Matt’s blue eyes turned icy as he faced the two officers. “Sir, I’m learning, and what I’m learning does not endear the military’s presence to me!” He gave them both a curt bow. “If you will excuse me?”

And without another word, Matt strode with dignified aristocratic grace from the room. He was still angry when he reached the ballroom, and he stood stiffly in the open double doorway watching the dancers as they performed the minuet. A servant passed with a tray of champagne and he helped himself to a glass of the sparkling wine, downing it quickly in his disquiet.

His gaze searched the crowded room for some sign of Noah or CC, and noting their continued absence, he wondered at Noah’s reason for wanting to be alone with her. After returning to the house as Noah requested, he had discovered that Edward had not been looking for him. The awkwardness of the moment had passed quickly as he’d joined the men in the study, but he still had been left to ponder his brother’s interest in lovely Cecelia Demorest. She was definitely an attractive young woman, but the Widow Woodham seemed more Noah’s type-sophisticated, worldly, sensual…

Still, Matt knew he should be pleased that Noah hadn’t changed so completely that he couldn’t appreciate a beautiful woman. Matt just hoped that he wouldn’t hurt CC in any way, for he sensed that she was an innocent in the ways of the world, and he didn’t want his rakehell of a brother taking advantage of her naiveté.

Thoughts of innocence brought Faith to mind again, and Matt traded his empty glass for another full one. Faith…he could still see her in all her beauty as she’d rested on his bed, and the memory of the way they’d parted filled him with a strange emptiness. He thought of her terror upon awakening and how he’d calmed her fears, and he remembered the kiss. Matt had alternately cursed and treasured that one tender moment. Had he denied his sudden, obsessive need to kiss her, she probably would not have fled his company, but he had given in to his desire, and he had regretted it bitterly ever since.

He drew a deep breath as his gaze darkened in serious thought. If the opinions voiced by Winthrop and Thornhill were reflective of the Crown’s general attitude toward the colonies, no wonder there was so much unrest…and maybe he’d been precipitate in arguing against selling the arms to the rebels. How arrogant the British officers had seemed! He recalled then the conversation between the merchants that he and Noah had overheard in the taproom their first day at the inn and he wondered now at the veracity of their complaints. If mobs of colonists were running about the city, then maybe there was a justifiable reason for it. That conclusion gave Matt pause as he glanced about the room filled with rich, successful loyalists. He found himself wanting to know more about the troubles that were developing, but he knew that this would not be the place to learn anything objective. Deciding to hold his peace for the time being, he set aside his troubled thoughts and rejoined the crowd in the ballroom. Tomorrow would be soon enough to delve further.

The faint stirrings of a chilling zephyr carried the soft strains of music across the stillness of the night-shrouded grounds. Within the darkness of the summerhouse, the sound of the melody intruded, borne on a bitter breeze.

Awareness crashed through Noah’s drugged senses as reality and reason returned, and the icy fingers of the wind branded him with a cold, confusing thought. CC had been a virgin… The realization both alarmed and aroused him as he lay still embedded within her warmth, and he fought down an unexpected surge of desire at the remembrance of her untutored passion. Keeping tight control over his body’s urgings, Noah drew a deep, steadying breath as he considered the ramifications of all that had happened. He did not doubt for a moment that she had intended to bed him. She had taunted him at the stables, and had they not been interrupted, she would have given herself to him then. Tonight had been inevitable. CC had known it and so had he. And, Noah arrogantly assured himself, no matter how much she might try to deny it, she had enjoyed it.

Cynicism returned as he thought of Matthew, John, and the arms shipment. Irrationally, he found it angered him to know that CC was willing to use her body…to sacrifice her very virginity…just to further the rebel cause. Even as it infuriated him, though, the arousal he was fighting to control would not abate. If she wanted to persuade him, why not? Perhaps if she tried just a little harder, Noah mused harshly, he just might be convinced to lower his price…

Heat throbbed anew through his loins as he gave free rein to his needs. It startled Noah to find that his desires could be so potent and forceful so soon. Never before, even with the most sensual of mistresses, had this happened to him, but he wasted no time thinking about it as he began to move within CC, driven by the need to possess her again.

Languidly secure beneath the protective warmth of Noah’s big body, CC had been drowsily content, blocking out, in her sensual satisfaction, all thoughts of reality. Only when Noah hardened within her and began to move again was she forced to admit to herself what had happened. Stunned by her situation, she went rigid beneath him. How could this have happened? How could she have given herself to Kincade?

Noah felt the change in her, and believing she would willingly succumb to him once more, he murmured, “Relax, love. Let me-”

“Get off of me, Kincade!” she hissed.

Aware that his movements were stoking the embers of her forbidden desire again, she twisted her body and pushed against his chest at the same time in a burst of desperate energy, successfully dislodging him and almost dumping him on the floor.

“What the…” Noah managed to brace himself, and he drew back viciously to stare down at her.

But CC was not intimidated by his hate-filled glare and she took advantage of his momentary shock to scramble from beneath him. As she did, her gaze accidentally grazed his lower body, and she witnessed there the throbbing strength of his need for her. She bit back a groan and rushed to snatch up her chemise.

“You’re the most loathsome man I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet, Kincade!” She refused to look at him.

“Indeed?” His mouth thinned as his eyes narrowed to silver slits. “You didn’t think so just a short while ago, my dear.”

“You…” she fumed, struggling with the buttons on her undergarment.

“If anything, sweetheart”-he sarcastically drawled the term of endearment-“you were begging me…”

Emerald fury glittered dangerously in the depths of her eyes as she turned to face him, and her breasts heaved in agitated indignation beneath the soft, sheer covering of her chemise.

“The only thing I begged you to do was to stop!” she fumed, miserably aware, even as she said it, that he had spoken the awful truth. “Stay away from me from now on! You’re a scheming manipulator, and I don’t want anything to do with you.”

“It will be my pleasure to stay away from you, but let me warn you, Miss Demorest.” Noah spoke slowly and distinctly, lending a deadly seriousness to his words. “You leave my brother alone. Matthew is an innocent in all of this and knows nothing of your intrigue or deceitfulness. I won’t allow him to be used as a pawn.”

Noah’s stance was menacing as he loomed over her, and even his unclothed state did nothing to detract from the power of his regal command. CC didn’t understand what he could possibly mean by saying that she was using Matt as a pawn, but she refused to be cowed by him and stood up to his anger with more bravery than most men.

“You, sir, are the user. Not me! I have forfeited something more precious than gold at your hands this night!”

“What you forfeited was forfeited willingly, CC. You will not convince me otherwise.”