Page 73 of Road Trip With a Rogue
She wasn’t sure what she’d expected to find. He wasn’t the sort of man to keep incriminating love letters. And it wasn’t as if he’d have a sheaf of erotic drawings hidden somewhere, when he’d probably done all the scandalous things depicted in them in real life. The memory of him doing several of those things toherbrought an extra flush to her cheeks.
No.However tempting his body might be, the rest of his personality left a lot to be desired. He was sneaky, manipulative and… he’d given her the best climaxes of her entire life.
Not helpful.
The man in question was seated at one end of a large mahogany breakfast table, a cup of steaming coffee in his hand, and his eyes widened as she appeared in the doorway.
“Good God.”
“Don’t you dare laugh!” Daisy ordered fiercely. She’d never felt so self-conscious.
His gaze raked her from head toe, and he pressed his beautiful lips together into a thin line. It was clear he was holding back laughter as she stalked the length of the table toward him.
“You look…”
She sank into the seat next to him with a disgusted snort. “Go on, say it. Like a jellyfish. Or a strawberry blancmange. I can’t decide which.” She gave one of the frills that adorned her neckline a disgusted flick.
The gown Violet had provided was the most hideously unflattering thing she’d ever worn in her life. No doubt the pale pink color looked wonderful with Violet’s cornflower blue eyes and golden ringlets, but it didn’t suit Daisy’s darker coloring one bit. To make matters worse,the fussy proliferation of lace, bows, and frills made her look like the result of a terrible accident in a haberdashery shop.
Vaughan took a sip of coffee, but his eyes laughed at her over the rim of his cup.
“I think it’s safe to say that pale pink is not your color.”
The amusement he was deriving at her expense was obnoxious. Daisy narrowed her eyes. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“And the style suggests a certain girlish innocence that strains credibility.”
She poured herself a steaming cup of coffee. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I won’t object in the slightest if you want to take it off,” Vaughan said. “In fact, I’d be happy to assist.”
“I still have a knife,” she reminded him, even though his suggestive words brought a flash of heat to her skin.
He grinned. “You can’t stab me, Hamilton. I played your knight errant. I rescued you. It would be exceedingly ungrateful.”
She added two lumps of sugar to her cup. She needed the energy to argue with him. “You’re the reason I was kidnapped in the first place,andthe reason we’re in this ridiculous situation now.”
“Perhaps,” he conceded. “But I had noble intentions. I was trying to make the best of a bad situation.”
“Wasn’t it Samuel Johnson who said that Hell is paved with good intentions? We’re clearly well on the way.”
Daisy had spent much of the morning trying to decide what she should do. “The way I see it, there are several ways this ‘situation’ can progress. Option one would be the worst for you. We could say that you lied to Letty, thatwe were never engaged, and that you forcibly abducted me and took me to Gretna as your mistress.”
He raised his brows. “You’re right. That doesn’t reflect well on me at all. Especially if everyone thinks I’m subsequently refusing to marry you. Not that I particularly care about my reputation, but even cast as the poor, unwilling victim, you’d still be ruined.”
“True.”
“Besides, that doesn’t make any sense. Why would I bother to take you all the way to Gretna if I had no plans to marry you? I could have just stayed in London and debauched you there.” He slanted her a wicked, knowing look. “In my study. Against the desk. Multiple times a day.”
Beast. Why did he have to taunt her so?
“That’s also true,” Daisy conceded serenely. “And anyone who knows you would instantly realize you’d never put yourself to so much trouble for a woman.”
He ignored the unsubtle dig. “I suppose we could say I was in Gretna because I was chaperoning Perry and Violet. And that I took you along for my entertainment. But again, why would I bother abducting someone unwilling when there are so manywillingladies who would gladly fill your place?”
Daisy’s heart gave a jealous little clench at the truth of that, but she forced herself to match his flippant tone.
“Would it be too much to pretend that your desire for me was so insatiable that you lost all sense of reason and resorted to kidnapping?”