She almost fell off the sofa. Good grief, what on earth were the pirates doing out there?!
Hhshhh.
Now her heart was the one to fall. The soft noise at the other end of the sofa alarmed her more than the scream in the corridor. Was Danielawake again? What was he doing? Adjusting his pillow, or turning so he faced her?
Fiddlesticks. She was never going to sleep tonight.
Dawn eased into the rooms of Starkthorn Castle like a witch come to tidy away the darkness and, while she was at it, steal a few dreams. Daniel woke abruptly, completely. His mind recollected the locations of his weapons even before it emerged from its usual vague nightmares. It straightened the files of his existence, bookmarked a few bodily needs, then opened his eyes.
And pieces of cognition flew everywhere.
He was crammed into the very end of the sofa, his torso tilted awkwardly back, his feet on the floor where the quilt had fallen, and Alice curled up with her head resting in his lap. Daniel could feel her slow, warm breath through the linen of his underwear. Instantly, the pillow she had made for herself became rock-hard.
Damn.He needed to get distant from the woman, and fast. Attempting to slide a hand beneath her head, he froze as she cuddled one of his legs with the endearing warmth of a woman and the strength of a well-trained assassin. He tried to count, butwhat the hell were numbers again?Alice murmured in her sleep, nestling closer, and he groaned.
At the sound, Alice jolted suddenly. She was upright on the floor before Daniel even processed that she was moving. A bare, rose-scented foot set itself against his throat, and only the fact that she was English, and therefore sporting, saved Daniel from the disagreeable effects of her applying a fatal pressure at once.
“Wake up, Agent A,” he said calmly.
She blinked dark, heavy eyes, her vision coming into focus...
“Yoo-hoo! Blakeneys!”
This sudden cheerful call was followed by a violent hammeringupon the bedroom door. Daniel and Alice stared at each other for one frozen moment. Then a mutual realization of what they must do blossomed wordlessly between them. Daniel clutched both hands around Alice’s ankle and twisted.
She collapsed facedown on the quilt. As she began turning over, Daniel dropped from the sofa to join her, and instinctively, briefly, they wrestled. Within short order, Daniel found himself lying atop her, gripping her wrists over her head.
He frowned. This situation was as opposite to “getting distant from the woman” as possible without him actually being inside her—andthatwas a thought he did not want to be indulging right now.
Alice’s face reddened as she looked up at him. Daniel watched her expression flash bright for one moment with caution—then shyness—then stark, desperate yearning. The pulse in her wrists began shuddering against his palms. The swelling between his legs throbbed. He lowered his head toward her, and she rose to meet him.
In aching silence, their lips touched—
The bedroom door slammed open.
“Yoo-hoo!”Mrs. Ogden sang out as she barged into the room, followed closely by Mrs. Rotunder. Both women stopped, staring wide-eyed, when they saw Daniel and Alice together on the floor. Daniel lifted his head calmly. Beneath him, Alice exhaled with relief that they had achieved a properly marital pose just in the nick of time.
“Goodness me!” Mrs. Ogden exclaimed, her face illuminated with a Disapproving Countenance Type Five: Secretly Titillated.
“Youhavenoticed that you’ve got a bed?” Mrs. Rotunder asked slyly.
Daniel forced a piratic smile on his lips, although they were tingling so much from their brief touch upon Alice’s, he struggled to control them. But he must have been successful, for the two ladies began backing toward the door.
“We just wanted to let you know,” Mrs. Rotunder said, “that you should come—er—”
“Everyone’s up,” Mrs. Ogden explained. “You’re missing all the fun!”
Mrs. Rotunder muttered something under her breath as she pushed Mrs. Ogden out the door and closed it behind them. Laughter could be heard trilling in the corridor.
“Fun,” Alice echoed grimly.
“I have a feeling this does not bode well,” Daniel said, and climbed off her before desire drove him madder than a houseful of pirates.
11
a discourse on devilry—a devotional image— baroque versus romanticism—caught in the act— dangerous trousers—a confusion of agency
The road to hell is paved with piratic entertainments. They began before breakfast in the form of an impromptu game of tag initiated when Bloodhound Bess was caught stealing a pearl necklace from Mrs. Ogden’s dressing table. Then came Capture the Flag with a pair of Mrs. Ogden’s knickers. By the time the butler warily announced breakfast served, the company was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and ready to board a fast train to the Abode of the Damned.
