It hurt Maggie a little that he regretted what had happened, but she wouldn’t have revealed that for anything. “Which is surely why you abducted me from the inn and brought me here,” she said with saucy contempt.

Dark eyebrows arched in a tanned, ruggedly hewn face. “You think I want to—as you put it—seduce you again?”

Maggie went red and set the teacup and saucer aside, lest she drop them. “What else should I think?” she hissed, not wanting anyone to overhear.

Reeve settled back in his chair and regarded Maggie’s flushed face and stiff countenance for a long time, his lips twitching slightly, his eyes laughing outright. Just when she was about to leap out of her chair and slap him silly, he assumed a serious expression and said, “You’re quite wrong. I regret what happened and I brought you here simply to prove to you that you’re safe with me.”

“Safe?!” Maggie blurted out. “How can you say that after last night?”

Once again Reeve sighed. “I lost my head—I wanted you so damned much, and you didn’t exactly try to discourage me—”

Maggie’s blush returned. “Why did you steal my papers?” she demanded.

To her utter surprise, Reeve reached out and took both her hands into his own. He spoke with quiet sincerity. “It occurred to me that Duncan might find them and put them to a use that doesn’t bear mentioning. You’re still free, though—I’ll make no demands on you.”

Maggie had neither the strength nor the wit to free her hands. “But you’re not planning to return the papers, either, are you?”

Regretfully, Reeve shook his head. “I think they’re safer in my keeping. If Duncan were to get his hands on them—”

“Mr. Kirk,” Maggie began pointedly, her shoulders aching because they were so stiff, “has been a perfect gentleman. And that, Mr. McKenna, is certainly more than I can say for you!”

Reeve chuckled, though there was no sign of amusement in his eyes. “There are worse things than not being a gentleman, Yank.”

Maggie finally managed to pull her hands from his. “Lady Cosgrove would never have sent me to Mr. Kirk’s house if she thought there was any danger!”

Reeve took up his drink again, and he finished it off before answering. “Lady Cosgrove is not familiar with Duncan’s true nature. I am.”

Maggie remembered Reeve’s beautiful mistress and all that had happened during the night, and she glared. “I don’t see how his ’true nature’ could be any worse than yours. Does he keep a mistress and then seduce other women behind her back?”