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wot I’m sellin’. If you don’t want it, no ’ard feelings. Just move on, awright?”
    Damn it all, he didn’t want to move on. The woman— Ruby —seemed to possess something special. He didn’t know what it was. Hell, he hadn’t even gotten a good look at her yet. But he wanted her badly, and he couldn’t say why. She seemed to ooze carnal hunger. He thought he could smell the lust on her skin. And she had a lot of skin.
    Suddenly, he was eager to see more. His hand went to her breast, which was warm and heavy. He moved to tug the cheap velvet down so that he might fill his mouth with it, but she pulled his hand away and pushed it back.
    “Wot’s yer hurry, gov?”
    “I’m paying you,” he said. “What do you care?”
    She pulled a little away. “You’re a big man, Mr. Devellyn,” she whispered. “P’raps I ought’er be afraid o’ you?”
    He tried to smile. “I think not.”
    She fluttered her lashes suggestively. “But I am a little,” she confessed, her voice growing husky. “I think a great big buck like you needs ter be managed a bit.”
    “Managed?” he asked.
    “Made ter go slow,” she whispered. “Made ter take his time wiv ’is business.”
    He chuckled softly. “And how do you propose to do that?”
    “Oh, I have me ways,” said Ruby, her voice provocative. “Me specialty, you might say.”
    He couldn’t help but be intrigued. “And just what sort of specialty would that be, my girl?”
    She paused for a moment. “I can make you beg for it, Devellyn.”
    “I don’t think so,” he answered. “I’m a straightforward sort of fellow, Ruby. I don’t fancy anything unusual. Just a good, hard ride will do.”
    In the dim light, he could see her mouth form an amazingly pretty pout. She was not really afraid of him, he didn’t think—though he’d come across one or two women who were. But Ruby, he decided, just wanted to toy with him a bit. And what was the harm? He was tired of cards, tired of trawling from one hell to the next with his friends in search of something he hadn’t already seen, had, or tasted. Tired of life, really.
    Certainly he was too tired to go looking for a mistress to replace Camelia. Then he’d seen the redhead and realized he couldn’t completely do without, either. But her lush bottom lip was quivering now, and she was looking disappointed. That seemed to be his specialty, disappointing women. Suddenly, and very foolishly, he decided not to disappoint this one.
    He reached around and filled his hand with her arse. “All right, Ruby,” he whispered, crudely lifting her pelvis against the erection straining at his trousers. “Have your way with me. I’ve got all bloody night to get what I want from you.”
    Ruby smiled and slid her hands up his chest beneath his coat, pushing it off his shoulders. Devellyn let go of his luscious handful and allowed the coat to slide onto the floor.
    She made a sound of satisfaction in her throat. “Not an ounce o’ padding on you, is there?” Her voice was thick as he urged his cock against her. “And that’s a reg’lar tipstaff shoved down yer trousers.”
    He gave a wry smile, and watched her slender fingers brush his flesh through the wool. It felt wicked. Wonderful. He gave a little moan of pleasure. “Tell me something, gov’nor,” she rasped, her hands going to his waistcoat. “You said yer wanted it slow. Do you?”
    Devellyn watched the buttons slip free. “That depends,” he said. “How do you like it, Ruby?”
    She lowered her lashes and wouldn’t look him in the eyes. “I likes it slow, Mr. Devellyn,” she whispered. “Real slow. And I like my man to beg a little. Nothing gets a girl’s blood up like a hot, sweating stallion of a man straining at the bit.”
    It sounded oddly tempting to him. She pushed his waistcoat off. Cool air breezed up the back of his shirt. “Perhaps you’d best tell me what your game is, Ruby,” he murmured.
    The pout reappeared. “No need ter play, Mr.