Such a fire. Such a raging inferno. His passion was a mad beast, possessing him. Possessing her. But as he plunged, deeper and deeper, faster and faster, she met his passion with an equal passion of her own. Her legs wrapped round his hips. Her hands slipped over the damp skin of his back and arms and shoulders. She roused him as he roused her. But still he struggled to restrain himself.

Then he felt it, in every part of his being: she was near. He could bring her there, this innocent wanton he'd discovered in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

Her cries became more helpless. Her body tensed. Then she arched in that exquisite culmination, and he could hold back no longer. He plunged even deeper than before and exploded into her with as much pride as desire, and with as much satisfaction for her as for himself.

Afterward he held her as she eased down from the euphoria she'd found-that they'd found together. He wrapped his arms around her and held her against him, reveling in the warmth of her damp flesh against his, breathing deeply of the fragrance of man and woman joined at last. He would have to make this right, he told himself as she fitted herself more comfortably in his embrace.

Her breathing slowed; she'd fallen asleep. Harrison pressed a kiss into the heavy tangle of her glorious hair. He would have to make this right. It was one thing to carry on with your mistress, or a widow, or even someone else's wife. But to ruin an innocent young woman? No, a gentleman could not do that. He must make it right.

Yet instead of feeling trapped by that knowledge, Harrison felt the oddest sense of relief. Of freedom. He ran his hand down her arm and wove his fingers between hers. How many years had he searched for a woman to wed?

Then he sighed and smiled, and drifted into peaceful slumber.

Jinx awakened to absolute darkness and complete disorientation. Her stomach growled. She was starving. She must have missed supper. Where was she? What room was this? What bed- What man?

There was only one man it could be, and in a tumble, everything came back to her. She and Harrison had-

"Bee's knees. Toad eggs. Lizard legs! What have I done?" she muttered into the night. She tried to think and to avoid the panic that theatened to overwhelm her. But she couldn't think while lying so intimately in his arms. First she must get out of the bed.

But when she tried to slide away from him, Harrison sighed and shifted with her. She was nestled up to him, her naked backside against his naked front side. For a moment she hesitated. Had it truly been as wonderful as she remembered? A spiral of lingering passion answered yes, it had been that wonderful. That stupendous. That unbelievable.

But that did not mean it had been right.

She groaned and, for one minute only, succumbed to utter despair. What must he think of her now? And what in heaven's name was she to do?

She was saved pondering that ghastly thought by the sound of footfalls in the hall and the worried voice of a woman.

"… but it might be better if I fetch her, sir."

"Which room?" a man's voice demanded. An angry man's voice. A familiar man's voice.

"Please don't be hasty, dear," another woman pleaded.

"I'll handle this, Alice."

Alice?

Colin?

Jinx leapt upright. Colin was here? Now?

Her heart sank even as hex body sprang to life. She must stop him! She must avert this disaster.

"Not so fast," Harrison mumbled, catching her around the waist and pulling her down on top of him. He was warm and strong and her body reacted most perversely to him. "You're not ever to try to escape me again," he murmured, nuzzling her neck.

Then the door burst open, a lantern cast the room in wildly careening light, and Jinx shrieked and dove beneath the covers.

"What in bloody hell!" Harrison roared, bolting upright.

"I'll see you in hell this very night!" Colin roared back. "Get away from him, Jinx, so that I can kill him!"

"She stays right here," Harrison vowed. "Who in the hell are you?" Then he spied his sister. " Alice?" Then in the next breath, "Benchley? You bastard!" he yelled, leaping from the bed with only a pillow to cover his naked state. "I'll have your head on a pike!"

"And I'll skewer you for ruining my sister!"

Jinx peered out at the scene from beneath the rumpled bed linens. Beside the bed, tousled from sleep and from their lovemaking, Harrison, naked as the day he was born, stood tensed as if for battle. Across the room, just inside the doorway, stood Colin, livid with anger. A petite blonde clung with all her might to his arm, managing but barely to stop him from attacking Harrison.

So this was Alice. No wonder Colin had fallen in love with her. If she was even half so good-hearted as she was lovely, he'd done very well, indeed. Still, Alice was not her immediate concern.

Though it was the most humiliating moment in her life, Jinx squared her shoulders, drew the sheet up to her chin, and rose awkwardly to her knees on the mattress. "That will be quite enough from you two."

Colin transferred his furious gaze from Harrison to her… "Jinx-"

"Not one word from you," she snapped. "Not one word. How could you do it, running away like that?"

"Because we love one another," he snapped right back. "And she feared her brother would not approve of me. What are you doing here anyway?"

"Searching for you!"

"In his bed?" Colin spat. He surged forward again with knotted fists, but Alice planted herself firmly in front of him. She was tiny, but she was determined.

"I will not have my husband and my brother fighting," she swore. "I will not allow it."

"Your husband?" Harrison shouted.

"You're married?" Jinx cried.

"This morning. We're just back from Gretna Green," Alice replied. "So you see, Harrison, it is too late for you to interfere."

"Not if you haven't-" Harrison broke off and his voice dropped. "You haven't, have you?"

Alice gave him a smug smile. "We have," she replied. Colin wrapped an arm about her and looked down at his pretty new bride with such pride and love shining in his eyes that Jinx wanted to cry with happiness. Colin was such a dear. A hardheaded, opinionated dear, but a dear just the same. He deserved every happiness and she had the warm feeling he would find it with Alice.

