The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [47]
“I am glad you didn’t assume I was free with myself,” Suzette admitted, moving to a chest at the foot of the bed. “I did worry about that last night.”
“No. I never assumed that,” he murmured, watching as she knelt by the chest and opened it. She then leaned over to sift through the clothes inside, and Daniel found his gaze widening on her behind as it bobbed up and then waved gently about as she went through the items in the chest. Dear God, the style of today’s gown was so thin that hers rode over her skin like a sheath leaving little to the imagination. She may as well have been naked, he thought as he noted the curve of her hips.
“How much should I pack, do you think?” she asked, lifting a gown out of the chest and sitting back on her haunches.
Without the view of her behind to distract him, Daniel glanced to the gown she’d lifted out of the chest and swallowed as he realized it was a night dress, a nearly diaphanous creation with little rosettes along the neckline. He could see right through it to the chest and bed and everything else on the other side of it and knew he would be able to see every inch of her skin through it were she to put it on. What the devil was an unmarried woman doing with a creation like that? he wondered with dismay.
“This was my mother’s,” she announced suddenly, turning to smile at him. “I have always loved it. Father had her clothes packed away and placed in the attic after she died, but I found this some years ago and took it to my room. I have never been brave enough to wear it. In fact, I’m not sure what moved me to pack it when we left for London, but I am now glad I did. I think I could find the courage to wear it with you.”
Daniel swallowed, imagining her in the gown, and then out of the gown, and then on her back under him.
Suzette set the gown over the end of the bed with a pleased little sigh and then bent to search through the chest again, her behind once more bobbing before his eyes as she said, “I suppose I should take at least three or four dresses, don’t you think?”
Daniel growled what might have been agreement as he watched her behind bobble about. Damn, the woman was driving him crazy.
“What is Woodrow like?” she asked suddenly, her voice coming muffled from inside the chest.
“I—It’s nice, I guess. Lots of farm land and trees, a small pond for swimming. Of course the house still needs some repair,” he answered, his voice and mind distracted by her behind.
“Will we live there or in the city, do you think?”
Daniel raised his eyebrows, the question actually garnering his full attention. Last night Suzette had said she wanted the right to live separate lives if she wished, but that question sounded as if she didn’t wish to after all. That was encouraging, he supposed. Well, it would be if he’d decided to marry her. Clearing his throat, he said, “Woodrow mostly, though I shall have to travel to town on occasion for business.”
“Oh, I’m so glad you said that!” Suzette smiled at him over her shoulder. “I grew up in the country and it’s much nicer than town don’t you think? The air is so sooty here, and it’s so crowded and . . .” She shrugged and turned back to the chest. “I would just rather raise children in the country.”
Daniel blinked slightly at the words as her behind bobbed into the air once more. Children? Of course were they to marry they would eventually have children, he realized and suddenly imagined a small Suzette with pigtails and sparkling eyes and a mischievous grin like her mother. The image was a charming one and Daniel found himself smiling.
“I should like to have a couple of boys as well as a daughter I think,” Suzette said happily, speaking into the chest.
An image of two serious young boys rose in his