The very act seemed a natural thing. What was more fundamental than copulation? Her sisters appeared to enjoy it, if the secret smiles and lingering looks and secret touches they shared with their husbands signified anything. Yes, they did not think she noticed that which seemed inherent to the nature of desire—total blindness to the world around you.

Nora was not averse to the act of fornication in principle, but she was averse to the notion of it with him. Attractive or not, he was not a possible candidate. Even if he was receptive for a tryst, which she doubted he was, he was a totally unfit candidate.

The man was rigid and humorless (well, mostly) and skeptical of her medical abilities. Not to mention wholly ineligible.

He was courting another female—a veritable paragon of womanhood. He was practically betrothed to her, and Nora would certainly never dally with a man already engaged with another woman. She possessed too much dignity for that.

It only underscored what she already knew. It was time to go.

She glanced to the window. The carriage started to roll slowly forward. They were moving again.

“Miss Langley . . . Nora.” At the sound of her Christian name on his lips, she started a bit and looked back at him.

He had never addressed her so intimately. That was not like the reserved Mr. Sinclair she knew him to be at all.

His dark eyes glowed in the dim interior of their carriage and in that moment he appeared almost . . . feral. A beast prowling the dark wood. The sudden notion struck her. Perhaps he wasn’t all she thought. “The way you stood up to that bastard?” he murmured in a low, growly voice. “Where did that girl go? I did not think she cared what some man thought.”

It took her a moment to recall they had been discussing the outraged gentleman and the ugly scene back at the hospital.

“I don’t care what he thinks,” she responded, and then, before she could consider it, she blurted out with: “I care what you think.”

Her declaration hung between them, the words suspended in the heavy, charged air.

He held her gaze and she looked away once to the window, briefly, and then back at him.

He was still staring at her in that way she felt low and deep in her belly.

It bewildered her. She had never felt another person’s gaze before. How was that even possible?

She moistened her lips. “I don’t want to cause any difficulties for you.”

His liquid-dark eyes seeped deeper into her. “Since when do you care about being a pain in my arse?”

She gasped and then let out a single hiccup of laughter. “I care.”

Something that looked suspiciously like a smile shaped his mouth. “Hm.”

“I know how important it is for you to establish yourself as the duke’s heir and bring honor to his family.”