Along Came a Rogue by Anna Harrington Page A

pulse pounding in her ears with every racing heartbeat.
    “I want to splay you across my bed and lick every delectable inch of you until I’ve had my fill. I want to nibble at your throat and breasts until you shiver, stroke my hands between your thighs until you spread yourself open wide and beg to be taken. I want to taste the sweetness of your warmth as I plunge inside you and hear your cries when I’ve satisfied my hunger.” The gleam in his eyes was predatory. “And it certainly wouldn’t be nice .”
    With heat shamelessly flushing her cheeks, she momentarily forgot to breathe. She should have been shocked by his words, should have scolded him for saying those things, or slapped him, or…Yet it wasn’t shock she felt, but pulsing arousal.
    He looked undeniably masculine as he lounged on the bench, his waistcoat half-unbuttoned and his neck rakishly bare to his shirt collar, his long legs kicked out casually in front of him. Shivering even now from the hot need flaming inside her, she craved him. She wanted to perch on his lap again and lick her tongue down into the patch of chest revealed by his open collar, wanted to strip away his shirt and waistcoat completely and let her fingers explore the hard muscles beneath. And God help her, she wanted to offer herself to him just as he described, as a willing and wanton feast.
    But she could never have him now. He’d arrived five months too late.
    “I’m not a nice man, Emily,” he continued. “I use women for my own pleasure. I seduce them, take whatever enjoyment I can in them, and never give a thought to their feelings or needs. If they’re satisfied, it’s only because it brought me pleasure to make them so.”
    She shook her head, staring at him defiantly. “I don’t believe you.”
    “You should.” He leaned forward to punctuate his words. “And you should know that you’d be no different. The perfect woman, in fact, since you’re exactly the kind of woman I prefer…a beautiful society widow, one who would never consider being seen with a rogue like me in public let alone want to leg-shackle me. A woman who cannot complain publicly when I ignore her after I’ve grown bored of being inside her.” He sent her a disdainful look that she might ever think of him as anything more than he was. “Whatever delusions you’ve been clinging to about me, you need to get them out of your head right now.”
    Her eyes burned, her vision growing blurry. “I have no delusions about you.”
    “Good. So don’t ever tease me again about kissing you, brat. Because I won’t stop with just a taste of you.” As he leaned back, his eyes gleamed wolfishly, and she shuddered at the unrepentant hunger she saw in their dark depths. “I’d devour you.”
    Giving her a last hard look, he turned his face toward the window.
    She bit her lip hard, fighting back the knot of wretchedness rising in her throat but unable to stop the trembling that gripped her. Her hands shook as she looked down at them in her lap, overwhelmed by the harshness of what he had just told her about himself and her own shameless arousal to it. He’d laid himself bare, telling her the most horrible things…but she knew from Thomas’s letters that they were true.
    Shame flooded through her that he was so brutally honest about himself while she still kept secrets that could endanger both their lives. “Grey,” she whispered before her courage could leave her, “I need to tell you…”
    “What is it?” he growled but didn’t look at her.
    “The reason I can’t—”
    The carriage jerked again, and both of them grabbed for the handholds to keep their seats as the vehicle gave a loud creak and groan, then stopped. The wheels dropped, and the carriage settled to a leaning stop toward its side.
    After a moment of stillness, Hedley flung open the door and peered inside, his face grim. “We’re stuck,” he explained succinctly.
    Sliding a sideways glance toward Emily, Grey muttered, “You have