Captured by a Gentleman (Regency Unlaced 6) by Carole Mortimer

the luggage on the outside of the town carriage rather than inside it. Darcy and Ranulf would be traveling inside the vehicle today.
    The two coachmen had turned up this morning. As Ranulf had predicted, Graves had spotted the landau and come in search of them. Luckily the two of them were already up and dressed when he came knocking on the door of the hut.
    Ranulf had stepped outside, he and Graves talking quietly together for some time. No doubt discussing the fact that the accident had not been an accident at all, and what they should do next.
    Once assured of Ranulf’s and Darcy’s good health, the coachman had turned his concern to the horses. Satisfied they had come to no harm, he had now tied them to the back of the town carriage. It would slow them down, but such fine horseflesh as that could not just be abandoned along the road.
    “I did,” Darcy answered Ranulf. Her cheeks burned as she kept facing straight ahead, a slight smile curving her lips so that Graves and Wilkins should not be aware of the intimacy of their conversation. Ranulf had dismissed her enquiries earlier in regard to his shoulder, and had instead issued instructions regarding her clothing. “My gown is already chafing uncomfortably against my sore breasts and bottom.”
    “That was the intention,” Ranulf mused. “By the time we stop for the night, you will be very aroused and more than ready to remove your gown. I shall enjoy petting and soothing your nipples.”
    She had accepted Ranulf’s demand for her physical surrender. She was in love with him. Had there ever been any doubt that she would accept? Not that he had taken advantage of that again last night. Her surrender given, he had rolled over on the cot and fallen into a deep and untroubled sleep beside her. Darcy was the one who had lain awake for hours, her body once again aroused by their conversation, with no offer of relief from the man gently snoring beside her.
    “Perhaps I might relent and give you a little ease in the carriage.” He compromised at what she knew was her disappointed expression.
    “How will you do that?” she queried breathlessly. Her unconfined nipples were engorging at the thought of it, causing them to chafe even more abrasively against the heavy material of her gown.
    “Anticipation is good for the soul, Darcy.” He tapped her lightly on the tip of her nose.
    “But frustration is not!” she came back sharply.
    Much to Ranulf’s surprise, he was enjoying this shift in his relationship with Darcy. Not that he expected her full surrender, despite what she had agreed to. She was far too willful to surrender completely to any man’s will. That was half the challenge. Besides, those flashes of rebellion, like the one just now, gave him the excuse to chastise her, which in turn appeared to excite her as much as it did him.
    Darcy aroused him.
    Her beauty. Her grace. Her ladylike manner.
    All to be surrendered if he should ask it.
    He took her arm and led her away to the privacy of the trees before deliberately placing his hand on her sore bottom. He could feel the heat radiating off the abused flesh. He bared his teeth in a smile as he heard her sharp intake of breath. “Once we are in the carriage, I am going to play with you for hours but refuse to give you release from the torment, no matter how much you beg or plead. You should not have challenged me,” he chided at her frown.
    “I gave you my surrender willingly last night, Ranulf,” she spoke softly. “It is unfair, even cruel of you, to now wish to take advantage of that surrender.”
    Darcy had surrendered to him. The discomfort he felt at her rebuke now caused Ranulf to stop and consider their arrangement. Her surrender to him demanded his own to her, if in a different way, he realized as he now pondered how his sexual demands, and Darcy’s acquiescence to them, might affect her.
    Had she known that all along?
    He removed his hand from the heat of her spanked bottom. “Graves and I