Page 1 of A Virgin for the Duke of Ash

CHAPTER 1

Warm hands…Gentle hands…

Daniel let out a soft groan as he felt the feathery touch trail past his bare abdomen to his rapidly hardening manhood.

Had he returned with company last night? In the ungodly hours of the morning, he was not quite sure.

However, those soft touches were enough for his instincts to kick in, and with a feral growl, he rolled over until his hard body was pressing against the womanly softness beneath him. With expert speed, he pinned those wrists over her head as his slumberous eyes peered at the woman who had been so bold as to awaken him with an erection so early in the morning…

Only for his blood to run cold as a pair of steely blue-gray eyes gazed back up at him in utter shock, a soft gasp escaping slightly parted pink lips.

It was Evie, damn her to hell!

He immediately leaped off the bed as if her very skin scalded him, and he glared at her as she scrambled to pull the sheets up to her eyes—not before he caught a glimpse of her delectable curves through the sheer nightgown she wore, however.

Daniel would have laughed at the sight if he had been one to laugh. Instead, he only growled the one logical question that penetrated through the haze of lust.

“What in the name of God are you doing in my bed?”

Evie just blinked at him with her wide eyes, before she hastily shifted her gaze to the side.

Daniely, however, was finding her sudden lack of words rather infuriating.

And rather frustrating, considering he was standing there at the side of the bed with a cock hard enough to pierce through wood.

When she bit her lower lip, it took all of his self-control to not let the slightest groan slip past his damned lips.

So, he narrowed his eyes at her and allowed the corner of his lips to tilt up in cold amusement as he asked her, “Well then, are you trying to seduce me, My Lady?”

His words had the effect that glaring and growling did not. Evie immediately leaped off the bed, her blue-gray eyes bright with fury.

“You wish!” she seethed, crossing her arms. “And for your information, Your Grace, if I ever felt the need to seduce anyone, you would be the last person on God’s green earth that I would pick!”

Daniel, to his great vexation, found himself admiring how that one simple act of fury only emphasized the fullness of her breasts until he swore he could see the faint shadow of her areolae through the thin fabric of her nightgown.

“Although your display of feminine rage is admirable,” he retorted coldly, “it still does not explain why you are in my bed and touching me in a most scandalous manner.”

A pretty red stain spread across her cheeks. “Of course, I had no intention of touching you there—or anywhere else, for that matter!” she replied defensively. “I… well, I…”

“Please, do go on,” he sneered. “I patiently await your explanation for your actions.”

She glared daggers at him. “My room was simply too bright,” she bit out. “I tried blowing out the candles, but the light coming in from the corridor was still too much. I thought that I could… simply find the darkest room and spend the night there just this once.”

“You found your room too bright?” he enunciated flatly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why do I find that hard to believe? Most young ladies despise the darkness.”

In fact, the many women he brought to his bed would even plead with him to at least leave a few candles on. Daniel himself liked sleeping in absolute darkness, which was why he had taken great measures to make sure that not a sliver of light ever made it into his sleeping quarters.

Who would have known that it would attract Evie to slip into his bed uninvited?

“Well, I do not like the light,” she replied with a haughty tilt of her chin. “And anyway, since you are neither young nor a lady, you cannot possibly know that. I absolutely detest fire and?—”

He saw her eyes widen, before she pressed her lips shut. She took a deep breath and spoke in a much more even manner. “I would appreciate it if you could provide me with accommodations very much like this one. You did say,” she added with a bit more hesitation, “that I could have any room in Ashton Hall that I liked.”

“I did not mean you could crawl into mine, for heaven’s sake!” he roared.

Evie frowned at him. “Well, I did not know it was yours,” she began, but then hastily shut her mouth.

“Never mind,” he snapped, picking his shirt off the floor. “You can have this room!”

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