“Grace, I know you don’t think I still want to marry you, but I do.” His lips brushed her forehead. “I can’t live without you. I like all of your brothers and sisters. I want to take care of all of you. Please let me.”
“You don’t”—her blood roared in her ears making it hard to think—“you cannot know what you’re saying. I have seven,sevenbrothers and sisters. The youngest is only five.”
He grinned as his lips made their way to her jaw. “She’ll be six in summer.”
Grace wanted to sink into him, have him sink into her. She fought the urge to cant her neck, giving him easier access.
This would not do!
Somehow she found the strength to take one step back, out of his arms. “Yes, and she has another twelve years before I’ll present her.” Grace covered her brow with a hand. Her temples began to throb. “Do you have any idea how much attention they need?”
“I got a taste of it to-day,” he murmured against her lips, “and it didn’t bother me at all. In fact, I quite enjoyed it.”
She closed her eyes in frustration. Why was he being so—so stubborn? “You have spent what? One day with them? Not even that, one trip to the Park, and what if we have children? I’d be taken up with a baby, and the others would have to rely on you.” She closed her eyes at the memory of suddenly becoming mother and father to her brothers and sisters. “I know what that’s like. Mary was barely in leading strings when my mother died.” Glancing at him, she shook her head. “You cannot want that kind of responsibility.”
“I don’t want you to die, if that’s what you mean, but I’m perfectly ready to take on your brothers and sisters, as well as our children.”
Grace had to have more distance from him. She retreated to the other side of the room. What he said didn’t make sense. Why would he want to have the responsibility for her family? What sane man would?
Worthington began slowly closing the distance between them, his tone soft and compelling. “Grace, I’d be an excellent guardian. I won’t promise you that I’ll suborn all my decisions to you. I wouldn’t do that with our children. Still, I will treat them as if they are ours. No differently from the children we’ll have or my sisters.”
Rubbing her temples, she gazed into his mesmerizing lapis eyes. “I don’t understand you at all. Why do you want to take us on?”
“To make you happy. To make us a family.”
Standing only inches in front of her, he reached out and curled one of her locks around his finger. She stared into his eyes. The blue depths combined humor and hope. He made her want to hope. Although he didn’t touch her, she was drawn toward him.
He bent his head. “Let me love you.”
Grace was in his embrace again and somehow her arms were around his neck. Their lips met in a kiss. “I shouldn’t do this.”
“Do what, my love?”
“Any of this. I meant to speak with you rationally.”
“You are speaking rationally. You just haven’t come to the realization that I’ve made my decision.” He dragged her closer and plundered her mouth. “I think I forgot to tell you I love you.”
This felt too good to be right. “That is not enough, my lord.”
“Matt.” He nibbled her ear. “I want to hear you say my name.”
Why wasn’t he listening to her? He couldn’t want all of them. He must be mad, or he simply did not have a good understanding of what was involved. “Matt, it’s not enough.”
“Grace, we’ll make it enough.” He kissed her deeply, laying siege to her senses.
Matt couldn’t be in Grace’s presence without wanting her. Wanting to possess her, help carry her burdens or anything else she required of him. He would find a way to change her mind.
She responded to him, yielding so that no space remained between them. He feathered his thumbs over her nipples. She shivered and caught her breath.
“We should cease this,” she said, yet that wasn’t what was in her eyes or in the huskiness of her voice.
“Tell me you don’t want me, and I’ll stop.” He gently rubbed the undersides of her breasts as she moaned.
He loved touching her and her responses to him. When he covered a breast with one hand, she pressed it into his palm. He swooped and captured her soft lips again. Lifting her to the desk, he sat her on it. Grace’s legs parted as she tried to press closer to him. He slowly, lovingly caressed her tongue with his, and she clung to him.
Grace’s fingers tightened on the back of his head. Her mouth demanding everything he could give her. She shivered, and a deep primitive part of him rejoiced.
Matt eased back and whispered, “Tell me you want me to stop, and I will.”
