What a difference a day or two could make, Robert thought wryly and then shook his head. He couldn’t believe she was not willing to marry him. Most women would be screaming holy murder and demanding he put a ring on their finger after being bedded. But not Lisa.

Robert supposed it was that damned romantic nature of hers. Those bloody books had raised ideas in her. She wanted romance, proclamations of undying love, and happy ever afters. But that wasn’t how the real world worked. People married and were miserable for the rest of their days. Well, most of them, he supposed, thinking of Christiana and Suzette’s happy marriages to Richard and Daniel. Of course, both couples had only been together for a couple of years. There was still plenty of time for the misery to settle in. He was sure even his father and mother must have enjoyed a year or two of happiness at the start.

Sighing, he shifted on his side in bed, wincing as his chest gave a twinge of pain. He’d not been any more concerned with it tonight than he had been the first night or in the stables. The damned thing was never going to heal if he wasn’t more careful. But he didn’t really care about that when he had Lisa shivering and shaking in his arms, her nails biting into his skin and her pleas ringing in his ear. There was no way he would ever again think of her as a little sister. Robert couldn’t believe that he ever had. The woman was as passionate as he, meeting him thrust for thrust and demanding more.

He would claim her for his own. Robert was determined. He just needed to figure out how.

Lisa turned over in her bed and peered toward the window as she heard her sister and brother-in-law’s bedroom door close and silence return to the house. She’d woken up and slipped back to her room only moments before they’d returned. Just in time, she thought and almost sighed aloud with something like disappointment. If she’d been caught, she would have had to marry Robert. He would have seen to it. And the thought was a tempting one. Enjoying such pleasure every night? Who would not be tempted?

“You cannot marry Findlay. He could never make you feel like this.”