Seducing the Ruthless Rogue

by Tammy Jo Burns

  “This is reason number two,” he said with a wink, after he placed the ring on her finger.

  She watched, enraptured as he brought it up to his mouth and brushed a kiss over the ring and her fingers. Her breathing increased, and her lips felt dry. His eyes met hers just in time to see her tongue dart out and lick her lips. Her mouth fell open in astonishment when he mouthed the word later to her. Had he really just done that in front of everyone, including a minister?! Her husband was not only brash, but daring as well.

  Her husband, she thought. She was well and truly married. Despite everything she had said and all her misgivings, she found that there was a part of her that was looking forward to certain aspects of married life, especially with Mack. This time she did not chastise herself or try to correct herself for slipping into using his nickname. If she was going to be married to him, she might as well find out why it was so many people of the ton had affairs, and why so many of the poor had so many children. There must be something about copulating that enticed people to do it over and over, and her husband was just the specimen to experiment on.

  ***

  They waved goodbye to everyone and entered the hack that would take them to Mack’s house. The trip was awkward and silent. When they arrived, Cassie waited patiently while Mack retrieved her bags, paid the driver, and opened the door for her. A man met them in the tiny hallway.

  “John Bartlett, this is my wife, Cassie. Cassie, John is my man of all things.”

  “It’s a pleasure, Mrs. McKenzie.”

  “Mr. Bartlett.”

  Mack was coming back down the stairs, bagless. “Bartlett, might I speak to you? Cassie, make yourself at home.” She disappeared into the study. “Bartlett, make yourself scarce for a few days.”

  “I had planned to, sir. Should you need me, I’ll be at the Stevens. There’s food for you and the missus as well.”

  “Have them bill me for your charges. And thank you, John.” Mack locked the door after the man left. He took a deep breath and entered the study to find Cassie stealthily searching the contents. “What are you looking for, Cassie darlin’? You’re fairly familiar with this room, as I recall, so I don’t believe you are studying the reading material that I have.”

  “Don’t call me that,” she snarled as she spun around.

  “Could it be you were looking for those treasured maps that led to Presley’s death?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “You’ll never find them on the shelves, and everything you do now is my business, darlin’.”

  “I don’t care where they are. I’m exhausted. I believe I’ll retire.”

  “It’s not very far past noon.”

  “Yes, well, I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

  “Plotting my death?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “Before you hie yourself off to bed, there are some things I want to talk to you about.”

  “Can’t it wait? I have a pounding headache.”

  “Of course you do. No, it cannot wait. Have a seat.” He waited until she was sitting to begin his speech. “Since you are now my wife, and I am responsible for your safety, there will be no more attending protests and writing those articles in The Times.”

  “Pardon me? I don’t believe I heard you correctly. Did you just order me not to do something?”

  “Aye.”

  “I do not believe this,” she stood and paced the room before spinning to stare at him, her hands fisted on her hips. “Let me tell you something,” she approached him and pushed her pointer finger into his chest repeatedly. “No one, I repeat, no one has ever dictated to me what I can and cannot do, nor are they going to start now. I don’t bloody care if you are the King of England, I will continue to do as I please.”

  Mack stalked her, forcing her backwards, until she stood in a corner. “No, you won’t.”

  His brogue was thick and despite her anger, a shiver of longing ran down her spine at the sound of it. “I suggest you step back.”

  “Don’t think you will do the same thing you did to me before.”

  “Get out of my way.”

  “No. It’s about time someone took you in hand.”

  “And I guess you think that person is going to be you?”

  “Who better than a husband?” He grinned wickedly at her.

  “If I cannot write any more articles or attend any more of my meetings, I want you to quit being Director of the War Office.” He threw back his head and laughed. She was mesmerized by his handsome features, and the way the light played on his dark hair, making the strands of silver that were nestled in among it sparkle like morning dew on a flower.

  “You’re out of your bloody mind.”

  “Am I? Who is the head of a family? Who is supposed to provide for the family even if that only consists of me and Mr. Bartlett? You are in a dangerous position, husband dear. What should happen to me if something happens to you? You’ve been shot recently, have you not? War is a dangerous business.” As she spoke, her stomach turned sickeningly. She might not like Mack too terribly much, but she did not want him to be permanently maimed or worse.

  “As I have told my brother, the threat to me is over.”

  “I sincerely doubt that all threats to you are over, but since you won’t see my point of view, I believe this conversation is over.” She moved to step around him, but was brought up short when he moved the same direction she did. Cassie stepped the other, but found a large, Scottish male blocking her that way as well. “Get out of my way.” When he showed no sign of moving, she made a sharp turn and dipped, but she gasped in shock at his sudden move. Cassie felt a broad shoulder press against her stomach. Before she knew what had happened, she was hanging upside down, staring at an extremely firm male buttocks encased in cloth. “What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded. “Put me down.” She swatted at him, feeling the firm buttocks beneath her hands. She squawked when she felt a stinging slap through the material of her dress on her posterior. “How dare you!” She pushed herself up and tried to look at him, but failed.

  He ignored her and began walking across the room.

