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of her quim and slipping inside. She was wet, very wet and warm—oh, so warm. He withdrew his hand. God, it would be so easy to… No, he had to play the gentleman—when he felt like anything but a gentleman.
    “This is the exact sort of thing I do not want to have to deal with.”
    A soft snore answered him. The effect was like someone had peeled back his skull and applied a flame to the base of his brain. He’d never been so angry and so sexually frustrated at the same time.
    He detested this sort of situation. This was the very reason he kept this part of his life well ordered. But this was entirely his doing. He’d been tempted by a hoyden and succumbed. He’d invited this into his life.
    He took a deep, deep, breath, then pulled the sheet over her. Briefly, he considered getting half-seas-over himself. But no, that’d be a manifest for disaster. And she might yet become ill and need his assistance. He climbed into bed and stretched out beside her.
    He brushed the hair off her face, revealing fine features that looked so innocent and young in sleep. Tenderness crashed over him, blending with the lust, the anger, the frustration, into a swirling hurricane.
    And, maddeningly, it made him want her all the more. What was he to do with his wild girl?
     
    * * * *
     
    Dry-mouthed, Grey startled awake and glanced over at Beth where she stood by the bed. Several hours must have passed. Rays of late-day sun crept through the crack of the curtains, sparkling in tones of pink and orange on her long, flowing hair. A ribbon of gold light highlighted the outline of her gently curved ass.
    By God, she was gorgeous.
    Tenderness choked him and he cleared his throat.
    She whirled to face him, her eyes wide and bluer-than-blue.
    “Beth, are you all right?”
    “Ha! Why don’t you just require me to be all right?” Her contemptuous tone sent all his tender feelings to the dustbin.
    Turning away, she tottered around and caught herself on a chair. After a moment’s pause, she continued towards the sideboard.
    Damn it all, she’s determined to fall flat on her face.
    He leapt after her and caught her about the waist from behind. Contact with her bare, desirable body wiped the lingering sleep from his brain. Through his pantaloons, his erection surged against the soft cushion of her ass. He couldn’t repress a groan and his hand splayed over her flat belly of its own will.
     “Let me go, you damned coxcomb,” she said breathlessly, jerking in his grasp.
    The friction of her naked body against his sent a wave of sexual need through him, threatening to overwhelm his control. He gritted his teeth against it and sweat broke out on his brow. He forced himself to be reasonable. “Settle down, before you hurt yourself. Let’s get you back to bed before you fall on your face. When you’re sober, we can compare notes and decide who has more cause for grievance.”
    “Oh, very amusing. Well, for your information I am recovered and, furthermore, I am leaving.” She twisted herself around, glaring. “And I am never coming back.”
    She couldn’t mean it. She had to come back.
    Nevertheless, her eyes were hard.
    She had the power to deny him. He, who needed no one. He gaped at her, stupefied. She had somehow inserted herself under his skin—and now had him practically on his knees at her feet.
    How had that happened?
    She continued staring at him, eyes sober and startlingly blue. “Did you hear? I am leaving,” she said.
    Resolution pounded through his blood. Of its own accord, his grip tightened on her.
    “I don’t think so.” God, was that harsh voice really his? “At least not yet.”
     
    * * * *
     
    “You can’t keep me here.” Beth threw all her defiance into the statement.
    Brave words, to be sure. However, she’d willingly placed herself here, vulnerable to him. He could do anything he damn well pleased and she’d have little recourse against him without opening herself to ruin.
    Her mouth went dry. What did she