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stomach. He grunted more in surprise than pain and caught her arm before she
could flee in fury.
    “What the deuce was that for?” He gripped her arm, refusing
to let it go when she tried to jerk from his grasp.
    “That was for being a stupid man with a sarcastic mouth, Mr.
Hampton. I cannot believe I’ve risked my reputation and possibly my life just
to endure your insults. Let me go. It is obvious we have nothing further to say
to each other.”
    “I wouldn’t say it’s so obvious, Miss Wellington. I
generally demand a good deal more explanation than that when someone thumps me
in the gut. But if you insist upon behaving as a hysterical female, I can see
where it might be useless to continue our discussion.”
    “What discussion?” she cried in frustration. “I’m the one
who discovered the illegal brandy. I’m the one who came up with the names. And
so far, I’m the only one who has come up with any ideas as to how to catch
them. All you have done is snipe at me with masculine bigotry. I hit you in the
stomach, Mr. Hampton, because that’s what a man would have done in my place.”
    She wriggled to the end of the blanket, trying to escape his
unrelenting hold and dark mask of anger. She had reacted instinctively, not
with any smidgen of common sense at all. Any fool could see he was twice her
size and capable of great harm. Even another man would have thought twice
before doing what she had.
    To her surprise, he regarded her with a calm lift of his eyebrow
and dropped his hold. “I see. Instead of calling me out, you prefer fisticuffs.
You are a most unusual woman, Miss Wellington. I’m not certain how to proceed.”
    “You may proceed by climbing on your high horse and riding
out of here, Mr. Hampton. I no longer require your assistance.”
    “If that harebrained scheme of yours is how you intend to
catch a wily band of smugglers, Miss Wellington, you need my assistance more
than you can imagine. If this is any example of how you generally conduct your
business, it is a wonder your father did not marry you off long ago to some
brute of a husband who would beat some sense into you.”
    Evelyn’s muffled scream of outrage gave fair warning this
time. Alex caught her by the waist and flung her back against the blanket
before she could launch another attack. She was up in a flash, but he caught
her shoulders and held her down again.
    Instead of giving her the tongue-lashing she deserved, he stared
into furious violet eyes. Her lush, rose-colored lips should never be tainted
with the curses currently passing them. Reacting to the soft, supple curves
beneath his hands, Alex leaned over and swallowed her accusations with his kiss.
    Lightning careened through him. Heat melded his mouth to
hers. Her lips melted, and instead of struggling, she let him explore. The physical
sensation of two bodies cuddling in the warmth of a summer day recalled
pleasant memories.
    With mindless lassitude, he parted her lips and taught her
the forbidden pleasure of his tongue.
    She panicked, clamped her teeth closed, and beat at his arms
with her fists. He moved his exploratory kisses to the corner of her mouth and
along her cheek, but she continued to fight, tossing her head back and forth.
    Alex pushed himself up and stared into her terrified face
with anger and puzzlement. “You do not like that manner of kissing? Or did I
mistakenly eat garlic for lunch?”
    “Of all the arrogant, presumptuous, dunderheaded, mindless
jackasses of men I have ever had the misfortune to meet . . .
Let me go!”
    It was a severe temptation not to comply. She had returned
his kiss with a passion Alex recognized. Even now he could see her breasts
rising against the confinement of her cotton bodice. He knew he had only to
touch the erect tip pushing against the thin material to persuade her back into
his arms. Her face was flushed with pleasure and beautiful with her desire.
    But he was no longer sixteen and didn’t need to exhaust his
lust