“I was so worried about you these past weeks,” she said against his mouth.
He groaned. “As it turns out, I am the one who had cause to worry. All that time away from you I told myself that at least you were safe here in London. Little did I know.”
He took her mouth, savoring the warmth and softness he found there. She was shivering ever so slightly. He knew it was not because she was cold. An answering shudder of need swept through him. The world and the night narrowed until all that mattered was what was happening in the intimate sphere of reality that existed inside the carriage. But he was also aware that his time with Amity tonight was limited. They would arrive at their destination too soon.
“I wish we were back on theNorthern Star,” he said against her throat. “I would give anything to have the entire night with you.”
“I dearly miss the freedom I know when I travel abroad,” she said. She speared her fingers through his hair. “I vow, London is worse than any corset. It constricts and binds and confines until it is difficult to breathe.”
“You were meant to be out in the world, not trapped in the prison that is London Society.”
“Yes,” she said. She sounded pleased that he understood. “I am, indeed, a woman of the world. I cannot live my life by Society’s rules.”
He breathed in her unique, intoxicating scent and then took her earlobe gently between his teeth. She gripped his shoulders and kissed his throat. The low-burning fire that had been smoldering inside him for weeks flashed into flames.
He took her mouth again, savoring the taste of her, and slipped one hand inside her cloak. He wrapped his fingers around her sleek rib cage and edged upward, seeking the soft weight of her breast. But all he could feel was the rigid armor of the stays that shaped the bodice of her gown.
“Damnation,” he muttered. “You did not wear clothes like this when you were on board the ship.”
“Of course not.” She laughed and pressed her face against his shoulder. “When I travel I wear practical gowns. However, my sister’s dressmaker insisted on the stays in this dress.”
“She may as well have appointed herself your invisible chaperone.”
“Dressmakers can be astonishingly tyrannical, especially those who are known for being fashionable. They have reputations to uphold and Penny tells me one defies them at one’s peril.”
“I admit a man’s tailor can be equally dictatorial.” He cupped her face in his hands. “I do not think that either of us was intended to live by Society’s rules.”
The sweet laughter faded from her eyes.
“Nevertheless, we seem to be bound by them,” she said. “It is because of those rules that you find yourself engaged to me.”
He smiled slowly. “The thing about rules is that they are made to be broken. And very often they even provide a means to do just that.”
“You are starting to sound like an engineer again.”
“It strikes me that the very rule that has made it necessary for us to announce our engagement is the same one that allows us certain liberties that we would not otherwise enjoy—at least not without paying a price.”
She started to smile again. “For example?”
“For example, you could not be alone with me in this carriage without enduring severe damage to your reputation if it were not for the fact that we are engaged to be married.”
“Ah, yes, I understand.”
In the shadowy light she had the look of a woman capable of casting a spell on a man. He touched the corner of her mouth with his thumb.
“I think that you have put one on me,” he said. The words sounded hoarse.
“Put what on you?”
He traced the outline of her lips with the pad of his thumb. “An enchantment, a spell.”
Amusement gleamed in her eyes. “You are a man of the modern age, Mr. Stanbridge, an engineer. I’m sure you are well aware that there is no such thing as magic. All can be explained with science and mathematics.”
“Before I met you I would have agreed with that statement. But no longer.”
He kissed her again before she could say anything else. The swaying of the carriage caused her to lean more heavily into him. Desire fired his senses. He let the flames burn until he could think of nothing else except the need to claim Amity in the most elemental way.
He had just found the first concealed hook at the front of her gown when the cab rattled to a halt. Reality reasserted itself with electrifying force. He eased aside the nearest curtain and stifled a groan.
