Mrs. Grant took a deep breath and then reached for her wine, down­ing the entire contents.

“A lit­tle liq­uid courage,” she said.

“You are the bravest woman I have ever met,” James told her. “Only a hand­ful of women could have tak­en on what you have and met with success.”

“But even women who are skilled in busi­ness have needs, Captain.”

The atmos­phere in the room changed. He looked at her, won­der­ing if she meant what he thought she did.

“I am sure you under­stand what I speak of,” she con­tin­ued. “You have spent long stretch­es of time at sea. When your ship comes into port and you go on shore leave, I am sure you have tak­en care of … those needs.”

“I have,” he said care­ful­ly, won­der­ing where this con­ver­sa­tion was headed.

“Women, too, have cer­tain needs,” she said. “As a wid­ow, I have … a bit more free­dom in see­ing that mine are … met.” Clear­ing her throat, she said, “I am ask­ing as del­i­cate­ly as pos­si­ble if you might wish to explore those with me, Cap­tain Jones. I do not expect any type of com­mit­ment from you. In fact, I do not want any­thing of the sort. You are here for a lim­it­ed time, and then you will be gone. I am lone­ly. I stay busy with my com­pa­ny for long hours, but I long for some … phys­i­cal companionship.”

She wet her lips ner­vous­ly and gazed at him beseech­ing­ly. “Would that be a possibility?”

“I am flat­tered, Mrs. Grant,” James said, his thoughts swirling.

He had want­ed her for more than a brief encounter or two. He wanted—needed—a wife.

And he could think of no more suit­able woman than Mrs. Grant.

Pip­pa couldn’t believe she had actu­al­ly winked at Lord Hopewell.

She had no idea why she had done so. While her fam­i­ly teased her of being impul­sive, she had nev­er done some­thing so …

She was so baf­fled by her behav­ior, she couldn’t even think of a word to describe it.

Yet Lord Hopewell did seem inter­est­ed in her. No, Seth. She liked the name. It suit­ed him. And she was also inter­est­ed in him. Like a woman would be inter­est­ed in a man. Being around him had her insides doing all kinds of mad flips. She blinked, try­ing to focus on the task at hand.

Grow­ing stern, Pip­pa instruct­ed, “You must always focus when you are atop a horse. Any slight dis­trac­tion, any wan­der­ing of your thoughts, and the horse might take off. Rid­ing is seri­ous busi­ness, Seth.”

“I under­stand,” he said. “Ori­on is quite large.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “A good sev­en­teen hands.”

“I can feel the pow­er in him, even if you and the groom said he has a gen­tle nature. I under­stand I am a begin­ner at all of this, Pip­pa. I promise to con­cen­trate. On the horse. And not you.” He paused, his gaze intent. “At least for now.”

She grew hot at his words. Her core seemed to seize up, and for a moment, she couldn’t breathe.

Do not lose your head, she warned herself.

August had no con­trol over him­self. He had spent years being a dis­ci­plined per­son. His father had a rigid stan­dard which August had always tried to live up to.

Georgina Strong tempt­ed him beyond all reason.

Still, he reined in the pas­sion flow­ing with­in him and kept the kiss fair­ly chaste, hold­ing her in place, his lips pressed firm­ly to hers. She felt stiff in his arms for a moment, tak­en by sur­prise by the sud­den kiss. He believed it to be her first one, hav­ing come to know her, and decid­ed if it would be the only one between them, it must be memorable—for both of them.

Slow­ly, he began brush­ing his lips back and forth against hers, feel­ing her body relax. He start­ed a series of soft, gen­tle kiss­es, touch­ing his lips to hers briefly. Break­ing the kiss. Doing so again and again.

Her hands came to the lapels of his coat, and her fin­gers bunched the mate­r­i­al, now hold­ing him in place. He couldn’t help but smile against her mouth at her assertiveness.

August now let the kiss­es go for a longer peri­od of time. Need began build­ing with­in him, though, and he knew he must stop soon.

Before he lost his head.

Before he took too much from her.

Before he gave her his heart.

*Excerpt com­ing in 2024!

*Excerpt com­ing in 2024!

*Excerpt com­ing in 2024!

*Excerpt com­ing in 2024!