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“Y-yes, but where will you?—”

“I’ll find somewhere else to sleep in. Unless,” he added with a raised eyebrow, “you want to share this bed with me. In that case, I have no objection?—”

“Scoundrel!” She glared at him.

He smirked at her. “I thought so.”

He shrugged his shirt on and strode out of his bedroom before the impressionable young woman sitting on his bed could notice the erection that was threatening to burst out of his pants.

Evie was proving to be far more trouble than he had initially bargained for.

And it was only the first day.

Damnation!

He had never thought of Evie as anything more than Colin’s younger sister before. Perhaps he should have been more cognizant of that fact, especially now that they were living under the same roof.

Because a friend’s annoying younger sister shouldneverhave aroused him like that in the first place.

Evie watched as Daniel strode out of the room in large, angry strides, and who could blame him? It was not every morning he woke up to a strange woman in his bed, touching him in a most intimate manner…

Or maybe not, she realized with a frown. He had probably had many women in his bed—and they might have done a great deal more than simply touch him.

Somehow, though, the thought of another woman touching him made her blood run cold.

But who could blame them, really? When he had turned around to button his shirt, she had caught a glimpse of his broad back, his muscles bunching and flexing in a way that practically called out for her fingers to touch them. To see if they were as hard and smooth as they looked…

And before that, she had definitely felt something hard.

“I must be going mad,” she muttered to herself with a slight shake of her head. “This is Daniel Stanton we are talking about. I could not find a much more infuriating man in all of creation, even if I tried.”

She doubted there was even another man in London with that kind of back that she had seen. It had been enough for her mouth to go dry just looking at him.

He truly is built like a Greek statue, she sighed inwardly. It was just too bad that his attitude left a lot to be desired.

She shook her head as she grabbed the robe she had casually draped over the back of a chair when she slipped into bed last night. It had been dark, then, and she had been so desperate for even just a wink of sleep that she had not bothered to check if the room—the bed, specifically—had already been occupied.

But now that the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, she needed to get back to her own rooms before her maid discovered that she was missing. Even if the servants at Ashton Hall were extremely disciplined, scandal still had the most unfortunate tendency to find its way to the papers.

Or to the waiting ears of the matriarchs of Society.

“I cannot believe that it is only my first day here and I am already getting into trouble,” she murmured as she slipped out of the room—Daniel’s room.

She had barely managed to slide back under the covers when her door swung open and her grandmother swept in, followed by Evie’s maid, Jane, who held a basin of clean water and had some towels draped over her arm.

Lady Wellington could be considered a rather handsome woman at her age, and even though she usually had a cheerful demeanor, Evie was well aware that her grandmother hid a crafty mind beneath her charming smile. Otherwise, how could Colin ever be persuaded to even consider marriage, with her brother being one of the most obstinate creatures to ever exist?

But now that Colin and Alice were happily married, Evie knew without a doubt that her grandmother would turn all her attention towards her as her only unwed grandchild.

What is it with dowagers and their intense need to see all of their descendants married?

However, Evie did not have much time to dwell on her thoughts, for her grandmother had already swept the curtains aside to flood the entire room with light.

“Rise and shine, my darling!” she sang. “It is a rather beautiful day for a turn about Rotten Row, don’t you think?”

Evie could think of a great many things—better ones—to occupy her time than an excruciating trip to the park, but she could never tell her grandmother that.

Instead, she could only groan and turn over with the sheets pulled over her head.