He got the shirt open, but he did not take the time to shed it completely. He was tod impatient to feel Prudence's fingers on his bare skin. He sat down on the edge of the bed and yanked off his boots.

"You seem in a great hurry, Sebastian."

"I am."

He lowered himself down beside Prue and gathered her into his arms.

"Touch me," he said. He caught her hand in his and guided it inside his open shirt. "I want to feel your hands on me."

"Yes. Yes, I would like that very much, too." Prudence gave a tiny, broken exclamation of pleasure as she skimmed her fingers across his bare chest. She grasped handfuls of the thick, curling hair she found there.

Sebastian sucked in his breath.

Prudence looked up at him. "I love the feel of you. There is so much strength and power in you. The first night I saw you, I thought you were the most wonderful creature I had ever seen."

He was stunned into temporary speechlessness by the sweet, hon­est desire in her moonlit eyes. There was no coyness in her, he thought. No artifice at all.

He thrust his thigh between hers, bent his head, and kissed her throat. He finally found his voice. "You won't regret this, Prue. I swear it on my honor."

Her lips brushed across his shoulder. "I do not expect to regret anything that I do with you. How could I? It is all far too wonderful for words."

"Prue, you take my breath away." Sebastian pulled her close and started to unfasten the row of shell buttons that closed the back of her gown. The process seemed to take forever. So damned many buttons.

"Bloody hell," he muttered, fumbling with the last of the buttons. He was suddenly chagrined at his lack of self-control.

"Are you all right, Sebastian?"

"I'm fine." But that was not true, he thought as he slowly lowered the bodice of her gown and revealed her small, firm breasts. He was far from all right. His hands were shaking. He felt as if he were con­sumed by fever. His lower body was throbbing. His mind was dazed with the force of his need.

No, he was definitely not all right. But that was all right, too. He had not felt so completely right for longer than he cared to remember.

"Sebastian?"

He stared down at her exquisitely curved breasts. He really was going mad.

"God, but you are perfect, Prue." He bent his head and took one firm little nipple between his teeth.

"Oh." Her fingers clenched in his hair and her slender body arched as if she had touched an electricity machine.

Her instant reaction to his caress drove Sebastian closer to the edge of his control. He reached down and pushed his hand up beneath the edge of her skirts.

He stroked her thighs until she trembled. Then he probed higher, seeking the moist heat he knew he would find waiting for him. Just for him. Only for him.

He found it.

"Sebastian." Prudence shuddered and tried to lock her legs against him. He sensed the movement was instinctive on her part, her natural reaction to a caress she had never before experienced.

"It's all right," he whispered encouragingly. "I want to feel all the secret places. I want to know you as intimately as a man can know a woman."

"Yes, but this is so strange." Her voice was muffled against his shirt.

"You are a lady who delights in investigating the strange and the unusual," he reminded her. He gently forced her thighs apart again and found the soft petals hidden in the even softer hair.

"Yes, I know, but… Oh. Good heavens. Oh, my God. Sebas­tian, what are you doing?"

She was as hot and wet as he had known she would be. Sebastian sank one finger deep into her slick, tight channel. The small passage tightened around him like a well-made glove. The sensation was inde­scribable. He feared he would humiliate himself by spilling his seed then and there.

"I did not know making love would feel like this," Prudence con­fided breathlessly.

Sebastian looked down into her wide-open eyes. "Neither did I."

Suddenly his own pounding desire was not nearly as important as his need to give Prudence her first real taste of passion. He wanted her to experience the thrill of release and to know that he had been responsible for that release. There would be plenty of time to satisfy himself later. They had all night.

Sebastian eased his finger out of her until he felt her clench in frustration. He found the sensitive bud with his thumb and slowly pushed his finger back into her wondrously warm passage.

Prudence made a tiny sound that was halfway between a shriek and a moan. Sebastian covered her mouth with his own and deliber­ately repeated the caress between her legs.

She gave another muffled cry and clutched at the fabric of his shirt. Her knees clamped shut again, trapping his hand against her.

"You must relax a little." Sebastian dropped a series of soft, per­suasive kisses across her breasts. "Open yourself. Yes, that's it, my sweet. Let me inside, Prue. Deep inside." He felt her hesitate and then slowly part her soft thighs again. "You are so warm," he whis­pered. "I want to feel your heat. I need to feel it."

He stroked into her again and again, gradually widening her until he thought he could slide a second finger into her. He started to do so.

Prudence's reaction was immediate and intense. She went rigid. Her mouth opened on a soft, silent scream and then she started to shiver. Sebastian felt the tiny ripples rush through her. The moment of her release was gratifying beyond anything he had ever experienced in his life.

He raised his head and watched Prudence's face as she gave her­self up to her climax.

"Beautiful," he whispered.

And then she went limp against him. She mumbled something into his shirt that Sebastian could not understand. He smiled and reluc­tantly withdrew his hand from between her legs.

Now it was his turn.

He inhaled Prudence's scent as he started to unfasten his breeches. He was so fully aroused that he doubted he would be able to last for more than a few strokes at the most. Hell, he thought, he would be lucky to last long enough to get inside her.

The muffled clank of a chain broke the spell.

Sebastian felt as if someone had just doused him with a bucket of ice-cold water. He went absolutely still. He felt Prudence tense.

"The ghost," she whispered.

"Bloody hell." Sebastian shook his head in an attempt to clear away the cobwebs of passion. He fumbled with the opening of his breeches and managed to get it closed. "If this is an example of the sort of poor timing that damned specter exhibited when he was alive, it's no wonder someone murdered him."

The heavy clanking sound came again. It was closer now, reverber­ating through the walls. A low moan came from the other side of the connecting door.

" Lydia . Lydia , I have come for you."

"Bastard." Sebastian pushed himself up off the bed.

"What are you doing?" Prudence mouthed the words as she strug­gled to right her clothing.

"I'm going to take care of that ghost." Sebastian yanked the bed­ding up over her head. "Don't move. Don't make a sound."

He left her lying there, a large, interesting lump under the quilt, and quickly crossed the room to the window. He yanked the heavy drapes together, cutting off the moonlight. The room was plunged into stygian darkness.

" Lydia , where are you? Your time has come. I have waited a long, long while for you to join me in my grave."

Chains rumbled again on the floorboards in the other room. From his vantage point near the wardrobe, Sebastian watched the crack under the door. Candlelight appeared.

The door opened slowly and the clanking was suddenly much louder. A startling figure moved into the room with slow, ponderous steps.

Sebastian retreated deeper into the dark shadows cast by the big wardrobe and watched with interest as the apparition clanked toward the bed.