Echoes and Embers (Rebel Angels) by Cyndi Friberg Page A

she waited for him to take over.
    He closed his arms around her. His mouth moved against hers for one sweet moment. Then with a strangled groan he eased her away, maintaining a light hold on her upper arms. “I cannot do this! I am not of your station. Lady Alyssa could have me arrested just for touching you.”
    She smiled. He hadn’t said he didn’t want her, just that Alyssa would disapprove. “Then don’t touch me. Let me touch you.” She boldly pressed her palm to the considerable bulge in the front of his hose.
    He caught her wrist and moved her hand to his hip. “What happened last night?”
    “I don’t want to talk about it. I want to touch you and be touched by you. I want to understand…” She tried to twist from his grasp, but his hands wouldn’t release her. He stared into her eyes, his gaze patient and compelling. “At court several men kissed me, one even dared to touch my breast. I want to feel those sensations again. I want to understand where they lead.”
    “Your curiosity is natural, but you didn’t answer my question. Something specific happened to bring all these emotions to the surface. Talk to me.”
    “A friend of Lailah’s came to visit, but he isn’t Lailah’s friend at all. As soon as Lailah departed, I found him with Alyssa. In her chamber. In her bed!”
    “ Ahh , I see. Is this gentleman perchance handsome and quite appealing to you?”
    She gasped. “I am not jealous.” Heat crawled up along her throat. “At least not in the way you mean.”
    He cupped her shoulders with his hands. “You envy their pleasure?”
    She leaned toward him, lowering her lashes to conceal her gaze. “Not just their pleasure. I long for companionship, security. I want someone to hold me in the night and kiss me in the morning.”
    “You will have that and more when you wed.”
    “I know.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “That’s why I want to wed with you.”
    He smiled and shook his head. “It would never be allowed. You must marry a gentleman, a man of wealth and—”
    “I want you.”
    “You don’t even know me.” He tugged on her arms, but she locked her fingers, refusing to budge. “What is my full name? Where was I born? Do I have a wife and children already?”
    “You use no other name but Ray. There is an unusual inflection in your speech, but I’ve been unable to determine its origin. I’ve thought long and hard about the circumstances that would have brought someone like you to this secluded cottage.”
    “Someone like me?” His hands descended along her arms, settling against her waist, but he didn’t push her away.
    “I think you lost your family to the Black Death, just as I did. I think you turned your back on the land of your birth because it was too painful to remain. I think you made your living with your sword for a time but grew tired of the killing and now you’re hiding from the world until your ravaged heart heals.”
    “That’s quite a supposition.”
    He hadn’t argued even one point. How close to the truth had she stumbled? “You are more than a gamekeeper, Ray. I want you for my husband.”
    His eyes gleamed with emotions she couldn’t decipher. Circling her waist with one arm, he drew her against him. He cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking her bottom lip. “You want a husband to set you free and I am the convenient solution. Do you love me?”
    “I’ve never felt for any man what I feel for you. I don’t know if it’s love or not.”
    He closed his eyes for a moment, inhaling a slow deep breath. “I cannot be your husband, Rosalind. No matter how much I wish it were so.”
    “You want me.” She touched his face, waiting until he opened his eyes before she went on. “I hear it in your voice and feel it in your touch. You want this as much as I do. Are you already wed? Is that what keeps you from me?”
    “You don’t know the things I’ve done, can’t comprehend the things I’ve seen.”
    “I don’t care. We can begin anew