The Master's Mistress

He kept her that way as he broke the kiss to rest his forehead on hers. ‘What am I going to do with you, Elizabeth?’ he groaned huskily.

‘What do you want to do with me?’ Her voice was breathless with need for him.

He drew in a harsh breath. ‘I want to kidnap you and take you back to America with me. I want to lock the two of us away naked in my apartment and become your sex-slave until you tire of me!’

‘And…?’ she choked.

He gave a hard laugh as he released her to step back. ‘And you would probably run screaming if I even attempted to so much as take you out of here.’

Elizabeth faced him unflinchingly. ‘Try me.’

‘Elizabeth—’

‘Try me…Rogue.’ She deliberately used the name she knew he preferred. She was fighting for what she wanted and she would use any means within her power to get him. Maybe only for a week. Or a month. But what a week or month it would be!

His throat moved as he swallowed before answering her. ‘What if there’s a condition to taking you back to America with me?’

She eyed him warily. ‘What sort of condition?’

‘One you’re not going to like very much,’ he said.

‘What’s your condition, Rogue?’ Elizabeth asked. ‘I guarantee in advance that I’ll agree to it.’

‘The sex was that good, hmm?’ he teased.

‘For me, the sex was fantastic,’ she came back without hesitation.

‘Me too,’ he admitted huskily.

‘Thank you for that.’ She smiled. ‘But I feel more for you than that, Rogan.’

His lids narrowed. ‘How much more?’

‘A lot more.’

‘Enough to marry me?’

‘Enough to—?’ Elizabeth stared at him, searching the darkness of his eyes, the grim set of his mouth, the rigidity of his jaw, for any sign that he was teasing her. He wasn’t. ‘You don’t have to marry me, Rogan.’

‘I know I don’t have to marry you!’ he exclaimed. ‘I don’t have to marry anyone. Least of all the Britten heiress!’

‘I’ll give the money away,’ she vowed.

‘I couldn’t care less what you do with your money, Elizabeth. Keep it. Give it away. Put it in trust for our kids—’

‘Our kids?’ Elizabeth squeaked, incredulous, but delighted that he wanted children with her.

‘Kids.’ Rogan nodded determinedly. ‘I’m sure between the two of us we could do a better job of parenting than our own parents did.’

Elizabeth was sure they could too. ‘I’d like that, Rogan.’

He grinned teasingly. ‘The trying for them or the having them?’

‘Both!’

Rogan chuckled. ‘Me too. As for your money…Elizabeth, even before my father died and left me everything I’d earned more than enough these last five years to keep the two of us, and anyone else who comes along, for the rest of our lives.’

Elizabeth looked up at him quizzically. ‘Then why were you so angry when you realised who I was?’

‘I wasn’t angry, I was…It’s a male thing, I guess.’ He shrugged uncomfortably. ‘Not only are you extremely successful in your chosen field, but you’re rich as Croesus, too! What could I possibly have to offer that you would want?’

‘You!’ she assured him vehemently. ‘I just want you, Rogan,’ she repeated more softly.

‘I’ve wanted you since the first night we met,’ he admitted honestly.

Her eyes were wide. ‘You have?’

‘Yeah,’ he acknowledged. ‘You crawled under my skin then, Elizabeth Brown, and I can’t shake you off. Hell, I don’t want to shake you off. I even went to Surrey with you today to see your father because I couldn’t bear the thought that you’d leave and I’d never see you again. Never be with you again. But God knows what a tutor of history is going to find to do in America…’

‘I have absolutely no doubts that the Britten heiress could donate an obscenely large amount of money to one of the colleges in Washington and secure herself a place on the faculty at the same time.’ Elizabeth quickly disposed of that particular problem, her heart thundering wildly in her chest. ‘I think a more pressing question might be what is Rogue Sullivan going to do with a wife?’

‘Oh, that’s easy,’ Rogan said, with the sexy smile she loved so much. ‘I’m going to love her for the rest of our lives, of course.’

Elizabeth swallowed hard, that wild thundering of her heart ceasing abruptly as her breath arrested in her throat. ‘You love me?’ she finally said haltingly.

‘I’d better—or what’s the point of marrying you?’

‘Rogan, please!’

Rogan closed his eyes briefly, knowing he was making a complete hash of this. But he had never done this before. He was never going to do it again, either! He would either have the courageous, the loyal, the strong, the kind and caring, the lovingly perfect Elizabeth as his wife, or no woman at all.

He opened his eyes, drawing in a deep breath before speaking gruffly. ‘I never wanted to fall in love. Didn’t believe that I ever would. But I knew I was in trouble that very first night when you attacked me.’

‘I thought you were a burglar!’ she excused, with an embarrassed laugh.

‘Even more reason for me to admire you,’ Rogan assured her. ‘I can’t think of too many women who would have tried to attack a burglar single-handed. You then proceeded, despite your fractured relationship with your own father, to upbraid me for my behaviour towards mine. Criticised my way of life. The way I dress. Just about everything about me, in fact,’ he recalled ruefully. ‘But then you made love with me like a wildcat!’

‘Rogan!’ Elizabeth gasped, and the colour deepened in her cheeks.

‘Oh, believe me, Beth, I loved it,’ he told her huskily. ‘I loved every moment of it. So much so that I hope you’ll make love with me like that every night for the rest of our lives. So there you have it.’ He grimaced at this complete baring of his soul. ‘I love you very much, Elizabeth Brown. Will you please marry me, come back to Washington with me, and spend the rest of your life at my side?’

Those blue eyes blazed with emotion, and a becoming blush coloured her cheeks.

Elizabeth knew that they were an oddly matched pair. A woman who had chosen to immerse herself in academia for most of her adult life and an ex-military man, who still dressed like a commando and who, by choice, still lived on the edge of danger some of the time.

Yes, on the surface they were an oddly matched pair. But inside, where it really mattered, Elizabeth knew they fitted together perfectly…

‘Oh, yes, Rogan Sullivan, I’ll marry you,’ she told him happily. ‘I’ll marry you because I love you very much too!’ She launched herself into his arms, laughing and crying at the same time.

Rogan kissed her very thoroughly, before picking her up and carrying her out of the kitchen and through to her bedroom. He placed her down on the bed and then lay beside her. Reaching up, he cupped either side of his face with his hands and looked down at her with intense dark eyes. ‘I promise that my love for you will last for ever, Beth.’

‘For ever sounds perfect, Rogue.’

For ever with Rogan was absolutely all that Elizabeth could ever want or need…