End of discussion. Lily imagined she could feel Rose’s cold calculation rolling off of her in waves.
So much for growing closer.
Deprived of conversation, Lily’s thoughts drifted back to Rand. Over the next quarter hour, she tossed and turned, trying to ignore her body’s cravings and failing utterly.
“Go to him,” Rose finally said.
“Wh-what?”
“Go to him. I won’t tell Father or Mum or anyone else. Just go, so I can get some sleep.”
“Rose, I—”
“I’ll never like the fact that you won him, but it’s a fact nonetheless. Go, Lily.”
“I—” She wanted to. Oh, how she wanted to. But it wasn’t as though Rand were in the adjacent room. “I’d have to walk outdoors alone in the dark of the night. It isn’t safe.”
Her sister snorted. “It’s fifty feet down an alley. Should anyone approach you, Beatrix will draw blood with her claws, Jasper will nip off the poor soul’s toes, and Lady will peck out his eyes. Just go.”
Lily didn’t have to be told again. Nerves scrambling, she slid from the bed and began throwing on her clothes. “Thank you, Rose.”
“You’d do the same for me.”
“Thank you anyway.” The Ashcroft siblings had always stuck together, but Rose’s willingness to cover for her said louder than any words that Lily was well on her way to being forgiven.
She was relieved. And grateful.
But mostly, she was on fire.
THIRTY-FOUR
“LILY?” CLEARLY shocked to find her on his doorstep, Rand opened the door wider, then blinked as her three animal friends scampered in past him.
Lily stood on the front step, shivering in the chilly night air but enjoying her surprise. The expression on Rand’s face was priceless. The rest of him looked delicious, his hair tousled from sleep, his body wrapped in a dark brown brocade dressing gown tied loosely at his waist.
She wanted her hands on that body. “May I come in?”
“Oh.” He blinked. “Of course.” Holding a candle with one hand, he wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and drew her inside. As he shut the door, he eyed the assorted creatures. “How the devil did they get to Oxford?”
“I told you, they follow me.”
“They follow you,” he repeated dryly, as though that explained nothing at all. “What are you doing here?”
“I missed you.” She moved closer and slipped her arms beneath the silk dressing gown. It was her turn to be surprised when she felt nothing but bare skin. She skimmed her hands over his back, smiling to herself when he bobbled the candle. “I came to talk about tomorrow. Your father—”
He hushed her with a quick kiss. “I don’t even want to think about the old goat, let alone talk about him.”
“I was jesting.” She molded her body against his, feeling altogether wicked and wonderful. The house smelled of new wood and paint, and Rand smelled of warmth and temptation. “Since you couldn’t come to my bed, I decided to come to yours.”
His eyes widened, a new glint in the warm gray. “Well, then,” he said, his voice turning velvet-smooth as he gazed down at her, “shall we go up to it?”
She suddenly realized what she’d said and how forward it must have sounded. Rose would say something like that and hold her head up, but Lily had just shocked herself speechless.
The look on her face must have amused him, because his lips twitched as he drew her hands from beneath his dressing gown, raised the candle, and motioned her toward the stairs.
Her cheeks burning, she preceded him up the steps.
“I cannot believe you’re here,” he said from behind her matter-of-factly, as though she hadn’t just proved herself a wanton.
“Rose told me to come.”
“Rose?”
“Yes, Rose. She couldn’t stand my tossing and turning.” Lily paused on the bedchamber’s threshold. As she stared at Rand’s bed, the wicked feelings faded. There was a big difference between sliding into passion in a summerhouse and showing up on a man’s doorstep in the middle of the night.
Placing a gentle hand on her back, he urged her inside. “I was tossing and turning myself. Couldn’t sleep, so I was puzzling out some old text.” He pushed aside a jumble of papers to set the candle on the desk by the door. “But Rose?”
“She’s accepting us, Rand.” Her gaze was still fastened on the bed. The forest green hangings were pulled back, the sheets invitingly rumpled. “She may not be happy about it, but at least she’s coming around. She’s not going to hate me all our days.”
“I’m so glad.”
At the sound of the door slamming shut, she jumped and whirled to face him. “What was that?”
“They’re outside.”
She put a hand to her racing heart. “Who?”
“Your animals.” He grinned. “They cannot come in here. But they’re not out in the rain. There’s no need to worry—”
“You’re impossible.” Now that the bed was out of sight, safely behind her back, she was feeling amorous again. She went closer and went on her toes for a kiss. “The animals really don’t care.”
“I care.” He kissed her forehead, not her mouth. “This time I don’t want any distractions.” His hands on her shoulders, he slowly backed her up. “This time is going to be different.” He kept going, his thumbs caressing the sides of her neck, inciting a delicious shiver. “This time—”
The backs of her legs bumped into something.
The bed.
“This time,” he concluded, “we’ll do it my way.”
It was a high four-poster bed with two steps leading up to it. Rand lifted her by the waist and sat her atop the feather mattress.
She swallowed hard. “Your way?”
“My way. Slow and easy…”
The way he said that made her suspect there would be nothing easy about it.
Her suspicions were confirmed when he began removing her shoes. Slowly. And untying her garters. Slowly. And rolling down her stockings. Slowly.
Those hot cravings she’d been feeling—the ones that