But then Colin glowered at Harrison, and Jinx knew this mess was far from resolved.

"We are wed," Colin said. "But I doubt you two can claim that. Not yet, anyway."

Harrison had wound a section of sheeting around his hips. Unfortunately it was the end of the same sheet that shielded Jinx from view. She tugged and he tugged back, and they had no choice but to both edge nearer one another.

"This is not what it seems," Jinx began.

"Yes it is," Harrison said.

She glared at him. Whose side was he on? "This is all Colin's fault. It would never have happened if he hadn't run off with Alice."

Colin's eyes bulged with outrage. "He did this to you for revenge? You out-and-out bounder-"

"I didn't say it was revenge. And I won't have such language!" Jinx shouted.

"Nor will I!" Alice concurred.

"I did not do… did not take… did not-Bloody hell," Harrison swore. He glowered at Colin. "I fully intend to marry your sister."

"I should hope so," Colin muttered, but his tension did seem to abate somewhat.

Jinx's, however, did not. Marry her? Harrison would do that? She felt a surge of emotions: relief, joy. Then, swiftly, gloom. She did not want him to marry her out of a sense of duty.

"I believe it takes two to marry," she said. "And I'm not likely to agree'to such a union between us."

"You agreed the moment you accepted him into your bed," Colin stated, stalking right up to the footboard. "It's too late for you to say no now."

"I will not allow you to arrange my life for me, Colin. Not you, nor anyone else."

He threw his hands up in the air. "You must marry him, Jinx, or else you will be ruined. Can't you see that?"

"I must do no such thing!" she retorted.

Then a hand caught her by the arm and her argument was no longer with her brother. Harrison stared down at her, his face serious. "Why won't you marry me?"

"Because… Because…" She swallowed hard, searching for words. "For one thing, you haven't asked me. You just announced that you would marry me, without ever consulting me about it. You're far too highhanded to make a good husband-"

"Will you marry me?"

That shut up her nervous babbling.

"I…" She shook her head and frowned. "I don't think that would be at all wise. We don't get along very well. You know that's so. We disagree about everything."

"The only thing we have disagreed on was whether your brother and my sister should wed. And that has just become a moot point."

"We hardly know one another," she said.

Colin let out a snort, while Harrison grinned at her. "We know each other well enough."

Her cheeks grew hotter still. He had her there. "But… but I'm not rich enough for you," she said, beginning to run out of excuses and afraid to point out the only real reason she had to object: that he didn't love her.

Then again, did she love him?

As Jinx stared at him, at his bare chest and broad shoulders and casually tousled hair, the oddest feeling settled over her. He was smart and loyal, and honorable. He was a generous lover and had a wry sense of humor, and he had the knack of surprising her. Plus, he set her heart to racing and her stomach to churning in ways she couldn't begin to understand.

Did she love him already?

She knew at once she did.

But instead of allowing her gracefully to accede to his request, the fact that she loved him only strengthened her resolve not to let him marry her out of a sense of duty. She shook her head once more and fought back the sting of unexpected tears.

"I don't need a rich wife," he said, scowling now.

"You don't need a wife at all," she whispered.

"Perhaps we should leave," Alice suggested.

"Are you mad?" Colin exclaimed. "Look at them. They're naked."

"Yes. They are," she agreed, taking hold of his arm and steering him toward the door. "Wait a minute, Alice -"

"No, Colin. Trust me in this. They must settle this between themselves, just as we made our decision absent of the interference of others."

A nervous shiver snaked up Jinx's spine. "I don't think you should go," she said.

But it was too late. Something had passed between Alice and Colin, some shared look that lightened his mood considerably. "Perhaps you're right after all, my dear." He glanced over at Harrison and actually smiled. "I hope you can convince her to marry you, Hartley, else I'll be forced to issue you a challenge, come the dawn."

It was all too ludicrous, Jinx thought as the couple departed, closing the door with a decisive click. All along she had feared Harrison challenging Colin, but instead, her brother had issued Harrison a challenge- albeit a friendly, grinning one.

Oh, but men were a perverse lot.

Still, this madness was not yet done, for she must deal with Harrison and his dutiful, and therefore unacceptable, proposal. She cleared her throat. "You needn't offer for me simply because of what has happened here between us."

"That's not why I offered for you."

He dropped the end of the sheet and sat down beside her. She scooted to the opposite side of the bed, still hiding her nakedness.

"While it's very nice of you to say that, and I appreciate the gesture, we both know the truth."

"No, I don't believe we both do."

She chanced a sidelong glance at him. "What does that mean?"

"It means that you could not possibly know why I want to marry you. I'm only just figuring it out for myself."

Jinx clutched the sheet tighter around her and tried not to notice how magnificent he looked in the altogether. "If you mean sex, well, yes, it was very nice. Very nice," she repeated. "But there should be more to marriage than merely procreation."

At that he started to laugh. "What we did in this bed was not 'merely procreation.' That was making love, Jinx. Love."

Love? She couldn't help it. She stared at him wide-eyed, knowing her emotions were bare to his examination, knowing that with one glance he would be able to guess all her secrets.

"Yes, love," he said, answering her silent question. "I know all about duty, Jinx. I know I must wed and create an heir for the Hartley line, and I've searched diligently for a woman to fill the role of my wife. But I was always looking for her with my head, not with my heart. Only now do I see that."