He couldn’t bring himself to release her. Not just yet. Not until he had a moment to savor her womanly form. Was she experiencing the same urgent hunger as he felt?

As he watched, the look in those sunlit green eyes altered subtly from shock at the close call to a carnal awareness of him. Her thick dark lashes lowered slightly, though she didn’t glance away in maidenly shyness. She continued to hold his gaze, her bosom rising and falling beneath his chest, one of her hands still clutching his forearm.

He read a certain reserve in her lovely features. Clearly, she knew as well as he did that any intimacy between them could only lead to disaster. She was wary of him, for she had made her low opinion of the nobility very clear.

Not that wary precisely described Natalie Fanshawe. She had survived a brutal attack on the American frontier. She had rushed into danger just now without hesitation. And she had an audacious way of speaking her mind that he found curiously refreshing …

“Clayton,” she said rather breathily, “you’ll need to move if I’m ever to stand up.”

Her body stirred beneath him in a way that threatened to drive Hadrian over the verge into madness. With effort, he cudgeled his lusty mind back into the realm of sanity. A gentleman oughtn’t be contemplating the seduction of a respectable woman. As much as he might crave to do so, he could not lie here forever in the cradle of her body.

Especially not in a damned stable yard in full view of the world.

He eased off her, stood up, and drew in a lungful of cool air to clear his head. Extending a hand, he assisted Natalie to her feet. She shook out her wrinkled skirt and smoothed the fabric in a quintessentially feminine manner.

“Forgive me for tossing you to the ground like that,” he said. “I hope you aren’t too badly bruised.”

“It’s nothing. Leo and I are alive, and that’s all that matters.” Her stark gaze focused on his face. “If anything, I must thank you for acting as swiftly as you did. When I saw that horse coming straight at him, I feared…”

Shuddering, she adjusted the shawl that had fallen from one of her shoulders. Tears glinted in her eyes as she glanced away, blinking hard in a palpable effort to master her emotions. Until that moment, Hadrian hadn’t realized just how much she loved Audrey’s son. He had a powerful urge to fold her into his arms, to offer her comfort and protection, and damn anyone who might be watching.

But no sooner had he taken an involuntary step toward her than she managed a wobbly smile. “Well! It’s over now and we’re fine. And you’ll no doubt be embarrassed to be seen with me. I must look a fright!”

Lifting her hands, she attempted to straighten the tumble of sable curls that had come partially undone in the fall. Several strands streamed down past her shoulders to curl around her bosom. With her cheeks flushed from the encounter, she looked the precise opposite of frightful. She made such an adorable picture that a soppy warmth stirred in the region of his chest. It was a feeling so foreign to his customary cool hauteur that it threw him off-kilter.