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a particularly nice smile. “I’m a thief. A brigand. A man wanted by the Crown. You can hardly predict what I might do now, can you?”
    Julianna took a deep breath. Her blood was be ginning to run cold. “You won’t hurt me.”
    “What makes you so certain? You’ve seen my face, remember.”
    Julianna did not appreciate the reminder. “You wouldn’t have brought me here,” she said with far more certainty than she felt. “You’d have left me in the coach. And though I wish I could say otherwise, I’ve nothing of value with me, save the necklace I wear. No other jewelry, no—”
    “Perhaps I brought you here for another pur pose.”
    “What purpose?” Too late, she realized the foolishness of such a question. Stupidly, she re alized she hadn’t considered the possibility, not really.
    But apparently he had. Or at least he was .
    His gaze slid down her neck, unabashedly ir reverent. Julianna drew a sharp breath, only to realize his attention was not riveted on the lace edge of her bodice. Glancing down, she was shocked to confront soft, pink flesh—the weight of his body had thrust up her breasts so that they were nearly half-exposed. She tried to wrench her arms down, but his fingers tightened ever so slightly.
    “Perhaps I brought you here for my own”— there was a telling pause, a wicked arch of brow—“amusement. After all, we’re alone in this cottage, kitten, just the two of us.”
    Julianna’s throat closed off. She couldn’t breathe. For the space of a heartbeat, she literally could not find a scrap of air in her lungs. She blanched, locking her lips to keep them from trembling.
    What a fool she was! Had she really wished for a little adventure? Now she wished for all the world that she could take back her earlier words.
    But if he expected her to cower, she wouldn’t. Pride alone forbade it. She swallowed painfully. “Then do what you will. I won’t fight you.” It was a statement made with quiet dignity. “But you may as well know I’ll find no pleasure in it.”
    Something flickered across his face. “Bravely spoken. But you may set your mind at ease. I will not force upon you a fate worse than death. Your virtue is safe ...at least for the moment. An other time, perhaps. For now, I’ve other things to do.”
    He mocked her. He wounded her. But he let her go, and as he did, an icy tremor shot through her. The instant she was free, Julianna scrambled up against the wall, as far away from him as she could get.
    He pulled a shirt over his head, then moved to retrieve a dark cloak from a hook on the wall, along with a black silk mask—his costume from the previous night, she realized. Folding them neatly, he put them into a small pouch and tugged the drawstring tight.
    “You’re leaving?” she asked. Drawing her knees against her chest, she regarded him.
    “Oh, you need not fret,” he said smoothly. “I’ll be back, I promise.”
    “What? More coaches to rob? More women to kidnap?”
    “I think not. The bed would be rather crowded with three of us, don’t you think? Though perhaps the idea does hold merit.”
    Did her tormentor see her blush? She had the disconcerting sensation he did, and that he de lighted in it. “You’re quite despicable.” Her tone conveyed her disgust.
    “So you’ve told me.”
    “And I have no intention of sleeping with you in this bed.”
    His smile was naught but a charade. “You slept with me last night, kitten.” The silken undertone in his voice was decidedly seductive.
    “And I won’t be doing so again!” she told him heatedly.
    He laughed, the rogue, he laughed! “What righteous indignation! Why, if your behavior is any indication, I could almost believe you’ve never shared a bed with a man before.”
    Julianna had no intention of dignifying such a comment. But she sucked in a breath when he ap proached again. It was all she could do not to launch herself from the bed. Miraculously, she held her ground.
    Did he smile? Did he