Page 44 of Miss Ellis Unleashed

Justine Dawes was nowhere to be seen.

He breathed easy only after he’d done a full circuit of the ballroom and halls and hadn’t found her sister or Lord Brookes there, either.

No one looked at him strangely or whispered about him or Daisy as he passed by. He spoke to Daisy after she left the dance floor a second time but made certain not to linger too long in her vicinity, even though he wanted to enjoy her flirting with him. However, there was only so much of that he could bear before he reacted to it, and that might be disastrous.

He only took his leave when Daisy was headed for home in the duke’s large carriage with the duke and duchess, very late in the morning.

Chapter Thirteen

Daisy was sitting up in bed under the sheets by the time Throsby finally let himself into her home. She listened to him move about, almost breathless as he finally made his way up the stairs to her door. When he stepped into her bedchamber, she was almost overcome with impatience to kiss him again.

He stopped dead still when he saw her waiting in bed, and then approached slowly, stopping at the foot. His gaze swept over her bare shoulders and then flickered to the floor, where her chemise lay discarded, then seemed to look about again, clearly for the gown she’d worn earlier that evening.

His expression was one of disappointment. “Sorry to have kept you waiting so long.”

She shrugged, letting her sheet slip a little lower. “You are much later than I expected.”

“Discretion,” he replied. “I feared it would seem odd if I left soon after you did.”

Now that Throsby was here, discretion was the furthest thing from Daisy’s mind. She wanted to continue where they had left off the night before. She’d thought about Throsby all day, and it made perfect sense now why she had disliked having a guardian.

All her agitation over him and the guardianship had a reason. She might have liked him, but she hadn’t been allowed to. But that didn’t matter anymore. The rules, her reputation. She was going to give up her life as she knew it for something much better.

Women always did when they found the men they’d lost their hearts to.

She would marry Throsby as soon as it was convenient and live together again. He could stomp through the halls as much as he liked, and she’d just flash her stockings at him and wear scandalous dresses to drive him wild.

Everything would work out in the end.

Tonight, her servants had been warned to ignore any odd noises they might hear, and besides, they were fond of Throsby anyway. They might not even be shocked if they found him naked in her bed when morning came. They had always wanted to keep him under this roof. Daisy did, too, now.

“You were unusually light-footed when you came in tonight. You always charged through the house like a bull at a gate before.”

He shrugged. “Only so you heard me and had time to hide your beaus or pretend to read the paper I would ask for.”

She smiled brightly, glad her efforts to irritate him had been noticed. “I’m not pretending with you or hiding anything anymore.” She let the sheet fall to expose her breasts and glanced at the bulge in his trousers. “What’s hidden under there fills me with great curiosity, by the way.”

He grinned but leaned against the bedpost rather than come closer. “We should talk first.”

She pouted, and wrapping her arms about her bent knees. “Why? Are you going to lecture me about my gowns or propriety again?”

“Not exactly.”

“I know things. There’s no need to worry. I’ll not be shocked when we make love,” she promised.

“That wasn’t ever my concern, but it does confirm my suspicions about you. Now, about Justine.”

She sighed. He wanted to discuss their indiscretion and Justine spotting them. Things might have changed between them, but he was still very much the same man who’d worried about her reputation all season. “Justine will talk or not talk about us. There are no guarantees she’d keep a secret now, if she ever would have before.”

“Do you realize the way you talked tonight suggested there was an understanding between us?” he said.

“I guess I did.”

“You said you liked me.”

“I do like you. Come here, darling, and kiss me again,” she said, stretching out her arms to him and wiggling her fingers in her impatience for a kiss that could not be interrupted.

Throsby wagged a finger at her. “There’s that strange word again. Darling?”