Gasping with want, she squeezed his hands harder and then raised her head and kissed him with all the hunger he was causing in her. It wasn’t enough. Even when he drove his tongue between her lips, and she writhed into his hands, her hips pressing down into his lap, it still wasn’t enough. She wanted more. When he slid one hand out from under hers, it left her own covering the abandoned orb and Christiana instinctively squeezed it herself and then stiffened with a gasp as she felt the roughened fingers of his hand touch her knee beneath her skirt and begin to glide up her inner thigh. When it reached the apex of her thighs and brushed over the damp, swollen flesh there, her hips rose up with a jolt, but his caress followed and she broke their kiss to groan his name desperately. And then to squeal it with shock as the carriage suddenly shuddered to a halt and she went flying backward.

Fortunately, Christiana landed on the bench seat across from Richard, though she arrived there in something of a muddle, her skirts flying up to cover her face and chest.

“Are you all right?” Richard was there at once trying to right her and brushing her skirts down so that he could see her face.

“Yes,” Christiana assured him, pulling her gown up to cover her chest and peering about uncertainly. “What happened? Why have we stopped?”

“I’m not sure,” Richard admitted and turned to peer out the window. While he was distracted, Christiana quickly slid her arms back into her sleeves and pulled the top of her gown back into place. She was feeling her hair, trying to tell if it was all right or needed fixing when he muttered, “It would appear we’ve reached Stevanage. I told them to stop there for lunch.”

“Oh,” she murmured and let her hands drop as he turned back to her. His eyebrows rose when he saw what she’d done.

“That was fast, and you look as perfect as you did this morning. Well-done,” he praised and then pressed a quick kiss to the tip of her nose before turning back to open the carriage door.

Christiana stared after him with amazement as he got out of the carriage. The compliment was nice, but the kiss on the nose had seemed . . . well, it had been the affectionate sort of thing her father would have done when she was younger. Not that she thought Richard’s feelings toward her were in any way fatherly, but the action seemed to speak of affection.

“Are you coming, Christiana?”

She blinked and stared at the hand Richard was holding out to her, but then took it and descended from the carriage, noting that there appeared to be something in his expression that could have been affection as well. Or perhaps she was just imagining that because she wanted to believe it was there, Christiana acknowledged on a small sigh.