Seducing the Ruthless Rogue (29 page)

“I want you to stop writing the damn articles,” he said with deadly calm.

“I believe I misheard you.
 
Would you care to repeat yourself, Director McKenzie?”

“Stop writing the articles,” he ordered.

“You are not my father, and I have neither a brother nor husband to attempt to dictate to me.”

“Perhaps that is the problem,” Mack growled and began to stalk her across the room.

“You have no right to tell me what I can and cannot do,” Cassie said, backing up.
 
“As long as people need a voice to be heard, I will continue to write those articles.”

“Do you understand that people are threatening your life?
 
They are willing to commit murder to get you to stop writing those articles.
 
Do you understand that?”

“What I understand is that I am bringing notice to things that people do not want to face.
 
I am glad that people are beginning to feel guilty as to how they treat their fellow man.”

“Are you willing to pay the price to continue on?”

He had her pinned between the wall and his body.
 
She could see the anger radiating from him and could feel the heat that emanated from his body.
 
Her stomach felt like butterflies had taken up residence.
 
His breath caressed her lips.
 
Cassie looked into his silver blue eyes, fringed in their dark lashes.
 
The scrape she had given him along his cheek had almost healed and disappeared.
 
Her breathing came in spurts.
 
Her heart raced.

“Are you, Cassie?”

“Wha…what?” she asked, trying to remember what he had asked her.

“Are you willing to pay the price?”

“Yes, Mack,” she whispered, licking her dry lips.

“Damn you,” he said before brushing her lips with his.
 

His lips felt firm against hers.
 
She felt her arms rising, and forced them back down by her side, fisting her hands.
 
He began to nibble at her lips as one might a delicate dessert.
 
She opened her mouth to question him only to find him invading her.
 
His tongue was doing erotic things to the cavern of her mouth.
 
Cassie felt the need to mimic his movements, to counter his every thrust.

She felt his hands move up and cup her face, tilting her head ever so slightly, allowing him deeper access.
 
Her blood stirred and pounded in her ears.
 
This time when her hands lifted, she did not stop them.
 
She found herself gripping the lapels of his superfine, anchoring herself to his solid form.
 
Cassie stood on her toes to better reach Mack, hooking her right arm about his neck.
 
The next thing she knew, she was floating in the air.

“What are you doing?” she demanded breaking off the kiss.

“Getting comfortable,” he muttered before kissing her once more.

Soft cushions were under her back and legs.
 
Mack sat on the edge trailing kisses down her neck.
 
His large hand rested on her stomach.
 
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Cassie murmured, trying to be the voice of reason in a world gone suddenly mad.

“Aye, but you are just so bloody irritating.”

“Do you treat all the women you find irritating like this?”

“No, just beautiful blondes who seem to get themselves into trouble.”

“How dare you!”
 
She tried to push up and dislodge him.
 
Instead, he used his leverage to keep her pinned.
 

“You see, I’ve learned some lessons from you.
 
Keep your enemy distracted,” Mack said, kissing her deeply once more.
 
“Allow them no opportunity.
 
You see, you just sink deeper into this divan the more you struggle, giving me the upper-hand,” he whispered in her ear, before nibbling at her lobe.
 
“And…”

“Yes?”

“I forget,” Mack said with a shrug.
 
“Do you know how long I have wanted to kiss you like this?
 
To see you dressed in finery?
 
I knew beneath those plain frocks you were a beauty,” he boasted.

“Is that the only reason you’re seducing me?
 
That is what you’re doing isn’t it?” Cassie demanded.

“Yes.
 
I mean, no,” he tried to say when he saw the look on her face.

“Well, which is it, director?”

“If you haven’t noticed, I’m a busy man and I don’t have time for this type of thing.”

“Then why did you start it tonight?
 
Why did you pull me out of the ballroom?”

“Because I needed to get this business about you being C. E. Jones taken care of.
 
We needed to talk, and this seemed to be the best opportunity.”

“I don’t believe you, because we have done very little talking thus far.”

“Damn,” he said and seized her lips once more, cutting off her tirade.
 

Cassie found herself becoming lost in his touch once more.
 
She knew she should fight him off, but she couldn’t help but enjoy this first foray into intimacy, the way his hands were lightly skimming her body.
 
She found it difficult to classify this as a “mere” kiss.
 
This connection of lips and tongues and teeth was life-altering.
 
How could she go a day and not experience this?
 
How would she describe this if she were to put pen to paper?

The butterfly feeling began tracking lower.
 
That secret place between her thighs was becoming warm and dewy.
 
She found herself pressing her thighs tightly together in an attempt to ease the ache that had begun to form there.
 
Cassie felt Mack’s hand track upwards, while he continued to place kisses along the side of her neck.
 
She inhaled a shocked breath when he gently, but firmly cupped her right breast.
 
He brushed kisses across her upper chest, causing gooseflesh to appear on her skin.
 
Cassie found herself wanting him to do anything with that hand that lay passively against her silk-covered skin.
 

He returned his lips to hers, before gently squeezing her supple mound.
 
