Her curls were damp.
Her entrance slick.
“Is this all right?” he asked hoarsely, and prayed to God that it was.
She nodded–a shy acquiesce–and desire surged through him anew when virgin muscles clenched tightly around his finger.
Another kiss, this one lasting longer than any before it, as he brought her pleasure. As he found his own by the sheer expression of rapture across her countenance. As her breaths quickened, as her toes curled, as her nails dug into his shoulders, he kissed her. On, and on, and on…straight into the sweetest of all oblivions.
And after it was over, and he was waiting to wake from what was surely the best dream of his entire life, she asked him one single question.
“Everett…can you help me find my crow?”
* * * * *
“Yourwhat?” Springing from the bed as it had suddenly started to smoke, Everett crashed into a table, bounced off the wall, and ended up half sitting on the armrest of a chair while Daisy sat up on her elbow and gaze at him with bemusement.
“Sir Vincent. I told you about him, didn’t I? Well, it’s come to my attention via a letter that arrived last night that he has taken it upon himself to try and find me. The only problem is, he doesn’t know where I am. On account of his being a crow and being unable to read a map.”
“Where are we?” Everett pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “What time is it?”
“In your bedchamber at Lord Hollibrook’s estate,” she said, her bewilderment increasing. “As for the time, I’m not exactly certain, but about an hour before dawn. Are you quite well?”
“Quite well?” he said in a strangled voice. “Quite well? No, Daisy, I amnotquite well. I thought…I thought I was dreaming.”
“Oh.” She was quiet for a moment. “Is that why you kissed me and did those…other things?”
Everett opened his eyes, his expression caught somewhere between laughter and incredulity. “Yes, yes that’s why. I was under the impression…damnit, it doesn’t matter. I’m sorry, Daisy.”
“For what?”
“For…forthat,” he said, gesturing at the bed. “You’re an innocent, and I took advantage.”
Yes, he had taken advantage.
And she’d loved every debaucherously wicked second of it.
“It’s all right,” she said cheerfully. “You can make it up to me by helping to find Sir Vincent.”
He gazed bleakly at her. “Why do you wantmyhelp?”
“Because you’re a duke. As it turns out, you do have one useful trait.”
“And what’s that?”
“People will do whatever you ask. Even if you ask for a carriage to be readied for two before sunrise.”
“Daisy–”
“Please, Everett. This is important.”
His gaze softened. “Give me five minutes to get dressed.”
Biting her lip to hide her excitement, she leapt off the bed. “Four, and you’ve got yourself a deal.”
* * * * *
Before Everett could process what was happening, he was in a stolen coach bouncing across the countryside with an unchaperoned debutante on a wild hunt for a lost crow. It was, in a sentence, the most insane thing he’d ever done…and he wouldn’t have wanted to do it with anyone else.
