Dangerous in Diamonds - Madeline Hunter [93]
There had been vague sounds through the wall, but nothing came to her now. What a joke if he had fallen asleep. Or become so foxed in the public room below that she abandoned her momentous choice as soon as she saw him.
That decision had been surprisingly easy once she admitted what it meant. If she were going to suffer the afterwards, and her heart’s fullness intimated she would suffer it badly now, she would like to experience the now while she could. Castleford saw these things in the simplest terms, in the way of men. If you want me. Yet, this once, that same simple question had been what swayed her.
Hoping that she appeared more confident than she felt, trusting she would not shake on the outside the way she did in her essence, she slipped out of her chamber and walked the few feet to the door of the one beside it. The latch moved down easily. She pushed the door ajar and slid through the opening.
The chamber appeared much like her own but awash in pale, golden light from several lamps. One sat on the small writing desk not far from the door and another on a table beneath the one window. The third flanked the bed.
She stepped into the room farther and saw him in that bed, sitting with his back against the headboard. He was naked above the sheet that covered him to his waist, and no doubt beneath the sheet as well.
He was all Castleford right now. All trouble, that was certain. Little of the kind and understanding man from the afternoon showed in his eyes. The devil’s fires flickered in them, as well as those of the duke who, finally, was going to have his way.
“Come closer,” he said. “Don’t lose your nerve now.”
She walked forward, until she stood at the foot of the bed. “Do you always sleep naked, or were you that sure of me?”
“I always sleep this way. I was only mostly sure of you. I counted on your concluding it was foolish to deny us both for no good purpose, and I have known from the start that you are not a fool.”
Nor was he. He had realized she had been running away so he might not delve into her past.
It had been disconcerting to be pursued by a man who seemed to have been ahead of her for so much of the race.
“You should remove that dress, unless you want it ruined.”
Probably so. It was not as if she had never been undressed with him before. Still, unfastening the dress and letting it drop was harder than she expected. Since she wore nothing under it, the result was she stood there as naked as he but without the benefits of that sheet.
His gaze deepened. Amusement left his expression. “You are exquisite, Daphne. That has always been the only word for your beauty.”
It touched her that he bothered with such praise now. She was not going to argue, but like most women she knew her own flaws too well. Too tall and far too pale. “Frosty” had been used to describe her appearance more than once, and she had not assumed it was a compliment.
He patted the side of the bed, all devil again. She walked around and sat on it.
“Close your eyes,” he said, sitting up.
She obeyed and wondered what erotic game might start this way.
He moved. She felt him by her side, kneeling. Then a cool weight encircled her neck, and his hands worked at her nape. She opened her eyes and looked down. A necklace of fine filigree, embedded with a king’s ransom in diamonds, flamed on her chest. The largest stone, in the center, surpassed the ear bobs in size by several times and rested right above her breasts.
“You mustn’t. I mustn’t,” she muttered, while she watched the white flames glisten and spark. She poked at it. “It is very beautiful, though.”
“Indulge me for now. Get your hands away from that clasp. You must wear it tonight. I have never ravished a woman covered in diamonds before.” He took her hand and drew her onto the bed. “Next time you will have to wear the earrings too.”
She glanced at the diamonds, then at him. He caught the look.
“There must