She was a goddess in his arms, soft and sumptuous, and he wanted to feel her, every inch. He wanted to

touch and stroke and knead, and Good Lord, he almost forgot he was kissing her, too. But her body…her body was a thing of beauty. It was a bloody miracle in his arms, and when he finally lifted his mouth from hers to draw breath, he couldn’t help it. He moaned and then moved down to her jaw, to her throat. He didn’t just want to kiss her mouth. He wanted to kiss her everywhere.

“Annabel,” he groaned, his fingers nimbly finding the buttons at the back of her frock. He was good. He knew exactly how to disrobe a woman. He usually did it slowly, savoring every moment, every new inch of flesh, but with her…he couldn’t wait. He was like a madman, pushing each button through its hole until he’d got enough undone to push the dress down over her shoulders.

Her chemise was very plain, no silk, no lace, just thin white cotton. But it drove him wild. She didn’t need embellishment. She’d been made perfectly.

With shaking fingers he went to the ties at her shoulders and tugged, barely able to breathe as the thin strips of fabric fell away.

He whispered her name, and then again, and again. He heard her moan, a soft little squeak of noise which grew deeper and huskier as his hand slid along her shoulder, down to the luscious curve of her breast. She was only lightly corseted, but the stays pushed her up, making her breasts impossibly high and round.

He nearly lost control of himself right then.

He had to stop this. It was madness. She was a proper young lady, and he was treating her like—

He pressed one final kiss against her skin, breathing in the hot scent of her, and then wrenched himself away.

“I’m sorry,” he gasped. But he wasn’t. He knew he should be, but he didn’t think he could ever regret having held her so intimately.

He started to turn away, because he didn’t think he could see her and not touch her again, but just before he did, he saw that her eyes were closed.

His heart dropped, and he rushed to her side. “Annabel?” He touched her shoulder, then her cheek. “What is wrong?”

“Nothing,” she whispered.

His finger moved to her temple, right to the corner of her eye. “Why are your eyes closed?”

“I’m afraid.”

“Of what?”

She swallowed. “Of myself.” And then she opened her eyes. “Of what I might want. And what I have to do.”

“Did you not want me to…” Dear God, had she not wanted him? He tried to think. Had she returned the kiss? Had she touched him in return? He couldn’t remember. He’d been so overwhelmed by her, by his own need, that he couldn’t remember what she’d done.

“No,” she said softly. “I wanted you to. That’s the problem.” She closed her eyes again, but just for a moment. She looked like she was trying to restore something within herself, and then she opened them again. “Could you help me?”

He started to say yes, that he’d help her. He’d do whatever was within his power to protect her from his uncle, to save her family and keep her brothers in school, but then he saw that she was motioning to the ties of her chemise, and he realized that all she actually wanted was help getting dressed.

So he did that. He tied her ties and buttoned her buttons, and he didn’t say a word as she took a seat near the window and he found one by the door.

They waited. And they waited. And then finally, after what seemed like hours, Annabel stood and said, “She’s back.”

Sebastian rose to his feet, watching Annabel as she peered out the window at Olivia, alighting from her carriage. She turned, and it just came out of him:

“Will you marry me?”

Chapter Eighteen

Annabel nearly fell on her face. “What?”

“Not precisely the answer I’d been expecting,” Sebastian murmured.

Still, she could not quite grasp it. “You want to marry me?”

He cocked his head to the side. “I believe I just inquired about it, yes.”

“You don’t have to,” Annabel assured him, because…because she was an idiot, and that was clearly what idiots did when men asked to marry them. They told them they didn’t have to.

“Are you saying no?” he asked.

“No!”

He smiled. “Then you are saying yes.”

“No.” Dear God, she felt dizzy.

He took a step toward her. “You’re not speaking very plainly, Annabel.”

“You purposefully caught me off guard,” she accused.

“I caught myself off guard,” he said softly.

She gripped the back of the chair she’d been sitting in. It was horribly uncomfortable piece of furniture,

but it had been near the window, and she’d wanted to look out for Lady Olivia, and—oh for heaven’s sake, why was she thinking about a stupid chair? Sebastian Grey had just asked her tomarry him.

She glanced out the window. Lady Olivia was still in her carriage. She had two minutes, three at most. “Why?” she asked Sebastian.

