“Worse than that,” said Kate. “They know it is you.”
“Indeed?” he said. “Did you tell them, Katherine?”
“Of course not,” she said indignantly. “Do you think I would betray you and then walk almost four miles across country in the darkness to warn you? Do you think I have windmills in my head?”
“Did you walk here?” he asked. “And all alone? That was very brave but very foolhardy, my dear. Why did you not ask Josh to accompany you? Or send him with a message? Josh can memorize a simple message, you know, and nothing will worm it out of him until he can deliver it to the right person.”
Kate blushed, recalling at this inopportune moment her reason for deciding not to bring Josh. “I was afraid to trust anyone,” she said. “I heard the earl this afternoon telling the captain of the coast guard that he suspects the highwayman was you or someone associated with you. They will be after you now. They will arrest you.”
“Then perhaps you will have your wish after all,” he said cheerfully. “Perhaps you will see me hang, Katherine.”
“Don’t,” she said indignantly. “You know I said that only before I knew the truth about you.”
“Well,” he said, moving for the first time and motioning her to a chair at the table, “don’t alarm yourself. The law of England requires proof before a man can be convicted of any crime.”
“Are you mad?” said Kate, ignoring the offer of a chair and pacing across to the window and back to stand a short distance away from him. “There is every proof in the world. Lord Stoughton and Lady Thelma saw you, not to mention the coachman and the footman.”
“Masked, though,” he pointed out.
“The mask is about as much disguise as a patch would be next to your mouth,” Kate said scornfully. “That hair! Have you never considered disguising it? There cannot be another man for twenty miles who has hair quite as blond as yours and who wears it as unfashionably long. At least have it cut short, sir. Oh, do stop grinning at me in that thoroughly imbecilic manner. This is serious. Your life is at stake!”
He continued to grin. “How very delightful you are, Katherine,” he said. “Does my safety matter so much to you?”
“Well, of course it does,” she said. “You have been treated unjustly all your life.”
“Being hanged or transported for kidnapping would not be unjust, though, would it?” he said. “I did kidnap you, Katherine. And I believe I am more and more glad that I did. I should not feel that way, of course. Do I owe you an apology for that kiss, by the way? I do hope not. I do not feel sorry at all.”
He waited for an answer. Kate blushed. “Oh, that,” she said carelessly. “I had quite forgotten it, sir.”
He threw back his head and laughed loudly. “Katherine,” he said, “do you not know that that is the surest way to wound a man’s pride? I kissed you last night, and you have forgotten it by tonight! I shall have to try to do better so that you will not forget again. Come here.”
“Like a puppy?” she said indignantly. “Absolutely not, sir.”
“It is interesting to notice that is my peremptory summons to which you object,” Nicholas Seyton said, “not the idea of being kissed. You are quite right, of course. That was the arrogant male in me talking. I shall come to you. There, is that more to your liking?”
Kate, looking up into the blue eyes behind the mask, would have liked to tell him with great dignity that she objected to both his command and his intention. But she could not. He might believe her, and she wished very much to be kissed again. She satisfied herself with looking him in the eye and saying with great dignity, “Yes, thank you. It is.”
He laughed again before taking her by the shoulders and drawing her against him. Oh, he felt good, she thought, feeling him along the length of her body, all solid muscle and masculinity. One of his hands clasped her throat, the thumb and forefinger raising her chin. It was a quite unnecessary gesture; her face was already raised for his kiss. She drew a deep and not-quite-steady breath. She would die if his kiss was unpleasant this time.
But it was not. Oh, it was very definitely not. Soon she was clinging to his shoulders as if only by doing so could she save herself from drowning. At first, his mouth covered hers as lightly as it had the night before, his tongue teasing her lips until she sizzled with sensation and reached up her arms to twine them around his neck. She opened her mouth.
And then his tongue was teasing its way past the barrier of her teeth to explore and caress the warm cavity beyond. His one hand held the back of her head. The other reached up to take hers when see was about to twine her fingers in his hair. She clung to his hand. The room and the world around her were receding. She was becoming only warm and pleasurable sensation. Aching sensation.
“Katherine ...” His voice was murmuring warmly into her ear. He took her earlobe between his teeth and bit it gently. Kate shivered and slipped both arms around his waist. She tipped her head back farther so that she could feel his mouth against her throat, against the pulse there. And she could feel his hands unbuttoning the back of her high-necked dress. She pressed her breasts against his chest and drew her shoulders back to make the task easier.
“Katherine ...” Her dress was off her shoulders and halfway down her arms. The straps of her shift followed it. And she drew her breasts away from him so that both garments could fall to her waist and his hands could cover her instead.
Beautiful. Oh, beautiful. A man’s hands worshiping her breasts, caressing them, massaging them with his palms, covering the hardening nipples with his thumbs and moving them in rhythmic circles. A man’s head moving down to them, kissing them, taking the nipple of first one and then the other into his mouth and sucking, his tongue moving over their tips, driving her mad with pleasure that felt almost like pain. He took her gently by the wrists when her hands moved to his hair, drew her arms behind her, and held them there. And she stood captive, her eyes closed, her head thrown back, wanting and wanting and wanting.
“Katherine ...” Her naked breasts were against his shirt. His mouth was over hers again, tantalizingly close, not quite touching. “Oh, my beautiful Katherine. Do you realize what very great danger you are in?”
“Kiss me,” she pleaded. “Kiss me.” And was aware of the extent of her danger as she pressed herself along the length of him.
He lowered his mouth to hers again, and his tongue danced against hers, drawing it out and into his own mouth. His hands still held her wrists loosely behind her back. And then his very blue eyes were looking down into hers. He laid his forehead against her own. She was very aware of the mask.
“We must stop,” he said. “I cannot control my desire beyond even one more kiss. I want you, Katherine. I want you right now in bed. But we must not. We mustn’t. Tell me we mustn’t.”
Kate pulled her hands free of his clasp and pushed firmly against his shoulders. “You want me in bed so that you can have your pleasure and spoil mine,” she said. She could hear the hurt in her own voice and tried to control it. “You are as selfish as any other man. Oh, I thought perhaps you were different.”
