Lord Beast (29 page)

Alice shook her head warily.
“With all due respect, my lady, my chores are finished for the day,” she
explained timidly. “I was just coming up here to deliver the logs and ask you
if you would like anything else before you retire for the evening.”

“Um… yes!” Dani affirmed
cheerfully, throwing a triumphant finger in the air. She hurriedly guided Alice
over to a chair near the hearth and forced the girl to sit down. “Tell me,
Alice. Tell me
everything
about yourself.”

The poor girl’s eyes darted
longingly towards the exit of the chamber but, realising she was trapped, she
answered, “L-like what, my lady?”

“Well let’s see. Where are you
from?” Dani pressed.

“Dorset, my lady.” The
beleaguered girl glanced longingly towards the door of the chambers.

“And?”

“And what, my lady?”

“What’s it like? I want to know
everything there is to know about Dorset and your life there! Do
not
leave out any details, Alice. I want to know about the rocks, the house you
lived in, what type of tree grew outside. You could even tell me about what
type of
soil
you have there in Devon!”

“Dorset.”

“Of course. That’s what I meant.
Dorset.” Dani finished with an encouraging smile.

Alice looked as if she might make
a mad dash for the door, fearful of her lady’s sudden aversion to sanity.

Dani sighed, realising that she
had very little reason to bother the poor girl when clearly all she wanted to
do was retire for the evening as well. “Oh, all right,” she said miserably.
“You can go. I won’t hold it against you.”

Alice shot out of her chair and
scurried to the door, bobbing a hasty curtsy before bidding her mistress
goodnight and closing the door softly behind her.

Dani sighed plaintively, again.
Knowing full well that she had been looking for a diversion, anything to
prevent her from visiting her brooding husband in the room next to hers, she
had badgered the poor girl into fearing her. Honestly, all the maid had to do
was just open up to her a little. Was that so hard? If anyone had to ask the
man next door, he would respond in the affirmative to that question.

Moodily, Dani turned back to the
door that adjoined their chambers, staring at it hard and willing it to open
with her mind, and while she was at it to procure a pleasant, sensual husband
who wanted nothing more than to sweep into the room and ravage her until she
was half mad with senseless pleasure. Was that too much to ask?

Folding her arms self-consciously
over her breasts, Dani glared at the door. Clearly the force of her mind was
failing her tonight. She harrumphed and began to tap her foot, wondering what
she should do next. She could always just explode into his chambers, throw her
arms wide and declare, “Take me now! I am yours!”

Quick and painless, and to the
point. Perhaps he would like that more than a slow and clumsy seduction she was
sure to practise on him. Oh, it was vexing, this. She shouldn’t be so nervous,
so anxious about the intimacies between man and woman at her age. By three and
twenty, she should not still be a blushing young innocent, exactly what she
felt like. Dani was no stranger to the happenings between man and wife after
the wedding. Victoria had enlightened her to those details when it became clear
that her mother could not and then there was the humiliating ‘talk’ Fiona had
felt it vital to have with Dani the day before her wedding.

Oh, that had been painful and
Dani had to shut her eyes against the memory of her rotund little aunt talking
to her excitedly and in vivid detail about all aspects of the human anatomy,
throwing in multitudinous details about flowers and pollination for some
reason.

Lord.

No wonder she was breaking out in
hives at just the thought of traipsing into Rhys’s chamber dressed like… like
some trussed up hussy, that’s what! The peignoir might as well be transparent
it was so sheer with a swooping neckline that clung to her breasts, held closed
by a modest little pink ribbon in the middle. Along the sides of the gown were
revealing strips, baring her legs all the way past her thighs, stopping shortly
before her hips. Dani had felt less exposed naked as surely this garment simply
drew attention to parts of the anatomy she couldn’t, and wouldn’t, think about.

A lot was relying on the peignoir
she wore. Quite frankly, Dani had very little idea about just how she would
proceed next if Rhys didn’t react to the garment clinging scandalously to every
curve of her body. Needless to say, she had taken Victoria’s advice seriously
and had decided to seduce her husband. How, she had not a clue, but she was
willing to try, to hope, to find a way to improve the hopeless situation she
found herself in.

It had been a spur of the moment
decision, deciding but a minute before she retired for the evening after yet
another meal spent alone at the long, empty dining room table that she couldn’t
endure a marriage such as the one she found herself in. Staring at Rhys’s
empty, high-backed chair while she toyed with her peas with the prongs of her
fork, Dani had realised that she was willing to sacrifice anything,
anything
,
to revert matters to the way they had been when Rhys first proposed. And if
that meant that she would have to relinquish some of her dignity in an indecent
gown, then so be it. At least she could walk away from the situation, should it
fail to rectify itself, knowing that she had exhausted every avenue open to her
first.

Her convictions solidified with
those thoughts and she marched purposely towards the door, her fingers
enclosing around the brass knob and determinedly beginning to twist. She caught
the sound of the latch clicking out of place and lost her nerve, taking a step
back.

She couldn’t do it.

No, she must!

Unblinkingly, she grasped the
handle, twisted, listened to the click, and abruptly let go. Oh, it was
hopeless. She wasn’t brave enough for something like this. Victoria was the
headstrong, reckless woman, not her! Dani had been perfectly content to go
through her life unnoticed by people, especially men, shy in her ways but
devoutly honest in all that she did. It was
not
her fault that she had
to meet Rhys Ashcroft and fall in love with him.

Spontaneously, she kicked the
door then gasped with pain and at the stupidity of her action. Now Rhys would
definitely find it curious all the scuffling and thudding coming from the other
side of the door. Oh, humiliating that would be indeed, being discovered taking
out one’s frustration on a hapless door! Dani grumbled something obscene, no
doubt something she had picked up from Rhys as surely she would never have
before uttered such profanity aloud.

