“Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking I’m a scoundrel,” she said, cool-voiced despite her inflamed face, “so I’m going to take what I want. If—that is, if you’ll give it to me.”

“Gladly, sweetheart.” In fact, he was struggling not to throw her on the bed and give it to her without further delay, as he had been for quite some time now. But he lowered his hands, allowing her space. “Are you sure, though? Because it will ruin you forever.”

“Only if people find out.” She smiled with such intensity, Ned forgot nice allowances. Grasping her hand, he turned it, kissed her soft, fine-veined wrist, stroking tiny circles against the skin with his tongue. She shivered.

“I meant,” he said, looking up through his eyelashes at her, “you’ll be ruined for any other experience.”

She laughed.

The sound of it sent a rush of fire through him. Putting his hand behind her head, he pulled her toward him and kissed her with all the passion and desire he’d felt for her since she answered the door to him in London. She seemed to melt in his embrace, her protective rigor finally giving way, her heart and body surrendering. But as she swayed, clutching at his coat to stay upright, Ned felt the weight of her inexperience and his own wish to protect her from harm. He needed to calm himself the hell down. Easing back, he smiled, brushing the hair away from her beloved face.

“I’ll try to be careful,” he promised.

“Oh God,” she said huskily, “that’s the last thing I want you to be.”

He swung her up into his arms, carried her to the bed, tripped on a cudgel lying on the floor, and dropped her onto the mattress. So much for being careful. Thankfully she was wearing an old-fashioned dress with no bustle, so she did not bounce back.

“I did warn you about the mess,” she said, smiling up at him from a tumult of white muslin and long rosy hair, and he almost expired on the spot from adoration. He crawled onto the bed, boots and coat and all, and she swallowed nervously, her smile shivering away.

There was no time to undress her, to explore each revelation of bare, creamy skin with his hands and mouth; if they did not return soon, a search party would be sent for them, and then she really would be ruined. But Ned thought he’d not have undressed her anyway, not this first time, when it took all her courage to lie fully clothed beneath him, her breath shaky and her eyes like a storm. He loosened the buttons of her bodice, kissed her throat and décolletage, and she stirred with a wildness that spoke truly of her innocence.

Reality struck him then like a physical blow. “Damn,” he cursed, falling back against the ridiculous pillows. “I don’t have any protection.”

“That’s all right,” Cecilia said kindly. “You can borrow the gun in my side-table drawer if you want.”