Page 36 of A Naughty Proposal for His Winter Countess
“It wasn’t—”
“Harriet,answerme,” he demanded.
Pressing a hand to his chest, Harriet parroted Dawson’s words to Daniel, knowing that he would get angrier. As she finished the sentence, Harriet could see she was right—Daniel lookedmurderous.
“The bounder!” Daniel snapped. “I’m going to call him out.”
Terrified, Harriet grabbed his hand, tugged him down a corridor to a room the family hardly used, and locked the door behind him. “You cannot call him out for a dawn appointment!”
“Why not!”
“Because he is the man I’m trying to seduce,” Harriet said, exasperatedly. “How can I do that with a dead man!”
Daniel’s eyes were enraged, “He is not good for you! Now that he knows your spoken for, he’ll double his efforts to get you.”
Throwing her hands up in the air, Harriet said, “We’ve been over this! You know that I don’t want the good men—I want the bad ones! It’s what we’re trying to accomplish,remember!”
She heard a dark growl, just before her back met the wall, hard lips descended on her, and fireeruptedunder her skin. Daniel devoured her mouth, hiking her legs up to wrap around his waist. Feeling as if she had been thrown in the middle of a whirlwind, Harriet did her best to hold on.
As the kiss grew hotter, Daniel moved one hand from her backside to her breasts, a thumb skimming over her tender nipple. Harriet bit down on her lip to keep the cry inside while her blood pounded through her veins. He moved his mouth to her neck, and Harriet canted her head to the side, riding the waves of pleasure as they came.
Harriet felt his hand cup her breast while his mouth sucked on the hollow of her neck. Moonlight, coming from the window scattered across his hair, speared through with her fingers.
With her eyes now closed and panting under the torrent of lust, Harriet could not do a thing but feel. Daniel was consuming her—and she loved it. It was a part of her deepest, most hidden fantasies, to be taken, possessed—owned. Only, it would be best on a bed.
He’d undo her buttons and ties, until he could ease her gown off her shoulders, peel her stockings down with his mouth, lay his possessive kiss marks all over her body, and then—when she was finally saturated with his wanting, his lust, her body would be his.
“When you said it doesn’t matter,” his voice was hot in her ear, “what were you going to say? Tell me.”
Spellbound by his presence, Harriet whispered, “I was going to ask if you didn’t feel the same attraction I did. B…But I can see that I’m wrong.”
Warm lips skimmed over her ear, “Very wrong.”
Shuddering, Harriet pushed him away, “We need to get back to dinner. They must have seen our absence already.”
Fixing her dress, Harriet begged, “Please, don’t accost Dawson. It won’t do any good for either of us.”
Daniel did not look pleased, but he said, “I won’t, but please tell me you won’t let Dawson near you. If you want to be wicked…be wicked with me.”
Shocked, Harriet asked, “More than…more than we have done so far?”
“Much more,” Daniel replied, cupping her face. “Barring one thing—consummation. I’ll leave that to your husband.”
Moving to him, Harriet rested both hands on his shoulders. “Are you sure?”
His smile was thin, “Yes. I’d prefer you to work through the list of your secret desires with me, because I won’t take advantage of you. And I know you have a list, Harriet; no one who reads the books you do, will not.”
Blushing, Harriet dipped her head, “There are some very…salacious acts, Daniel. I don’t know if you’d like to do them.”
Opening the door, Daniel looked over his shoulder, “I hardly doubt that. I’ve seen things that will make your hair stand on end, things that will rip away your veil of innocence. Reading something, Darling, is much separated from seeing it.”
Following him to the dining room, Harriet caught her reflection in a mirror and stopped—she lookeddebauched. There was no way she could enter the presence of such noble people looking as she did. She could even see the kiss mark on her neck start to darken.
“Oh, no,” she said, spinning to Daniel and clamping a hand over her tender neck. “I cannot go in like this, they’ll all see my state, but you can. Tell Martha that we talked, that I felt tired and went to rest, please.”
Daniel tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, and instead of looking penitent, he looked pleased—pleased at his handiwork. “I’ll relay the message. I’ll send word tomorrow for another visit, but I think, we’ll take a drive.”
“To where?”