  She watched the floor move under her as he marched through the house. With every step he took, she also saw the way his pants pulled tightly, outlining his muscles. Her face felt flushed, but she did not know if it was from hanging upside down or witnessing her husband’s masculinity so closely. “I demand you put me down!” Suddenly she felt herself flying through the air, backwards. When she hit the soft mattress, she bounced several times. The bed groaned in protest, but did not break. She would have been horrified if it had done that.

  “Happy wedding day,” Mack said, before turning and slamming the door behind him.

  Cassie pushed herself up off the bed and raced across the room, slamming the bolt into place, locking him out permanently for the remainder of the day and most definitely the night. She was halfway across the room, when she heard a loud crash. She spun around to see the door bounce off the wall and into Mack as he crossed the threshold. The doorknob and lock hung precariously from the door.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Cassie demanded, backing up away from the formidable looking man.

  “I was willing to sleep in the other room tonight, to let you get accustomed to the idea of a strange house and being married to me. You put paid to that, Cassie darlin’, when you slid that bolt into place.”

  “Leave me alone, or I’ll…”

  “Scream? Who’s going to hear you? If you hadn’t noticed, this is not the best of neighborhoods, and besides, a man has the right to do whatever it takes to keep his woman in line.”

  “If you think I will allow you to lay one finger on me,” she began threateningly.

  “Oh, you’ll do more than allow,” he growled as he approached her, “by the time I’m done, you’ll be begging for my touch.”

  ***

  Never in his life had Mack been more angry than when he heard Cassie slam that bolt int
o place. Not when his father had disowned him. Not even when Cassie had called him a bastard. No, when he had heard that telling snick, he had seen red. Before he knew what he was doing, he had raised his booted foot and slammed it into the door near the doorknob. Mack had felt great satisfaction when the door flew open, and even more when he witnessed the stunned expression on his wife’s face.

  “You’re not going to get away from me,” he stalked her across the room.

  “Don’t make me hurt you,” she threatened.

  “I have studied your moves, Cassie darlin’. You’ll not be hurting me anymore.”

  Cassie made a sharp move and found it countered. She tried another one and found the same. He moved on her like a jungle cat. He pinned her against the wall, her hands above her head. He felt her breathing grow fast and labored and knew she was not unaffected by his touch. Mack forced her legs wide so he could wedge himself between them. At first he did it to keep her from attempting to unman him, but as he settled against her, he felt some relief as his throbbing erection pressed against the span of softness between her pelvis.

  “Do you feel what you do to me?” he whispered. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Mack pulled back and saw that her eyes were tightly closed, and her lips were pursed shut. He dropped gentle kisses over each of her eyes, then her cheeks, and finally the upturned tip of her nose. His lips caressed hers, lightly, teasingly, but she remained the same, trying to block out what he did to her. Mack let the tip of his tongue glide against the seam of her lips and though her eyes flew open, her delectable mouth remained tightly shut against his invasion. She left him no choice. “Forgive me, darlin’,” he said before crushing his lips roughly against hers.

  Chapter 19

  “Ow!” Cassie managed to get out before she found Mack exploring the recesses of her mouth. Her lips throbbed where he had ground them against her teeth, but somehow he seemed to soothe even that small injury. She felt her heart beating heavily in her chest. Cassie would be lying if she said she was not the least excited about what her husband was doing to her. Husband, she thought. She had never thought she would find herself married. The boys in the village had always thought her much too strange and learned for them. Then when their little family had moved to London after her mother’s death, she had not gone about looking for a husband or friends.

  “Where are you?” he asked, resting his forehead against hers.

  Cassie found herself staring into a pair of smokey silver eyes, rimmed with dark lashes. Dark brows formed a ‘V’ from the way he scrutinized her. Cassie flexed her hands that were still pinned above her head because her fingers ached to rake through his short, dark hair. She wanted to test the texture. Was it silky or coarse? “Do you know you have flecks of silver in your hair?” she asked curiously.

  “I would say half of them have been caused by you.”

  “Me? We haven’t even known each other that long. How dare you accuse me…”

  “Did you know your eyes flash when you’re angry? They look like they are lit from within.”

  “Let go of me.”

  “Not on your life,” he said.

  Cassie didn’t fight him as he plundered her mouth like a marauding pirate. This time there was no way her mind drifted. The things he was doing to her were making her insides melt. She began to respond, and she heard a deep groan.

  “That’s it,” he said before returning to her mouth once more. This time he nibbled at her lips as if they were a fine delicacy. “You look so bloody beautiful,” he whispered as he moved to nibble on her right earlobe.

  “No, I don’t,” she replied breathily. “I’m just plain.”

  “Whoever told you that was a liar.” Mack bent down and lifted her up in his arms.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Taking you to bed.”

  She started wiggling in his arms. “Put me down. You were going to sleep elsewhere. Besides it’s afternoon, you said so.”

  “You put paid to me staying in another room when you bolted that door.” He held her tight in his arms. “As for the time of day, I can see you better this way.”

  “That’s improper!” Cassie was flabbergasted at what he proposed. She knew what happened between a man and woman, but assumed it happened in the dark of night.

  “Nothing is improper between a husband and wife.”

