“I hardly see how.”
He swept her up the steps in front of him, moving at her back so very close, his knees brushing against her skirts with each step upward, his hand settling on her shoulder, and his lipsflirting at her ear. “A brother and sister would sleep separately, but I cannot allow that.”
“What?” she yelped.
He rubbed his thumb up and down her neck. “I refuse to leave you alone. At any time. While we travel together, I am responsible for your well-being.”
“Not all husbands and wives share a room.” Her throat rough as sandpaper.
“We do.”
She tripped, and as soon as she wobbled, he caught her, steadied her, kissed her temple.
“You must stop doing that.” She watched each step carefully, lest it rise up and send her flying backwards into his arms once more.
“Stop what?”
“My temple.”
“Your temple? Oh, do you mean this?” He kissed her there once more.
“Yes, that!”
“Can’t stop. Protecting you depends on it.”
She growled, and he chuckled.
“I am glad to see you are having fun,” she grumbled.
“It feels like ages since I’ve had a bit of fun. It’s energizing. Liberating. You should try it.”
At the top of the stairs, Mr. Johns ambled down a hallway, whistling. He opened a door at the very end of the hallway. “Our biggest room. Saved for Mr. and Mrs. Trent should they need it. Yours tonight.”
Samuel strode in, his arm once more hooked around Emma’s waist. How did he move so swiftly from one point on her body to another, as if he had every pathway across her skin memorized?
She ripped off her gloves, needing fresh, cool air to temper her thoughts, and Clearford—Samuel—asked for tea and a repastto be brought to their room. She’d used it without thought earlier when she’d found him in his bedchamber. Why was it so difficult now? Likely because they stood in yet another bedchamber, and this one they wouldshare.
Theirroom.
Theirbed.
Surely the chamber possessed other accoutrements, but Emma could not see them. She only saw the bed, big enough for two, but not big enough to avoid a second body. They’d be snug. Cozy.
Intimate.
“I’ll sleep on the floor,” she said when the door shut behind Mr. Johns.
“No, you will not.” Samuel peered out the window to the courtyard below, and when a knock sounded on the door, he opened it. A footman carried their satchels, and Samuel pointed to a corner of the room. “Put them just there. And bring up a tub and hot water.”
“I do not need a bath!” Naked in the same room as this man? She could not.
“I do.”
The footman left, and Samuel returned to the window. “I can leave the room for half an hour while you bathe. If it is modesty that makes you hesitant.”
“Not modesty.Propriety.” Just because they’d run off together did not mean all decorum should be shot. They must uphold it even more desperately now. “What has gotten into you?”
He waved her over to the window. “Look. We can see the entire yard from here.”
