The Hellion and The Heartbreaker (24 page)

“Do my
services please you, Your Grace,” Scarlett asked, as she worked the buttons on his
trousers.

“God yes,”
he growled, kicking off his shoes and socks as she freed the last button. 
Stepping out of his pants, he scooped her up into his arms, kissing her
passionately as he strode to the bed.  Laying her on the mattress, he
followed her down, his mouth ravishing hers as he grasped the sides of her, or
rather
his
shirt, unmindful of the tiny pearl buttons as he wrenched it
apart and pulled it from her body.

Scarlett arched
against him as his lips moved from her mouth to the soft skin of her breasts,
her fingers tangling in his hair as she urged him on.  As his mouth sucked
at her peaked nipples, his hand made its way to the juncture of her thighs and
she parted for him instantly, gasping in pleasure as his fingers toyed with her
for several long moments, and then finally slid into her body.

Alec groaned
in approval as Scarlett’s hand encircled his cock, and then slowly moved up and
down the rigid shaft.  When he could no longer stand the exquisite
torture, he rolled onto his back, positioning Scarlett on top of him.

Scarlett dug
her fingers into Alec’s chest as she felt him slide into her.  They
remained motionless for a moment, savoring the exquisite joining of their bodies. 
Then Alec began to move within her, gently gripping her hips as he began
sliding slowly back and forth, torturing her with the delicious friction. 
His movements were leisurely and unhurried and she could barely contain her
moans of pleasure.  Finally, when she could no longer bear to remain
still, her body began moving against him of its own accord.  Her hair fell
forward, shielding her face as she began to move faster and faster as Alec’s
hands guided her hips into a quickening rhythm.

Sensing they
were both near to exploding, Alec suddenly withdrew, rolling Scarlett onto her
back once again.  Kissing her into mindless ecstasy, he pressed the tip of
his manhood against her wet cleft, entering just a fraction at a time as she
whimpered against his lips.  Finally, fully embedded within her, he rocked
his hips back and forth until she was nearly sobbing in pleasure.  As he
felt his release draw near, he started to pull back.

“No,”
Scarlett cried, her hands clutching at his shoulders, desperate to keep him
from pulling away.  “Please” she begged breathlessly, “please don’t.”

Alec stared
deeply into her wide blue eyes, glazed with passion, her expression revealing
her desperate and overwhelming need.  He held himself immobile for a
moment, their gazes locked.  She arched up against him, her body begging
for the ultimate connection between a man and woman.  “Please Alec,” she
pleaded, her voice catching with emotion. 

He felt her
softness tighten convulsively around his manhood, and in that instant he couldn’t
have withdrawn if his life depended on it.  Lost to Scarlett’s breathless
pleas and to his own, all-consuming need, he bent his head, capturing her lips
in a devouring kiss as he thrust forward again and again, and then exploded,
filling her with his seed.

Scarlett’s
cry was muffled by Alec’s mouth as her body seemed to shatter in a blinding
ecstasy so intense she thought she might die from the pleasure.  Gentle
spasms wracked her sweat-sheened body as she clung almost desperately to
Alec.  He collapsed on top of her, their bodies still connected.  He
lay motionless for a moment, having just experienced the most amazing climax of
his life.  It was a profound moment.  When he could breathe again, he
gently rolled over so that she was lying on top of him, still impaled upon his
pulsing shaft, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist.  “Jesus,” he
breathed, completely stunned by the magnitude of what had just happened.

Scarlett
buried her face against his shoulder, afraid he would see the tears welling in
her eyes.  She loved him so much it hurt.  She could still feel him,
buried deep inside of her, as she planted light feathery kisses upon his
chest.  She wished the moment would last forever.  When he finally
slid free of her, turning them onto their sides, she whimpered slightly in
protest.

Alec
chuckled softly in response, and Scarlett nipped lightly at his shoulder in
retaliation.  She rolled him over onto his back and straddled his thigh,
tucking a long slender leg between his own.  She rested her head on his
shoulder and trailed her fingers across his chest.  She didn’t speak, she
couldn’t.