  He sounded almost wicked and shivers ran up and down her spine. She found herself placed on her feet next to the bed and spun around so that her back was to Mack. Cool air hit her heated skin as buttons were slipped free.

  “I don’t know know whether to thank Mikala or murder her.”

  “Why’s that?” Cassie licked her dry lips, her breath raspy.

  “Because she picked the most exquisite dress, but it also has too many bloody buttons.”

  Cassie giggled.

  “Did you just giggle? The staid and always serious Cassiopeia Elizabeth Graham McKenzie giggled?”

  “No,” she denied, attempting to keep a straight face. She jumped when she felt his lips brush her nape, and then lower until he reached the edge of her chemise. She tried to take a step away from him, but he just followed her.

  “You’re not going to escape me, Cassie.”

  She felt his lips brushing along one shoulder, then her nape again, and finally her other shoulder. His hand brushed along her spine, only the fine cloth of her chemise keeping her from fully feeling his touch on her heated skin. “Copulating will not erase the issues between us.”

  “I agree, but it will ease some of this tension we feel around one another.”

  “How do you know that?” she demanded.

  “I have experience,” he turned her around in his arms. “Now for once, can you just do what I ask? Just be quiet and enjoy.” While she stood with her mouth gaped open like a fish, he began to tug the dress down her arms.

  “We should wait until it’s dark.” She reinforced her concern.

  “No talking.”

  “I am your wife not your child, and you can’t order me about as if I were.”

  “If you don’t stop talking, I am going to put a gag on you.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Don’t test me, wife, you don’t know what all I would dare.”

  Was he hinting at a darker side to his nature? And what did that darker side entail? Cassie felt a thrill of excitement and trepidation at the same time. Somehow she missed her gown slithering the last bit down her body. Now it rested in a heap of silk and lace on the floor.

  “You know, my dress was the color of your eyes,” she informed him.

  “Mikala has ways of doing that type of thing.”

  “Oh. Shouldn’t we shut the window?”

  “We are on the second floor. No one is going to see us. Besides, the light it provides is giving me a beautiful view of your body beneath that little piece of sheer cloth.”

  “It’s new, as well. Mikala brought it all. She thought I deserved to have beautiful things on my wedding day. It was sweet of her, even though it doesn’t change the fact that I’m plain.”

  “I’ve heard enough of that. Now come here,” Mack dragged her to the cheval mirror. It put her directly in the sunlight. Tell me the woman standing there is not beautiful.”

  “I’m not beautiful. How do you think I have gone to all those gatherings and remain undetected?”

  “Because those men are blind. Because you hide yourself in clothing most servants would not wear. You camouflage yourself so that you can’t be recognized. When you were in that red dress last night, none of the men could keep their eyes off of you. Prinny does not make advances at every woman, regardless of what many believe. He has rather excellent taste in women.”

  “He was doing no such thing.”

  “He was. Why do you think I was so angry? Because you’re C.E. Jones? That is easily remedied. I was angry because of all the men vying for your attention, dancing with you, lusting after you. This is what they saw. A beautiful woman dresse
d in finery, and what made you so much more intriguing was the fact that you did not flaunt your beauty. It was natural and radiated from you.” He dropped more kisses along her shoulders and nape, pulling the straps of the chemise aside.

  “Shut the window and drapes, please,” she pleaded.

  “Afraid someone might hear us?” His grin made him look sexy and wicked all at the same time, causing her knees to go weak.

  “I don’t know,” she answered honestly.

  “The window is closed, but the drapes stay. I want to see you and I want you to see me. I want you to know who it is that warms your bed and lies between your luscious thighs.”

  Cassie lifted her eyes and met his gaze reflected in the mirror. The power of his gaze, even through the mirror, caused her to take a step back. She found herself planted firmly against his chest. She was a tall woman and they fit together very nicely. Cassie felt what earlier prodded her lower tummy through his pantaloons to now be nestled in the crevice of her buttocks. She instinctually wiggled, but stopped when a large, firm hand spread across her stomach, holding her still.

  “I would suggest you stop that, or this will be over before it’s begun.” His voice was raspy to her ears, his brogue thick. His head looked as if it hovered next to hers, over her shoulder. She watched him pull the tie of her chemise, the ribbon easily slipping free of its mooring. He pulled it loose and worked one sleeve off her shoulder and down her arm, exposing her breast to his gaze. “We’ve been this far, remember?” he asked upon seeing her fisting her stiffened arms at her side.

  “Vividly,” she whispered.

  “There’s nothing to be nervous about.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Good. Do you know I dreamt all night about this beautiful mound?” he asked, cupping his hand and hefting her breast out of the light stays she wore.

  “You did not.”

  “I did.”

  She felt herself relaxing against him, her head resting against his shoulder. Her heavy-lidded eyes watched as he massaged and caressed first one breast, then the other. Cassie’s breath became fast and uneven. At some point he removed his hand from her stomach, because it joined the other one. Both hands were massaging and caressing her honeyed globes. When she felt him pull on her nipples and twist them, elongating the already aching tips, she raised her hands and threaded them through his short hair, needing to be grounded somehow.