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Satisfaction like he’d never known slammed through him as she clung to him, pulling him closer, even as he strained to press every inch of his body into hers.

With a moan, He cupped her bottom, lifting her off her feet, then dropped with her onto the poorly sprung bed. “Mine,” he breathed against her lips.

“Zeke, oh, Zeke, always,” she said on a sigh. Her fingers trailed up and down his back in gentle, long strokes, slowly soothing the wild beast inside him.

His mouth covered hers, savoring her tender surrender as his hands roamed her body, alternately squeezing and caressing her through her damned evening gown.

Unerringly, his hips found hers, his erection nestling within the apex of her thighs, and he ground into her rhythmically, unable or unwilling to stop himself.

“Christ, I want you. I always want you.” How did she do this to him?

Her body went pliant beneath his, legs parting. She wriggled, arching slightly until his hips settle snugly against hers. Pleasure and torture collided. She wanted him. But wanting him wasn’t enough.

“You love me,” he purred into her ear. “Say it.”

“I do love you, Zeke. I love you so much,” she avowed, banishing the darkness engulfing him since discovering her gone.

He hefted himself onto his forearms to stare down at her. “And you’re going to marry me. Not that bloody fool cousin of yours. Not anyone else. Me .”

God, she was beautiful with her luminous green eyes, her creamy white skin, and blue-black hair.

“Why?” she demanded, her eyes intent on his.

Her question caught him off guard. He brought his fingers to trace her hairline. “Because…" He grunted. "What do you mean why?”

“I mean why do you want to marry me, Zeke? Do you…” She bit her lip. “Do you love me, too?”

Alarm bells clanged in his head. There was no right answer to this question. None she would understand, at any rate. He didn’t believe in love. But he knew what he felt for her was different than anything he’d ever experienced with a woman. He wanted her. Wanted to protect and keep her. “Kitty—”

“You don’t,” she whispered.

He blew air out of his cheeks. “I told you, I don’t believe in love. Not the way you do.”

He was losing her. He could feel distance creeping between them though neither had moved an inch.

“Kitty, I want you. You know I do. And you want me.”

Tears welled in her eyes. “But wanting’s no reason to marry. I think you’d better leave. Now.” She tried to hoist him off of her.

“I’m not going anywhere. Not without you.” He knew in his gut he’d missed the mark. She had no intention of leaving with him. The darkness inside him returned with a vengeance.

“Why should I marry you instead of Garrick? What’s the difference if love means nothing?” she demanded.

This again. He rolled off her and sat up. “The difference is your brother is marrying you off to save his own sorry hide,” he ground out.

“And your reason is so much more noble?” Kitty propped herself on her knees behind Zeke. “My brother seeks to regain his title. You want to marry me so you can leave your grandfather alone in good conscience.”

“It isn’t like that,” he hissed.

“It’s exactly like that.”

A knock sounded at her door.

“Collin,” she mouthed, eyes going wide.

Zeke bared his teeth. “Excellent.”

In a flash of movement, Kitty dove forward, clutching at his shoulders. When he would have brushed her off, she skittered onto his lap, locking her arms around his neck. “No, Zeke, please,” she begged, pressing her face into his neck.

With a frustrated sigh, he relented, unable to resist her pleas. When he felt a quiver course through her body, his arms came up around her, gentling her. “Shh. It’s all right. I’ll stay right here.”

She nodded, snuggling deeper into his arms.

A hot rush of tenderness swamped him. There was no way he would let this fiercely loyal, brave, utterly foolish vixen marry James.

“Kitty?” Collin called from the hall sounding irritated. The doorknob rattled.

In his arms, Kitty went tense as a bow string.

Zeke tilted her face up with the crook of his finger. “Calm yourself,” he murmured. “I locked it.”

She closed her eyes in evident relief.

When the doorknob rattled again, she raised her voice. “Collin, I’m not quite finished with my toilette. Be a dear and go ahead. I-I’ll meet you in the dining room in a few minutes.”

“Very well,” her brother replied. “But do hurry.”

After a moment, Kitty traced the side of his face with her fingertips.

Jesus . Helpless to stop himself, he lowered his head, dropping tiny kisses across her cheek, making his way to her earlobe, then down the column of her neck.

“I don’t think you should…we should…be…” she stammered, tilting her head back to give him greater access, despite her protests.

He chuckled and bent to nuzzle the swell of her breasts above the half tied décolletage of her gown. “You see?” he asked, laying her back on the bed. “See how good I make you feel, sweetheart?”

“I know,” she breathed. She agreed readily enough, but she still hadn’t conceded the bigger point.

He closed his eyes briefly and played his ace. “Have you forgotten you might be carrying my baby? There’s no way in hell I’ll let another man raise my son.”

She spoke in a soft rush. “I’m not pregnant. So you can stop worrying about the possibility of a baby. Because there isn’t one.”

He ignored the punch to his gut her words caused. “You can’t know that. Not yet.”

Except there was one way she could know. He stared into her eyes and waited for her to offer that unerring proof.

When she lowered her lashes, a tiny flicker of hope ignited in his chest. “Kitty, don’t play games with me. Not about this.”

She nibbled at her lower lip. “It was only the one time.”

He stifled his laughter. “Yes,” he said, going for a serious tone, “very often, that’s all it takes.”

Her sooty lashes fluttered upward. She looked dazed, as if she truly hadn’t considered the possibility. “I promise if it turns out I’m carrying your baby I’ll send for you.”

“The hell you will.”

She blinked several times. “Zeke, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’m not leaving your side until I know for certain, one way or another. If it turns out you aren’t with child, I’ll do the gentlemanly thing. I'll bow out and let you ruin your life to save your miscreant brother. Until then, you’re stuck with me.”

