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He smiled and nodded instead, pushing those thoughts to the back of his head.

“Unbelievable!” Evie breathed. “How did you know these things, anyway?”

“Well, when one stays up all night, one is bound to notice a great many things.” He shrugged.

“I suppose so,” she muttered, biting her lower lip.

He had to stifle another groan at the sight. This habit of hers was truly pushing him past the limits of his vaunted self-control.

“Don’t do that,” he muttered in a hoarse voice.

She blinked up at him in confusion, her eyes wide. “Do what?”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Youknowwhat.”

He tightened his hold on her waist until she was close enough to feel the hardness in his breeches. Toknowwhat she was doing to him. To see how close he was to losing all control.

When Evie let out a soft gasp, it took everything within him not to simply bend down and take her mouth in a searing kiss.

“Evie,” he growled. “Do you have any idea what happens to a man who has been pushed beyond the limits of his control?”

She shook her head and laughed nervously. “I do not think I do—not that I have ever done that. Push a man to his limits, I mean. Well…”

“Then you better not start now.” He smirked at her. “Lest you find out the hard way…”

And he washardfor her. Nearly bursting out of his pants with lust and desire.

He frowned as he looked down at the tenacious yet sweetly innocent creature in his arms. No woman had ever affected him as much as she did, and worse, she was not even aware of it.

Even the way shebreathed, her chest rising and falling in a rhythm that weakened his resolve with every passing minute, made him want to tear open her gown and bury his face in those soft mounds.

Would she welcome his advances, then? Would she arch her back and beg him to take her over and over again?

As he slanted his mouth over hers, a soft knock sounded at the door.

“Your Grace.”

It was Barnaby.

He closed his eyes and drew back slightly. He should have counted it as a blessing that the fortuitous timing of his faithful butler stopped him from doing something foolish.

Why, then, was he inwardly cursing the man?

“I… I think I should leave now,” Evie murmured, ducking her head in what appeared to be embarrassment as she pulled away from his embrace

Daniel merely nodded. “All right. You may go to your grandmama and the Dowager Duchess. I shall be with you shortly, once I have finished conducting my business.”

She turned to leave, but then she stopped and looked at him with her chin raised haughtily.

“You seem to have forgotten one thing, Your Grace.”

“What could I have forgotten?”

She pursed her lips. “I still haven’t accepted. Youmustask me to marry you.Nicely.”

“Very well then,” he continued in a tone of extreme nonchalance. “Marry me.”

She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “A question would have been nice. I do not take kindly to being ordered about, Your Grace.”