My Fair Lily(58)
Her sister sighed. “Come on, Lily. Stay. It’s just innocent fun.”
“But he doesn’t know we’re here. What if he struts into Meggie’s room half dressed?”
“We’ve seen male bodies before. William struts around shirtless half the time and Uncle Rupert often neglects to wear his pants.” She gave a mock shudder as she turned to Meggie. “He has the most hideous, hairy legs.”
“Precisely my point. A man’s privacy ought to be respected.” But the thought of seeing Ewan shirtless, those hard muscles on bold display... goodness, that would be fun.
No, it would be wrong.
Hideously and appallingly wrong.
Not fun at all... well yes, it would be fun... great fun, but very wrong.
She felt her cheeks suffuse with heat. “I’ll be in the library.”
“Coward,” Dillie teased, and then followed Meggie into her bedchamber. Lily heard the pair giggling as they closed the door behind them.
She paused a moment in the hall, wondering at the fuss Meggie was making over her brother’s beard. Dillie thought it was harmless. Was she supposed to feel excited and want to participate in the silliness as well? She knew she was different. Books excited her.
Baboon colonies excited her.
Losing one’s beard did not. In truth, she liked Ewan’s beard and regretted having asked him to shave it off. All of it. Off, even though it suited his rugged bearing. But it was a necessary sacrifice. He needed to look like an English gentleman.
His father’s family would never accept him as he was.
Lily shook her head and turned toward the stairs, but as she started down the hall, Ewan’s door suddenly burst open and Jasper bolted toward her with an ear-piercing awroooolf!
“Jasper, not my new gown!”
Awrooolf!
The great woolly beast jumped on her, knocking her off balance. Since he was as big as a horse and clumsily unaware of his size, Lily ended up on the floor, breathless. As usual. Jasper’s tongue washed over her face. Blech!
Her spectacles fell off her nose, and she could only hope to grab them before the big oaf stepped on them with his furry paws.
“Jasper, ye looby! Off!”
Lily heard Ewan’s exasperated shout, but couldn’t see him. Jasper was still playfully bouncing beside her, licking her face, and she was drowning in Jasper’s drool.
Ewan tried again in that deep, authoritative voice of his. “Sit!”
Jasper obeyed by sitting on her.
Ewan let out a groaning laugh as he tugged at Jasper’s collar, hauling him off her and handing him over to his valet. “Jergens, lock him away. Somewhere. Anywhere. Bollix, how did he learn to open doors?”
“At once, my lord.”
Then Ewan knelt beside her. “Lass, are you all right?”
Lily felt the exquisite heat of Ewan’s hands on her back as he took her into his arms and helped her to her feet. He had a towel slung over one shoulder, but he slipped it off and used it to wipe the sticky mess Jasper had left on her face. “My spectacles,” she muttered as he rubbed the towel across her cheek.
“They’re safe. I have them in my pocket. Lass, what are you doing here?”
“Visiting Meggie. Dillie’s with her in her bedchamber. I was on my way to the library.”
“Then I’ll not detain you. Let me toss on a shirt and I’ll join you downstairs.”
“That sounds…” No, wait. Did he say toss on a shirt? He still had his arms around her. His bare arms. And bare chest. She felt his warm, damp skin beneath her palms and inhaled the fresh scent of lather against his chin, the appealing scent that tended to linger on a man after he’d shaved. This was Ewan’s scent, a mix of pine forest, lather, and male.
She drew away as soon as he’d finished wiping her eyes, eager to look at the muscular body she’d been touching all the while. “I—” Blessed saints and burnt crumpets! Her mouth dropped open. She tried to close her eyes, but couldn’t seem to do it, for she was too busy staring at Ewan’s lean and muscled body. His lean and muscled shirtless body.
She heard the door to Meggie’s room open. “Good morning, Ewan,” Dillie said. “You’re looking quite fit this morning.”
Burnt, fiery crumpets. Fit didn’t begin to describe how good he looked.
“Nice to see you, Dillie.”
She grinned. “Meggie invited us over.”
Meggie winced. “I thought it would be fun to show you off. You look much better without that awful beard.”
“But you’re missing some clothes,” Dillie added unhelpfully. “Not that my sister minds at all.”
“Dillie!” Thank goodness Ewan was wearing trousers. Nice trousers. And boots. He was wearing polished black boots, too. And nothing else besides those articles. His chest was bare and skin lightly tanned. A spray of dark hair ran across his broad chest, and he’d casually thrown his towel back over one of his muscled shoulders. His upper torso tapered at his trim waist. The taut muscles across his chest and flat stomach rippled as he moved, marred only by an ugly red gash along his ribs, a reminder of the knife wound he’d received at Tattersalls. The imperfection only made him look more perfect.