***

“Define stuck with me,” Kitty said to the two hundred plus stone of gorgeous male currently pressing her into the mattress.

He glanced at the ceiling as if giving her question serious thought. “Stuck with me. As in not leaving this hotel until you leave.” He paused to toy with a lock of her hair. “As in traveling to wherever you travel when you do leave.”

He grinned at her. “Basically, I’ll be shadowing your every move until we get this resolved.” He slid a hand between them and caressed her belly.

“That’s ridiculous,” she sputtered, and shimmied out from beneath him before his magic hands could distract her from her point.

He rolled lazily onto his side, propping his head in his hand to study her.

She tried to ignore him as she tugged at the ribbons of her bodice and re-tied the ends into a less than picturesque bow. “Be serious, Zeke. You can’t possibly join us.”

Zeke sat up, all trace of humor vanishing from his face. “I’m deadly serious.”

Her hands fell to her sides. “Do you doubt me? Zeke, I would send word if—”

He cut her off with a slash of his hand. “Kitty, you’re one of the most loyal, steadfast people I know. It isn’t you I distrust. It’s that brother and cousin of yours.

"You might very well be dragged to the altar in the time it took me to learn of a baby. No, I’m not taking any chances with my babe’s, or your safety.

” His voice softened and a corner of his mouth crooked upward.

“As the mother of my child, you’ll be under my protection for the rest of your days and nights.

Included in the service is protection against any unintended marriages. ”

Her traitorous heart swelled in her chest. She spun around, making a show of neatening the items on her vanity—her brush, her comb, her hair sash—lest he see how profoundly his words affected her.

No one besides her grandfather had ever cared for her enough to stand by her and see no harm came to her. Not her parents. Not her brother. Definitely not her cousin.

For Zeke, caring for her seemed to come natural. A natural born hero. If she were pregnant with his baby, what a father he’d make. A horrible, aching hope took up residence in her chest. She dropped onto the stool before her vanity.

She needed to get a hold of herself. Of course she wasn’t with child. She couldn’t be. She should tell Zeke how she’d long suspected her inability to conceive.

“Kitty, quit fussing with your accoutrements and tell me what you’re thinking.”

She raised her gaze to the mirror and met his eyes.

She opened her mouth to tell him the truth, and heard herself saying something else entirely. “You can’t join our traveling party. Collin would never permit it, and Garrick—he’d probably insist on marrying me yesterday.”

“I’ll stay out of sight.”

She meant to argue, but her curiosity got the better of her. “While we’re traveling, you could trail a bit behind us. But inns tend to be smallish, like this one. How would you keep from being seen? Like tonight for instance?”

“Tonight?” He shrugged. “I’ll stay with you.”

She sprang to her feet, rounding on him. “You can’t.”

He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You have a better idea?”

She glanced around the small space. “Where will you sleep?”

His lips twisted in a sardonic grin. “I suppose, as we’re trying to rule out the possibility of a baby so you can marry your brother out of his current jamb, your bed is out of the question?”

She glared at him.

“I’ll take the chair.”

They both eyed the spindly legged armchair in the corner.

“On second thought, I’ll take the floor.” He sighed. “I’ve fared worse.”

***

“I’ll be back as soon as I’m able,” she said, repeating the sentiment for the third time since accepting the fact he wasn’t going anywhere, any time soon. She gazed up at him, hand on the door lever, that luscious lower lip caught between her teeth.

He forced his eyes from her mouth. “As we’re evidently repeating ourselves, I’ll remind you, again, not to act out of the ordinary.

Stay as late as you normally would. Later, even.

Keep your ears open. I want to know if I have to thwart an attempted wedding ceremony.

” Before I talk you out of this nonsense , he silently added.

She nodded. “Right. Well, then…”

He pulled the door open and pushed her into the corridor. “Bon appétit.’ He shut the door in her face.

He thought he heard her indignant hmph, and smiled. He listened at the door for her footsteps to recede, then started a slow count to three hundred, pulling on his coat and gloves.

At three hundred one, he let himself out into the deserted corridor. He strode for the servants' stairs at a brisk pace. He needed to get his business done and return to Kitty’s chamber before she came back to discover him gone, and that he’d lied to her.

But of course he had lied.

He had no need to hide out in Kitty’s chamber to avoid detection by the duo made up of her idiot relations. He knew how to stay out of sight. Yet he’d insinuated himself into her chamber for the night before he’d even made the conscious decision to do so.

Why? Momentary insanity? A streak of masochism? Needing to be near her?

Bah. He didn’t have time for these mental cogitations. Kitty needed guarding and he was the only man he trusted for the job and that was that.

He must focus. He had much to accomplish, and very little time to do so.

First on the agenda, track down Hastings’ groomsman to discover their ultimate destination. He didn’t want to risk losing them on the road.

Second, he must send telegrams to both Caden and the earl, advising them of his whereabouts and immediate plans. He had to be careful there, informing them he meant to shadow Kitty while leaving out the part about staying in her very chamber.

Outside the inn, he pulled out his pocket watch. Mentally allotting himself thirty minutes, he tucked the watch away, pulled up the collar of his great coat to shield his too-distinctive hair from casual view, and crossed the courtyard toward the inn’s stables.

He’d have a five minute conversation with James’ groom, and then he’d away to the post to send the telegrams.

He didn’t foresee any problems. His real challenge lay ahead. How in hell was he going to spend the night with Kitty without going stark raving mad from the need to have her again?

The answer was simple. He wasn’t.