“She just started today. I will have to explain to her in the strongest terms that—” Bits of her conversation with Mrs. Finley that morning interrupted her thoughts. The bits about discretion and important people visiting, even at unusual hours. No one was more important than a duke. Nothing required discretion more than an unmarried woman’s affair with a man.
The duke now unbuttoned his waistcoat. Panic thumped in her heart.
“The housekeeper made a mistake. The household—my maid—”
“Your maid saw me too. I looked up the stairwell while she was peering down.”
“Oh, dear heaven.”
“Neither she nor the housekeeper seemed shocked by my arrival. Only you do.” He removed the waistcoat and set it on top of the frock coat on the chair by her writing desk. “Do you want me to leave, Clara? If you do, say so now, before I finish undressing. It will be very annoying if you become a coward after I am naked.”
Naked.
He waited. She stared. How hard could it be to sayyes, I do want you to leave?Very hard, it turned out. Because most of her did not want him to leave, and the rest was not sure.
He bent and removed his boots. He stood. “You look lovely in the moonlight. Ethereal. All silvers and grays.”
She looked down at herself. Unless she was mistaken, that light made her thin lawn nightdress transparent. She did not know if she appeared ethereal, but she suspected she looked almost naked herself.
She resisted the impulse to pull the drape around her. She did not care for the way he used that wordcoward,as if sending him away showed a lack of character instead of admirable restraint. A respectable woman deciding to remain respectable was not a coward. She was careful and sensible and—and—She sighed, because the excitement singing through her refused to hear the old, predictable lessons about good sense and every other boring word ever used to discourage pleasure.
All the same, she would have to stand her ground, almost naked though she was, and do what she must. To have him in her own bedchamber, her own bed, was beyond dangerous. It was insanely reckless.
She looked up to explain that to him, confident that he would understand like the gentleman he was. Just as she did, he pulled off his shirt, and suddenly she forgot what she intended to say.
* * *
Clara just looked at him, her eyes wide with excitement and fear. It had occurred to him, when she woke and he saw her shock at his presence, to give her one kiss and retreat. Except she did look lovely and would look more beautiful once he removed that cap. Nor did she scream or order him to leave. Instead she watched him, so obviously of two minds that he guessed the debate in her mind.
It was the cap that told him for certain that she did not feign surprise at seeing him. A woman anticipating a man’s arrival in her bedchamber would never wear that. The fool of a new housekeeper had drawn conclusions that Clara herself had not. He had been delighted by the mistake before he knew it to be one. The idea that she expected him, welcomed him, and made arrangements to receive him banished any indecision. He had almost taken the stairs three at a time.
He went over to her and took her into his arms. “You have not spoken. I am here because of a comedy of errors, but it must still be your choice if I stay.”
She placed her palms flat on his chest, then laid her cheek on the skin between them. The fine lawn on her bed dress offered little barrier to the feel of her body beneath his hands and arms. Her soft, sweet warmth entered him and soothed the restless discontent he had lived with tonight.
“You must be gone before five.”
“I will be gone well before.”
“You must tell no one. You must swear it. And you must promise to die before you tell my family.”
“Die?”
She looked up into his eyes. A spark of the Clara he so admired shone brightly amid others that reflected her enchantment. He could feel her arousal. But she had not abandoned herself. “Yes, die. They are not to know.”
“I so swear.” He would probably swear to anything right now.
She stretched up and wrapped her arms around his neck. She gave him a small kiss. “Then I have decided I will not be a coward, as you put it so ungenerously.”
“That was my hunger for you trying to tip the balance in my favor.”
“I know. It worked.”
He plucked off the cap. Her hair tumbled down. He stretched his fingers through it and held her head to a kiss that had waited hours to be released. The ferocity of his desire burst hot and hard. It threatened to conquer him. He had to force control so he did not ravish her then and there.
He unbuttoned the top of her nightdress until it gapped enough that he could ease it down her shoulders and arms. She huddled against him to hide her nakedness. He pushed the dress over her hips, then lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed.
She pulled the bedclothes up as soon as he laid her down. He settled next to her. “Are you cold?”
