But then, though he had lain with too many women to remember, so was he.
Until this night, he had never been with a woman he loved.
And he truly did love her.
The backs of his eyes began to sting with the naked realization of his feelings for her. For the first time in his life, he felt what it meant to be in love.
The Black Duke was in love.
And, as his eyes met hers, he knew, with every fiber and sinew of his being, that she loved him too.
“Rogan, I want you,” she gasped, sliding her fingers faster against him as she guided him between her legs. “I don’t want to wait.”
He had to do this slowly, gently, even though his bollocks already tightened in anticipation.
He watched her face intently as he touched her with one finger where she was most sensitive. He felt her thighs tighten against his knees as she reflexively sought to close her legs.
Once again, he touched her softly. His finger circled the bit of flesh, gradually pressing harder, moving faster.
Mary’s eyes closed. She turned her head to the side and bit down into her full lower lip.
Yes, this is what he wanted for her. And more. Much more.
His finger circled faster, as he slowly rose up on his knees and leaned back, then lowered his mouth between her quivering legs.
She gasped and reached down to his head as if to pull him away to stop him. Her fingers entwined in his hair as he lapped at her.
He eased his fingers into the tightness of her, and she moaned and instinctively pressed him harder against her. He slowly drove his fingers into her depths, making her writhe with mindless pleasure as he flicked his slick tongue against her.
“Rogan, please.
Eager to oblige, he pushed up on his hands. He had grown almost painfully hard, and he throbbed with his own need for her.
He bent his elbows and pressed a kiss to her belly. She wrapped her hands around his neck and led him higher, letting him kiss her ribs.
Higher still to suckle her breasts. And then, she brought him to her mouth.
He pressed a hand down in the grass beside her shoulder and supported his weight as he reached down with his other hand and positioned his hardness between her folds.
Rogan stroked her with his firm, plum-shaped tip, wetting it with her essence. Then he lifted her bottom and slid into her.
She sighed, and her eyes widened as her body accepted him slowly, but surely.
He paused, feeling her muscles tighten around him as he sank deeper into her. He squeezed his eyes closed and fought the incredible urge to take her hard, take her fast.
Mary raised her hips. She wanted to feel him deeper inside of her. Rogan groaned and thrust into her, slowly, steadily.
She slipped her hands under his arms, wrapped them around his back and squeezed him tight.
Harder. Faster. Deeper.
In a move that surprised him, Mary raised her knee and hooked her leg around his back. She jerked her leg hard and buried him deep within her.
Her muscles cinched around him. He could wait no longer.
Rising up on his hands, he slammed into the searing heat of her. Tiny whimpers of pleasure fell from her mouth as he pumped her again and again.
She cried out his name, and his body tensed and released.
He kissed her, and as he settled his head in the crook of her neck, he thought he heard her say something…but no, she could not have said that.
It would be too much to hope.
But she kissed his ear and whispered again.
“I love you, Rogan.”
Chapter 20
The next morning, Mary awoke to find herself alone in the giant’s bed. Or rather, her soon- to-be husband’s bed. She smiled in her bliss.
Maybe someday soon they would actually use a bed for something other than sleeping. But until then, there were always gardens and carriages. Mary chuckled to herself.
They were as good as married already anyway.
Why, they’d had a ceremony, albeit an illegal one, attended by family and friends. The marriage had already been consummated. And she had the ring.
Smiling, Mary held up her left hand to look at it.
But the ring wasn’t there.
A tremor raced through her, and she sprang from the bed and tore back the sheets and coverlet.
She shook the pillows and tossed them on the floor while she searched the mattress.
Oh, God, she couldn’t find it anywhere! How could it have come off? She’d tugged on it for two days, and it would not be removed.
Why now, when she would need it at any time?
Then it struck her.
Clad only in her chemise, Mary raced down the staircase, down the center passage, and into the bright courtyard.
“Good morning, darling.” Rogan sat beside another gentleman before a paper-strewn iron table in the center of the courtyard. “This is Mr. Lawson, my solicitor.”
Suddenly all too aware of her state of undress, she crossed her arms over her chest, then nodded her head and gave an embarrassed smile to the solicitor. “Good morning.” She moved her bare feet slowly backward, retracing her steps to the French windows leading back into the house. When her heel stubbed the threshold, she reached her hand behind her and felt for the door latch.
“Mary, is there something that you require?” Rogan asked politely.
She depressed the handle, and the door opened behind her. “No, no. ’Twas nothing really. I just…wanted to know if you were at home, nothing more.” She started to duck in through the door when she heard Rogan’s voice again.
“Mary.”
She held the door in front of her barely dressed form and peered around the French window at him. “Yes?”
Rogan had an amused smile on his face. “I received a note of response from the rector of Marylebone Parish. The wedding will be here, late Wednesday evening. Does that suit you?”
“Late on Wednesday?” Forgetting herself, she stepped from behind the shield of the door.
“Best not to alert the neighbors that the newlywedded couple is getting married
“Oh, quite right. Yes, Wednesday suits me perfectly.” Then, without another word, she hurried back inside the house and to the bedchamber to dress.
She fumbled through the crystal bottles of scents and powders on the Pembroke table. She searched through every seam of the dress she’d worn the night before.
