Of course, if he wanted her to slim, she would. She would do anything he wanted her to, anything. She belonged to him now, wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. And he wanted her too, she was sure of it.
She danced around the bedroom again, singing to herself, feeling as light as air, discarding one nightdress after another as she realised each was too childish for her to wear. She wasn’t a child any longer, she was a woman, and in future she was going to act and dress like one.
The first thing she was going to do was throw out all her old clothes, she couldn’t go around looking like a child when a man like Quinn Taylor wanted her.
As a first step towards changing the clothes she wore she wasn’t going to wear anything to sleep in in future; sleeping nude certainly ought to be mature enough!
She came to an abrupt halt as she wondered if Quinn slept nude too, her heart pounding in her chest as she envisaged him lying beneath a sheet, his nakedness clearly defined beneath the flimsy covering. His skin would be dark; the little she had seen of it had been. He would be tanned all over, firm flesh, taut muscles, with a feline beauty. She had goose-bumps just thinking about Quinn lying in bed!
She moved to the window, her bedroom overlooking the yard, staring across at the music-room, able to see Quinn as he laughed and talked with Fergus and Terri. He would be coming to bed soon himself, for the three of them were even now clearing up the debris from the evening.
Lise was filled with such a longing to be with Quinn tonight, wanted him so badly she trembled at the thought of lying in his arms. But Terri would be sharing her room for the night, and she dared not risk the other woman realising she had gone to Quinn. Perhaps after Terri had gone to Fergus…
She deliberately pretended to already be asleep when the other girl came to bed, keeping her back firmly turned towards the room, knowing that once Terri was sure no one would hear her she would creep across the hallway to Fergus’s room for the night. Her aunt and uncle wouldn’t hear of Fergus sleeping with his girlfriend under their roof, but Lise had known for some time that Terri crept out of their bedroom as soon as she was sure the rest of the family were asleep. And tonight when Terri went to Fergus she intended going to Quinn.
She could hear him in the next room now, not all that well, because the walls of this old cottage were thick, but she knew the man she loved was just through the thickness of that wall. What a surprise he was going to get when she went to him…!
Just over half an hour later all that could be heard in the room was the steady tick-tock of Lise’s bedside clock. Her breathing sounded abnormally loud to her in the silence of the night, but only she seemed aware of it, Terri moving about the room putting on her robe.
‘Lise?’ she prompted softly, testingly.
She didn’t move, although her heart seemed to be pounding very loudly too.
‘Lise?’ Terri called again, sighing her satisfaction as Lise remained turned away from her, seemingly asleep.
She waited only seconds after the door closed behind the other girl before quickly getting out of bed herself, shivering slightly in her nude state; sleeping without clothes on was certainly going to take some getting used to! The coolness of these cottages wasn’t meant for sleeping nude. She gratefully pulled on her robe, belting it before going out into the hallway, moving stealthily to the door next to hers, coming to a freezing halt as she heard Quinn talking to someone inside his room, the door not quite closed properly.
‘—told you in London, this has to stop,’ Quinn was saying firmly.
‘Because of Fergus,’ Terri acknowledged softly. ‘But he doesn’t have to know, does he?’ she dismissed.
Terri was in Quinn’s room. Lise couldn’t believe it. Terri had gone to Quinn, not to Fergus!
She couldn’t move, could hardly breathe, shocked to the core of her being.
Quinn sighed. ‘He’s a friend of mine—–’
‘I won’t tell him if you don’t,’ Terri taunted seductively.
‘He’s expecting you to go to him—–’
‘I’ll just tell him Lise made a little pest of herself by not falling asleep in time,’ Terri said callously. ‘She is a little pest, isn’t she, Quinn?’ she added derisively. ‘The poor little thing can hardly keep her hands off you!’
‘Terri—–’
‘Don’t try and tell me you found her adoration cute—or acceptable,’ Terri dismissed with a throaty laugh. ‘We both know your opinion of star-struck little kids like her. You like a woman in your arms and your bed. And we both know that I’m very much a woman, don’t we, Quinn?’ she prompted huskily.
‘Obviously you’re a woman. But—–’
‘Let me show you how much of a woman I am,’ Terri cut in seductively.
The silence that followed her statement broke Lise out of her horrified trance as she realised exactly how Terri must be showing Quinn.
She couldn’t get back to her bedroom fast enough, leaning weakly back against the door, her breathing ragged.
Terri and Quinn. Quinn was making love to the other woman while his friend, and Terri’s lover, slept unsuspectingly across the hallway!
She had believed Quinn was attracted to her because he let her kiss him, because he had shown her what a proper kiss between a man and a woman could be, and all the time he was sleeping with his friend’s girlfriend behind his back. Maybe Terri’s presence here as Fergus’s girlfriend had even been the reason he had been so agreeable to the suggestion that he stay here.
As for Quinn finding her attractive, that was laughable. Maybe he and Terri would indeed laugh later when he told her how Lise had thrown herself at him in the music-room!
She gave a sudden shiver, realising how cold she was standing here in just her robe, and, taking one of the cotton nightgowns that buttoned to the throat from her drawer, she pulled it on quickly, no longer eager to become a woman.
Oh God, Quinn wasn’t a Prince Charming at all, he was the Prince who woke Sleeping Beauty with a single kiss, who opened her eyes to all that was ugly in the world.
She might not want to be a woman any more, but she knew for certain that she would never again be that trustingly naïve child who believed in fairy-tales. In men like Quinn Taylor…
‘MISS ELIZABETH?’
She looked up from the letter of acceptance she had been writing in answer to a dinner invitation for next week, nodding coolly to the maid. ‘Yes, Mary?’ she prompted distantly.
‘Cook just wanted to be sure that the number for lunch is still four.’ The young maid looked at her eagerly.
Elizabeth put down her pen, smiling ruefully. ‘Assure Cook that so far my grandfather’s guests haven’t cancelled their luncheon appointment,’ she drawled, glancing at the gold watch her
