She gestured at the half-secluded clearing she’d chosen with such care.Situated at a bend in the road and shielded by a massive granite outcropping on one side and thick, old-growth forest on the other, the little glen she’d stranded herself in was about as private a place as one could manage alongside one of England’s most heavily traveled roadways.
It also happened to be achingly romantic in the moonlight.
Not that he seemed to notice, drat the man.The Rogue was all business as he hooked his hands under Lucy’s arms and hauled her to her feet.
Panic beat through her.She couldn’t let him ride off into the night without so much as a kiss.Not after all the effort she’d put into arranging matters this evening.
So the moment his hands flexed in preparation for letting her go, Lucy stumbled heavily against his chest with a sharp cry.
His grip immediately tightened.Lucy twisted her smile into a brave grimace.
“What is it?”he demanded.
“Nothing!Nothing at all for you to trouble yourself with.”Lucy stepped back, out of his grasp, taking care to wobble and bite her lip as though concealing a wince.“I’m perfectly well!”
Giving her an exasperated glare, the Rogue crouched down and put his hands under her skirts to caress along her ankles.The swift surety of his touch sent shivers up her calves.Her thighs trembled.
Lucy wobbled in earnest.
“Here?”He pressed at a spot above her heel.
Lucy wondered wildly when her ankles had become so sensitive.So erotically charged.“Ouch,” she managed to gasp, though pain was the last thing she was feeling.
His touch lightened at once, searching and soothing.He lifted the foot from the ground and Lucy dared to put her hands on his hard shoulders as though she needed him to help her balance.
Perhaps she did.Her head swam with his nearness.His touch.His care.
“What have you done to yourself, Lively?”
Her surname, spoken in that chiding, caressing tone.Lucy had to swallow back tears, suddenly.
Men referred to each other in a friendly way using last names, and when the Rogue used hers, it made her feel…not as if he saw her as a man, but as if he saw her as an equal.A person, her own person, in a way that ladies were rarely allowed to be.
She didn’t know if that was what he intended.Probably he only meant to tease her.Lucy only knew that when he said it, she melted.Every time.
If only she knew his name in return.
Someday, she promised herself.For now, she would be content with this moment.
“I thought you had places to be,” she reminded him, unable to resist the goad.“Important places.”
“I do.”But he didn’t let her go.Instead, he looked up at her, his shadowed gaze fathoms deep and dark as the night around them.
Drunk on his presence, Lucy leaned more of her weight on his broad shoulders, savoring the sinewy toughness of his muscles.
“Go ahead and leave me here,” she suggested.“I’ll be fine.”
His fingers tensed around her ankle.As if he didn’t know he was doing it, the sides of his thumbs had begun slow strokes up the front of her shin, just above the laces of her kid boots.“I should.”
But he wouldn’t.Lucy was almost certain.
Once he started touching her, she hoped he might find it difficult to stop.The prospect sent a thrill of mingled exhilaration and nerves jangling through her.
“Damn it, Lively,” he sighed again, with a rueful smile tugging at the corner of his lips.“There will be hell to pay for it.”
For a moment, Lucy considered feeling guilty about ensnaring him to stay with her.But then she remembered that whatever business she was keeping a notorious highwayman from was undoubtedly dangerous and illegal.He was better off here, surely.
Heart racing, Lucy adopted the air of shameless, brazen confidence her sister so excelled at.Catching his dark eyes, she reached down and drew her skirts up…up…up until the curve of her calf was revealed all the way to the lacy hem of her fine lawn drawers.“If the price is too high…”
