“My ‘virtue’?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “My virtue? Are you crazy, or what? You think I’m worried about my inability to say no to you?” If it wasn’t so near the truth, it would have been funny.

“Something like that, yeah.”

“Of all the conceited, self-centered, egotistical ideas I’ve ever heard ... Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, following him down the short hallway to her bedroom. He shoved open the door and strode inside as if he’d done it all his life, as if it were his damned right!

Her heart was in her throat as he strode to her sleigh bed in the center of the room. “Luke, you can’t—”

He threw back the covers, grabbed a pillow, then reached for the blanket folded over the foot of her bed, an antique quilt her great-great-grandmother had pieced from scraps seventy-five years earlier. “I’ll be out there,” he said, his smile disappearing as he hitched his chin toward the door, “in the living room. You stay in the bedroom.”

“But—”

“Don’t argue.” To her surprise he reached forward, grabbed hold of her arms, yanked her close and kissed her hard. She opened her mouth to protest and his tongue slid past her lips and beyond the barrier of her teeth. Steely fingers clenched her forearms. She tried to concentrate, to find the words to disagree with his high-handed tactics, to tell him exactly what he could do with all his good intentions, but she was lost.

A small moan escaped his throat and her heart pounded expectantly. His tongue touched hers, explored the roof of her mouth and a thrill, hot and wanton, swept through her blood. She told herself she was being foolish, that she shouldn’t let him touch her, but she couldn’t stop herself. She heard the zipper of her dress hiss open, felt the cool air touch her back where the silky fabric parted, experienced a rush of desire as the tips of his fingers, callused and blunt, brushed across her skin.

A thousand warning bells rang through her mind as he kissed her cheeks and eyes and throat, but she ignored them all. Her neck arched as her head lolled back and his lips found the shell of her ear.

Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! Her mind screamed as her legs buckled and Luke caught her, sweeping her off her feet. This is madness! Katie, use your head! But the alarms ringing through her head couldn’t chase away the wonder of the feel of him, the heat of his body, the smell of sweat and musk that lingered on his skin. He placed her on the bed and slipped her dress over her shoulders.