She wasn’t making any sense, and he didn’t want her to. He just wanted her to feel the pleasure of his touch, to know that he worshipped her. “Relax,” he murmured.

“Impossible.”

He chuckled. He had no idea how he was keeping his own urges in check. He was rock hard but still in control. Maybe it was because his breeches were doing a fine job of holding him back; maybe it was because he knew that this was not the time or the place.

But he thought . . . No, he knew it was because he just wanted to please her.

Sarah.

His Sarah.

He wanted to watch her face when she climaxed. He wanted to hold her as she came shuddering down from heaven. Anything he desired could wait. This was for her.

But when it happened, and he watched her face and held her while her body sang with bliss, he realized that it had been for him, too.

“Your cousin will be back soon,” he said once her breathing had returned to normal.

“But you locked the door,” she said, not bothering to open her eyes.

He smiled down at her. She was adorable when she was sleepy. “You know I have to leave.”

“I know.” She opened one eye. “But I don’t have to like it.”

“I would be most grievously wounded if you did.” He slid from the bed, grateful that he was still fully dressed, and retrieved his cane. “I will see you tomorrow,” he said, leaning over to drop one last kiss on her cheek. Then, before he could fall back into temptation, he crossed the room to the door.

“Oh, Hugh?”

He turned to see her smiling like a cat with cream. “Yes, my love?”

“I said I didn’t need a ring.”

He quirked a brow.

“I do.” She wiggled her fingers. “Need a ring. Just so you know.”

He threw back his head and laughed.

Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-two

Even later that evening

Technically the next day

But only just

The house was very quiet as Sarah tiptoed through the night-dark hallways. She had not grown up at Whipple Hill, but if she added all of her visits together, she was certain it would come to more than a year.

It would not be hyperbole to say that she knew the house like the back of her hand.

You could never know a house like the ones you roamed as a child. Hide-and-seek had ensured that she knew every connecting door and every back staircase. But most importantly, it meant that when someone had mentioned to her several days earlier that Lord Hugh Prentice had been given the north green bedroom, she knew precisely what that meant.

And how best to get there.