She skipped the rock, just a bit farther than she had the last. He smiled at her triumph, but she could feel his hesitation at her question. She held her breath as she waited, expecting him to distract her or put her off directly. Then he sighed and faced her.

“There is a light in you that I don’t see in Juliana or Anne,” he said at last. “Something that draws my eyes to you across the room. Makes me move toward you, even before I should have. Even when I knew it was wrong. That probably sounds silly to you.”

She faced him with a shake of her head. “No, not at all. That is lovely to think I have a light in me. It is…it’s very special, and I hope it’s true.” She swallowed and dropped the rocks that remained in her hand back on the shore with a clatter. Garnering up her nerve, she moved toward him. When she reached him, she leaned up into him, pressing a hand to his chest. “My light, if it exists, is yours, you know. To help you find your way in times of trouble.”

His body tensed and his face became serious. His pupils dilated as he stared down at her. Then he lifted his hand to her forearm, sliding his fingers up and up slowly. Her flesh dimpled with goose bumps and she couldn’t stop the gasp of pleasure that exited her lips.

He leaned down, this time more purpose in his gaze, as he brushed his lips to hers. “You want to help me?” he whispered.

She nodded. “Very much,” she said on what was hardly any breath left.

He drew her closer, flat against him, and his mouth found hers. He kissed her, but this time there was far more purpose to it. Far more drive. Her body sparked, the fire starting between her legs, shooting through her veins until every part of her felt the heat of longing.

“The best way to help doesn’t have words,” he growled against her lips. “And it is far more wicked than I know I should be.”

With that, he wrapped an arm around her back and slowly lowered her against the grass next to the lake. She gasped as she stared up at him, realizing in that moment what his intentions were. To have her, right here, out in the open where, in theory, anyone could see.

But she wasn’t afraid of that outcome, somehow. It excited her to know that he wanted her so much. To know that this man of strict propriety was willing to toss it aside for the chance to touch and pleasure her.

“Yes,” she whispered in answer to the question he asked with his eyes and his hands rather than his tongue. “Yes,” she repeated, and he caught the word with his mouth and there was nothing left to say.

Jasper had never been a libertine. He’d grown up around two and watched how their utter lack of control damaged and destroyed everything good around them. He’d been with women over the years, of course—he wasn’t a monk either. But he’d never been the kind of man who would put a lady on her back next to a lake and ravish her.