Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

He could not believe her audacity—or her naiveté.

The gardens were no place for a gently bred young lady to be traipsing about in the dark of the night. Evie might think that it simply was someplace they might be able to hold a conversation without anyone listening in on them, but Daniel knew better.

The gardens were where the ton secretly let out their darker, baser selves. These were places of trysts and rendezvous, where the members of Society enacted their more scandalous fantasies away from the censorious eyes in the ballrooms.

She cannot possibly mean to go there…

Daniel clenched his jaw as he watched Evie resolutely sashay out of the ballroom, pausing briefly to lean against the door frame with just one hand to cast an expectant look at him over her shoulder. If she had intended to seduce him, she could not have done better with that one sultry look.

But, of course, she was not seducing him.

Planning my complete evisceration would be more likely.

He had to admit that warning off every gentleman in London might not have been the best move, but he had heard enough from those bastards at the club. The Earl of Sidmouth could not have been the only one having such intentions towards Evie—he was simply audacious enough to state them for everyone, including Daniel, to hear.

Even just thinking about it right now made him want to punch the man and leave a dent in his skull.

If the sweet, little fool thought that he was going to feel remorse for his actions, then she was sorely mistaken. He was not going to apologize for keeping her fine bottom out of a great deal of trouble further down the road.

He found her standing with her proud back to him. Underneath the moonlight, her skin glowed as if she had been carved from the finest alabaster, her skirts rustling from the slight breeze that blew past.

It was a cool night, but his blood rushed hot in his veins at the sight of her.

He still had not been able to get rid of the memory of her sleepily draping herself over him. Nor could he so easily forget how hard he had been when he pressed her soft body into his bed, his hands pinning her wrists over her head. Even now, the image flashed through his mind, making him ache once more.

“You cannot make my decisions for me.”

Her voice was cold as it carried in the night air. She turned around to face him, her blue-gray eyes steely with resolve.

He frowned as he crossed his arms over his chest. He already knew she was going to say something like this.

Colin and Lady Wellington had indulged her to this degree, but the world was not going to be as kind to her. Her wide-eyed innocence, the way she regarded the people around her with such a trusting smile… how could she know that those very same people would gladly celebrate her downfall?

“Of course, I can,” he told her implacably. “Your brother left you under my protection, and you will do as you’re told if you know what is good for you.”

She glared back at him, her chin raised haughtily. She was as defiant as Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, and just as fiercely exquisite. Her lips pulled back into a snarl, and a keen desire to taste that luscious mouth washed over him.

“You keep saying that like it is your only excuse,” she flung back at him. “Maybe that is the only excuse you have.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. He knew she was going to be difficult, but Evie was proving to exceed his expectations in that aspect.

“Maybe that is all the excuse I need.” He shrugged.

For a moment, they stood there, glaring at each other. Locked in a battle of wills.

Evie was much too innocent and trusting to be left on her own. With men like Sidmouth after her, leaving her to maneuver the intricacies of the Season was like throwing a duckling into a den of snakes.

Like hell Daniel was going to allow something like that to happen.

“Tell me, Your Grace,” she asked him, “have you ever managed a debutante’s coming out before?”

He frowned. “No.”

“Have you ever accompanied one through a Season?”

“I cannot say I have.”

“Have you ever considered marrying one?”

His eyebrows snapped together. Her questions were getting more outrageous by the minute, and he could hardly see the point in them.

“You must be out of your mind,” he scoffed.

He had no intention of marrying anyone—debutante or otherwise. If she harbored any delusions about that…

“Then what makes you think that this”—she gestured towards him in frustration—“well, whatever it is you think you are doing will produce the best outcome?” She stepped up to him and glared haughtily at him. “You are most unqualified to tell me what to do, as well as how and when to do it!”

By now, she was close enough that he could see her bosom heaving from her passionate speech and her pupils dilating in the darkness. He was close enough to catch the scent of that soft, undeniably feminine fragrance that emanated from her body.

If he reached out, he could drag her to him and kiss those words right off her lips.

It was a most tempting idea, but Daniel liked to think he had better control of his baser desires, and he was not about to let a self-proclaimed debutante who hardly left her country estate entice him into it.

“Oh, I think I am more than qualified, sweetheart,” he drawled silkily, his voice dropping to a low growl. “Have you forgotten that I have a reputation for devouring naive young ladies like you who wander off into the dark unchaperoned?”

He heard the soft intake of her breath, saw the sudden realization dawning in her eyes.

“Y-you would not dare,” she squeaked.

He smiled at her, feeling his feral instincts rise to the fore at the sudden meekness of her tone.

“You will find that I do dare to do whatever the hell I want.”

He took one step forward. She took one backward.

“You might be in your element in the ballroom, but out here, you have been grossly outclassed, Evie.”

He took another step forward. And then another. Until he had her back pressed against a marble column. He braced his arm over her head as he leered down at her, allowing the dark lust to swirl openly in his eyes.

He had not lied to her when he told her that he had never been with a debutante—their nigh-on endless, vapid prattling and inexperience were more than enough to discourage a man’s lust. Daniel himself had rather… peculiar tastes, and the gently bred young ladies of the ton were not his usual fare.

Tastes that would shock Evie to her very core.

Which was why he had absolutely no idea why this particular lady aroused him so much. She was everything he did not want. Should not want.

And yet, he had never wanted to taste, to feel another body as much as he wanted to feel hers.

Just one taste. One taste and I shall sate my damned curiosity once and for all.

As his hand curled around the back of her neck, Daniel knew he was going to burn for this.

That Colin was going to kill him.

But as his lips descended on hers, he found that he did not care at all.

Kissing Daniel Stanton was not what she had in mind when she told him to meet her in the gardens.

It might be what most people did in the gardens, but Evie liked to think that she was more sensible than most people. The funny thing was that she was quite certain that most sensible people would agree that it was unwise to poke and prod a bear until it devoured you.

The problem was that she rather liked being devoured.

Evie let out a soft gasp as his lips moved over hers. Hot. Fierce. Demanding.

Daniel was one who would take and take and take and leave nothing behind.

His body was hard and unforgiving as it pressed her against the column at her back, but his lips—good Lord, there was nothing quite like his lips.

They slid over hers so sensuously, molding her against him as his hand trailed down her shoulder to her hip, sending sparks skittering over her fevered skin. When his fingers curled, she felt as if her insides had been turned to liquid heat.

She let out a soft mewl as she pressed back against him, eager for more of what he was showing her. Her hand traveled from his shoulder down to his chest, where she could feel his heart beating wildly against her palm.

She smiled inwardly, feeling a sort of power in the knowledge that he was just as affected by the kiss as she was. Thrilled, her hand wandered lower, when she felt a hand wrap around her wrist in a vice-like grip.

Suddenly, he pulled away from her so quickly that she was knocked off balance. If it had not been for the column behind her, Evie had no doubt she would have fallen to the grass in an ungraceful heap.

Her eyes flew open only to find that Daniel was not as pleased as she thought he would be.

In fact, he was glaring at her with an intensity that would make lesser men tremble in their boots.