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woman aside from his protection. For many, that would be enough. But this girl was not of that category, despite the astonishing passion with which she’d returned his kisses.
    She stunned him. Made him feel. Made him want. And taking her as his mistress would simply not do.
    To the brave and beautiful Emma Whiteside, he wanted nothing less than to offer his family’s name, enveloping her in all the security and consequence his title could provide. If she would have him. If she refused him, the pain would far surpass the residual effects of his wounds.
    He nuzzled her neck, kissing the tender skin below the curve of her jaw, nibbling her ear—the only parts of her exposed to him. Emma tensed, but he felt an excited quiver ripple through her.
    “This isn’t at all proper, my lord.”
    “Adam.”
    “Adam.” She exhaled his name in a small, uncertain sigh of contentment.
    “Do you wish me to stop, poppet?”
    She remained silent so long, he nearly missed her low, trembling “No.” And then, more forcefully, “You know I don’t, you terrible wretch.”
    “Excellent. Because I’m not at all sure I can.”
    Adam bent toward her again, kissing her temple, her cheek. Her delicious, velvety flesh heated beneath his questing lips. Her reaction made his spirits soar and his pulse race. She leaned back against him, the soft cushion of her curvy rump presenting a particularly cruel bit of torment between his spread thighs. His cock leaped and throbbed as he pushed the thick ridge of his erection against her, groaning into her fragrant hair. Sweet torture. Could she feel how hard and hot she made him?
    He tasted her from her tender earlobe, across her jawline, up her smooth cheek to the corner of her mouth.
    “May I kiss you now, Emma?”
    “Isn’t that what you have been doing?” She sounded completely breathless.
    All Adam could think about was the kind of noises she would make when she was lying naked beneath him. Would she cry out and moan? Scream his name? Yes, he wanted to hear his name on her lips, when he made her come. Over and over again. His fanciful visions made him burn as nothing else had ever done.
    “I want more,” he said, his voice stark and raw. Only a supreme exertion of will kept him from whispering what he wanted more explicitly into her ear.
    But their awkward positions and the trotting gait of the horse slamming them together and apart did not allow Adam to continue his seduction. A particularly jarring bump caused him to strike the edge of his hard jaw beneath Emma’s chin.
    Lights twinkled before his eyes. Emma yelped, informing him that he’d made her bite her tongue.
    “We can’t have that,” he said. “I can think of far better uses for it.”
    Far better.
    Vivid sexual fantasies enthralled him. God, he ached. His balls were tight enough for copper pennies to bounce off them. Too stiff to move and too tired to think, he put a little more space between him and Emma and dozed the remainder of the way.
    ***
    When the large chestnut gelding clattered over the cobblestones in the courtyard, both Mrs. Billings and Jemmy came running from different directions, the plump housekeeper wiping her hands on her apron, the stable boy stumbling over his feet.
    Jemmy gawked at Emma’s tumbled skirts. She jerked them down as best she could with Adam’s weight leaning upon them.
    “Where have you been, Miss Emma? You gave us such a fright!” Mrs. Billings broke off in the midst of her scold and surveyed the magnificent Thoroughbred and the second rider, still slumped against Emma’s back.
    “Good heavens! Is that Viscount Riverton? What on earth has happened to him?”
    “He—I—” Emma took a deep breath and started anew. “His lordship was exercising on the cliffs when I happened upon him. His leg gave out. Give me a hand with him, Jemmy. We must get him inside.”
    The young stable boy helped Emma dismount and between the three of them, they managed to carry the viscount inside and lay him