Iome grabbed him round the shoulders, scooted up until she sat in his lap, and felt him trembling softly with desire. In that moment, she knew he believed it: he believed she was beautiful despite the fact that Raj Ahten had taken her glamour, felt she was beautiful though her father’s kingdom lay in ruins, felt she was beautiful and wanted her as much as she wanted him.

Gaborn held some strange power over her. She wished he would kiss her roughly. He nuzzled her cheek and chin. Iome raised her neck for him, so he might kiss the hollow of her neck. He did.

Wanton. I feel wanton, Iome realized. All her life, she’d been watched, had been handled so that she would remain proper and free of desire.

Now, for the first time, she found herself alone with a man, a man whom she suddenly realized she loved fiercely.

She’d always kept such a tight rein on her emotions, she’d never have believed she could have felt so wanton. It’s only his magic, she told herself, that makes me feel so.

Gaborn’s lips strayed over the hollow of her throat, up to her ear.

She took his right hand in her own, brought it toward her breast. But he pulled away and would not touch it.

“Please!” she whispered. “Please. Don’t be a gentleman now. Make me feel beautiful!”

Gaborn pulled his lips away from her ear, stared hard into her face.

If what he saw in the dim light displeased or repelled him, he gave no sign of it.

“I—uh,” Gaborn said weakly. “I’m afraid I can be nothing but a gentleman.” He tried to smile reassuringly. “Too many years of practice.”

He pulled away a bit, but not entirely.

Unaccountably, Iome found her eyes full of tears. He must think me brazen. He must think me wicked, a voice inside her whispered. He sees me truly now, a craven animal. She felt sickened by her own lust. “I . . . I’m sorry!” Iome said. “I’ve never done anything like that!”

“I know,” Gaborn said.

“Truly—never!” Iome said.

“Truly, I know.”

“You must think me a fool or a whore!” Or ugly.

Gaborn laughed easily. “Hardly. I’m . . . flattered that you could feel that way about me. I’m flattered you could want me.”

“I’ve never been alone with a man,” Iome said. “I’ve always had my maid with me, and a Days.”

“And I’ve never been alone with a woman,” Gaborn said. “You and I have always been watched. I’ve often wondered if the Days watch us only so that we will be good. No one would want to have their secret deeds recorded for all the world to see. I know some lords who are generous and decent, I believe, only because they would not want the world to know their hearts.