“I’m not afraid of you. Not anymore.” She wasn’t. Quite the opposite. “As for how fierce you looked . . . I suppose it was in a worthy cause.”

He gazed down at her. “The worthiest.”

Heat rose in her cheeks. She was keenly aware of their surroundings. The two of them, standing alone in the clearing, under a moonlit sky. Not even in her dreams could she have conjured a more romantic setting.

“No one’s ever defended my honor before,” she confessed.

“No? When I arrived, you were doing an excellent job of defending it yourself.” He smiled slightly. “It didn’t seem fair that I should knock the man down when you’d already injured him.”

Her brows notched. “I hope I didn’t hurt him too badly. He was only trying to steal a kiss.”

“Only.” Banked flames smoldered in Captain Blunt’s eyes. “You must have objected to the liberty to have responded as you did.”

“I didn’t object to the liberty. I objected to the man.” She explained, a little self-consciously, “A first kiss is important. It’s something a girl remembers forever. I’d rather mine not be with Lord Gresham.”

Captain Blunt looked at her, silently, steadily. There was an endless pause. And then: “Have you someone else in mind?”

Butterflies fanned their wings in her stomach, fluttering up to her breast, making her heart quiver with romantic expectation.

Unreasonable expectation.

Was he thinking what she was thinking? But he must be to look at her so. He must be.

He took a half step toward her. Her silk skirts swirled about his legs. “Do you?” he asked.

“It wouldn’t be fair,” she said. “Y-you belong to Miss Throckmorton.”

He came closer still. His head bent to hers, his voice a rough scrape of sound. “I belong to no one.”

She swallowed hard. “Nor do I. Not yet.”

“Well then.” He brushed his knuckles along the edge of her jaw. The gentle caress sent a tremor of longing through her frame. “Would you like me to be your first?”

She drifted into his touch, swaying toward him almost against her will. Her body’s answer was plain enough. Yes, yes, it seemed to sing, reaching out to him with every nerve and sinew.

But it was her mind that was in control.

For now, anyway.

She moistened her lips. The unconscious action riveted the entirety of Captain Blunt’s formidable attention. “Yes.” She admitted it both to him and to herself. “Yes. But you needn’t feel obliged—”

His mouth captured hers, swallowing what was left of her words.

Julia gave a muffled moan—part pleasure and part surprise.

Oh, heavens.

His lips were as sensual as she’d imagined. They molded to her own, strong and searching, coaxing a response from her.

She yielded to the tantalizing pressure.

It was more than a first kiss. It was an acknowledgment. A physical validation of their unspoken attraction to each other. Something raw and honest and imbued with an undercurrent of soul-quaking passion.

He wasn’t particularly suave or seductive about the business. On the contrary, there was a certain masculine ruthlessness to his kiss. It spoke of the soldier he’d been. A man used to taking what he wanted. To prevailing against all odds.