Page 29 of A Rogue's Downfall
“And you wore it just for me,” he said, scooping water with both hands and dashing it into her face.“Canyou swim?”
“Yes, I can swim,” she said. “Can you?” And she dived at him, clasped both hands over the top of hishead, and pressed him under.
He caught at her legs on the way down and they came up coughing and laughing.
“You idiot,” she said. “You imbecile.”
“Guilty as charged,” he said, catching her about the waist and dragging her beneath the surface of the wavesagain, setting his lips to hers as he did so. Which wasa foolish thing to do when he considered the reason hehad brought her there in the first place.
Her hair was dark and sleek over her head and down her back when they came up once more and found thebottom with their feet. Her dress was molded to her sothat she might as well have been wearing nothing. Shewas laughing, with water droplets dripping down herface. She looked healthy and vital and infinitely desirable.
“You are crazy,” she said.
“Is that a new charge?” He caught her to him and kissed her again, a hearty smacking kiss followed by agrin. “How well do you swim? I’ll wager you cannotkeep up to me.”
“A new wager?” she said. “I’ll accept it like an honorable gentleman. What is to be the prize?”
“A kiss,” he said.
“Done,” she said and she was off, swimming with all her energy and with considerable skill and grace parallelto the beach. He swam beside her, doing a lazy crawl,making no attempt to overtake her.
She realized something after a few minutes. “Where does the race end?” she called to him, her voicebreathless.
He laughed and swam for a few more vigorous strokes until he was a body-length ahead of her. Thenhe turned and caught her in his arms. “Here,” he saidand claimed his prize without further delay. “Have youcooled off?”
“Cooled off?” she said, panting. “After that swim?”
“I mean,” he said, “has the sexual heat gone?”
“Oh,” she said, her eyes sliding from his, “that.”
“Now,” he said, “how are we to saunter back to thehouse and inside it as if we have been involved in nothing but the most decorous of walks? It is going to betricky, Caroline.”
“I could have told you that,” she said scornfully, “before you did anything as stupid as this. You did not think, did you?”
“It was not stupid,” he said. “If I had not done it, Caroline, you would have lost both the innocence andthe virginity you spoke of earlier. We both know it.”
“Oh,” she said again, turning to wade toward shore.“Am I to thank you for showing gallantry and restraint,then, Alistair? A rake showing restraint? It seems rathera contradiction in terms, does it not?”
“Perhaps,” he said, striding along beside her, “I am hoping to win your admiration and therefore yourlove.”
“Poppycock,” she said. “It is cold.”
“You may wrap my coat about you,” he said. “The sun will soon warm us. And dry us.”
“Oh,” she wailed suddenly as they ran up the beach toward their castle and their belongings, “just look atme. No! Don’t look. Oh, goodness me.”
But he could not be expected to have acquired all the gallantry in the world during the course of one shortafternoon. He looked—and laughed and whistled. Herdress was clinging to her like a second skin.
“I have never been so mortified in my life,” she said, pulling the muslin away from her in front and makinga delicious contour of her derriere. “Stop laughing. Andstop looking. I shall die!”
He picked up his coat, swung it about her shoulders, and drew her against him. He wrapped his arms aroundher and stopped laughing. “I have never seen a morepretty form than yours, Caroline,” he said. “But Ipromise not to tell anyone else that I have seen it withsuch clarity. This thin fabric will be almost dry by thetime we approach the house. And my coat will covermost of you.”
“I have never in my life known a day like this,” she said against his wet shirt. “I keep expecting to wakeup. And all because you opened the wrong door lastnight.”
“I am becoming increasingly glad I did,” he said. And listening to his own words and considering them,he was surprised—and not a little alarmed—to find thathe meant them.
By some miracle Caroline succeeded in regaining her room without being seen by anyone more threateningthan a curious footman. Of course, he might decide togossip belowstairs, but she would not think of that.And of course Letty saw her lank hair and her limp,damp dress when Caroline rang her bell to ask forbathwater.