She gave a squeak that echoed into his mouth, and her back arched, pushing herself more fully into his hand.
 
She felt his thumb moving back and forth over her beaded nipple, making it even more erect, if possible.
 
Cassie was so lost in the feel of his mouth on hers, and his hand on her breast, that she did not feel him remove her fichu.
 
She also did not realize his intentions until it was too late.

Mack tugged her dress just enough so that the bounty of her breasts sprang free, the neckline of the gown holding them up for him.
 
“You’re so damn beautiful,” Mack whispered before dropping a kiss on her honeyed globe.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she sputtered.

“Worshipping your body,” Mack replied, lost in the moment.

“This isn’t normal,” Cassie whispered, referencing the sensations he made her feel, before he kissed her once more.

“Stop talking.
 
Stop arguing.
 
Stop thinking.
 
Just feel.”

“But…”

“What did I say?” He chuckled at the mutinous stare she gave him.
 
“Trust me, Cassiopeia.”

“Why should I?”

“Because I can make you feel things you have never before imagined,” Mack practically purred.

Cassie could not repress the shiver that ran up her spine.

“You have five minutes,” she said.

“I don’t work on deadlines, love.”

“You do tonight,” she challenged before lifting up and kissing him.
 
This time both his hands covered her breasts.
 
He worked them as a sculptor would work clay.
 
Then he focused on the tips, gently rubbing them between thumb and finger, pinching, and tugging until she could not keep from squirming.
 
He broke off the kiss and all she could do was bite her lip to keep from crying out.
 
Then his tongue and lips were there, where his fingers had been just moments before.

She scooted up slightly, only to allow him to push her to recline over the arm of the divan.
 
Cassie knew if she were to look down from the ceiling, she would look like a virginal pagan sacrifice.
 
Then he did the most marvelous thing.
 
He laved one erect peak with his tongue before taking it fully in his mouth and sucking.
 
A moan escaped into the room, and Cassie was shocked to realize it had come from her.
 
Then he turned his attention to the other, giving it the same treatment.

Cassie was enchanted.
 
She felt as if she were enveloped in a fog.
 
Her hands were fisted into the cushions of the divan, and she gripped them harder as she felt a quickening happening within her body.
 
That place between her legs was causing her serious issues.
 
She had read enough scientific texts to know what was supposed to happen.
 
The texts spoke nothing of the feelings that Mack created within her.
 
She felt as if any moment she might explode, she only needed something to free her, to allow her to fly.
 

She felt Mack’s hand slip beneath her skirts and begin to glide up her leg.
 
He stopped to caress the back of her calf, then her knee, and finally the outside of her thigh.
 
All she wanted to do was scream for him to not stop.
 
To just do something that would ease the ache.
 
Just when he was moving to where she wanted him most, there was a loud bang.

Mack threw his body over hers, but this sounded different from the gunshot in the park.
 
In fact, this sounded far worse.
 
This sounded like a door hitting a wall.

“Where’s my daughter?”
 

Chapter 16

Cassie pushed Mack up and then peeked over the back of the settee.
 
There, in the doorway, stood her father, the Duke and Duchess of Hawkescliffe, and of all people, the Prince Regent.
 
She turned red with mortification.

“Make them go away,” she muttered to the man beside her.

“What?”

“Make.
 
Them.
 
Go.
 
Away,” she repeated, slowly, as if she were speaking to a dimwit.

“Oh, yes.
 
If you will give us just a moment, we will join you shortly.”

“You expect me to just blindly turn my back on the two of you?” Sir Graham questioned.
 
“I think that is highly unlikely.
 
You will come out from hiding now.
 
Do you understand?
 
Did you hear me Cassiopeia?”

“Yes, Papa,” she muttered, defeated.
 
“Get off me, you oaf,” she growled, pushing against his chest and forcing him backwards.
 
She tugged her dress back in place, smoothed her hair, and stood to greet the quartet that had entered the room.
 
She studied the looks on all their faces.
 
Mikala looked as if she could commiserate with her, as if she had lived out this same scenario, and crossed the room, placing a comforting arm around her.
 
Hawkescliffe looked as if he wanted to take Mack outside and throttle him.
 
He would have to stand in line.
 
The Prince looked gleeful, as if he were watching a play unfold before his very eyes.
 
And her father, was that a slight smirk she saw on his face?

“Director McKenzie and I have business to discuss.
 
Wait outside, Cassiopeia.”
 
Her father’s eyes glinted like when he used to tease her mother, or when he was excited about a new invention.
 

“No.”

“Do as your father says,” Mack seconded.

“I will not stand aside while the two of you think to decide my future.
 
I am a human, not a piece of livestock to be bartered over.”

“Cassie,” Mikala tried to intervene.

“No.
 
They can say whatever they wish in front of me.
 
Better yet, allow me to begin.
 
Nothing happened.
 
Since nothing happened, there is nothing to discuss.
 
Now, I suggest we return to the party.”

“You are not going anywhere, young lady,” Sir Graham instructed.
 
“Since you refuse to leave the room, Director McKenzie and I shall adjourn to another room, if I am not being too presumptuous Hawkescliffe.”