He probed her wet entrance with his shaft, and she bent forward to grant him easier access. “Only if you want me to.” He kept himself pressed close, as his hands moved around to her breasts. He slid against her, and her slick softness made him groan.

She could hardly speak but managed, “Stephen, please."

"What do you want, Emily?" He adjusted his erection until he rested at her entrance.

"I need you inside me." Her voice was tremulous, and she tried to guide him.

In one slick stroke, he filled her, and she uttered a cry of shock. Her tight warmth surrounded him, and he shuddered at the contact. He fought to keep his penetration gentle and deep, since she would be sore from the last time. But she kept backing against him, quickening the tempo.

Before he knew what was happening, her inner walls squeezed his shaft, and he could no longer restrain himself. He drove harder, pulling her waist toward him with each penetration.

“You’re going to stay with me, Emily,” he swore, fighting for control when she bucked her hips against him. “I’m not letting you go.”

He felt himself losing the battle, succumbing to the sweetness of her flesh. He joined their bodies together, meeting thrust for thrust until she arched suddenly, her body shattering with pleasure. When he felt her squeezing him tight, he shouted with his own release, filling her inside. He had trouble catching his breath, but he held her close, joined intimately.

“Come back to bed,” he murmured against her shoulder. “I want to sleep beside you.”

She kept her face turned away, and when at last he withdrew, she spoke. “I’ll go with you to Falkirk tomorrow. But that’s all.”

He turned her to look at him, raising her chin so he could see her eyes. “For now.”

Chapter Six

The coachman brought a sleigh to take them back to Falkirk in the morning. Emily wore as many layers as she could, but she didn’t speak to Stephen on the way. Her heart was barely holding itself together, for last night was a precious memory. If she let herself even imagine a future with him, he’d break her heart again. She’d taken him into her arms, knowing that she would later hold regrets. And yet, she wouldn’t have changed any of it.

She was still in love with the earl after all these years. To marry a man like Stephen had always been her dream but not in this way. Not because he was forced to.

The drive back to his estate at Falkirk seemed to last centuries instead of minutes. She worried that she’d somehow become a burden to him, and that was something she’d never wanted.