She didn’t expect Jeremy to follow her, with everyone watching. She did expect to talk to him later about his burst of jealousy. That was really too bad of him, making it so bleeding obvious to the others that he was her lover. Not that any of them hadn’t guessed—well, maybe Mrs. Appleton hadn’t—but still, he’d as much as said to Carlton, “Get your hands off her, she’s mine.”

That had been quite annoying at the time, but in retrospect, she was rather thrilled by Jeremy’s display of possessiveness. Maybe he cared about her a bit more than his natural sensuality implied. Then again, maybe he got jealous over all his women.

Unfortunately, that was probably more like it. Most men did fly off the handle, after all, if another man made obvious overtures to a woman they were currently sleeping with. She’d be a fool to make more of it than what it was, just a natural male instinct.

“You don’t have any other pets in here, d’you? Snakes? Spiders? More rats?”

Danny swung around to find Jeremy leaning against her open door, arms crossed, ankles crossed. So hehad followed her. Andthat was too bad of him, too.

As for his question, she snorted at him. “He’s not a rat, just a very fat mouse.”

“If you say so, m’dear.”

“And he’s a coward.”

“I believe all rats are cowards when things one hundred times their size swing brooms at them.”

She grinned. “You’re probably right.”

He moved away from the door. Danny gasped. His relaxed pose had been deceptive. She saw it now, the heat in his eyes, the intensity. She had a feeling he hadn’t recovered yet from that burst of jealousy. And the hard grip of his hands as he clasped her head just before he kissed her lent proof to it.

He wasn’t hurting her, far from it. He was overwhelming her though with his passion, his tongue ravaging her mouth, his hands moving down to lift her up against him so she could feel his arousal. It was almost intimidating, his aggression, but thrilling, too, that he wanted her this much. It sparked an equal boldness in her that made her press one hand against the back of his dark head while the other slid down his back, barely reaching the curve of his buttocks to press him even closer.

With a groan of pleasure, he yanked her skirt up, and somehow got his hand inside the back of her drawers, curving it under her till he could reach her moist warmth. Oh, God, his fingers thrust inside her, again, again, in and out, his wrist pressed firmly between her cheeks, his arousal grinding against her from the front. She was so overwhelmed with erotic sensations that she cried out and cl**axed within seconds. If he weren’t still holding her so tightly to him, she would have crumbled at his feet.

His mouth slid across her cheek to her ear, his tongue delving there as well before he said, “I want to feed you cheese in bed. Your mouse is welcome to share. I want to pour champagne over your na**d br**sts and lick them until one of us is drunk. I want to drape you in fine silks and pretty baubles. I want more time with you, Danny.” He leaned back, and that possessiveness was there in his eyes now. “Be my mistress. I promise you won’t regret it.”

She couldn’t think at the moment, so wasn’t about to reply to something that important. But she wasn’t about to send him away either, despite everyone’s knowing he’d followed her here. She was too inflamed herself….

“You might want to close the door,” she suggested in a husky tone.

He turned to do just that, only to have Artie appear. “Yer pa is here, and yer uncle. Don’t know if they’ve got good news for ye. They’re at each other’s throat as usual, so it were hard to tell if they’re bringing good tidings or not.”

Jeremy sighed, not over Artie’s remark, but because he hadn’t gotten the door closed soon enough on intruders. Danny’s sigh was even louder. She needed to sit down. She needed a cold bath.

Jeremy didn’t take that into account when he said, “Come along, Danny. You might as well hear firsthand how your idea panned out.”

Chapter 38

“ANDHOW WOULD YOUhave helped the situation?” James was asking his brother as Jeremy and Danny arrived in the parlor.

“You’re a married man, or have you been in the doghouse so long you’ve forgotten that fact?”

“Ain’t in the doghouse,” Anthony replied. “And I’d never forget that I’m married to the most beautiful woman under creation.”

“Have to disagree, old chap,” James remarked. “George is much prettier.”

