Along Came a Rogue by Anna Harrington Page B

hunted.
    But now she had him. And he would protect her the same way he’d always protected her brother. With his life.
    He held open his arms. “Come here, brat.”
    *  *  *
    Emily stared at him as he waited for her, his arms wide in invitation, and the emotions churned inside her.
    For so long, she’d been alone. First during those long years at school when she’d never fit in and made no friends, then even after her marriage, when she’d lost both her husband and her brother. All alone and isolated…until today, when Thomas sent Grey to her.
    Nathaniel Grey. More than loneliness drew her to him. It was all of him—the way his grin warmed her insides, how she could talk to him so easily, how he made her laugh even when she was so furious with him that she wanted to throttle him. She admired most of all the fight he possessed, the determination to carve out a better life than fate had given him. She was even attracted to the vulnerability she glimpsed in him, that vulnerability he tried so hard to hide from the world beneath his devil-may-care veneer.
    She nearly laughed that the same man who inadvertently caused her loneliness was now the same man offering to rescue her from it by taking her into his arms. And oh, how badly she wanted to let him! Yet she was still keeping secrets, and how furious would he be when he learned the truth? She’d told him about Andrew, but nothing else had changed. And every minute she spent with him only continued to put his life in danger.
    But for now, they were safe, and finally, he was hers.
    Slowly, she reached out her hand, and he took it to help her across the bouncing carriage to sit beside him. When his strong arms folded around her to draw her close, she melted against his chest and closed her eyes.
    So warm and strong, his arms encircling protectively around her—for a moment, she did nothing but let herself feel . And sweet heavens, how good he felt! The strong heartbeat beneath her fingertips as her hand rested on his chest and the steady rise and fall of his deep breaths soothed her more than she could ever have imagined, and when he placed a tender kiss at her temple, she trembled.
    “Are you chilled?” he murmured against her hair, misreading her reaction.
    He released her and moved across the swaying compartment to pull up the other bench seat and reach inside the box for a lap rug. He found one and tucked it around her like a blanket. She couldn’t help but smile at that. They were fleeing through the dark night for their lives, but he was worried she might be chilled.
    He knelt on the floor and looked up at her, his eyes solemn with concern. “How are your feet?” he asked gently. “Did you burn them?”
    She shook her head. “They’re just a bit tender, that’s all.”
    Dubious of her assessment, he reached down to her bare foot where it peeked out from beneath the singed hem of her dressing robe, and she caught her breath as his large hand folded warmly around her ankle so he could examine it in the dim light of the carriage lamps. When his fingertips stroked carefully over her sole, soothingly drawing curving circles against her skin, she closed her eyes with a sigh. Having his hands on her, even in such an innocent touch, felt so good that she could barely sit still.
    He released her left foot and reached for the right, to again trace his fingers over her. But this time, she would have sworn that his hand reached further up her calf, that his fingers lingered longer against her skin. And this time, the feeling that warmed up her leg was anything but soothing.
    He slipped his fingers between her toes.
    She caught her breath in a trembling gasp. Oh, sweet Lord! He was slowly gliding his fingers between her toes in the most delicate caresses she’d ever felt in her life, and every inch of her tingled, electric. How was it possible that a simple foot rub could be so erotic? Or if his hands were all the way down on her toes, how she could feel each slow,