Gathering his reserves, he rolled lazily over, pulling her with him until she was sprawled on his chest. Her smile was both smug and sleepy. There was hay in her hair.

“God, you’re pretty. Such a pretty little thing. The proper Laura Templeton with the surprising, and flexible, steam engine of a body. Who’d have thought it?”

She certainly hadn’t, and she raised a brow. “I can’t say that I or it has ever been described quite that way before.” Her lips quirked. “I think I like it.”

“Since you’re in such a good mood, why don’t you tell me now why you came here tonight.”

“To see the foal.” Fastidiously, she picked hay out of his hair, then shifted her gaze back to his. “On the way to you. You knew I’d come.”

“I was counting on it. If you hadn’t I’d have had to breach the castle walls and drag you out. I don’t know how much longer I could have done without you.”

“Michael.” Moved, she laid her hand on his cheek. “Would you have ravished me?”

“Sugar, I did ravish you.”

“It’s the first time anyone has.” She waited a beat, watched her own finger trace down his throat. “I hope it won’t be the last.”

“I wasn’t looking for one quick romp in the hay.”

Satisfied with that, she nodded, smoothed his hair again. “Then I’ll come back.” She lowered her mouth to his, lingered over it. “I should go now.”

He merely shifted their positions, pinned her again. “Laura, you don’t really think I’m going to turn you loose tonight.”

She felt the quick, hitching thrill of being overpowered. “You aren’t?”

“No.” That rough-palmed hand slid up, closed over her breast, and his mouth became busy at her throat.

She arched under him, shuddered out a sigh. “Good.”

Still, she hadn’t meant to stay until morning. Hadn’t meant to fall into twilight sleep in a pile of hay with her body curled around his. Hadn’t realized she would awake fully aroused with his mouth on hers, and his hands . . . his hands.

“Michael.” And when her eyes fluttered open, he slid slow and deep inside her. Moved inside her with long, lazy strokes that had dreams misting over reality.

He watched her face, that lovely flush from sleep and sex that warmed her cheeks. The eyes smoky and dazed. The mouth, swollen from his, that trembled on each breath.

They would look at each other now in the light, see as they took each other up with a rhythm soft and silky.

Hay motes fluttered in the fragile light of morning, danced in the quiet air. Night birds gave way to the lark. In the stables, horses began to stir, cats stretched and hunted up sunbeams.