The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [50]
“Is it awful of me to admit I am glad?” she asked suddenly.
Daniel blinked in surprise and glanced to her. “Glad?”
“That you need an heiress and are willing to marry me,” she said quietly. Suzette then turned to grimace and admitted, “I was worried you wouldn’t and then I would have to find another prospective groom.”
The thought didn’t please Daniel and he frowned as he recalled Garrison dancing with Suzette the night before. His mind then filled with a long line of bachelors who would have been happy to marry Suzette for her dower alone, and in his mind, each of them was leering happily at the thought of getting their hands on sweet, passionate Suzette.
“I didn’t like the idea of that though,” she continued on a sigh. “When you touch me, I feel . . . Well, I feel alive as I have never felt before,” she admitted. “I didn’t like the idea of any of the other men touching me that way.”
Neither did he, Daniel thought grimly as she set a pale blue dress beside the nightgown, before digging through the chest once more. His mind was now full of those leering bachelors tossing Suzette to the bed and lunging on her one after the other. Bastards!
“And your kisses quite steal my breath,” she informed him, her behind bobbing about again. “My lips tingle even now just at the thought of it.” Suzette shook her head. “Although had you said no, I suppose I would have had to have let someone else kiss and touch me like that.” She paused and said uncertainly, “Though perhaps I am wrong and it would have been fine. I mean, I hardly knew you when you kissed me and yet you stirred amazing passion in me. Perhaps a kiss is just a kiss and any one of the other men might have made me feel all hot and wanting too.” Suzette glanced over her shoulder and asked, “Do you think that’s possible?”
“No,” Daniel growled deep in his throat, anger and jealousy filling his thoughts as he imagined her with all of those men at once.
“Hmmm.” She turned back to the chest. “Then I am not sure why you had such an effect on me. Perhaps it was the punch the Landons served. It was quite a bit stronger than I am used to. Perhaps it was really just that which affected me so.”
Daniel stiffened, his eyes narrowing at the suggestion. She thought her response purely a result of drink? That it was the punch that had made her tingle all over? He’d see about that. She hadn’t been drinking this morning, and he’d damned well make her tingle until she exploded. Suzette would never again think it was just the drink or that just any man might cause it, he determined and stood abruptly to stride toward her.
“I didn’t think I’d had much of the punch, but perhaps I indulged more than I realized and—” Suzette’s words ended on a gasp as she was suddenly caught by the waist and lifted off the floor. In the next moment, she was on her feet and being turned to face Daniel, and then his mouth was on hers, stirring up those tingles she’d mentioned and sending them shooting to every corner of her body.
Suzette responded at once, her hands slipping around his neck and her mouth opening eagerly. They still had much to discuss, but she was willing to wait to do so if it meant enjoying his kisses and touch again. Besides, she was beginning to find his kisses addictive, the first one making her immediately greedy for more. When Daniel suddenly picked her up again and carried her around to the side of the bed, Suzette merely moaned as his body moved against hers. He laid her on the bed, and then started to straighten, and rather than protest, she tightened her arms around his neck, trying to keep him with her, but Daniel easily freed himself and then stood upright.
Confused, Suzette watched silently at first, but some of her confusion cleared when he quickly shrugged out of his jacket and vest and removed his cravat. She watched the movement and ripple of his muscles as he set the items carefully on a chair by the window, marveling at the sheer beauty of his muscled chest, and then he moved back to the side of the