“You’re asking me why?”

She nodded. “I’m not a damsel in distress. Well, Iam , but it is not your responsibility to rescue me.”

“No,” he agreed.

She’d been ready with an argument. Not a coherent one, but still, an argument. This, however, completely flummoxed her. “No?”

“You’re right. It’s not my responsibility.” He walked over, seductively closing the distance between them. “It would, however, be my pleasure.”

“Oh my.”

He smiled.

“I’m back!” It was Lady Olivia, calling out from the hall.

Annabel looked up at Sebastian. He was standing very close.

“I kissed you,” he said softly.

She could not speak. She could barely breathe.

“I kissed you in ways a husband kisses a wife.”

Somehow he was even closer than before. Now she definitely couldn’t breathe.

“I think,” he murmured, his breath now close enough to heat her skin, “that you liked it.”

“Sebastian?” It was Lady Olivia. “Oh!”

“Later, Olivia,” he said, not even turning around. “And close the door.”

Annabel heard the door shut. “Mr. Grey, I’m not sure—”

“Don’t you think it’s time to start calling me Sebastian?”

She swallowed. “Sebastian, I—”

“I’m sorry.” It was Lady Olivia again, bursting in. “I can’t.”

“Youcan , Olivia,” Sebastian ground out.

“No, I really can’t. It’s my house, and she’s unmarried, and—”

“And I’masking her to marry me.”

“Oh!” The door shut again.

Annabel tried to keep her head, but it was difficult. Sebastian was smiling down at her as if he might like to nibble her from top to toes, and she was starting to feel the strangest sensations in areas of her body she’d almost forgotten she’d possessed. But she couldn’t forget that Lady Olivia was almost certainly standing right outside the door, and she also couldn’t forget that—

“Wait a moment!” she exclaimed, wedging her hands between them. She gave him a little push, and when that didn’t work, turned it into a shove.

He stepped back, but he didn’t stop smiling.

“You just said to her that you didn’t want to marry me,” she said.

“Hmmm?”

“Just a few hours ago. When I was crying. You said you’d known me barely a week.”

He looked unconcerned. “Oh, that.”

“Did you think I didn’t hear?”

“Ihave known you barely a week.”

She didn’t reply, so Sebastian leaned down and stole a quick kiss. “I changed my mind.”

“In”—she looked crazily around the room for a clock—“two hours?”

“Two and a half, actually.” He gave her his most wicked smile. “But they were a rather momentous two and a half hours, wouldn’t you agree?”

Olivia came crashing through the door. “What did youdo to her?”

Sebastian groaned. “You’d make a terrible spy, did you know that?”

Olivia practically flew across the room. “Did you compromise her in my drawing room?”

“No,” Annabel said quickly. “No. No. No, no, no. No.”

That was quite a lot of no’s, Seb thought peevishly.

“He kissed me,” Annabel said to Olivia, “but that’s all.”

Sebastian crossed his arms. “When did you become such a prude, Olivia?”

“It’s mydrawing room !”

He didn’t see a problem with that. “You weren’t here,” he pointed out.

“That’s it,” Olivia declared, stomping past him and taking Annabel’s arm. “You’re coming with me.”

Oh no, she wasn’t. “Where do you think you’re taking her?” he demanded.

“Home. I just drove by. Newbury’s gone.”

Seb crossed his arms. “She hasn’t given me an answer yet.”

“She’ll give it to you tomorrow.” Olivia turned to Annabel. “You can give him your answer tomorrow.”

“No. Wait a moment.” Sebastian reached out and yanked Annabel back. Olivia wasnot going to take over his marriage proposal. Holding Annabel firmly at his side, he turned back to Olivia and said, “You were just hounding me to ask her to marry me, and now you’re taking her away?”

“You were trying to seduce her.”

“If I’d been trying to seduce her,” he growled, “you’d have found a much different scene when you arrived.”

“I’m still here,” Annabel said.

“I may be the only woman in London who has never been in love with you,” Olivia said, jabbing a finger toward Sebastian, “but that does not mean I don’t know how charming you can be.”

“Why, Olivia,” he said, “such lovely compliments.”

Annabel held up a hand. “Still here.”

“She will make up her mind in the privacy of her own home, and not while you’re looking at her with those…those…eyes.”