Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Warm hands…Gentle hands…

Daniel let out a soft groan as he felt the feathery touch trail past his bare abdomen to his rapidly hardening manhood.

Had he returned with company last night? In the ungodly hours of the morning, he was not quite sure.

However, those soft touches were enough for his instincts to kick in, and with a feral growl, he rolled over until his hard body was pressing against the womanly softness beneath him. With expert speed, he pinned those wrists over her head as his slumberous eyes peered at the woman who had been so bold as to awaken him with an erection so early in the morning…

Only for his blood to run cold as a pair of steely blue-gray eyes gazed back up at him in utter shock, a soft gasp escaping slightly parted pink lips.

It was Evie, damn her to hell!

He immediately leaped off the bed as if her very skin scalded him, and he glared at her as she scrambled to pull the sheets up to her eyes—not before he caught a glimpse of her delectable curves through the sheer nightgown she wore, however.

Daniel would have laughed at the sight if he had been one to laugh. Instead, he only growled the one logical question that penetrated through the haze of lust.

“What in the name of God are you doing in my bed?”

Evie just blinked at him with her wide eyes, before she hastily shifted her gaze to the side.

Daniely, however, was finding her sudden lack of words rather infuriating.

And rather frustrating, considering he was standing there at the side of the bed with a cock hard enough to pierce through wood.

When she bit her lower lip, it took all of his self-control to not let the slightest groan slip past his damned lips.

So, he narrowed his eyes at her and allowed the corner of his lips to tilt up in cold amusement as he asked her, “Well then, are you trying to seduce me, My Lady?”

His words had the effect that glaring and growling did not. Evie immediately leaped off the bed, her blue-gray eyes bright with fury.

“You wish!” she seethed, crossing her arms. “And for your information, Your Grace, if I ever felt the need to seduce anyone, you would be the last person on God’s green earth that I would pick!”

Daniel, to his great vexation, found himself admiring how that one simple act of fury only emphasized the fullness of her breasts until he swore he could see the faint shadow of her areolae through the thin fabric of her nightgown.

“Although your display of feminine rage is admirable,” he retorted coldly, “it still does not explain why you are in my bed and touching me in a most scandalous manner.”

A pretty red stain spread across her cheeks. “Of course, I had no intention of touching you there—or anywhere else, for that matter!” she replied defensively. “I… well, I…”

“Please, do go on,” he sneered. “I patiently await your explanation for your actions.”

She glared daggers at him. “My room was simply too bright,” she bit out. “I tried blowing out the candles, but the light coming in from the corridor was still too much. I thought that I could… simply find the darkest room and spend the night there just this once.”

“You found your room too bright?” he enunciated flatly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why do I find that hard to believe? Most young ladies despise the darkness.”

In fact, the many women he brought to his bed would even plead with him to at least leave a few candles on. Daniel himself liked sleeping in absolute darkness, which was why he had taken great measures to make sure that not a sliver of light ever made it into his sleeping quarters.

Who would have known that it would attract Evie to slip into his bed uninvited?

“Well, I do not like the light,” she replied with a haughty tilt of her chin. “And anyway, since you are neither young nor a lady, you cannot possibly know that. I absolutely detest fire and⁠—”

He saw her eyes widen, before she pressed her lips shut. She took a deep breath and spoke in a much more even manner. “I would appreciate it if you could provide me with accommodations very much like this one. You did say,” she added with a bit more hesitation, “that I could have any room in Ashton Hall that I liked.”

“I did not mean you could crawl into mine, for heaven’s sake!” he roared.

Evie frowned at him. “Well, I did not know it was yours,” she began, but then hastily shut her mouth.

“Never mind,” he snapped, picking his shirt off the floor. “You can have this room!”

“Y-yes, but where will you⁠—”

“I’ll find somewhere else to sleep in. Unless,” he added with a raised eyebrow, “you want to share this bed with me. In that case, I have no objection⁠—”

“Scoundrel!” She glared at him.

He smirked at her. “I thought so.”

He shrugged his shirt on and strode out of his bedroom before the impressionable young woman sitting on his bed could notice the erection that was threatening to burst out of his pants.

Evie was proving to be far more trouble than he had initially bargained for.

And it was only the first day.

Damnation!

He had never thought of Evie as anything more than Colin’s younger sister before. Perhaps he should have been more cognizant of that fact, especially now that they were living under the same roof.

Because a friend’s annoying younger sister should never have aroused him like that in the first place.

