The Princess and the Pauper (14 page)

Rees stood on the flat roof,
holding the violin
and bow at his side, flexing his other hand. His injuries
had mostly healed, the swelling gone, though bruises remained. He
had his back to her, staring out at the city nightscape. She waited
in the shadows for him to lift the instrument and play again. But
the minutes stretched on and on. His hands must still hurt, she
reasoned.

“
I know you’re there,” he said
at
last.

Her heart dropped. It wasn’t his hands
that troubled him but her presence, and it twisted her soul to
think he couldn’t play if she was near him.

There was no reason to hide
anymore. She stepped
out of the shadows, drawing closer to him. “The music was
lovely.”

He remained quiet.

“
Did you play that sad song
because of me?”

“
No.”

“
Do I cause you
pain?”

“
No,” he said more
forcefully. “You mean—”

“
Nothing to you, I know.
You’re angry with me about the past. You hate me.”

“
No!” He turned around, his
expression contorted with grief. “What are you doing?”

“
Gratifying you
needs.”

“
What?”

“
You have a need to punish
me, don’t you? Take your revenge, Rees. Play that tragic song
again. Break my heart again.”

“
Break
your
heart again?” His eyes flashed. “You lied
about us. All the years we spent together. You let your father
think I tried to rape you!”

“
I know,” she said softly, tears
forming in her eyes. “I had to, Rees. Papa had dreamed and planned
for my future since I was born. How could I tell him that I loved
you, that I wanted you and not an earl or duke or
prince?”

He pulled back from her as if she’d struck
him. “No.”

“
Oh, Rees, I’m sorry. You
would’ve been happier if you’d never met me.”

“
T—that isn’t true.”

“
Yes, it is.” Her voice cracked.
“You would’ve lived with your grandfather and played for him, but I
was alone, and the Lord knew I needed someone. He knew I needed
you.”

Rees closed the space between them. He
dropped the violin and cupped both her cheeks. His tenderness undid
all her restraint and she sobbed.

“
Stop,” he ordered. “Stop lying.”
He kissed her. “I can’t imagine never having met you.” Another
kiss. “Loving you.” His mouth covered hers again. “Where would my
music get its soul, if not from you? I needed you too,
Emily.”

“
But you don’t need me
anymore. You’ve achieved all your dreams.”

“
But one,” he rasped.
“
The dream I
had of being with you. The most impossible of all my
dreams.”

Her heart
throbbed
.
“You would want me? After every unmet hope?”

“
I’ve only ever wanted
you
.”

He said the last word with such
strength of feeling, she heard the tears in his voice, and she knew
his suffering matched her own. Suddenly, she ached to be rid of
that suffering, to be free of its crushing hold.

She braced his strong wrists, stroking
them, building an intimacy that had long been missing from her
life.

“
Emily,” he
whispered.

His pulse hastened under her touch.
And her own pulse quickened to feel his undisguised need for her.
Sinking her fingertips deeper into his flesh, she brushed his mouth
with her lips. He groaned, low in his throat. He groaned with
pleasure. With need. For her.

He wanted her. He had always
wanted her. And she desired him. She had dreamed of him, of
finishing their first kiss. For so long, she had imagined being
with him. And now, finally,
finally
, she had him in her arms.

A fierce heat came over her. It spread
from the center of her being to every part of her body. Her muscles
tightened. Aroused and covered in gooseflesh, she moaned when he
pulled free of her embrace and slipped his hands between their
pressed bellies, unraveling the stays of her robe.

He never broke away from the kiss. Not
even when he dragged the wrapper off her shoulders, down her arms,
raking the skin. He dropped the robe behind her and circled her
waist.

“
I’m going to move inside
you,” he breathed into her mouth. “I’m going to make you mine,
Emily.”

“
Yes,” she returned roughly,
almost painfully. “
Yes
.”

He pulled her down, on top of the
velvety robe. His fingers scraped her calves, her thighs as he
pushed her nightdress up . . . up . . . up to her waist.

“
Rees!”

He yanked her into his lap so she
straddled him. When her bare bottom landed over his hard heat, she
shuddered with an explosive want.

“
Rees,” she
whim
pered,
begged. “I—I—”

“
I know, Emily.” He lifted
her bottom until she kneeled. “I want the same.” And he reached
between her legs, unfastening his trousers.

Her entire body stiffened, holding in
a frightful energy.

“
No,” he chastised. “Open
for me.”

“
I can’t.” Her voice
quivered. “I’m afraid.”

“
Of what?”

“
Of what I feel for
you!”

He said ever so softly, “You can’t
always be afraid, princess.”

She shut her eyes, heart pounding. No.
She couldn’t always be afraid. For once, she would confront her
fear, embrace it even, and see where it took her.

When she opened her eyes, she found a
passionate glow in his—a vulnerable warmth he’d refused to show her
until now. His expression stirred a rampant fire in her soul, and
she lowered her head, kissing him. Hard.

Rees cried out with explicit desire. She
cried out, too, when he rubbed the moist and sensitive folds of
flesh between her thighs, titillating her, awakening an even deeper
hunger.

“
Come down on me,” he
ordered, voice strained.

She obeyed and settled over the
cusp of his erection. His hands steered her hips, pushing her down,
down. Her
muscles stretched as he penetrated her deeper and deeper
still. She burrowed her fingernails into his arms. Her head bent
back in unmatched ecstasy.

