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“How very wise.”

“You might reproach yourself for taking me to bed, Mrs. Longwood. But I daresay you’d regret not tumbling me even more. In twenty or thirty years, will you think back upon this moment and wish you had let me worship you for one night? Or will you look back fondly upon the guilt-free, no-consequences night of pleasure you found in my arms? The choice is yours.”

She scoffed. “Either way, I’m bound to feel remorse.” Artemisia shoved the key into the lock and twisted it open with a metallic click.

“Why?”

“If I say yes, I’ll always feel wrong about taking advantage of you. If I say no, I may regret not availing myself of the opportunity, but I will have my self-respect intact.”

“I wouldn’t want to interfere with that,” he said solemnly. “Yet I must ask whether it is not I, taking advantage of you.” Henry flopped down on the bed, shoeless, in his shirt and braces with the creamy linen parted halfway down his chest.

“In what way?” she asked curiously, her hand pausing on the side laces of her day dress. She didn’t usually travel with a maid, preferring solitude during long coach rides.

“You are clearly inebriated.”

“We just agreed that I am no such thing.”

“That was before you tripped going up the stairs. You are fortunate I was there to catch you, Artie.”

She hung her dress over her stays and petticoat in a futile attempt to conceal her underthings—he had already seen them; what did it matter if they were in open view?—with a chuckle. “I am lucky indeed. Now toss me that pillow.”

Henry cracked his good eye open. Her breath caught. The slow, penetrating way he looked at her was sinfully delicious, as was his pose with both arms folded behind his head.

“No,” he said simply. “You aren’t sleeping on the floor tonight.”

“I was going to try the chair again,” she said, though her back had ached all day from last night’s attempt.

“If you want the pillow, you’ll have to come and get it, Artie.”

He was plotting something. She knew it. The bossy man simply unhooked his braces, unfastened his trousers, and shucked them down his legs. Still sitting up, he reached behind his head and tugged his shirt off, too.

Naked but for a pair of too-close-fitting smalls that clearly delineated the delight he was attempting to convince her to explore, in mouthwatering detail, he lay back down. Artemisia cocked an eyebrow and picked up his discarded clothing, folded it, and placed it inside the dresser.

“I trust you won’t make a habit of expecting others to tidy up after you,” she said tartly. Then she marched over to the bed, reached across his naked body, and tried to snatch the bag of feathers on the far side. Predictably, though somehow it still shocked her, Henry snatched her by the waist and used her own momentum to drag her in next to him.

Artemisia’s squeal of protest ended in a shriek.

“Forget putting away the clothes,” he said, pinning her to the mattress.

“I can’t sleep here,” she mumbled, but he was already kissing her into submission. All the fight went out of her. Not that she was fighting very hard.

“Are you going to make me call for leeches to get rid of this?” he taunted, rolling his hips suggestively.

“I can think of a better method.” His mouth inched down, pressing soft lips surrounded by rough stubble to her throat. The contrast of damp heat and prickly coarseness did wonderful things to her body. Her nipples tightened into aching beads. A liquid pulse in her core had her mindlessly opening her thighs to better accommodate his weight. Daringly, she wriggled one hand free from his grasp and snaked it down between their bodies to stroke him.

“At last, the lady capitulates to the inevitable,” he quipped with a sigh of contentment.

“How do I know you’re not married?” She froze.

“I assure you I am not.”

“How can you possibly know, Henry?”

“I just do.” Frustration edged into his tone. “I have an aversion to the entire concept of marriage.”

“A libertine,” she teased, resuming her exploration of his hard length. The rest of him wasn’t half bad, either.

“Perhaps,” he mumbled. “I don’t think so, though. I have a feeling it’s been quite some time for me.”