Evie watched as Daniel strode out of the room in large, angry strides, and who could blame him? It was not every morning he woke up to a strange woman in his bed, touching him in a most intimate manner…

Or maybe not, she realized with a frown. He had probably had many women in his bed—and they might have done a great deal more than simply touch him.

Somehow, though, the thought of another woman touching him made her blood run cold.

But who could blame them, really? When he had turned around to button his shirt, she had caught a glimpse of his broad back, his muscles bunching and flexing in a way that practically called out for her fingers to touch them. To see if they were as hard and smooth as they looked…

And before that, she had definitely felt something hard.

“I must be going mad,” she muttered to herself with a slight shake of her head. “This is Daniel Stanton we are talking about. I could not find a much more infuriating man in all of creation, even if I tried.”

She doubted there was even another man in London with that kind of back that she had seen. It had been enough for her mouth to go dry just looking at him.

He truly is built like a Greek statue, she sighed inwardly. It was just too bad that his attitude left a lot to be desired.

She shook her head as she grabbed the robe she had casually draped over the back of a chair when she slipped into bed last night. It had been dark, then, and she had been so desperate for even just a wink of sleep that she had not bothered to check if the room—the bed, specifically—had already been occupied.

But now that the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, she needed to get back to her own rooms before her maid discovered that she was missing. Even if the servants at Ashton Hall were extremely disciplined, scandal still had the most unfortunate tendency to find its way to the papers.

Or to the waiting ears of the matriarchs of Society.

“I cannot believe that it is only my first day here and I am already getting into trouble,” she murmured as she slipped out of the room—Daniel’s room.

She had barely managed to slide back under the covers when her door swung open and her grandmother swept in, followed by Evie’s maid, Jane, who held a basin of clean water and had some towels draped over her arm.

Lady Wellington could be considered a rather handsome woman at her age, and even though she usually had a cheerful demeanor, Evie was well aware that her grandmother hid a crafty mind beneath her charming smile. Otherwise, how could Colin ever be persuaded to even consider marriage, with her brother being one of the most obstinate creatures to ever exist?

But now that Colin and Alice were happily married, Evie knew without a doubt that her grandmother would turn all her attention towards her as her only unwed grandchild.

What is it with dowagers and their intense need to see all of their descendants married?

However, Evie did not have much time to dwell on her thoughts, for her grandmother had already swept the curtains aside to flood the entire room with light.

“Rise and shine, my darling!” she sang. “It is a rather beautiful day for a turn about Rotten Row, don’t you think?”

Evie could think of a great many things—better ones—to occupy her time than an excruciating trip to the park, but she could never tell her grandmother that.

Instead, she could only groan and turn over with the sheets pulled over her head.

“Oh dear, you look as if you have not slept a wink!” her grandmother chided. “Were your accommodations not to your liking? I was under the impression that we were assigned the very best rooms in Ashton Hall.”

“It was much too bright last night,” Evie grumbled.

It was hardly a lie, though. It had been too bright.

But then again, she had also most aggravatingly been pulled out of her slumber far earlier than she would have preferred. When she recalled how his hard body had rolled on top of hers, his hands pinning her wrists over her head, Evie felt a strange warmth pooling low in her belly.

Strange. I have never felt this way before.

She had also never been in such close contact with a rogue before, so perhaps these things were to be expected.

“You poor child,” she heard her grandmother carry on. “You are even looking a little flushed. Are you sure you are all right, my dear?”

Evie felt her face heat up a little more. “I-I’m fine, Grandmama. I am just not used to everything here, I suppose.”

“Yes, perhaps I should have a word with His Grace about that.” Lady Wellington frowned slightly. She affectionately patted Evie’s cheek. “Even if he is the one your brother trusted to keep you safe, that does not mean he can neglect your comfort.”

Evie simply smiled and murmured some words of agreement as she allowed Jane to assist her in dressing and doing her hair.

Later, she would have to ask the maids if there might be another room that was not as well-lit as the one she had been assigned. Preferably, they would not insist on setting her up into one with a fireplace.

The thought of the logs crackling in the hearth alone was already enough to make her shudder. The heat and light combined would be nigh on intolerable.

Also, it would be much better if they could give her a room as far from Daniel’s room as possible. When she recalled how she had shamelessly draped herself over his muscular form, she felt as if she might die of embarrassment.

Even if she found it strangely thrilling—which she should not, by the way.