Page 31 of Road Trip With a Rogue
She started to exhale, just as he added, “Not until you ask nicely.”
His lazy grin was thoroughly obnoxious.
Daisy bit back a snort. She reclaimed her glass and downed the rest of the wine, but a knock on the door saved her from having to say more.
She kept her head down, hiding her face and attending to her dinner as two burly footmen carried in a copper hip bath and placed it in front of the fire. More servants followed, filling it with several buckets of steaming water, and Vaughan accepted a bar of soap and linen washcloths from the blushing chambermaid with a murmur of thanks.
The little procession filed out, and Daisy eyed the tub with a wistful pang. She was cold from the rain and achy in every muscle from bouncing around in the carriage. The water looked ridiculously inviting. But she’d stab herself with one of her own knives before she’d strip in front of Vaughan.
“Being the gentleman I am, I’ll let you have the water first.”
She glared at him. “I told you. I’m not bathing with you here.”
“It’s sweet of you to consider my modesty, Hamilton, but I’ll let you in on a secret: I’ve encountered more than one naked female in my time. Unless you’re a mermaid, I doubt you’ve got anything I haven’t seen before.”
She crossed her arms across her chest.
He gave a theatrical sigh. “Fine. I’ll go and have a beer in the taproom with Finch. You’ve got fifteen minutes, no longer. I refuse to bathe in cold water.”
Daisy held her breath as he turned and went out, scarcely able to believe that he’d conceded so easily. Was it a trick? She waited until his heavy tread disappeared down the stairs, then sprang into action.
With a glance at the clock on the mantel to gauge the time, she propped one of the dining chairs up against the door to slow him down in case he decided to come back early and surprise her. Then she stripped off her clothes.
The bath wasn’t huge, not like the glorious copper one Tess had installed at Wansford Hall, but it was big enough. She could submerge her shoulders if she bent her knees, and she gave a sigh of happiness as she folded into the water.
It was almost too hot—just how she liked it—and her skin turned pink as she hastily scrubbed herself with the washcloth and soap. She was too worried about Vaughan returning to wash her hair, but she managed to step out and dry herself with five minutes to go.
Out of habit, she slipped the knife from her boot and placed it under the left-hand pillow on the bed, then dressed in a clean shift, shirt, breeches, and stockings. If Vaughan thought she was going to share a room with him wearing only her shift, he was grossly mistaken.
She’d just removed the chair when he knocked at the door, and he seemed amused to find her fully dressed again. Daisy backed up and sat on the end of the bed to give him more room, but it was only after he’d removed his boots, shrugged out of his jacket, and unwound his cravat that the true awkwardness of their situation dawned on her.
“I can’t go down to the public rooms to give you some privacy.”
He glanced up from untying the neck of his shirt. A deepVof tanned skin was already visible at his throat, and Daisy felt her cheeks heat.
“True enough. It’s risky to lurk about in the corridor too. There’s no end of people coming and going. You’ll just have to stay here while I bath.”
She tried to inject a mocking note into her voice. “Do you like having an audience?”
His lips quirked. “Not usually. Ilikehaving a partner, but since these are unusual circumstances, and a verysmall tub, I’ll forgo the pleasure. I’m sure you’ll spare my maidenly blushes and promise not to peek.”
He tugged the shirt from his breeches and pulled it over his head without any further warning.
Chapter Fifteen
Bloody Hell, he was beautiful.
Tall and lean and ridiculously well proportioned. The curve of his shoulders flowed in a smooth line down to his biceps, and the muscled plains of his chest were ridged with intriguing hollows that made her fingers itch to explore. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him; she could see his ribs, and the slight dusting of hair that ran from his navel down, into the top of his breeches.
Daisy swallowed, her mouth inexplicably dry.
He tossed the shirt carelessly onto one of the dining chairs, then put his hand to the first button of his falls, and she sucked in a gasp.
His brows rose in subtle mockery. “Why are you looking so scandalized? You’re no virgin. You’ve seen a naked man before. Unless you and your stable boy never took your clothes off.”
He popped the button, and Daisy couldn’t seem to look away.
“Was that it?” he teased. “Did you always do it fully dressed?” He shook his head in disbelief. Or pity.