“I didn’t think you had,” Daniel assured her solemnly, taking several steps away to put a safe distance between them the moment she released his hand. Her lack of experience had been painfully obvious at first, though she’d learned quickly. He supposed he should be flattered that she’d responded so passionately to him, and it was nice to know that he wasn’t the only one so affected by their closeness, however he was very aware that he was standing in her room, just feet from her bed and she was closing the damned door, leaving them alone and . . .

“I am glad you didn’t assume I was free with myself,” Suzette admitted, moving to a chest at the foot of the bed. “I did worry about that last night.”

“No. I never assumed that,” he murmured, watching as she knelt by the chest and opened it. She then leaned over to sift through the clothes inside, and Daniel found his gaze widening on her behind as it bobbed up and then waved gently about as she went through the items in the chest. Dear God, the style of today’s gown was so thin that hers rode over her skin like a sheath leaving little to the imagination. She may as well have been naked, he thought as he noted the curve of her hips.

“How much should I pack, do you think?” she asked, lifting a gown out of the chest and sitting back on her haunches.

Without the view of her behind to distract him, Daniel glanced to the gown she’d lifted out of the chest and swallowed as he realized it was a night dress, a nearly diaphanous creation with little rosettes along the neckline. He could see right through it to the chest and bed and everything else on the other side of it and knew he would be able to see every inch of her skin through it were she to put it on. What the devil was an unmarried woman doing with a creation like that? he wondered with dismay.

“This was my mother’s,” she announced suddenly, turning to smile at him. “I have always loved it. Father had her clothes packed away and placed in the attic after she died, but I found this some years ago and took it to my room. I have never been brave enough to wear it. In fact, I’m not sure what moved me to pack it when we left for London, but I am now glad I did. I think I could find the courage to wear it with you.”

Daniel swallowed, imagining her in the gown, and then out of the gown, and then on her back under him.