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‘Do you understand?’ he demanded.
Blindly Lily looked at him. He might not have any compassion for her, but obviously the Duchess’s feelings were important to him, so there must be some humanity within him somewhere—even if he seemed intent on concealing it from her.
‘Yes, I understand,’ she confirmed emotionlessly.
She understood that he loathed and despised her. She understood that there had been a woman in his life who had destroyed his ability to trust. But what she did not understand was why her silly heart persisted in aching with a need that could only destroy her. And tonight she was going to have to share a room with the cause of that need and somehow keep it hidden from him. If she could.
But what if she couldn’t?
What if, like the last time she had shared a bed with him, she let her feelings get out of control? Panic filled her.
‘We can’t share a room,’ she insisted. ‘I wouldn’t feel …’
‘What? Safe?’ Marco derided her.
Lily couldn’t look at him—dared not look at him just in case he could somehow see what she was really thinking. The truth was that she was indeed afraid that she wouldn’t feel safe. Not because she was afraid that she couldn’t trust Marco, but because she feared that she couldn’t trust herself. She certainly wasn’t prepared to admit that to him, though.
‘I’ve just told you we have no other option than to be thankful that it’s only for a couple of nights,’ Marco said, adding sardonically, ‘Allow me to play the gentleman and offer you the bed.’
He wasn’t going to be persuaded or argued into changing his mind about the suite, she could tell. And in reality what legitimacy did she actually have to keep on trying to insist that he did so? She liked the Duchess herself, and knew that Marco’s comment about her potential embarrassment was justified. She was going to have to accept the fact that, despite her misgivings and her fears they would be sharing the suite, she acknowledged.
‘You have the bed this time,’ Lily muttered. ‘I’d rather have the sofa in the sitting room.’
A brief knock on the door had Marco going over to open it to admit the housekeeper, escorting a young man who was carrying their luggage.
‘If there’s anything you require for the evening, just dial ten on the telephone on the desk,’ she told them.
It was Marco who tipped the young man, whilst Lily was still looking round for her handbag, his gesture winning him an approving look from the housekeeper before the two of them exited the room.
‘We’ve got just over an hour before we’re due downstairs for the Duchess’s reception. Since the suite seems only to have one bathroom, you can use it first if you wish,’ he offered distantly, without looking at her.
Lily nodded her head. She wanted to wash her hair, and although it was easy to dry and style it would take her longer to get ready than it would Marco, so it made sense for her to use the bathroom first.
Even so, she didn’t linger under the shower, washing her hair and herself as quickly as she could before pulling on one of the luxurious bathrobes provided for their use. She’d taken her small case into the bathroom with her, hanging up her black jersey skirt to make sure it wasn’t creased, and was just straightening up, having removed clean underwear from her case, when there was a sharp knock on the door.
Still holding her undies, she opened the door.
‘I just wanted to check that you don’t need anything ironed,’ Marco told her.
‘No. My skirt is jersey,’ Lily replied, half gesturing towards the sliver of matt black fabric hanging on the glass door of the shower area, not realising until Marco bent down to retrieve them that her briefs had slipped out of her grasp.
Pink cheeked with embarrassment, Lily took them from him when he handed them to her, balling the nude fabric in her hand as she did so. Why, when she preferred and always wore plain, smooth underwear, was she suddenly now wishing that what Marco had retrieved for her had been something far more sensual? A pretty, feminine wisp of silk and lace, perhaps—the kind of underwear worn by the kind of women she imagined Marco preferred. Beautifully, sexually confident and alluring women for whom it was second nature to dress their bodies in provocative sexy undies.
