He doesn't seem to notice

It took close to an hour before Black Brand climbed into the cave from the darkness. Thankfully that gave Charlotte enough time to recover from the tumultuous orgasm that had left her weak and flustered. She pulled the drawstring tight around her waist and knotted it tightly with a double knot. Charlotte had no recollection of the highwayman loosening the knot earlier, but she was determined to not make repeating the feat easy for him. After fixing her skirts she applied herself to repositioning the great bed as best as she remembered it against the inclined stone wall of the cavern and pulling the bedding tightly back into bed.

The one thing that concerned her the most about Black Brand's return was where he would sleep tonight. It had been many years since she had been held securely in anyone's; the last time had been when she had made her way silently into her mother's sick-room and crawled under the covers and into her emaciated arms. Even with as debilitated by the wasting fever as her mother had been her arms held Charlotte with a impassioned strength that belied her condition.

When she saw her captor step through the curtain of water and shake his head like a great dog Charlotte's breath caught in her throat. Her mother's embrace had been tender and loving and she remembered it to this day as a a brief moment of relaxation and peace. How could she ever relax with Black Brand's ropy sinews holding her tightly against his muscular chest? Even more troubling, could Black Brand possibly lay so intimately with her on this great bed without taking advantage of her? And perhaps most troubling of all, could she defy him if he chose to take unwanted liberties?

"Did everything go well?" Charlotte asked as he laid two more logs on the embers of the fire and turned his attention to where she sat nervously on the edge of the bed.

"It went well enough Miss Charlotte." Black Brand told her in a subdued tone not at all like the confident manner he had when he first took her. "But there are still details to be arranged before I will have my chance with your father." The outlaw recounted how he had sent Charlotte's letter in with a village lad and received a terse note in return instructing him to meet the next day at St. Theresa's with Lord Marlton's second.

"You can not go!" Charlotte warned the somber man, "my father will not deal with you; he'll have his wardens arrest you instead."

"He cannot take that risk, Lady Charlotte." Her captor reminded her. "He knows you are my prisoner, almost certainly helplessly bound in some unknown location; if I am accidentally killed, he would be condemning you to a most gruesome end." Charlotte nodded her head slowly in understanding, not as confident as Black Brand that her father would not take that kind of risk. She barely heard his teasing query.

"Do you care so much about what happens to your captor?" His question caught her by surprise, she had been very studious in avoiding giving any thought at all to her feelings for the man who had all but ravished her. Were her emotions muddled because this man had been the one to hold and kiss her with such passion that she wished he had not stopped? She dared not look at the man, especially not into his soulful brown eyes.

"As you just pointed out," She could hear the lack of conviction in her words, aware that this man too must know how insincere she was being. "if you are killed, I face a most gruesome fate."

"I don't think so, Lady Marlton." The highwayman was suddenly on his feet and striding across the rough floor of the cave; he took her hand in his and pulled her gently to her feet. Charlotte trembled in silent wonder at how a man his size could be so gentle as he lifted her chin until she had to meet his gaze. "I think that it is more than that, I think that you care for me although I could not say why."

Randy was careful to give her time to speak, to refute his preposterous claim and to deny she had feelings for him before slowly lowering his mouth once again to her trembling lips. The kiss was as fiery as their earlier ones, not as fierce, but equally passionate and Randy felt his control again waver; luckily Miss Charlotte's mouth opened in sweet invitation and he knew that even if she could not admit how strong her feelings were for him, her body yearned for his as much as he needed her.

"Can you refute that?"