“George is an American,” Anthony rejoined, as if that didn’t count.

James sighed. “Some things have to be forgiven, don’t you know.”

“Besides”—Anthony got back to the subject they’d been bickering over—“you missed the bloody point like youalways do. Think you do it on purpose, don’t you?”

“Me? Deliberately try to annoy you? Wherever would you get that idea?”

Anthony hooted with derision. “As I was saying, I wasn’t suggesting I should have been on hand for the performance, since, as you so aptly pointed out, that wouldn’t have helped a’tall. What I was getting at was I should have been consulted before the performance.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s my nephew. Because Iam known to have moments of genius and might have contributed nicely to resolving the issue.”

James rolled his eyes. “If we had still been stymied on a course of action, you probably would have been consulted—eventually. But we had a splendid plan, so it wasn’t necessary to gather more suggestions. Andgenius my arse,” he added for good measure.

Jeremy decided that was a good opportunity to interrupt their typical bickering: “Splendid as insuccessful I hope?”

James glanced at his son and even smiled. “Indeed, lad. It went very well.”

“Despite the fact that I wasn’t consulted,” Anthony mumbled.

“So Emily admitted she was lying all along?” Jeremy asked his father.

“Better than that, she admitted she’s still a virgin. Slip of the tongue, as it were, but then thatwas what we were hoping for. It was close though, since she did accuse us of a conspiracy against her on your behalf.She knew it was exactly that, but at least her father didn’t, and we were able to plant the seed firmly in his mind of her lack of maidenly morals, before she arrived to deny it. We also had the added bonus that he was already aware of her tendency to lie, since she’d been doing it from childhood, apparently.”

“I can’t believe it went so well,” Jeremy said, beaming with relief.

“It might not have,” James was forced to admit. “I think your friend Andy was the deciding factor.”

“How so?”

“If he hadn’t assured her father right up front that he still wanted to marry Emily, then Bascomb might not have been so easily swayed to doubt her. And had her father stood with her on the matter, then she might not have lost her temper to allow the slip.”

“Even though it was three to one?”

“Could have been ten to one at that point. As soon as she tossed ‘conspiracy’ on the table, that put a new wrinkle in it. But the oddswere mentioned, and that was when it got out of hand for her. So three to one was sufficient. And we know who you can thank for that.”

Danny started blushing immediately when all three pairs of eyes turned toward her. She was thrilled that her idea had worked, that Jeremy wouldn’t have to marry a woman he didn’t want to marry. Actually, she was thrilled because that still left him a bachelor whom she could enjoy for a bit longer. But she hated being the center of attention as she’d just become, was completely embarrassed by it.

“It weren’t nothing,” she mumbled.

“Wasn’t,” Jeremy whispered beside her.

She stepped on his foot. “That, too.”

He said to his father, “Indeed, and I’m going to buy her a kitten as a token of my appreciation.”

“You call that an appropriate gift?” Anthony hooted, turning to his brother to add, “Whathave you been teaching the lad?”

“Actually”—Jeremy frowned thoughtfully, changing his mind—“cats don’t like rats, do they? Think I better make it a puppy instead.”

Danny stepped on his foot again, much, much harder this time. “Don’t you dare mention my pet to them,” she hissed at him.

But his father wanted to know, “What the deuce do rats have to do with it? And for once my brother is right. A pretty trinket would be a more appropriate token, don’t you think? Always worked for me.”

“Did I hear that correctly?” Anthony jumped on James’s remark. “You said I was right?”

“Put a lid on it,” James mumbled.

But Jeremy explained, after he moved away from Danny to protect his feet, “She’d throw trinkets back at me. The wench won’t accept gifts.”

“So it’s like that, is it?” James said, staring at Danny. Then he said to Jeremy, “That why she’s still wearing an apron, too?”

