A Compromised Innocent Read Online Free PDF Page B

propped over the rear seat to break the worst of the rain, but Lizzie would be soaked and tempting a lung congestion if she were to ride home in it.
    â€œYou’re not getting in that.”
    Without breaking stride, Oliver hustled Lizzie to his own conveyance, a fully enclosed coach emblazoned with the Wainsborough coat of arms, and quickly settled her inside with a thick blanket draped across her lap.
    After issuing instructions to her coachman, he joined her in the dark confines and boldly took the seat beside Lizzie, telling himself he was doing so only to stave off a chill. The curtains were drawn, so no one would know of his impertinence but the two of them, and, much to his delight, Lizzie issued no reprimand for his seat selection.
    When the carriage set off with a lurch, he let his arm settle along the back of the bench seat. It didn’t have anything to do with a desire to have Lizzie cuddled up beside him. That would be unseemly, even if he did really want it more than he’d admit to himself.
    It wasn’t long before the coach slowed to a crawl as the streets clogged with a surfeit of transportation, hackneys descending like vultures to pick up stranded pedestrians. Oliver tugged the curtains more securely into place after gauging the distance they had to travel.
    â€œIt’ll be a spell until we’re through this jumble. Are you comfortable?”
    â€œYes, thank you. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I’d be thoroughly drenched if I’d taken my aunt’s carriage.” Pretty dimples appeared as she turned toward him. “My fortune appears much improved around you.”
    Battling images of what Lizzie would look like with wet, transparent muslin clinging to her curves, Oliver’s blood pounded. Her nipples would tighten from the cool rain… God, were they now? Would they be dainty rosebuds or lush distended tips? Were they pink or coral or a deep, dark red?
    Oliver couldn’t help himself. He had to look.
    He did. And his peripheral vision dimmed until all he could focus on in the faint light was the swell of her breasts and what looked suspiciously like taut peaks jutting against the thin fabric. From the cold or begging for his touch?
    He was barely able to stifle the impulse to take advantage of the sweet, soft bounty that was Miss Lizzie Talbot. The scent of warm lavender and woman filled his senses.
    But he wasn’t a libertine, some rake to take advantage of an innocent the first moment he could catch her unawares. He was a careful, deliberate man who was careful and deliberate about selecting lovers. And they never, ever included naive misses. He had never imagined taking a virginal young woman to bed, except when he thought about taking a wife.
    Was that something he wanted with Miss Talbot?

Chapter Six
    Lizzie wanted nothing so much as another kiss from Oliver.
    Oliver. How could she be so bold as to think of him in such intimate terms? He’d given her permission to address him familiarly, but not to use his given name. A name that only a sibling or a spouse would use. Heat flamed in her cheeks at the boldness of her thoughts.
    She had to stop this nonsense, or she’d shame herself and speak it aloud. To him.
    But when he looked at her like that—with his eyes intense and hungry— she couldn’t help but think of him in the most intimate of terms. Couldn’t stop imagining his lips on hers again, her hands slipping under the lapels of his jacket.
    Maybe she leaned toward him in invitation, maybe she just swayed in confusion, because he looked at her even more intently, a frown on his face. “Lizzie?”
    The hoarse sound of her name carried a multitude of questions bundled into the one. And the answer to all of them was the same.
    â€œYes.”
    He sank toward her and she closed her eyes, tilting up like a daisy toward the sun. His lips skimmed her cheek, and his breath was moist and hot upon her ear. “I’m going