Alec didn’t
speak either.  Instead, he gently caressed her back and toyed softly with
a lock of her hair.  He felt her body relax as she gradually drifted off
to sleep.  He had just closed his own eyes, when he heard her faint
mummer.

“I love you
Alec.”

Stunned, he
turned his head toward her at once, but her eyes were closed, her breathing
slow and steady.  He felt like a brick had just been dropped onto his
chest.

As Scarlett
dozed, Alec remained wide-awake, his mind spinning.  It was as he’d
feared; Scarlett thought she was in love with him.  He’d always been
worried that she would begin to confuse their physical desire for each other
with love, and apparently he had been right to be concerned. 
Damn it!
 
He never should have allowed anything to happen that fateful night at Grey
Oaks, and he sure as hell shouldn’t have allowed it to continue in
London.  But of course he had, and now hurting Scarlett was not just a possibility,
it was a certainty.

He would
have to end it, and end it soon.  He couldn’t allow her to become even
more attached to him than she already was.  For all he knew he might very
well end up just like his father, and the last thing he would ever want to do
was to hurt Scarlett the same way his father had hurt his mother.  She
deserved better.  To see Scarlett, so full of optimism and youthful
innocence, grow bitter and disenchanted like his mother was more than he could
bear.  Though he was loathe to do so, it was better to end it now and save
her from an even greater heartache down the road. 

However, if
he were being completely honest with himself, he would have to admit that
Scarlett wasn’t the only person he was trying to protect.  How could he bear
to fall in love with someone like Scarlett, and then watch their relationship
gradually disintegrate?  For now, she was artless and unjaded, but it
would be idiocy to lose his heart to the ingenuous young beauty, knowing that
she would eventually fall prey to the
ton’s
dissolute and self-indulgent lifestyle.  With the strength of sheer
determination, he convinced himself that by ending their affair, he would be
doing them both a favor. 

When
Scarlett awoke, she stretched out her arm, reaching for Alec, but he wasn’t
there.  Lifting herself up onto her elbows, she turned her head and found
him already dressed and seated in an upholstered chair positioned at the side
of the bed.

“What time
is it?” she murmured as she struggled to awaken fully.

“It’s near
dawn.  We’d better get you home.”  Alec knew they needed to talk, but
now wasn’t the time. 

An entire
week had passed since she and Alec’s last night together, and now, as Scarlett
made her way through the darkness of the rear garden, she realized that this
could well be their last night together before she and her brothers returned to
Grey Oaks for Christmas.  As was customary, the majority of the nobility
retreated to their country homes to celebrate the Christmas season, and then
returned to London after the first of the year for the opening of Parliament
and the Season’s second round of festivities, and the McPhearsons would do the
same.

When she
reached the gate, Alec was there waiting for her.  Taking his hand, she
followed as he guided her in the direction of the French doors leading to his
study.  As they entered, she was surprised to see a fire burning in the
hearth.  When Alec turned to draw the drapes across the multi-paned doors,
Scarlett felt her first sense of unease.  Instantly her thoughts flashed
back to the first time they had entered Alec’s home, going not to his bedroom
but to the library, when he had been determined to end their
relationship.  She felt a sudden, impending sense of dread and prayed that
she was wrong.

When Alec
turned from the window to face her, she knew her suspicions were correct. 
She could read the expression on his face and her heart seemed to drop into her
stomach. 
No, no, please no
, her mind cried out in silent anguish.

“Scarlett,
we need to talk,” Alec said, moving toward her.  Taking her hand, he
pulled her to the sofa and drew her down to sit beside him.

She wanted
to tell him to stop, to keep him from saying the words that she couldn’t bear
to hear, but she was unable to speak.  She felt as though her throat was
closing and the simple act of breathing in and out was almost more than she
could manage.  She raised her agonized gaze to Alec, her expression
pleading.

