Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Livvy raced down the stairs late the following morning when she heard Fletcher welcoming the new arrivals.
“Daisy! You’re here. Finally!” She launched herself into her friend’s embrace.
Devlin’s sister, formerly Dorothea Hamilton—now known to the Ton by her married title of Her Grace the Duchess of Cranford, returned Livvy’s hug with equal fervor.
“Oh, Liv. I heard about your father. I’m so sorry we couldn’t come up for the funeral. Not to pay our respects to him, because he was an absolute rotter—sorry to speak ill of the dead—but to support you, in your hour of need.”
“It’s all right,” Liv said truthfully. “It wasn’t so bad.”
Lucien, Daisy’s tall, dark and eternally sardonic husband watched them with a fond smile on his lips, quite accustomed to his wife’s undiplomatic outbursts.
“Did you see your awful uncle Hubert?” Daisy asked.
“I had a bit of an unfortunate run-in with him, yes,” Liv admitted. “But your brother arrived at a very convenient time and offered to host me here for a few days. Until I can make my way back to London.”
That wasn’t the whole truth, of course, but as close as they were, she wasn’t quite sure how to explain her current predicament to Daisy.
Dev chose that moment to appear from his study, and Livvy’s heart gave a funny little lurch.
She’d loitered in her room after breakfast instead of joining him downstairs, but she’d watched him covertly from her window, hidden behind the curtains, as his lithe figure strode across the frosty garden in the direction of his weather station.
She was such a coward. She should have gone and asked him to raise her temperature. Should have told him she wanted his kisses, and more.
Daisy’s eyes flew to Devlin, and she sent him a look that was part surprise, part intrigue. Liv had no doubt her friend would extract the story about her stabbing uncle Hubert from either Dev or herself before the day was out; Daisy was King she angled her skates sideways, windmilling her arms to try to keep her balance and avoid a collision, only for Dev to grab her elbow at the very last minute. He spun her around and her face collided with his broad chest.
“Eeeek!”
“Steady there. I’ve got you,” he chuckled. The cool scent of his cologne filled her nose as it pressed into the front of his coat and her fingers curled into his lapels as she tried to stay upright.
Just when she thought she was safe, her skates slid out from beneath her, straight between Dev’s parted legs, and she started to fall backwards, tugging Dev down with her.
He gave a strangled grunt of laughter. With astonishing strength, he thrust his gloved hands under her armpits and hauled her upright before her bottom could make painful contact with the ice.
Livvy gasped as he steadied her. His hands slid down, over her ribs, her waist, then settled on her hips as he ensured she was stable and heat rushed to her cheeks at the thrilling sensation of his fingers pressing into her.
Even shielded as they were by several layers of clothing, his strength, his nearness, was playing havoc with her pulse rate.
She wanted the feel of his skin on hers, his bare palms sliding over her waist, her thighs, her breasts.
“Oh!” She gasped, breathless from more than the close call. “Heavens! Thank you.”
The corner of his lips quirked as if he knew precisely the effect he was having on her. He bent forward, his lips close to her ear, so close that his cheek brushed hers. “My pleasure. Any time.”
Liv turned her head to hide her blush and the yearning look that probably covered her face, only to see Harry scoop his wife into his arms. Ellie giggled, then gave a breathless shriek as he whirled them both around in a dizzying circle, then dragged her close for a shameless kiss.
Dev’s hands were still resting at her waist, and she glanced back up at him as he gave her a tiny tug. He began to skate backwards in front of her, pulling her gently along in his wake, and she grasped both his forearms as they picked up speed.
“Stop looking at your feet,” he chided. “Eyes on me. I won’t let you fall.”
She did as he commanded and couldn’t prevent the smile that stretched her lips as she noted his clear enjoyment. His cheeks were pink with the cold, his eyes sparkling with infectious merriment, and the handsomeness of him took her breath away.
She’d never seen him so playful and so relaxed as here among his friends. She’d seen the rakish flirt, the stern duke, the hardened soldier. But this was a facet of him she found equally appealing.
After another half hour of skating, during which Dev managed to touch her in ways that seemed innocuous and perfectly chaste, but which nevertheless managed to keep her blood on such a slow simmer that she barely felt the cold, they all returned to the house.
The four men gravitated to the billiard room for a game, and the women went up to their respective bedrooms to get ready for dinner.