"Neither can I." Sebastian smiled. "Fortunately, there is no press­ing need for clear thinking at a time like this." He gently removed her spectacles and set them on the nightstand.

She gazed anxiously at him, as if he had lifted a veil and left her completely exposed. An aching tenderness welled up within Sebastian.

"You are lovely," he whispered.

Her eyes widened in startled surprise. "Do you really think so?"

"Yes, I really think so." He took her earlobe between his teeth and bit gently. "And I want you very much."

"You want me?" She sounded dazed now, as if her exceedingly clever little brain had suddenly come up against a truly baffling di­lemma. "I'm not certain I comprehend your meaning, my lord."

"You will comprehend it soon enough. God knows I cannot hide it much longer. You have no notion of your effect on me, do you?"

Her smile was tremulous. "If my effect on you is anything like yours on me, we are faced with a most unusual problem, sir. I am not at all certain what we should do next."

"As it happens, I know precisely what to do next."

Sebastian lowered his head and kissed her again. Her arms tight-sned around his neck. When he felt her lean into him in a silent signal of feminine surrender, he eased the toe of his boot between her slip­pered feet.

She drew in her breath but made no protest when he gently forced his thigh between her legs. The skirts of her gown rode upward as he lifted his knee and planted his foot on the bed behind her.

Prudence gave a tiny, muffled shriek when she abruptly found her­self straddling his thigh as if she were perched astride a horse.

"Sebastian. Good heavens." She clung to him in shock.

"Hush, my sweet. We must not make too much noise. We don't want to scare off the ghost." Sebastian groaned as he felt the intimate beat of her soft, warm femininity burning through his breeches.

Not just heat, he thought triumphantly, but a telltale dampness, too. He caught the faint, tantalizing scent of Prudence's growing arousal and very nearly lost his self-control.

"My lovely, Prue," he said in awed wonder. "Where have you been all these years?"

"In Dorset," she said very seriously.

Sebastian hid his smile in her hair. He slipped his hand up along her stocking-clad leg and touched the top of her bare silken thigh. She flinched in reaction. Then she breathed deeply.

"For some reason," Sebastian said, "I feel I know you very, very well. It is as if we were old friends, you and I. Or perhaps lovers."

"How very odd." Her voice was dreamy now, soft and warm and thick with desire. "I was thinking much the same thing just before you arrived. It is as if we have been intimate acquaintances for years, although we have known each other for only a very short time."

"We are going to know each other even more intimately before this night is done," Sebastian vowed.

He could wait no longer. She wanted him and he wanted her. They were engaged. It was suddenly all very simple and straightforward.

Sebastian eased his booted foot back down off the quilt, lowering Prudence slowly onto her toes. Before her feet had quite touched the floor, he was pushing her back onto the bed.

He drew in his breath at the sight of her lying there amid the rumpled white sheets. Her skirts foamed above her knees, revealing the garters that secured her practical cotton stockings. The curve of her calf was very elegant as it tapered down to her delicately shaped ankle. Above the garters her thighs were beautifully rounded.

Sebastian stared down at Prudence's legs and envisioned them wrapped around his waist. He heard himself make a hoarse, inarticu­late sound deep in his throat.

"Is something wrong?" Prudence looked up at him in concern.

"No, nothing is wrong. Nothing has ever been this right." Sebas­tian ripped at the fastenings of his shirt. He heard the fine linen tear, but he paid no attention. All that mattered now was making love to Prudence.

He got the shirt open, but he did not take the time to shed it completely. He was tod impatient to feel Prudence's fingers on his bare skin. He sat down on the edge of the bed and yanked off his boots.

"You seem in a great hurry, Sebastian."

"I am."

He lowered himself down beside Prue and gathered her into his arms.

"Touch me," he said. He caught her hand in his and guided it inside his open shirt. "I want to feel your hands on me."

"Yes. Yes, I would like that very much, too." Prudence gave a tiny, broken exclamation of pleasure as she skimmed her fingers across his bare chest. She grasped handfuls of the thick, curling hair she found there.