The look
in her eyes told him that she knew full well what he was about to say.  Her
anguished expression was heartbreaking to behold and nearly his undoing, but he
couldn’t allow himself to give in to his own weakness, the weakness that urged
him to keep Scarlett in his life for as long as he possibly could.  It
wasn’t fair to her.  She deserved better than that.  Loving him would
only lead her to an even greater heartache down the road.  It wouldn’t
last; he knew that, even if she didn’t.  Better to end it now, than to put
themselves through even worse later on.  He hoped he could make her
understand that he wasn’t trying to hurt her, but instead, was doing what he
thought was best for her, for both of them.

“Scarlett…”

“Alec,
please don’t,” she choked, compelling him with her eyes to forestall the words
that would surely break her heart into a million pieces.

“I never
meant to hurt you, Scarlett.  I hope you can believe that,” he began, his
expression nearly as pained as her own.

She’d told
him that she could handle an affair, assured him that she had no expectations,
but it wasn’t true.  She’d had the highest expectations.  Despite her
words, she had always believed they would be together, forever.  She loved
him, more than she had ever dreamed possible.  Why was he ending it? 
What had she done wrong?  “Is it something I’ve done, something I’ve
said?”

You said
you loved me, he thought to himself.  “No, of course not, it’s nothing
like that,” he said aloud.  Still holding her hand, he gave it a
reassuring squeeze, struggling to find the right words.  “Scarlett, you
are an amazing young woman, you’re beautiful, intelligent and kind, not to
mention incredibly sensual and passionate.  What we have, what we had,” he
corrected, “was amazing.  But don’t you see, it won’t last, it can’t.”

“No,” she
said, shaking her head, “I don’t understand.  Why can’t it last?” 

“Scarlett…”

It didn’t
make sense.  What they had was perfect.  Why couldn’t he see
that?  “Please Alec, don’t do this.”

Her soft
plea tore at his very soul.  Reaching up, he gently rubbed his thumb
across her delicate cheekbone.  “My darling Scarlett, in some ways you are
still so innocent,” he murmured softly.  “What we’ve shared has been
amazing, but trust me when I tell you that time has a way of changing things,
of changing people.  It’s inevitable.”

Scarlett’s
chest tightened.  She felt sick.

“I know
you don’t think so now, but your feelings about me, about us, are bound to
change.  I’ve seen it happen far too often.  I saw it happen to my
own parents.  Couples who once thought themselves in an idyllic relationship,
soon become disillusioned when faced with the reality of commitment and
forever.  Fairytale endings and happily ever afters are a rarity,
Scarlett.”  Looking deeply into her eyes, he slid his hand downward,
cupping her chin in his gentle grasp.  “What we had was special, always
believe that, but if we allow it to continue, it will only be more difficult
when it comes to an end.  I’m not trying to hurt you, Scarlett; I’m trying
to protect you.  Please believe that.”

No, this
wasn’t what was supposed to happen.  “You would rather throw away
something that you
know
is wonderful and special, than to risk the
possibility
that it won’t last, the
possibility
that we will end up hurting each
other someday.”  She couldn’t believe what he was saying, it made no
sense.

“It’s not
a possibility Scarlett, it’s a probability.”  He lowered his hand, and
then turned, resting his elbows on his knees.
 
Dropping his head into his hands, he sighed heavily.  “I’m sorry
Scarlett.  Christ, you have no idea how sorry I am.  I never should
have allowed this to happen,” he admitted, truly despising himself in that
moment.  

Scarlett
could feel him slipping away.  She was losing him, and it was even more
devastating than she could ever have thought possible.  “Surely someday
you will want to have a family, to… to have… children.”  Her voice caught.

Lifting
his head, he straightened and then slowly leaned back against the sofa. 
“Yes, someday,” he admitted.  “Someday I will take a wife, and when I do
our relationship will be based on companionship and friendship, but not upon
the pretext of anything beyond that.  I will find someone who I can share
my life with without having to worry that we will end up despising each other
one day, someone who understands and accepts marriage for what it is, someone
with whom I can form an amiable partnership, and of course, someone who will be
a good mother to my children.  To marry for anything else, for the
illusion of something more is nothing short of sheer folly.”