—
Villiers jerked his mind away, suddenly aware that his towel had tented in front.
Now Eleanor, too, had discovered that they shared a balcony. She didn't turn a hair at the idea that he was practically naked. No blushing. The corner of her mouth tipped up and she looked him over, so fast that he would have missed it if he hadn't been watching her at precisely that moment.
Villiers had no problem being surveyed. He had no illusions about the beauty of his face. His title and money brought women to his bed, but his body kept them there.
But Eleanor turned away as if he were no more interesting than a grasshopper and called down to Tobias. "You're cracked if you think someone like the duke is going to get up this early."
Tobias smiled, a bit shyly. "We thought—"
"We?" Eleanor asked, straightening up.
"Lady Lisette thought that the duke might like to go riding," Tobias said.
"Can you imagine the duke on a horse without being dressed head to foot in gold lace?" Eleanor said mockingly. She glanced at him for a split second, but he felt it like a caress. "Your father takes so long to get dressed that the sun would be going down by the time he emerged from his chamber."
She had said just the right thing. Villiers watched Tobias's grin get bigger. He was a fool to hope that it was the words your father that made the boy crack a smile. Tobias was too serious.
He leaned back against the balustrade again and deliberately crossed his arms, because it made his muscles look even larger and he had the feeling that Eleanor liked muscles. Thank God, there was no way that Tobias could see the tent in his towel from
below.
He moved his legs apart a bit, just in case she wanted to take another look. Obviously nothing would shock the woman.
"Am I to understand that you think I couldn't be ready in less time than you?" he demanded.
She didn't look at him. "Where's Lisette?" she called down to Tobias.
Villiers moved away from the edge of the balcony. He didn't mind showing some skin to Eleanor.
But Lisette was a gently bred lady, with a kind of innocence that made her eyes shine with a deep-down purity.
Eleanor was leaning over the balustrade now, bantering with Tobias. Her bottom was very round under her thick robe. She was the antithesis of innocent. She made a man long to wake her up early enough so they could step out on the balcony with the first dawn light-He wrenched his mind away again and readjusted his towel. This was becoming painful. It was rather fascinating to imagine how Eleanor became the woman she was, given that her mother seemed altogether wedded to convention.
Whereas Lisette, who seemed to be living more or less without a chaperone, was clearly untouched by the baser passions of the body.
"Women take much more time to dress than do men," he told Eleanor, deciding that he ought to give her one more chance to look him over before he returned to his chamber.
"You're not most men," she said flatly. She did turn to face him, but her eyes stayed on his face rather than dropping lower. There was just a tinge of rosy color in her cheeks. Good.
He widened his stance again, daring her to look down. "You're right. I'm not like other men," he said.
Eleanor choked with laughter. "Because your sense of consequence is bigger." "And the rest of me too," he said, wondering if he'd lost his mind. The Duke of Villiers never traded bawdy quips on a balcony. He never—ever— flirted "That remains to be seen," Eleanor said saucily.
He bit back a grin. The Duke of Villiers didn't smile in the morning. He squinted at the sky. "What time is it, anyway?"
"Don't look so afraid. I assure you that the sun isn't made out of green cheese," she said to him. "I suppose it's around eight o'clock."
"Eight!" He shuddered.
"Leopold!" came a clear voice from the lawn. "Would you like to join us on an excursion?"
Villiers looked cautiously over the balcony, trying to keep his body out of sight. Lisette was the very picture of an English lady. Curls crested on her head like a frothy wave; her eyes shone brightly; she was wearing an enchanting riding habit.
"Hello!" she called, waving her hand at him. "Time to rise and shine, Leopold!"
"Yes, Leopold," Eleanor said in a low, mocking voice. "Do start to shine, please. I think I saw the rising, but I definitely missed the shining."
"As you said, there is a great deal of me that remains to be seen," he said silkily, loving their verbal jousting.
Even though he never engaged in anything as déclassé as a flirtation.
"I'm afraid I can't join you," he said, raising his voice as he replied to Lisette.
She pouted. "No! Why on earth not?"