Daniel had the door open a bare sliver, just enough to see the length of this end of the hall to the top of the stairs. He found himself smiling for absolutely no reason he could think of when Suzette’s head came into view as she mounted the stairs. It was replaced with surprise when her upper body came into view and he noted the large damp patch on the front of her pale muslin gown. But that surprise was replaced with interest as he noted the way the apparently damp cloth was clinging to the curves of her breasts and her belly. Dear God, it was indecent . . . in a hell of an interesting way. The cloth had gone a little transparent with the damping, so that he was sure he could see darker circles where her nipples would be. Damn . . .

Daniel was so taken with the sight that it took him a moment to note that she was coming up the hall, and heading straight for the door he was peering out of. She would walk past, he assured himself, but couldn’t help noticing that the angle she was taking was pointing her straight to the door he held cracked open. Daniel stayed put for one more moment, but when she stopped at the table next to the door to pick up the candle holder resting there, and leaned up to the sconce on the wall to light the candle he realized she wasn’t going to bypass the door for another after all. It wasn’t Lisa’s room he was in, but Suzette’s.

Sure he couldn’t escape before she took the step that would allow her to reach and open the door, Daniel just froze, panic turning his limbs to stone as his mind began scrabbling around trying to come up with explanations as to why he was there in her room, and more importantly, why he had a dead man over his shoulder.

Fortunately, he never had to make those explanations. Suzette was just reaching for the doorknob when Lisa hailed her from the top of the stairs. Much to his relief, Suzette’s hand dropped back to her side and she turned toward her sister, and then moved to meet her as the younger girl started up the hall.