Dare, too, felt the same longing. Their third night together he chose a different room, this one a study on the lower floor made up like a hunting lodge, walled with stag antlers and stuffed boars' heads.

"Another fantasy of mine," he said when Julienne saw the sable furs spread out before the hearth.

He built a roaring fire, and they toasted bread and cheese and fed each other between languid, heated kisses. Then they undressed each other slowly, taking their time, savoring the moment.

Dare left her hair for last… discarding the pins… letting the shining cascade tumble to her shoulders. Tangling his fingers in the silk, he tilted her head back so he could taste her warm parted lips, ready for his own. Then gently he lay Julienne down before the fire and ran his hands over her body, stroking the intoxicating softness of her skin.

He found the contrast of her luminous flesh against the luxurious fur riveting. And when her scent filled his nostrils, musky and beguiling in the warm room, every muscle in his body tightened with need.

"You're tempting as sin, lying there."

He was just as tempting, Julienne thought. His eyes glowed in the warm light of the fire, while his hair shimmered like molten gold.

With careless grace he stretched out beside her on the furs, lounging on one elbow. He gazed down at her, studying her with a mesmerizing intensity as palpable as a caress. His eyes took possession of her wherever they touched. Then his warm, naked fingers joined the exploration, finding her most sensitive spots, skimming over her flesh with the same seductiveness as his voice.

Julienne lost her breath long before he rolled her over so that she was lying facedown on the fur. He ran a finger along her spine, making her arch her back. Then, lightly grasping her hips, he lifted her to her knees so that she was bent over, with him kneeling, poised behind her.

Her fingers clenched in the rich fur when she realized his intent. But she craved the thrill of his possession any way he wanted her. She was hot, aching inside, the emptiness between her legs throbbing.

For a moment Dare stroked the smooth bottom cheeks that were brazenly presented for his attention. Julienne tensed as she felt his rigid maleness probe the center of her body, while her heart began a steady hammering.

"Dare?" she murmured.

"Easy," he said, calming her. He gripped his engorged shaft in his hand and slid the swollen crest over the lips of her sex, anointing it with honeyed liquid from her body.

Her breath grew shallow. She felt the press of his thighs, lean and powerful, urging her legs wider, felt the scoring heat of him as he leaned into her. Sweet shocks ripped through her as he invaded her sleek feminine passage, filling her inch by inch with his massive member.

Desire coiled inside her at his deep penetration, but then his hips began a slow undulation, rousing a devastating buildup of feverish hunger.

A gasp lodged in her throat as his hands reached for her dangling breasts, stroking them, teasing her hardened nipples, inflaming her bare flesh, even as he whispered heated, erotic love words.

The burn sharpened, intensified, when he slid his hand around to her throbbing sex. All the while he was moving inside her, ravishing her with long, slow strokes, sheathing and drawing away till it became exquisite torture.

Her body turned molten. When she surged back against him, impaling herself, his rhythm increased. In time to her whimpers, he drove deeper and deeper, every rocking movement, every possessive claiming forcing a husky cry from her. In only moments she felt delirious ecstasy rush toward her, felt Dare surrender as he was caught up in the same fierce tumult. At his ragged groan, fire exploded through her veins. Julienne threw her head back as shudder after shudder racked her.

The warm, pulsing rapture throbbed through her senses long after she collapsed bonelessly on the fur.

Dare followed her down. Bracing himself to spare her the full force of his weight, he curled his body around hers and reached up above her head, entwining their fingers together. Her ivory skin was moist in a silken sweat, and he pressed his lips against the flesh of her back.

The room was quiet but for the crackling fire and their raw, rasping breaths. He lay inside her half-hard, wholly intoxicated, desperately wanting more of her, desire still sharp and insistent.

He wanted.

He wanted to stay with Julienne like this forever, lost in this moment. Wanted to keep her here with him, where he could cherish her to his heart's content. It was a primal, elemental need that was soul deep.

It was love, he no longer had any doubt.

His chest squeezed with a hollow ache. Despite everything, some uncontrollable part of him loved Julienne still, had always loved her.