“
Oh, Rees.”

On top of the city, the
whole world, she
took him inside her until he filled her so completely, she could
hardly breathe. His own body trembled beneath her, and she felt
every sensual vibration.

Yes
, she cried in her soul.
Yes!

B
ut when he pushed her bottom upward, she
clenched her muscles in resistance.

“
Not yet,” she
pleaded.

“
Emily.”

She lifted her head and
dropped her brow,
knocking his. “Stay inside me, Rees.”

“
I will,” he
groaned. “As long as you need
me. Just take me, princess.”

“
I have.”

“
No,” he said hoarsely. “Come
down on me again and again and
again
.”

His hands, his hips undulated in arousing
stimulation until she rocked over him with abandon. She had never
felt so alive, so filled with unbound pleasure. Blood rushed
through her veins with ever hastened want, and she gripped Rees
even harder, pressed against him with a frantic desire that tore a
rapturous shout from her throat.

The pressure between her legs burst and
her whole body spasmed. Her voice went into the night as she
released one last wanton cry before she collapsed.

Rees
fell back against the roof, taking
her with him. He gasped for air and she matched his fevered
breathing. She didn’t know how much time passed before her lungs
stopped aching and her heart drummed at a steadier pace, but when
the euphoria lightened, she felt his arm protectively curled around
her backside, stroking her spine.

“
That happened too
fast,
” he
remarked, his tone disgruntled.

A pang gripped her. Had she done something
terribly wrong? “You’re unhappy?”

A
second later, he squeezed her midriff
until her ribs ached. “
Never
think that.”

W
hen he loosened his grip, she sighed and
lifted her chin, meeting a burning light in his eyes. She knew,
then, his heart burned for her. He couldn’t hide it any
longer.

“
W
hat is it, Rees?”

His
other hand slipped over her. “I
wanted to give you pleasure.”

Her pulse clipped to hear the hunger in
his voice, and she gasped when his roving fingers cupped her naked
bottom.

“
You did!” she
cried.

“
Not enough,” he said roughly and
buried his fi
ngers into her tangled hair, pulling her down for another
hard kiss.

And so the night revealed
many
more
delights until, in the fresh light of dawn, Emily found herself in
his bed, wrapped in his arms. His hot body was curled behind her.
She could feel his warm breath on her throat. Soon she matched his
breathing. Being in tandem with him brought her peace, something
she hadn’t felt for a long time.

“
Do you trust
me
,
princess?”

Her breath
caught. “Of course.”

His lips brushed her
shoulder, feather
soft. “You hesitated. Why?”

She squeezed his wrist. “It’s
nothing.”

“
W
hat are you hiding?”

“
No, I—I’m just
tired.”

But she knew he didn’t believe her when
his muscles tensed.

“
What do you want,
Rees?”

“
I want you to trust
me.”

“
I do.”

“
Then tell me the
truth.”

“
The truth about
what?”

“
What happened to you, to your
father?”

Her heart swelled. “I already told
you.”

He separated from
her
. The air
chilled and she shivered. Pressing the blanket against her breast,
she sat up and watched him round the bed, naked, still bruised, and
beautiful.

He reached for his
discarded trousers
and pulled on the clothes. It must have hurt to be with her, she
thought. Or perhaps it would have hurt him more
not
to be with her. She certainly ached
to have him beside her again.

“
Are you going to find a
more agreeable bedmate?”

He stilled
and looked at her, eyes blazing.
“No.”

“
You mean it’s too early in
the morning to visit Harry’s mother?”

“
I mean
no
. I don’t want another bedmate.” He
stalked toward her, pressed a knee into the mattress and scooped
both her cheeks. “
What
are you keeping so secret you’d sooner accuse me of whoring
than tell me the truth?”

She gasped, startled by his
charge—and the truth behind it. She had guarded her father’s memory
so fiercely for so long, she wasn’t sure she
could
confess the entire story.

As her
flustered silence stretched, he
released her. “I have business to attend.”

He headed for the door.

“
Call off your hound,
Rees.”

He stopped at the door, his hand on
the latch. “What?”

“
Call off your hound, and I
will tell you what really happened to Papa.”

“
Ah, you found the
note.”

She nodded. “I don’t want anyone nosing
about my father’s affairs, disturbing the past. It will all end
today, do you promise?”

“
Very well.” He approached
her and folded his arms across his chest. “Tell me.”

Grey leaned against the bedpost,
his eyes
intent on Emily. In the morning light, her delicate
features appeared even more ethereal. Her scarlet hair spilled over
both shoulders in ruffled splendor, and she raked her teeth across
her bottom lip, still flushed from so many sensual
kisses.

His
blood pulsed with the memory of her
fervid touch, and the hairs on his arms bristled. He could still
feel her supple body pressed against him. He could still hear her
lungs expanding as she breathed so sweetly in his embrace. She had
penetrated him, rekindled a fire in his soul. For too long the
flame had been starved. His fame, his fortune, his music had ceased
to stir a hunger for life, but Emily . . .

She inspired him.

He
couldn’t forget the past, though. He
couldn’t ignore the mysterious circumstances that had brought her
back to him. He needed the truth.