“Careful!” Damien chastised as she left his embrace and nearly went under again.
Caroline paid him no mind, but instead kept her efforts on swimming until her feet were able to reach the bottom of the pond. It only took her a few seconds because of her dress, but her embarrassment made her feel as if it took forever to reach the bank and climb out of the pond.
“What on earth are you doing?” she yelled as she finally reached dry land.
“Swimming,” Damien answered.
He said it so casually that Caroline whirled around to glare at him. Which, she realized only after her eyes landed on him again, was a mistake. Damien was standing in the pond, the opaque water up to his hips. His muscular physique looked even better dripping wet, and Caroline found herself speechless and slack-jawed as she took in every inch of his delicious form.
“Enjoy what you see, huh?”
Damien’s teasing tone snapped her out of her reverie, and as she dragged her eyes up to his face, she found him smirking in the most arrogantly handsome way. She pressed her lips shut as a combination of desire and annoyance surged through her, and she forced herself to shake her head.
“Whyare younaked?” she asked, then blushed even deeper as she heard her own voice rise to a squeaking pitch.
Damien took a slow look around the property as he raised his hands above the water, showing off his powerful biceps andforearms.
“This is my property,” he answered. “My land, my pond. I believe, as the owner of such, I am allowed to do whatever I wish within it.”
Caroline opened her mouth to protest, but Damien’s casual tone shifted toward something deeper and darker as he began to speak again.
“Now, what were you saying about George?”
Think, woman, think!
“I... I woke late this morning,” she hurriedly explained. “A... a maid took him to the gardens to play, but when I went to join them, I found the maid had lost Georgie. When I saw the splashing, I thought it was him struggling, so I came over here and… well...” she lost her words as Damien began moving through the water and toward her, the water line moving a little lower on his body with every step he took.
She blinked slowly, her mouth suddenly dry and full of thirst as Damien walked out of the water, and his entire physique was made bare to her. She had seen the broad expanse of his chest and shoulders before, yes, but never... all of him.
“Caroline?” Damien’s deep voice rumbled.
“I... I was worried he was drowning,” she murmured, her eyes fixed on a particularly impressive area of his figure she had never seen before. She cocked her head sideways, a million questions forming in her mind as all urgency and sanity seemed to fade into the background. Her mouth had gone quite dry, and she found herself wondering, with a curiosity that was altogether improper, what it would feel like to—
“Starting to regret your no-touching rule, are you?”
Caroline’s gaze snapped up to Damien’s face, and she found him grinning. Embarrassment and anger roiled up in her, and she whirled around to put her back to him as her entire face turned beet red.
“You are an uncivilized cad, you know that?” she bit out, and her anger grew as Damien only responded with a throaty chuckle that made her insides melt.
“As you say,wife,”he teased. “Would you mind throwing me that drying sheet?”
Caroline looked to the nearby tree, and sure enough, there, hanging amongst the branches, were a drying sheet, his breeches, and his shirt. She pulled the sheet down with haste, causing it to snap in the air with her jerky movements, and hurled it behind her shoulder.
“Your property or not, I want you to know that this... this is unacceptable behavior!” she scolded, willing the flush in her cheeks to die down. “You cannot just parade around naked as you see fit!”
“Breeches,” Damien commanded, and she threw them at him next.
“It is not only improper for me to see you, you know,” she went on. “It is improper for the staff, and certainly for Georgie! He is a young boy and—”
“Shirt.”
She wrenched it off the tree and tossed it to him while she kept on talking.
“He is an impressionable young boy, and he cannot be made to think that swimming in the nude is appropriate!”
“I am dressed now, you may turn around,” Damien stated. “I am sure George is fine hiding somewhere, but I will help you look for him.”
Caroline hesitated for a moment and took a quick look over her shoulder. Seeing that he was indeed dressed again, she timidly turned around. An unbidden disappointment rose up in her at seeing him clothed, and she shook her head in an attempt to banish such a ridiculous notion.