Danny’s embarrassment twisted the spike at that and she replied hotly, “My choices are mine to make, mates. Don’t be trying to tack the titlemistress to me. I ain’t one and won’t ever be one. I pay my own way and will take my pleasures on my own terms.”

“Here, here!” Anthony cheered. “Good God, I wish more women thought like that. They don’t, you know. Come to think of it, only a man would.”

The hot blush was firmly back in place. Danny threw up her hands in disgust and stalked out of the room, snarling, “Bleedin’ nabobs.”

“Well, damn me, didn’t mean to insult the chit,” Anthony said.

“You didn’t,” Jeremy replied. “She just don’t like being reminded that she spent the last fifteen years or so livingand thinking like a boy.”

“So James wasn’t pulling my leg for once?” Anthony asked curiously. “She really did pass herself off as a lad for most of her life?”

“By choice. It kept her out of a whore’s shanty, is my guess.”

“Ah, so that’s why.” Anthony nodded. “Smart girl. But it must be deuced hard dealing with her, if she thinks the way you do.”

Jeremy burst out laughing. “You don’t know the half of it, Uncle Tony.”

Chapter 39

TEASINGDANNYwas sometimes detrimental to his health, so Jeremy decided to wait until the afternoon before he approached her again. Besides, that gave him time to locate a gift for her that she’d have a hard time refusing. He also had a plan to give them some time alone together, and the time of day played a part in it.

So later that day he tracked her down and found her changing the bed in one of the guest rooms. God, it was hard being near her with a bed at hand, it really was. Hot desire shot through him every bloody time. Of course, it really didn’t matter if a bed was at hand or not. Danny simply had that effect on him no matter where they were.

He stood in the doorway and cleared his throat to draw her attention. She glanced at him and frowned. She was obviously still annoyed with him for bringing up their relationship in front of his relatives, had probably been saving up a good chiding for him, but whatever she’d been about to say was forgotten when she caught sight of what he was holding—in each hand.

“Oh, you didn’t,” she said as she approached him and grabbed the snow-white kitten from his left hand. “I’m not keeping it,” she added as she put the kitten to her cheek to cuddle.

“Didn’t think you would” was all Jeremy said, and managed not to smile.

With her eye on the tiny puppy in his right hand, she stressed, “I’m not keeping him either,” as she held out her other hand to take the puppy from him.

“Course not,” Jeremy agreed.

She moved back to the bed to set them both down on it. They sniffed at each other for a moment, then the puppy curled into a ball to sleep, while the kitten sat next to it and started licking a paw. They were nearly identical in size, probably no more than a few weeks old.

“I’ve heard they’ll get along splendidly, if raised together,” Jeremy remarked, coming to stand behind her to observe the small creatures.

“You think?”

“Should work with rats, too.”

She groaned and complained, “You’re a wicked man, Jeremy Malory.”

“Thank you. I do try.”

She glanced back at him. “Can you just say you bought them for yourself?”

“But I did!”

“Very well, then you won’t mind if I take care of them for you?”

“Wouldn’t mind a’tall, luv.”

She beamed at him and sat on the bed to pull the kitten into her lap to gently pet it. “They are adorable, aren’t they?”

The only thing he found adorable these days was her. Come to think of it, he hadn’t even glanced at another woman since he’d clapped eyes on Danny. But to keep the mood light, since he still had his other plans to introduce to her, he merely nodded.

“As much as I’d like to dress you up for a night on the town,” he mentioned casually, “it occurred to me that we’d need a chaperone, which wasn’t part of the plan. So I settled on a nice picnic.”

“It’s past lunchtime, if you ain’t noticed.”

“But not past dinner, is it? And who says picnics are only for lunch? I was thinking an early dinner picnic, next to a nice pond, flowers scenting the air. Now tell me that don’t sound like a nice way to celebrate? And youdo owe me a celebration. You were single-handedly responsible for extracting me from the depths of hell. Now while you might not think that is cause for celebration, I do, and I’d much rather do it with you. So how’s a picnic sound?”