Rubbing her poor toe, she came to
the stout conclusion that she would have to open the door now and enter his
chamber, foreseeing the culmination of her silly ploy to seduce him. If she
didn’t, then he was bound to come in
here
anyway, wondering at the
source of the noise that she was the cause of.

Determined, petrified, she
reached for the brass knob one last time, her fingers trembling as they
stretched to brush against the shiny surface, just before the door was yanked
open away from her.

Rhys had been listening to the
commotion next door for some time and it had damn near been torturing him half
to death. For such a little thing, Danielle could make a gargantuan amount of
noise. And then that lock would click and Rhys knew she had intended coming
into his chambers before suddenly changing her mind. This happened five times.
Five
times! Just what exactly was so important to her that she couldn’t wait
until morning to tell him?

Then came the thud and Rhys knew
he was going to go into
her
chambers and demand that she quit all the
racket before he relocated her to the other end of the castle.

It was hard enough having to
reside so close to the woman. Lord, he wanted her. He wanted her with every
breath, with every thought, and he hadn’t been able to get the thought out of
his head that if he just asked for her forgiveness, she would be his. But he
couldn’t. He couldn’t trust himself not to hurt her again, not to put her
through the anguish he had deliberately caused.

But the whole damn castle had
begun to smell like her. Rhys would walk down the many passages and halls only
to find a yearning so potent crash into him with very little indication of its
source until he
smelt
the air. It was as if the castle was using her
scent to torture him with her memory, making him fully aware of the woman who
was now his wife, who now shared Falmouth with him, of the possibilities they
could have…

It was cruel.

But when that crash against the
door occurred, he knew he would have to put an end to whatever she was trying
to accomplish simply because it was driving him mad.

He yanked the door open and
froze.

Her hand poised in the air
separating them, she stared at him in wide-eyed surprise, lips silently parted.
His eyes immediately took in the rest of her and a furious, senseless lust made
his limbs stiffen.

“
What
the hell are you
wearing?” he rasped, his fingers gripping the brass knob of the door so tight
he briefly considered that he might break it.

Dani glanced down, briefly
familiarising herself with her attire. “Oh, this old thing?”

Her voice, he noted, was
trembling and he had to fight off the urge to grin. But this was hardly a time
to find her amusing. As it was he was half mad with wanting her. He needed to
be focused, assured of his convictions that he would not be responsible for
hurting her anymore…
damn
that peignoir! “Danielle,” he began raggedly,
intending to order her to burn the sodding thing, “take it off.”

“W-what?” she squeaked.

Damn. This was not going well.
“What I meant-” He couldn’t finish what he had started to say because of the
sudden look that come across her face- confident, determined- and the way her
hand rose to little pink ribbon securing the peignoir closed between her
breasts. Oh, God, she wasn’t about to do what he
thought
she was, was
she? “Don’t!”

Those blue eyes lifted to his
questioningly. “Are you sure?”

 “Danielle, what are you doing?”

She cocked her head to the side
adorably. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Rhys squeezed his eyes shut,
hoping that by not looking at her he could endeavour to control the rampaging
demands of his body. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” he told her hoarsely.

“Well,” she retorted indignantly
and Rhys conjured a clear image of her standing before him, her hands on her
hips as she glared up at him. He felt his lips twitching. “That may be so, but
at least I am willing to
learn
.”

“Oh, God, Danielle,
why
?”

“Look at me, Rhys,” she commanded
softly and Rhys, despite the protestations of his mind, obeyed. She seemed to
take a deep breath before she next spoke. “I’m not asking for much. I’m asking
for a chance. I love you, with all of my body and heart, and it wouldn’t be
right to hold anything back-”

Her words were cut short when his
control snapped like the brittle thread it was and he pulled her to him, crushing
her soft body into his hard contours and seeking her lips with his own. She
opened for him willingly, wonderfully, and Rhys could hardly deny the need
raging through him, the blood pounding in his temples, the fervent heat searing
his skin. He couldn’t deny her innocent seduction, he couldn’t deny her love,
he couldn’t deny her anything.

And he wanted her.

Lord, how he wanted her.

She moaned incomprehensibly
beneath him, the sound driving him wild. His arms tightened around her waist,
his lips demanding more and when she returned his ardent kisses, he groaned, a
shudder rippling through his body.

A bed. He needed to find a bed.
Fast.

Growling inarticulately, he tore
his lips away from hers, scooped her into his arms with effortless ease, and
carried her to the bed in her chambers. She sat up on her elbows, her eyes
imploringly beckoning him back to her as he stood at the edge, staring down at
her, imprinting the image into his memory forever.

He admired the curve of her
thigh, the shape of her legs as they peeked through the slits along the sides
of the peignoir, all the while his body was pounding for immediate release,
demanding it. With erratic, impatient movements, Rhys tore off his shirt, then
his trousers and the rest of his attire. He watched as a blush stained her
cheeks. He had to admire the way she refused to lower her gaze from his chest,
to cast her eyes down demurely. Rather, she studied him boldly, openly admiring
his form and physique and Rhys allowed her to. He briefly considered teasing
her but thought better of it, too concerned with the urgency of his body and
the desire to lose himself in the woman before him.

He joined her on the bed, lying
on his side so that he faced her, enjoying the way her blush crept up her neck
and over her cheeks. “Look at me,” he ordered huskily, mimicking the words she
had spoken to him but moments before, and she did, her eyes so blue and wide
and lovely and Rhys was lost. He crushed his mouth to hers, his fingers lacing
through the hair at her nape, tilting her face to his. She tasted sweet and
welcoming and the silken fabric of her peignoir shifted against his skin when
he pressed her to him.