“I did tell you I only had the two nights to find an acceptable and amenable husband,” she pointed out quietly. “However, now that Dicky isn’t dead, that might change things. He could very well prevent our attending the Hammonds’ ball tomorrow night so I really need to sort it all out tonight if I can. So if you are not willing to accept my proposal, I need to approach someone else.” Suzette glanced toward the lighted windows ahead and murmured, “I wonder if Danvers would forgive my eschewing our dance and—”

“I shall convince Rich—Dicky to allow you to attend the ball at the Hammonds’ tomorrow night,” Daniel interrupted grimly.

She glanced to him with surprise. “Do you think you could? I mean, he doesn’t appear to listen to anyone, and—”

“He will listen to me,” Daniel assured her firmly. “That gives you another night.”

“Yes. Thank you.” Suzette smiled, her shoulders relaxing a little, and then she said, “Well, that gives me a little more time I suppose. Still, if you are not interested, then I really should go in and start looking for other prospective—”

“No.”

Suzette blinked at him in surprise when he blurted the word. “No?”

“I—” Daniel frowned and glanced away and then shook his head. “Just don’t— Give me a night to— This is all so sudden. I— Just wait one night before you make the offer to someone else.”

Suzette hesitated, but then shook her head. “My lord, this is—”

Her words died abruptly, smothered by his mouth as he kissed her again. This time it was neither slow nor gentle. There was no butterfly caress, no sweet nipping at her lip. His mouth was firm on hers, and his tongue thrust past her lips, forcing them open with a swiftness that quite left her breathless. That breathlessness merely deepened as he pulled her into his arms.

Daniel’s hands played over her body through her gown, one clasping her behind and pressing her firmly against him while the other slid up and around to clasp one breast and squeeze gently. If the first kiss had stirred a commotion of warm and wonderful feelings in her, this one brought an explosion of hot need. Suzette moaned into his mouth, her arms moving up around his neck in a stranglehold and her hips shifting restlessly against him. She had the strangest urge to climb the man like she had the trees at Madison as a child. Only there was nothing childlike in the sensations she was experiencing. Still, she wanted to wrap her legs around him as she was doing with her arms and only her gown stopped her from doing so.

They were both breathing heavily when Daniel broke this kiss, and his voice was again that strange combination of soft and rough as he insisted, “One night. Surely it is not too much to ask. This night is almost over anyway. Just give me until tomorrow.”