The light knock sounded again, and Kate crossed over to the door to her room, her white sheath of a night rail barely covering her. It was mostly see-through. She’d discovered that in the looking glass earlier. Halfway indecent. She smiled to herself. It was perfect. She’d let her hair down too, plucking out the pins one by one and shaking the red-gold mass until it shimmered over her shoulders and flowed down her back like fire. James would like it. He’d like it very much.

Pinching color into her cheeks, she hurried to the door, took a deep breath, and opened it with a sly smile on her face.

James stood there with his shoulder propped against the frame. He’d removed his cravat, but he still wore his black evening attire, his snowy white shirt, his black coat, his superfine trousers. One hand was shoved negligently into his pocket, and his dark hair was perfectly in place as usual.

She opened the door wider and stood aside. “Come in, James.”

He straightened up and walked past her into the room. When he turned and saw what she was wearing, his eyes went wide. “Kate.”

She closed the door behind him. She’d already planned exactly what she would do. She moved slowly toward the bed and slid atop it.

He swallowed audibly. “Kate?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“What are you … doing?”

“I thought you wanted to talk, James.”

He moved toward her, stood next to the bed, and reached out and touched her face. She closed her eyes and rubbed her cheek against his hand.

“Yes, I did,” he said softly. “Do you intend to talk here?” He motioned toward the bed with his chin.

“Yes.” She looked up at him through her lashes. She was vulnerable. So vulnerable. And she was offering herself to him. He only had to reach out and … take her. “Among other things.”

His eyes were smoldering green. He leaned down, his lips hovering over hers. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she repeated.

He kissed her then. He touched his mouth to hers, so sweetly, so softly, and Kate knew in that moment that he was giving her that instant to pull away, say no. But if she didn’t, if she kissed him back with all the passion she felt for him, they would do this, spend the night together and then perhaps nothing would be the same. And she was all right with that.

She’d already made her decision. She moved up to her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck. She slid her lips near his ear. “I have to tell you something.”

His answer came through clenched teeth. “What?” She could tell he was fighting with himself, intent on not touching her until they established what would happen between them tonight.

“I don’t feel much like talking.”

His mouth hovered above hers. His sensual lips slowly formed a smile. “Neither do I.”

He braced his hands on either side of her hips and leaned over, over, over, until she was lying completely back on the mattress. Then he moved up and placed his hands on either side of her head and he lowered his mouth and kissed her. He kept himself above her, hovering over her, not touching her. He stared down at her body. His eyes raking her from the tips of her toes to the crown of her head. “Kate, you look like a dream,” he whispered.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to pull him atop her but he wouldn’t allow it. She arched a brow.

“No hurry.” He gave her a mischievous smile that she felt all the way to her toes.

“Mmm,” she murmured. “James?”

“Yes?” He kissed her again. His tongue met hers.

“This time will you let me take your clothes off?”

A shudder passed through him. “Absolutely.”

“Oh good.” She smiled against his cheek.

He pulled away from her briefly, sat on the edge of the bed, and quickly shucked his boots. Then he lay on the bed next to her, his back completely against the mattress. He crossed his arms under his head. “I’m yours to undress.”

Kate smiled a catlike smile. “Excellent.”

She rolled over and threw a leg across his two, then sat up, bracing her knees on either side of his hips. She watched him. His green eyes grew wide. He was obviously trying to keep his face blank. She’d just see about that. Excitement and anxiety raced through her entire body. They were really going to do this, the two of them. She’d been waiting for so long, dreaming about this moment. She didn’t want it to end. She needed to remember it forever.

She reached out and ran a hand down his muscled chest. His shirt was open at the neck, revealing a bit of dark chest hair. He shuddered again, and she let her fingers trail from the patch of warm skin at the V in his neck to his waist. His muscles rippled under her fingertips, and she longed to tear the white shirt from his body and fling it to the floor.

“James?”

“Yes, love?” His voice sounded a bit strained, pained.

“How does it make you feel when I … touch you?”

“It’s just like…” He closed his eyes. “Torture.”

