To talk - for now

Her eyes opened suddenly, but she did not, as he expected, scream for help.

"It's you." Her quiet calmness made him smile sadly, he must be doing something wrong as a dread villain if even sneaking into the fair maiden's bedroom late at night couldn't evoke a scream of terror. Especially after he had misused her so wickedly earlier in the day, and she had retaliated by disclosing the location of his most comfortable lair.

“I told you I knew who you were Miss Charlotte.” Randy said forcing himself to grin in a non-threatening manner as he edged closer to her bed. Like when stalking a skittish deer, he tried not to move quickly, unsure if she’d feel threatened enough to scream. She sat up on her bed pulling up the duvet, modestly covering her nightgown.

“What do you want?” Lady Marlton asked in a hushed tone. Randy did not understand why this remarkable woman was not panicking, but he was thankful that he did not have to pin her to her bed with his hand over her mouth just to talk to her. He had to **** the image of her struggling under him from his thoughts; for some reason covering her soft body with his as she lay on her bed in the assumed security of her own chambers was even more erotically charged than what he had done at Rainbow falls.

“What I want, you can’t give me.” Randy answered quietly, knowing that it was not her who misused his sister or threw her out to starve with an unborn child in her belly. As if she had read his mind, Miss Charlotte offered her sincere regret.

"I'm sorry about Mary.” Randy felt like he had been struck by a falling yard. Damn! If Miss Marlton knew about Mary, then she knew who he was.

“Will your father be arresting my mother, now that he missed me at Rainbow Falls.” Randy said as he moved further into the room sitting heavily in the delicate chair next to her desk. Until now he had been so careful to conceal his identity. He had taken the time to lay the false trail all the way back to the docks of Portsmouth precisely to keep his friends and family from retribution, but now his secret was known. He had been defeated by this proud young gentlewoman. He should be angry, but instead he felt almost relieved that Black Brand's motivations were made public.

“The King’s Foot found my cave and burnt it all when they realized I had eluded them," Randy told her with only a slight hint of emotion. "Well, everything but what I was able to save before they got there.” He added with some small amount of satisfaction. Now he no longer blocked the moonlight streaming in from the nearly full moon he could see her more clearly. She looked a little nervous now as she sat in the moonlit room, nervous but beautiful. The soft silvery light softened the strong lines of her face and the shear fabric of her nightgown rested on her shoulders exposing her lovely throat and even the swell of her bosom.

"I haven't told anyone who you are, at least not yet.” Lady Marlton's statement held an implied threat, but then she added softly by way of an explanation: “I didn't want your mother to have to lose her son as well as her daughter.”

“How very noble of you Milady.” Randy made no attempt to mask the sarcasm, and it was this disdainful scorn that finally shattered Charlotte's calm.

“How dare you!” Charlotte exclaimed angrily. “YOU **** me. YOU assaulted me, you dragged me off into the woods and it was YOU that kissed me in a most improper way.” In her passion she let the blanket slip from her hands revealing more of the lacy white nightgown that she had been sleeping in. “And then you laughed at me and sent me away.” Her hands clenched into little fists on her lap. “And now you invade my most private domain…” Suddenly realizing how she must look wearing nothing but a nightgown sitting on her bed like a princess awoken by a Knight Errant. Charlotte pulled the covers back to her neck and finished the sentence with far less confidence than she had started "...and you mock me again, this time in my own boudoir.” Thankfully her night-time intruder accepted her rebuke without protest.

“I yield Lady Marlton.” Mr. Fuller slipped off the chair and knelt on the floor raising his hands in mock surrender. "I apologize" by now his voice was somber with no hint of mockery. "I do truly thank you for not betraying Black Brand’s identity – for my mother’s sake.”

“Is that why you take this liberty?” Charlotte demanded still angry with the bold villan. “To thank me for not doing my duty?” A shiver of excitement rippled through her body as she considered her **** position. “Or did you expect something else from me?”