Reeve gave a gruff chuckle, barely able to keep his hands to himself. God in heaven, this woman was beautiful, and the fact that she didn’t seem to know it made her all the more attractive. “Duncan will be busy with his investors for at least an hour. He probably doesn’t even know you’re gone.”

Maggie sighed and sat down carefully on a stone bench drenched with the eerie light. She might have been a sprite or a spirit, sitting there, such an unearthly beauty she was, but Reeve knew only too well that she was made of flesh and blood.

“I don’t suppose you’d like to give back my emigration papers,” she said hopefully.

Reeve sat down on the bench beside her, straddling it. “Did I neglect to return them?” he asked innocently. The papers were locked in his office safe in Sydney.

Maggie’s temper flared again. “You know perfectly well that you took them from me at Parramatta!” she whispered furiously.

“You don’t need to whisper,” Reeve pointed out affably. “There’s no one to hear you.”

She swallowed, looking at once worried and intrigued. “No one?”

Reeve nodded. The night air was cool and fragrant with flowers, and the sounds of the governor’s party drifted over the grounds. “Are you going to marry me, Maggie?”

Maggie’s mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. “Marry you?” she echoed.

“You do remember my proposal at Parramatta, don’t you?”

She recovered instantly from her surprise and again looked as though she would like to slap Reeve. Or worse. “I’m not pregnant,” she said stiffly.

Reeve was disappointed, though, of course, he hid that fact. Maggie was not the sort to be kept as a mistress; she would have to be taken as a wife. To his own surprise, Reeve was more than willing to do that. “That can be remedied easily enough,” he heard himself say.

Maggie was staring at him. “Why would you want to marry me if you didn’t have to?”

He almost laughed. Why, indeed. “Frankly, Maggie, I like the idea of being able to bed you where and when I want to.”

He’d shocked her again, but before Maggie could speak, he did what he’d been longing to do ever since she’d walked into Government House earlier that evening. He reached out and caught the fingers of one hand in her bodice, giving it a slight tug.

She gasped when her breasts bounced free of the dress, swelling proudly in the moonlight, their tips tightening under Reeve’s gaze. Maggie made no move to cover herself; her eyes were closed and her breathing was quick.