Judgment and reason sent out a feeble warning. Yet his devilish enticement overwhelmed her tattered sanity. With all her heart and soul, she craved to explore the mysteries of her desire for him. And the strange thing was, she did trust him. “If … if you promise not to go too far.”

His chuckle held a strained quality. “I swear it, on my honor as a gentleman.” He bent and kissed her again, quite thoroughly, before adding, “But for this, we’ll want privacy.”

It took Hadrian all of half a minute to shut the door and stride back to the bed. He stripped off his coat on the way and slung it toward a chair without looking to see where it landed. With single-minded purpose, his gaze remained fixed on the woman lying on the white coverlet.

Natalie. In all his life, he had never seen a more bewitching sight.

She had pushed herself up onto her elbow to watch him. Their episode of kissing and caressing had loosened her upswept hair so that a few dark strands curled down around her shoulders and bosom, and her breasts appeared in danger of overflowing her bodice. Her lips were rosy, her eyes slumberous, the dark lashes half lowered as she waited for him.

As he approached, she moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. All the blood from his brain went rushing to his groin. He craved to possess her with a ferocity that made him tremble. With effort, he leashed the powerful urges that burned inside him.

This was for her pleasure, not his.

Yet, if truth be told, it was also about softening her resistance to being courted by a man of his rank. She had expressed her opinions about his aristocratic world in no uncertain terms. He wanted to break down the barriers between them and win her body, heart, and mind.

He lay down beside her on the bed, sliding his arm around her slender waist to bring her onto her side. Then he lifted his hand to her face to trace her lovely features. She returned his gaze with characteristic brashness, though her green eyes also held a hint of wariness.

“I oughtn’t be here with you,” she said frankly. “This may very well be the worst mistake of my life.”

He couldn’t stop a grin. That was part of what he liked about Natalie. She seldom said the expected, and he was jaded enough to deeply value the trait. “Shall I leave, then?”

Her arms tightened around him. “Certainly not!”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

Drawing closer, he blended their mouths, relishing the pliancy of her lips and the swiftness of her response. Any slight inhibition in her vanished as she kissed him back with an unrestrained zeal that made his blood surge. Then she did something that nearly shattered his iron control. She brought her hand up and cradled his cheek as if he were precious to her.

All the suggestive moves that women had used to entice him over the years paled before that one feather-light touch. A tidal wave of lust inundated him. Her taste, her scent, her femininity tempted him to the verge of madness. For one mindless moment, he could think only of stripping her naked, sinking into her heat, and staking his claim on her.