Wait Until Midnight

SEVENTEEN

A long time later Adam folded one arm behind his head and pulled Caroline close beneath the old blanket. She snuggled and seemed to settle against him, as if preparing to go to sleep. A pleasant prospect, he thought, but not possible tonight.

"When did you plan to tell me?" he asked.

He knew he sounded brusque and unromantic; so be it. He was trying to balance a chaotic mix of emotions that had shaken him to the core.

In hindsight he knew that he had not wanted to heed the small clues that had pointed to Caroline's lack of experience. He had been only too pleased to believe that she was a widow. When that convenient fiction had evaporated earlier this evening, he had comforted himself with some equally handy assumptions concerning a shady past and a scandalous affair.

But Caroline was one surprise after another.

She yawned delicately and stretched out one leg like a small cat beneath the blanket. "Tell you what?"

He felt her toes brush against his calf. The small caress had a stirring effect.

"'That you were a virgin," he said.

Caroline went still. Then she levered herself up on one elbow and looked down at him with a puzzled frown. "Was I supposed to inform you?" she asked.

"Yes," he said unequivocally. He was as annoyed with her as he was at himself. "You were supposed to tell me. I have a rule against bedding innocents."

"Ah, so that is the problem." Her face cleared instantly. "You had a rule."

"You mock me at your peril, Caroline," he warned gently.

"Let us examine this situation logically. By innocents, I assume you refer to very young ladies with no experience of the world and who are expected to guard their reputations until marriage. Am I correct?"

"Close enough," he allowed carefully. Her glib response made him cautious. She was going to try to manipulate him. He knew it as surely as he knew his own past.

She gave him a brilliant, smug smile. "Then you have nothing to be concerned about. I do not fit into the category of innocent and therefore you have not broken your rule."

He caught a tumbled lock of her hair, curled it around his fingers and tugged gently. "No?"

"No, indeed. Only consider the facts." She held up her hand and ticked off her arguments, one by one. "First, I am no longer a young lady. I am twenty-seven years old, well past the age that the world considers either innocent or marriageable."

"Caroline—"

"Second, in the highly unlikely event that I did meet a man who could be considered potential husband material, I would feel obligated to tell him about the dreadful scandal three years ago, and that would be the end of the matter. No proper, well-bred gentleman would want to wed a woman whose reputation had been destroyed as thoroughly as mine was, even if she took an assumed name. Therefore, I see absolutely no reason whatsoever why I should have saved myself for a wedding night that will never occur."

"Your logic has a major flaw," he began.

"And last but not least," she said, interrupting him, "al-though I was, technically speaking, a virgin until quite recently, I am not lacking in experience of the ways of the world. I knew very well what I was about when I returned your kisses tonight, Adam. You did not take advantage of me. If anything, it was the other way around"

"The other way around?" Stunned by that assessment of events, he yanked his arms out from behind his head and sat up. "Are you trying to convince me that you deliberately set out to seduce me?"

She pursed her lips. "Well—"

"Because I do not believe it. Not for a moment"

"I am only saying that from the first moment we met, I was attracted to you." She waved one hand negligently. "Granted, there were some initial problems because I feared you might be a threat. But once I concluded that I could trust you, I admit I did hope that you might return my feelings."

"I see"

"I will allow that matters proceeded at a much brisker pace than I had anticipated," she continued blithely. "I certainly never expected that we would find ourselves in a passionate embrace after such a short acquaintance."

"Nor did I" He threaded his fingers through her hair and pulled her face closer to his. "Tell me, Caroline, if you were so eager to taste of physical desire, why did you wait this long? Surely there have been other opportunities."

She shook her head, smiling as though she found his question amusingly naive. "There are any number of risks involved for a woman. I did not want to take them with the wrong man."

A thrill of gut-deep satisfaction momentarily distracted him. "You thought that I was the right man?"

The laughter vanished from her eyes, leaving certainty. "There was no doubt in my mind at all tonight"

He brushed his mouth slowly, deliberately across hers. "And did you find the experience as interesting and exciting as you had expected?"

"Absolutely. Quite satisfying, indeed."

"You leave me speechless, to say nothing of what you are doing to my nerves"

"Get hold of yourself, sir," she said bracingly. "If you fear that your nerves may fail, fortify them by reminding yourself of my great asset and most excellent shield, the sturdy bulwark that will protect me from the worst effects of scandal and ruin"

"And what is this asset, shield and bulwark?"

"Why none other than my late husband, Jeremy Fordyce, who so conveniently made me a widow."

He pulled her back down onto the bed. "I will concede that the man's spirit does have his uses."