She yanked his shirt from the top of his breeches, and James sat up straight, helping her. He tugged it over his head with both hands. She took it from him and soon discarded it by tossing it to a heap on the floor. Then she sat back and reveled in the unadulterated view of him from the waist up. He was lean and muscled and perfect-looking. Lord Colton and Lord Ashbourne had spoken of their love for boxing when they’d all gone to the farm, but James hadn’t mentioned his favorite sport. “How do you stay in such good … form?” she asked a bit hesitantly. “Surely not boxing?”

He smiled at that and shook his head. “No. I prefer fencing. I do it every day at the club. In addition to riding in the park.”

She bit her lip. “I had no idea you were so…” Her fingers glanced off the six muscles that stood out in sharp relief on his belly. “Well made.”

He closed his eyes, a grin on his lips. “By all means, look all you like.”

Kate smiled at that. She intended to. Frankly, she’d never seen her husband entirely naked. Oh, he’d been nude with her, certainly, but she’d never actually … looked. Instead she’d been too frightened and shy, and their interactions had been over too quickly. This time, with James, she intended to look her fill and perhaps learn a thing or two, and with James she knew the view would be an absolute delight.

The firelight glanced off his velvety skin. She pushed her hands over his muscled shoulders and stroked him. Then she took a deep breath. The line of hair that trailed from his chest led down past the top of his trousers. She desperately wanted to see that part of him. She closed her eyes briefly and breathed in the intoxicating male scent of him. He was glorious, gorgeous, as if he’d been chiseled in stone. James might not be the dashing charmer that Lord Ashbourne and Lord Colton were, but he was so handsome and unassuming and funny and steadfast and true. Why any woman would look twice at a rogue when they had a man as deliciously perfect as James in their presence, she would never understand. But the other ladies’ loss was her gain, and she intended to take absolute advantage … in every possible way.

She let her tapered nails drift down his hard abdomen and come to rest on the buttons of his breeches. James squeezed shut his eyes and moaned. “Be gentle, darling,” he said with a bit of humor in his voice.

“Oh, I intend to pay you back for the exquisite torture you afforded me the last time we were alone together like this.”

His teeth tugged at his bottom lip, and a surge of lust shot through Kate and pooled in between her legs. Oh God, she wanted to rip off his breeches, pull him on top of her and beg him to take her. Instead, she braced her hand on his flat abdomen and slowly allowed her fingers to descend.

James shuddered. She slipped her fingers into the holes and, one by one, released each straining button. Through the fabric of his trousers she felt him, big, hard, wanting her, reaching for her. She traced her fingertips over him. No surprise. He was better than George in that regard too. She’d never spent much time touching George down there, but James’s size put her former husband’s to shame. She knew that much.

James groaned as she stroked him up and down through the fabric. After all the buttons were undone, she slipped her hand in his trousers and wrapped her fingers around him. His groan intensified. “Kate,” he gasped.

She squeezed him. She stroked him. And then she leaned down, slowly, oh so slowly, and she kissed him. There. His hips nearly bucked off the bed. “God damn it,” he cried out, his fingers tangling in her long hair.

He rolled her over then, and suddenly his breeches were completely gone. “Kate,” he whispered. “I need to see you, to feel you.”

“Yes,” was all she said.

* * *

James pulled her flimsy night rail over her head and discarded it in a rolled-up ball that he tossed away with one hand. He leaned back and took in the unreal beauty of Kate’s body. She was like a painting come to life, all alabaster skin, perfect large breasts with pink tips, a tiny waist, enticing rounded hips, and the hair and eyes of a goddess. “You’re perfect, Kate. You take my breath away.”

She smiled at that and met his eyes. “I was going to say the same thing about you.”

His hand shook a little. The red triangle of hair between her thighs beckoned him. He leaned down and breathed in her maddening scent just before he kissed her there, just as she had done to him.

Kate gasped. Her hips twitched beneath him. She spread her legs. “James, I want you,” she breathed.

“I want you too, goddess,” he said just before he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Then he moved his head to her breasts and lavished them both with his tongue. He tugged one with his mouth, while the other he tortured with his fingers, rubbing the nipple between his thumb and index finger, nipping at it, plucking at it, all the while keeping up his mouth’s assault on the other breast. He kneaded it with his lips, kissed it, sucked it, and Kate arched her back off the bed and cupped his dark head to her chest.