Of course not!

The moon was high in the sky by the time the gentlemen of the hunt returned covered in mud and smelling of smoke; by the subdued murmur of their voices as they entered the great hall below Charlotte knew that Mr. Fuller had alluded capture. Charlotte slipped back into her room and sat quietly on her bed wondering why the news pleased her so. Surely the end of that Highwayman's series of attacks on the Marlton properties and household would be a good thing; on a more personal level Mr. Fuller's unconscionable familiarity with her person was more than enough reason to wish to see that rogue hanging from a gallows.

She lay back against the wrought iron headboard of her bed and pulled another pillow behind her head as she sat and tried to make sense of the whirlwind of emotions that refused to let her mind rest. Could Priscilla have been correct? Charlotte didn't think so; not when she remembered Fuller's kisses. She tried to remember every detail of her bewildering encounter with her captor, the fierce passion in his eyes, the heat of his breath on her lips and the touch of his hand on her cheek...cupping her breast...gripping her thigh...

"Damn-it!" Charlotte swore softly as a sudden heat melted her inner core. She felt a unexpected urge to touch herself, the warmth in her sex wasn't the only evidence of Mr. Fuller's unwelcome effect on her psyche. Charlotte ran her hands over the soft cotton of her nightgown brushing the hard peaks of her nipples through the fabric.

Her face was flushed, and her loins tingled with anticipation. For more than five years now Charlotte had, on occasion, stroked herself until she reached that moment of forbidden release, but never before had she felt such a driving need to finger herself to a climax. And never before had any particular man invaded her fantasies like that coarse outlaw did now as her fingers gently pressed the cotton of her nightgown against the petals of her sex. She tried to place Fuller in the role of the villain, a foul-breathed beast who would violate the virtue of the hapless heroine, yet every time she let her concentration lapse, he somehow morphed into the romantic lead.

In spite of her undeniable need, Charlotte refused not allow herself to explode in passion, not while picturing his handsome face. She would not forget that this outlaw could have taken her without mercy, and yet instead of defiling her, he had sent her away without even trying to recapture her.

Why had Fuller sent her away? Everything she knew about how a man might treat a woman whom he had absolute power over said that she should even now be chained to Black Brand's bed and **** to sate his lust with her soft feminine body. Especially if the man in question was a common field-hand or coarse sailor like Fuller, an innocent maiden could expect nothing more than a primal coupling with no more gentleness than that of a stallion covering a mare. She had expected some kind of primitive mating with his engorged member stabbing without mercy into her sex while she fought futility to save her virginity, and then filling her womb with his hot seed. In spite of her determination not to succumb to the base needs of her body her hand once again was pressed firmly between her thighs pressing firmly against her swollen sex.

She hadn't been ravished though, instead of Mr. Fuller acting like the coarse outlaw her father described, the man had acted almost like a gentleman - a passionate, powerful, compelling gentleman - but a gentleman all the same. With a start Charlotte pulled her hand from her sex clenching her hands together on her lap refusing to turn to that kind of mindless release.

"Damn-it!" She repeated slightly louder than before. "Damn-you Mr. Fuller, why don't you and your handsome, muscular physique leave me in peace." She pounded her pillow several times with her small fists and once again settled deeper into her bedding hoping that sleep would come quickly, tomorrow would be another day of interrogation by her family, and perhaps Colonel Touring and his always serious looking young aide-de-camp.