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late for such a conclusion to make any difference to her situation, she decided sadly, but she still felt irrationally betrayed by Edmund’s defection when she had absolutely no right to. Such a shame that she’d spurned him so emphatically during her first heady Season, when she’d been too young to realise just what wonderful possibilities were being offered her and grab them with both hands. Now he was so indifferent to her it felt as if some long-anticipated treat had been withdrawn and her life was suddenly limited and dry for the lack of it. Squirming in her comfortable seat, Kate braved an answer to so many of the questions troubling her and it only made matters worse. Edmund, who no longer wanted her, who despised her for turning him away, who seemed determined to court a sweet and suitable wife not in the least bit like Kate Alstone—somehow he mattered uniquely to her and it was obvious to anyone who had two eyes to see with that she no longer meant a thing to him.

      Cursing her younger self for refusing to see that he’d make her an ideal husband and lover, Kate felt unable to just sit and contemplate her own idiocy and jumped to her feet to pace restlessly. She couldn’t put her hand on her heart and admit it was irrevocably his and therefore broken beyond mending and, as he now watched her with hard disillusionment instead of adoration in his silver-green eyes, that was just as well. Yet Kate had an uncomfortable suspicion she’d been testing Edmund’s devotion from the moment they first met, and considering it had proved such a chimera, maybe she’d been right not to trust it enough to agree to marry him.

      Doing her best to be honest with herself now her future looked bleak, Kate stopped her perambulations and tried to face her own faults as unflinchingly as she was prepared to pick over Edmund Worth’s. Impatient with herself for being unable to consider him, or her feelings for him, with dispassionate coolness, she was about to pace her host’s fine Persian carpet when a sound in the corridor outside made her freeze in her tracks. Just making out the soft tread of a gentleman’s evening shoes on the marble floor outside, Kate muted a huff of impatient fury and turned to face the wretch who’d been chasing her all evening with defiant determination and the fireside poker.

      ‘Preparing to beat me off with more than just words this time, are you, my dear?’ the intruder asked her blandly and relief and something far warmer than that ran through her at the very sound of Edmund’s voice. It made her feel young and silly all of a sudden as she had to put her hand over her mouth to stifle a chuckle.

      ‘Only if you really annoy me, Lord Shuttleworth,’ she said, her heartbeat thundering in her ears for a very different reason now and her fear flying as wild curiosity about darkened rooms and their unknown possibilities took its place.

      ‘Maybe you should carry it at all times to fend off importunate suitors then?’ he said as he took it gently from her and returned it to its stand.

      ‘I can think of at least one person I’d like to leave with a few good bruises,’ Kate said darkly and saw him frown even in the semi-darkness.

      ‘Just say the word and I’ll do it for you.’

      ‘And then be forced to meet the repellent man at dawn as if he deserved to be rated a gentleman after all, my lord? I rather think not,’ she told him crossly and just the thought of him risking all he was to a pistol ball made her insides go as cold as if she’d swallowed an icicle.

      ‘I can take care of myself,’ he told her abruptly.

      ‘I dare say you can, but I’ll manage without your assistance on that front all the same. I do like to sleep at nights, you see?’

      ‘So do I, although you’ve robbed me of a great deal of that commodity since we first met,’ he informed her softly and Kate realised how close he suddenly was to her only at the instant when he slid a strong arm round her waist and pulled her against his muscular frame so easily it hardly even occurred to her that she might resist him.

      ‘Have I? How very inconsiderate of me, Edmund,’ was all the response she seemed able to offer, which was very odd of her, considering she’d come in here to avoid similar attentions from another man.

      ‘Yes, it was. So don’t you think it’s high time you shared a little of my sleeplessness to make amends?’ he murmured huskily.

      ‘Maybe …’ she began, but it was too late and he stopped her mouth by the simple strategy of kissing it until she forgot what she was going to say and almost everything else as well.

       Chapter Seven

      At the advanced age of one and twenty Kate had experienced only the most respectful of chaste salutes to compare this one with and they were no help at all, she decided hazily. She supposed having such a powerful guardian hovering like Nemesis in the background must have kept her ignorant of such dangerous delights until now. If Edmund had kissed her like this three years ago, she’d almost certainly have been married to him virtually ever since, but had either of them been ready for such heady enchantment then? It was a question she’d never be able to answer since he hadn’t kissed her until her wits were shot and her body singing with some wild hope she didn’t dare name until tonight. Abandoning any effort to reason with herself, she snuggled even closer to him, whilst raising too-willing lips to lure him back to her the moment he seemed about to recover his senses and back away.

      ‘Edmund,’ she murmured his name reproachfully, protesting any distance between them and wantonly hoping he could be persuaded to do it again.

      ‘Katherine?’ he replied, lingering on the syllables of her name as if it was a sensuous luxury in his mouth.

      ‘Kiss me again?’ she begged shamelessly.

      So he did and this time there was nothing reverent and respectful about his wickedly knowing mouth as it opened hungrily on hers and, as soon as she echoed him in instinctive response, he plundered it ruthlessly. For the first time Kate felt the true allure of being seduced as well as seducing, with a man’s firm mouth and hot demands suddenly a wonderful promise, rather than a threat of terrible vulnerability or base subjection. She shivered in anticipation of something even more mighty, a force that could take her under and drown her in passion and sweetness, so she did her best to make sure she attained it by sneaking her hands up and about Edmund’s strong neck, then shocking them both by moaning against his lips when his tongue invaded her mouth and her knees turned to water.

      It was heat and light and sustenance and she couldn’t currently imagine ever needing any other. He ran lingering, approving hands down the supple line of her slender back and she all but purred with satisfaction when he reached the firm swell of her buttocks and settled there for a hot, breathless moment before he swept that incendiary touch back up to mould her even closer into his kiss. Gasping with delight as his wicked tongue darted in and out of her wanton mouth in a rhythm even she recognised as primal, for all her ridiculous innocence, she clung as if he was her rock in a very stormy sea indeed.

      Then he allowed them the sumptuous treat of lowering his hand to cup her breast and Kate wondered how she managed to stay standing for the rush of heat and temptation that rocked through her like a force of nature. She heard his breath catch at the willingness of her tightened nipples, obvious under the richness of silk and his exploring fingers and she stuttered out a sigh of delight when he explored one of them further until she moaned once again. All thought of where they were and what risks they were taking of being discovered fled as even the distant sound of music faded from her consciousness and all that mattered to her was him. Edmund, her almost-promised lover, hers. At last there were no questions in her head except for how soon the searing ache at the heart of her could be appeased with something he and no other could grant her. Caught up in her first taste of headlong, driven passion, she keened softly at the bolt of demand for more that ran through her like hot fire.

      Head reeling from her innocently erotic responses to his runaway loss of control, as soon as he felt her mouth respond to his with untutored enthusiasm, Edmund tried hard to draw back, to let his longing hands fall from her magnificent body and put distance between them that his own harder, even more eager body certainly didn’t want.

      ‘No, stay,’ she urged, her voice husky and shaky and utterly in tune with every one of his feral

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