The Hellion and The Heartbreaker

by McNare, Jennifer

  Looking at her in her state of decadent disarray, it was far too easy to forget his increasing reservations about the state of their affair. She drew him like a lodestone, and he seemed entirely incapable of resisting her pull. Drinking in the sight of her luscious charms, he moved toward her.

  “You’re wearing too many clothes,” Scarlett pouted wantonly as he drew near, her eyes boldly raking him up and down.

  Alec stopped a few feet in front of her, assessing her temperament. It appeared that Scarlett was in the mood to play, and he was more than happy to oblige. “My valet appears to have retired for the evening. Perhaps you could give me a hand,” he said, with a seductive smile and nefarious lift of his brow.

  “Hmm, perhaps I could.” Swinging her legs over the side of the chair, Scarlett sat up and placed her glass on the nearby side table. As she stood, her thoughts seemed to have a dreamy quality, a bit fuzzy and slightly off kilter. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling and one she accurately attributed to the whiskey.

  Alec couldn’t help wondering just how much of the potent alcohol Scarlett had consumed as he watched her rise from the chair, swaying just slightly as she stood before him.

  Reaching for his cravat, Scarlett leaned up against him, breathing in his scent as she loosened the white silk at his throat. “Mmm, you smell so good,” she said, inhaling the masculine aroma of his cologne. Softly she rubbed her cheek against the faint stubble that was beginning to darken his rugged jaw line, loving the slightly rough feel of it against her sensitive skin.

  Alec sucked in a ragged breath as Scarlett pressed her body against him. He was already rock hard and unsure just how long he could wait before picking her up and tossing her onto the bed.

  Drawing back, Scarlett pulled the silk from Alec’s neck and let it fall to the floor. She slid her hands up his chest and then pushed his jacket off his shoulders. It too dropped to the floor as her hands moved to the gold studs on his shirt. As she undid each one, her lips brushed against the newly exposed skin of his chest. When she tugged the shirt from his trousers, her tongue trailed a line of fire along his flesh, and his shirt soon joined his other garments on the floor. Alec knew his clothes would be a wrinkled mess come morning, but he couldn’t have cared less, for Scarlett was by far the best damned valet he had ever had. When her hands moved to the waistband of his pants and the straining bulge below, it was all he could do to remain still.

  “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.

  Chapter 9

  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.”

  You will marry someone who will never have the ability to break your heart, Scarlett realized sadly, but didn’t say aloud. She felt the tears stinging the backs of her eyes. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could sit there without breaking down, sobbing and begging him to change his mind. Despite her anguish, she still had her pride. She believed with all her heart that she and Alec were meant to be together, but she couldn’t force Alec to believe it too. She couldn’t drag him to the altar, and there was no way she could prove to him that they didn’t have to end up like so many other couples, that what they had could defy the odds. Unfortunately she couldn’t predict the future, and she couldn’t offer any guarantees. If Alec wasn’t willing to take a risk, to take a chance on hap
pily ever after, there was nothing she could do about it. She had given him all she could, her body as well as her heart. There was nothing left for her to give, nothing except the last remaining shred of her pride, and that she would hold on to. She had to, for it was all she had left.

  Rising from the sofa, she faced Alec, summoning every last ounce of her courage, willing herself not to lose control in front of him. “I should go.”

  Alec rose as well, reaching for her arm. “Scarlett…”

  She pulled away. “Please don’t.” She couldn’t bear it. She took a step back, fearing for a moment that her legs would give way beneath her.

  Scarlett’s beautiful face, now anguished and grief-stricken was agonizing to behold, and tore at his heart like a razor blade. Unable to help himself, he leaned toward her, wishing there was something, anything he could do to lessen her pain.

  “No,” Scarlett said, putting her hand up to keep him from drawing closer. “I’ll be fine.” Turning toward the door, she took the few steps that would lead her outside and out of Alec’s life. Though they would surely see each other from time to time, it would never be the same. With her hand on the doorknob, she turned and looked into the eyes of the man she loved, the man who had just shattered her heart beyond repair. “Goodbye Alec.” Pulling open the door she stepped out into the night, and as she heard the latch click into place, the tears she’d fought so hard to hold back began to stream unheeded down her cheeks.

  Alec fought the insane urge to go after her, his conflicting emotions at odds with the rational part of him that told him to let her go. He stared at the closed door for what seemed like an eternity, wondering if either of them would ever be the same again.