Heavens.
She hadn’t any reasonable explanation for what she’d done. She closed her eyes and winced. How could she ever have allowed Farring to convince her Rayne might actuallycare?
Last night, Rayne confirmed that fear, not love, had fueled his actions.Do you know what Bromton and Markham are going to do to me when they catch up with us?
Well, she didn’t need Bromton and Markham to fight her battles. Besides, she knew when she was beat.
The important thing was that she would leave this place…this man…and, this time, she’d never look back.
He shifted in his sleep, and his arm fell from her shoulder, across her breast. She froze while his heavy warmth permeated the thin nightshirt.
Devil take the man.
Hewouldhave to give her this glimpse, the experience of having him close. Everything she’d hoped for—with added extra.
Yes, he was comforting. Yes, she felt secure. But more than that, she felt—alive, womanly. As if she were exactly where she was meant to be.
Which was why she must never, ever trust her instincts again.
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Chapter Six
“For the last time.” Rayne stretched over Julia’s shoulder and closed the door just before she reached the threshold. “You arenotleaving this room wearing nothing more than my footman’s livery—which is, by the way, stilldamp.”
Julia stopped short. Without turning to face him, she plucked her sleeve. “Dry as a bone. Andyoudo not have a choice in whether or not I stay or go. Nor do you have a say in what clothing I choose to wear.”
He considered the way the leather stretched across her hips, loosely cupping the curve of her—mistake. “It’s obscene. You areclearlya woman.”
“Flattering of you to notice.” She peered over her shoulder and batted her lids. “The breechesareawkwardly fitted, but other than that,Idon’t see how anyone can tell.”
“If you were trying to convince me, you failed. Your little eye flutter rather proves my point.Youareblatantlyfemale. Besides, I already told Mr. and Mrs. White you are Katerina.”
Her eyes became scalpel-point slits. “Katerinatravels by herself all the time.”
“Well”—he’d no answer for that—“she’s Dutch.”
“What’s her nationality have to do with anything?”
“Everything. A foreign widow is permitted eccentricities not allowed in an unmarried young lady of the aristocracy.”
“Eccentricities?Is that what they’re calling whatever the two of you have been up to these days? Honestly, I’d have thought, at the very least, you’d have a care for Farring’s feelings.”
Rayne flushed. “Never mind about Katerina. We are talking about you. And how I’m not going to let you head off to Scotland on your own.”
“Scotland?” she repeated, freezing. She rubbed her forehead. “I mean, yes, of course, Scotland. Where I told you I intend to go.”
“Not by yourself, you won’t.”
She twirled around. “What’s your alternative, then? No, wait. Allow me to guess. You are going toinsistI return to Markham or Bromton—or some male who will take me in hand.”
He sucked in his cheeks, suppressing the overwhelming desire to tell her how much he wished totake her in handhimself—erotically.
He cleared his throat.
“IfI escorted you to Bromton and Katherine, would you stay?”
“Absolutely not.”