Sebastian sucked in his breath.

Prudence looked up at him. "I love the feel of you. There is so much strength and power in you. The first night I saw you, I thought you were the most wonderful creature I had ever seen."

He was stunned into temporary speechlessness by the sweet, hon­est desire in her moonlit eyes. There was no coyness in her, he thought. No artifice at all.

He thrust his thigh between hers, bent his head, and kissed her throat. He finally found his voice. "You won't regret this, Prue. I swear it on my honor."

Her lips brushed across his shoulder. "I do not expect to regret anything that I do with you. How could I? It is all far too wonderful for words."

"Prue, you take my breath away." Sebastian pulled her close and started to unfasten the row of shell buttons that closed the back of her gown. The process seemed to take forever. So damned many buttons.

"Bloody hell," he muttered, fumbling with the last of the buttons. He was suddenly chagrined at his lack of self-control.

"Are you all right, Sebastian?"

"I'm fine." But that was not true, he thought as he slowly lowered the bodice of her gown and revealed her small, firm breasts. He was far from all right. His hands were shaking. He felt as if he were con­sumed by fever. His lower body was throbbing. His mind was dazed with the force of his need.

No, he was definitely not all right. But that was all right, too. He had not felt so completely right for longer than he cared to remember.

"Sebastian?"

He stared down at her exquisitely curved breasts. He really was going mad.

"God, but you are perfect, Prue." He bent his head and took one firm little nipple between his teeth.

"Oh." Her fingers clenched in his hair and her slender body arched as if she had touched an electricity machine.

Her instant reaction to his caress drove Sebastian closer to the edge of his control. He reached down and pushed his hand up beneath the edge of her skirts.

He stroked her thighs until she trembled. Then he probed higher, seeking the moist heat he knew he would find waiting for him. Just for him. Only for him.

He found it.

"Sebastian." Prudence shuddered and tried to lock her legs against him. He sensed the movement was instinctive on her part, her natural reaction to a caress she had never before experienced.

"It's all right," he whispered encouragingly. "I want to feel all the secret places. I want to know you as intimately as a man can know a woman."

"Yes, but this is so strange." Her voice was muffled against his shirt.

"You are a lady who delights in investigating the strange and the unusual," he reminded her. He gently forced her thighs apart again and found the soft petals hidden in the even softer hair.

"Yes, I know, but… Oh. Good heavens. Oh, my God. Sebas­tian, what are you doing?"

She was as hot and wet as he had known she would be. Sebastian sank one finger deep into her slick, tight channel. The small passage tightened around him like a well-made glove. The sensation was inde­scribable. He feared he would humiliate himself by spilling his seed then and there.

"I did not know making love would feel like this," Prudence con­fided breathlessly.

Sebastian looked down into her wide-open eyes. "Neither did I."

Suddenly his own pounding desire was not nearly as important as his need to give Prudence her first real taste of passion. He wanted her to experience the thrill of release and to know that he had been responsible for that release. There would be plenty of time to satisfy himself later. They had all night.

Sebastian eased his finger out of her until he felt her clench in frustration. He found the sensitive bud with his thumb and slowly pushed his finger back into her wondrously warm passage.

Prudence made a tiny sound that was halfway between a shriek and a moan. Sebastian covered her mouth with his own and deliber­ately repeated the caress between her legs.

She gave another muffled cry and clutched at the fabric of his shirt. Her knees clamped shut again, trapping his hand against her.

"You must relax a little." Sebastian dropped a series of soft, per­suasive kisses across her breasts. "Open yourself. Yes, that's it, my sweet. Let me inside, Prue. Deep inside." He felt her hesitate and then slowly part her soft thighs again. "You are so warm," he whis­pered. "I want to feel your heat. I need to feel it."

He stroked into her again and again, gradually widening her until he thought he could slide a second finger into her. He started to do so.

Prudence's reaction was immediate and intense. She went rigid. Her mouth opened on a soft, silent scream and then she started to shiver. Sebastian felt the tiny ripples rush through her. The moment of her release was gratifying beyond anything he had ever experienced in his life.