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Whatever she’d planned to say was blotted out by his mouth taking hers. Oh, what a delicious kiss! It was so fierce and sweet that it jumbled up every thought in her head. How she’d missed this. How she’d missed him.

When he drew back, it was clear the feeling was mutual. “You were saying?”

“I don’t have the foggiest.”

With a grin, he closed the curtains, then kissed her once more. She flung her arms about his neck and kissed him back, wishing this moment would never end. But when his hand tugged her bodice down so he could caress her bare breast, she hesitated and drew back. In the darkness, she could hardly see his gleaming eyes scant inches from hers.

“When do you plan to tell Griff and Rosalind?” she asked, still a little unsure of him. “About the kidnapping, I mean.”

“Whenever you want.” He thumbed her nipple with an expertise that made her mouth go dry. “I’ll do it now, if you prefer. I can turn the carriage around and we can be back at Lady Brumley’s in moments. Or we can wait for your sister and brother-in-law at Knighton House. It’s your choice.” He fondled her breast shamelessly, thrillingly.

She arched against his hand. “I’d prefer to wait.”

“Would you?” His knowing smile as he rolled her nipple between deft fingers made her blush. “How far is it to Knighton House, do you think?”

What he was doing felt so delightful she could hardly answer. “I-I don’t know…a few miles, I should imagine.”

“Perfect. That ought to give me enough time.” He began unfastening her gown.

“For what?” she choked out, though she already had a suspicion. It was impossible to ignore the part of him thickening beneath her bottom.

“For reminding you that you belong to me and no other.” Then he seized her mouth again, kissing her with a fervor that branded her as his.

If he hadn’t been kissing her so ardently, she might not have suffered his clever hands stripping her with alarming efficiency. But by the time he’d torn his lips from her mouth, leaving her intoxicated with need, he had her gown shoved off her. Her chemise hung open above her corset, and her drawers had vanished, along with her petticoats. She now sat on his lap wearing only her corset and scandalously untied chemise, and his tongue was tracing a path down the slope of her breast.

“What if your coachman hears us?” Juliet whispered, both amazed and thrilled by the prospect of having him make love to her in his carriage.

“I’ll shoot him,” Sebastian growled before his mouth closed over her breast.

“Ohhhh,” she sighed as his tongue and teeth played havoc with her tender flesh. “You do that so well, Sebastian.”

She could almost feel him smiling against her nipple. “Do I?”

“Yes.”

He tongued the valley between her breasts. “I’ve been wanting to do this all night, every time you leaned forward over that blasted chess table. I wanted to reach over and pop them out of your gown and bury my face between them.”

She giggled. “Lady Brumley would not have approved.”

He lifted his head to grin at her. “I hate to tell you, sweeting, but she wouldn’t have approved of anything we were doing. Which reminds me…” Taking her by surprise, he lifted her off his lap and set her on the seat across from him. “I still haven’t finished what I started earlier.”

Deprived of his warmth, she shivered. “Oh? What’s that?”

“Making you burn.”

The seductive rumble of his disembodied voice in the darkness brought her to instant alert. She sat there, her inability to see making her all the more acutely aware of her own half nakedness—the plush softness of the seat beneath her thinly clad bottom, the wintry air drifting over her bared breasts, her nipples hardening to tiny points.

And the thrumming ache between her legs, too, shameful though it was. The dark amplified the sound of his clothes rustling as he tore loose his cravat, then peeled off his coat and waistcoat and tossed them aside.

Suddenly she felt rather than saw him crouch on the floor in front of her. His hands slid her chemise up her thighs, then parted her legs.

Relief rushed through her. This, she knew. When his hands tugged on her hips, she slid forward on the seat immediately, preparing for him to insinuate his lower body between her legs. Instead, she was startled to feel his mouth brush a kiss to the inside of her thigh. Quite high up. Nearly to her…her secret place.

Feeling all at sea, she reached out in the darkness to find that his shoulders, still covered by his shirt, were now at the level of her knees. “What in heaven’s name are you doing, Sebastian?” she whispered as he pressed kisses higher and higher up the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.

“You’ll see. You’ll be invoking heaven’s name in earnest in a moment,” he rasped. “And God’s name, too, if I have anything to say about it.”

She shivered, but this time not from the cold. His whiskers rasped against her skin, sparking a little tendril of excitement to curl up along her thigh. It seemed to center itself right in her privates, making her squirm.