He shut his eyes, filled with a blind yearning. He had vowed to drive her other lovers from her mind, but by his very act of possessing her, she had managed utterly to possess him.

The victory was hers.

And if she came to realize her power over him? If she chose to wield it? If she betrayed him once again?

Dare felt a blade of fear stab him. The pain this time would be unbearable.

The possibility made him even more keenly aware of the heavy urgency of his task. He needed to make Julienne as obsessed with him as he was with her.

And yet, Dare realized with a sinking heart, his time with her was running out.

The rain finally ended the following day, and the sun at last reappeared. They spent the morning tramping through the beechwood like young lovers, laughing and sharing kisses beneath the bright canopy of spring leaves that had burst out almost overnight.

Dare displayed his chivalry by finding patches of wildflowers for Julienne, and she made a wreath of them, crowning her flowing hair so that she resembled a pagan goddess. Dare found the sight irresistible, even though it reminded him so painfully of their long-ago summer together.

When he commented on her luscious appearance, however, Julienne shook her head with a provocative smile.

"Not a goddess, a fairy queen. I've always enjoyed playing Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream. But I suppose I will never again have the chance if I remain in London."

The laws governing the thespian world were strict, Dare knew. Only two London theaters held royal patents that permitted them to enact tragedies-Drury Lane and Covent Garden. As a result, it had become common practice for actors to perform in tragedies or comedies, but not both. The public's expectations precluded switching roles.

"You can play Queen Titania if you will allow me to be your King Oberon," Dare said, nuzzling aside her sweet-scented tresses to kiss her nape.

Throwing him an alluring glance over her shoulder, Julienne murmured, "If you can catch me." Then, with a laugh, she ran off into the forest. Dare sprinted after her, eager for the chase.

For the rest of the day, he kept the mood in the same light vein and teased her by promising her a surprise later. Julienne thought his promise fulfilled when on the edge of a meadow they found a picnic prepared by invisible servants, but Dare denied it.

When they returned to the house, he led her to a chamber she had never seen, this one on the first floor.

"Is this my surprise?" Julienne asked as he opened the door.

"In part."

Inside the air was warm and moist-caused by steam rising from the surface of a large, rectangular tiled pool, she saw.

"A Turkish bath?" Julienne said with delight as she moved across the floor. "I have heard of these."

"Heated pipes feed the pool and keep the water hot."

It seemed the height of luxury to Julienne, who was accustomed to cold York winters. The height of decadence as well, knowing Dare as she did. "This seems an ideal place for an orgy," she remarked archly.

His eyes glinted wickedly. "Patience, sweet. We will get to that."

To one side of the room, French doors opened onto a private courtyard, letting in the sweet smell of spring and a flood of sunlight that warmed the room further. It spilled over the lush pile of cushions that were spread beside the pool.

When Dare led her over to the cushions, she gave him a skeptical glance. "What do you have planned, Dare? Are we not to try the bath?"

"All in good time. I mean to introduce you to the pleasures of an oil massage first. You won't be disappointed, I assure you."

Beside the cushions sat a glass flagon of what looked like oil, Julienne saw. Eager to begin, she started to undress, but Dare stopped her by kissing each one of her fingertips.

"No, you aren't to help. Just relax and allow me to perform my duty."

"Your duty?"

"You would agree that it is my duty as your host to keep you properly serviced?"

A streak of heat coursed through Julienne at the thought, a heat that had nothing to do with the elevated temperature of the sunlit room.

Deciding to play along with his seduction, she allowed him to undress her. For once he pinned her hair up instead of taking it down.

"The better to reach all your skin," he said in explanation.

When she was naked, Dare arranged her as he wished, so that she lay in beautiful disarray on the cushions, her dark hair coiled high in a glorious mass.

He gazed down at her, his eyes heavy-lidded, sweeping every curve and hollow of her body. He felt his loins harden. "Titania never looked so tempting."

Julienne felt herself flush at the flames in his eyes. She couldn't look away as he sat beside her and reached for the bottle.