“I’ve never been known to turn down an invitation like that,” Darcy said. He sat to take off his shoes, then he perched on the edge of the bed. “You’ll make that lovely dress all rumpled. Let me help you off with it, my lady.” He lifted me into a sitting position, which was no longer easy, as my limbs didn’t seem to want to obey me and I have to confess that the room was swinging around just a little. I felt his hands down my back as he undid the hooks on my dress. I felt it swishing over my head and then the cold air on the silk of my underslip.

“I’m cold.” I shivered. “Come and keep me warm.”

“To hear is to obey,” he said and took me into his arms. I turned my face toward him and his lips found mine. The kiss was so intense and demanding that I found it hard to breathe. His tongue was exploring my mouth and I was floating on a pink cloud of ecstasy.

This is bliss, I said to myself. This is what I’ve been waiting for.

I was off on that pink cloud, flying over fields with Darcy beside me until I realized that his lips were no longer on mine and I was feeling cold again. I opened my eyes. Darcy was sitting up on the side of the bed, putting on his shoes.

“What’s the matter?” I asked blearily. “Don’t you want me anymore, Darcy? You’ve been trying to get me into bed since we met and now here we are in a big empty house and you’re going?”

“You fell asleep,” he said. “And you’re plastered.”

“I confess to being just teeny bit tipsy, but wasn’t that what you were planning?”

“That was my idea when I came up with the oysters and the champagne, but I find I’ve got a moral streak I didn’t know I had, when it comes to you.” He laughed almost bitterly. “When I make love to you for the first time, my sweet Georgie, I want you to be awake and fully aware of what you’re doing. I don’t want you to fall asleep in the middle of things, and I don’t want you to think that I took advantage of you.”

“I wouldn’t think that,” I said. I sat up. “Why is everything going round and round suddenly?”

“Come on,” he said. “Let me get you into bed. Alone, I mean. I’ll stop by in the morning. You’ll probably have a devil of a headache.”

He helped me out of my slip. “My, but you’ve got a lovely body,” he said. “I must want my head examined.”

Suddenly he froze. “What was that?”

“What?”

“It sounded like the front door shutting. Nobody else is here at the moment, are they?”