She paused in the doorway of her bedchamber and turned around, saying rather uncertainly, “Good night, Patrick.”

Out of the blue, Patrick smiled at her, a suggestive, sweet smile.

Sophie almost jumped, she was so surprised.

“Why don’t I act as your lady’s maid tonight?”

Sophie opened her mouth but couldn’t think of anything to say. Patrick walked toward her, stopping so close to her that she could feel the heat of his body.

“But Mama …” Sophie whispered.

“Didn’t say we couldn’t kiss,” Patrick said. He lowered his head, opening her lips with fierce hunger. He backed her into her bedroom before he broke the kiss, gently pushing Sophie onto the stool before her dressing table, and dismissing Simone with a nod.

Sophie’s hair was pinned up in a simple, smooth twist. Patrick found the end, carefully tucked under by Simone, and pulled it free. Then he shook it briskly. Gold-tipped hairpins flew in all directions, tinkling against the glass of Sophie’s dressing-table mirror, plunging into the thick rug, falling into her lap.

She laughed. “I feel like a pony—and you’re shaking my tail!”

Patrick’s eyes darkened as he met Sophie’s in the mirror. He lowered one hand and stroked her neck in a whisper-soft caress. She shivered uncontrollably. “If you were my pony,” he said, his voice a velvet whisper, “I would take you for a ride.”

Sophie blushed, rosy pink stealing up from the low bodice of her gown. Patrick’s eyes drifted down and he almost groaned out loud.

“Oh God, Sophie, I don’t know if I can make it!” One of his hands stole, willy-nilly, to her bodice and cupped the soft curves of a breast.

Sophie couldn’t help grinning. It was so wonderful to discover that Patrick hadn’t been indifferent the last few weeks.

“Then you don’t mind the fact I am getting plump?” she said, just a trifle anxiously.

“Plump! You have put on flesh in all the places designed to drive a man mad, Sophie.” Patrick’s other hand now possessed her other breast.

Sophie looked at herself and her husband in the mirror for a moment, then threw her head back, like a true wanton.

“Kiss me, please, Patrick.” Her voice came from her throat in a husky murmur.

He dropped to his knees next to the stool and drew her face to his, capturing her lips. She wreathed her arms around his neck.

After a long time, Patrick drew back, pushing Sophie back onto the stool. Somehow she had ended up on his knee. His eyes were sooty, wild, full of desire. His heart pounded in his throat.

For a moment, husband and wife just stared at each other.

“I’ll probably die before this is over,” Patrick said conversationally, recovering himself.