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She felt the bed dip and sway a little as Daniel got up.

“Where are you going?” she called out to him.

He cast her a glance over his broad, muscled shoulder. “I will be back soon. Behave a little for me, my sweet.”

His voice was a low growl, hinting at dark pleasure.

Evie felt herself becoming hot and aroused all over again. Was it possible to want a man as much as she wanted her husband? Allthe other married ladies she knew did not seem to feel the same way she did.

She could have asked Alice, but her brother had whisked her new sister-in-law off to France the moment they were wed.

Maybe I should ask her when she returns…

She saw Daniel coming back to the bed with a basin of hot water and a soft cloth in his hands. For a moment, she admired the way the candlelight cast shifting shadows on his shoulders, on the muscled planes of his abdomen… and on the length between his legs.

“You keep looking at me like that and I might forget that this is your first time and punish you for your insolence,” he warned her.

The threat in his voice was unmistakable, but instead of feeling frightened, she felt desire coil low in her belly.

“I told you to behave, did I not?” he muttered, wringing the excess water out of the cloth. “Lie down and do not move.”

Evie obeyed, closing her eyes with a soft sigh when she felt him gently wiping her thighs with the warm, wet cloth. Although she wanted him to… do those things to her again, she had to admit that she was feeling a little sore.

“How are you feeling right now?” he asked her gently.

Evie smiled as she looked up at her husband—her husband—with his eyebrows drawn together in a dark frown.

“I feel like a wife,” she said simply and happily. “The most fortunate of all brides.”

He shook his head and finished cleaning her up before returning to the bed and drawing her into his arms once more. Pressing a soft kiss to her forehead, he murmured, “I always knew you were trouble from the very first moment I met you—but you aremytrouble.”

“Yours and no one else’s,” she agreed.

“Damned right,” he muttered, his arms tightening around her.

She laughed and nuzzled into his chest. “What happened to us keeping our own lovers?”

The sound that reverberated in his chest was a low growl that promised violence.

“You had better not consider it, Duchess,” he warned her. “If you do not want the blood of another man on your hands.”

Evie grinned as she threw her arm over his chest and snuggled into his embrace. “I would not even dream of it,husband.”

As they lay there together, Evie felt her eyes grow heavy as sleep slowly crept over her. With Daniel gently stroking her hair, it was not long before she drifted off to sleep.

And dreams of the life that now lay before them…

CHAPTER 25

What the hell?

Daniel grimaced as the pounding began to grow ever louder. He was quite certain that he had not drunk as much at his own wedding to warrant a raging headache, and besides, he could not recall the last time he was so drunk that it resulted in a hangover.

Daniel Stantonneverhad hangovers.

A soft moan of complaint sounded from beside him, and a warm body curled into his.

Evie…