“Very well.”
He slipped out of bed, and she could not help stare at his rear as he moved about the room and retrieved his clothes. He didn’t rush as he dressed, giving her plenty of opportunity to admire him. Violet suspected he enjoyed the attention far too much, but she could not bring herself to keep it from him. Who knew when she would have him like this again, if ever.
After tying the laces of his shirt, he leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead while she kept the sheets bunched around her naked body.
“Do not underestimate how hard it is to leave you like this, Vi.”
“We can talk more later.”
“I’d rather do other things.”
Her cheeks scalded. She could still scarcely believe she’d been so scandalous. She flapped a hand at him. “Just go before we are caught.”
He moved to the door and stilled. “I think I hear movement.”
“You should be able to sneak out. You have slipped out of a woman’s bedchamber enough times.”
“Is that jealousy I hear?”
She straightened her shoulders. Duke’s affairs had not exactly gone unnoticed, but it had simply been part of him, a trait that everyone simply accepted. “Not at all.”
“Liar.”
She pressed her lips together. Trust her to make love to the man who knew her best.
He inched open the door, put his head out, then quickly darted back in and shut it. “One of the maids is in the corridor.”
“Blast. They shall gossip if they spot you.”
“Could we not just tell everyone about us?”
“Oh yes, I could see that going well.Do not worry, Papa, I only bedded Duke Cameron, a rake of the highest regard.Nothing scandalous at all.” She shook her head. “He might be a pacifist, but he would most certainly call you out.”
Duke crossed the room and came to sit on the bed as the maid hummed a slightly out of key tune that only increased in volume. “It sounds like I’m not going anywhere for a little while.”
Violet flopped back onto the bed. If only that were really true. Because, the fact was, no matter how lovely his words were last night and no matter how honestly he uttered them, Marmaduke Cameron did not stay with one woman for more than a night.
∞∞∞
“I think she’s gone.”
Duke shook his head, even though the maid’s singing had faded several minutes ago, and they could hear nothing but the chitter of birds outside and the tick of the clock in Violet’s bedroom.
The last thing he wanted to do was leave her, most especially when she was naked, and all wrapped up in a layer of blankets that practically begged him to unwrap her. He stretched out on top of the blanket next to her and pushed a strand of golden hair from her face. He hadn’t been lying when he’d spoke of her beauty this morning. Her hair might be wild, and her cheeks were a little pink from sleep, but he loved this moment—the raw, natural Violet. Hell, he loved this woman. She could transform into a hellhound in the morning, and he’d still adore her.
“I think she’s still here.”
“She’s gone,” Violet insisted, going to push his shoulder for about the tenth time that morning.
He grabbed her hand before she could and kept a hold of it. “You think one of the maids will really gossip about us?”
“But of course!”
“My servants are a little more discrete.”
“No, they are most decidedly not. It is just that your reputation can withstand what words they might have to stay.”
He chuckled and laced his fingers amongst hers. “The Musgraves can withstand a little gossip too surely? You are after all dog-nappers.”