grayson said, grinning seductively.“I feel feverish again, Kate.Will you soothe me?”His hands moved to undo the buttons of his fall.
Kate shook her head in confusion.
“I was half out of my head, but I wanted you then,” he said.Pushing the trousers past his hips, he stepped out of them.“I could feel your hands on me, and I wanted to touch you, to taste you, to take you.”
Kate knew her face must be crimson.Her breathing was low and ragged, her pulse thudding loudly through blood that seemed to thicken and slow as he stood before her, gloriously naked and far different than when she had bathed him.He stepped forward, and she fell back upon the bed with a cry, only to find him leaning over her.
“And I have wanted you every moment since.In my bath.In my bed.In my life.”Dazed, Kate stared up at him, trying to absorb his words as his hands moved to the hem of her shift.He raised it deliberately, his fingers brushing along her leg, her waist, her ribs, until he lifted it over her head.
He stared down at her, completely exposed to his gaze, and his eyes flickered with a brilliance that seared her.“And now I will have you, Kate.Tonight and forever.Whenever and wherever I wish.However I wish.Beneath me, above me, in front of me.”
Kate tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry, her responses too sluggish.She slid her tongue out to wet her lips, and Grayson took it in his mouth.Gently.Slowly.And all thought of resistance fled as she melted into him.Her own nakedness, which once would have alarmed her, became freedom, a recipe for liquid pleasure as he touched her, his fingers sliding down her body in the most exotic of caresses.
He stroked her hair, her shoulders, her waist.He placed intense kisses on her palms, the curves of her arm, the arches of her feet.He drew her toes into his mouth, startling her with the raw sensation that spread upward, pooling between her legs.
He massaged her calves and her thighs and buried his face in her belly.His tongue teased at her navel and her ribs and the underside of her breasts, before cupping them in his hands so he might feast upon them.Finally, when Kate whimpered with want, he worked his magic upon her, rousing her until she fell back against the pillows, gloriously spent.
Then he rose up on his knees between her legs.“What say you now, poppet?”
Too weak to reply, Kate said nothing.She sensed his need to control this, as well as all else in his life.But whatever resentment she might have felt over his mastery dissolved in the moment she saw his body shudder—an involuntary display of his need that could not be feigned.
Then he was inside her, and Kate gasped at this new sensation.Blinking up at him, she saw his tall form bathed golden in the candlelight like that of a beautiful god.And as she watched, he began to move, his muscles straining, as if with some great effort.
