His brow scrunched. “No, he said they were too small and tossed them back into the sea.”
Louisa smiled at his indignation until she met the duke’s gaze. “What are you still doing in my bed?”
He chuckled with indulgence and rose. “I shall make us some tea. Will that help aid your forgiveness in my slip?”
Tea? It would take more than tea, though it did sound good. In fact, it sounded like just what she needed. “It shall certainly help.”
Louisa watched him stride from the room, her brother trailing behind him, utterly at ease in their “gardener’s” presence. The moment they were gone, she clutched her heart, falling back onto the bed as if the breath had been knocked from her lungs. What on earth had just happened? How had it happened? Why had it happened? It wasn’t merely that he had been in her bed—that alone was enough to send her wits scattering—it was the ease with which he had occupied it, like he belonged there. A force that could upend her life with a whisper.Although he had explained himself, that didn’t prevent her mind from racing along with her heartbeat.
He had looked rather harmless in those moments of sleep—not at all like a man who could bring entire rooms to silence with his mere presence—and she had to admit that for a reckless moment, she’d forgotten he was a duke, and a powerful one.
That seemed to happen a lot these days.
A bit of fun and boldness was one thing, but she could not—must not—forget that he was precisely the kind of man she had sworn never to lose her heart to.
And for good reason.
*
Oliver stepped intothe small kitchen to find Helgate busying himself with an array of jams, cheese, and bread, as well as boiling water for tea.
“I thought you had an errand to run?” Oliver asked, his voice still rough.
His friend snorted. “And I thought you were keeping watch.”
Oliver scratched the top of his head. He had thought so as well. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep. He also hadn’t meant to wrap himself around Louisa like that damn octopus in Havendish’s tank. But instead of feeling remorse, he had felt strangely at home when he’d heard her and her brother bickering, and his body had awakened along with his mind with her body so close to his.
That was the part that unsettled him. Not the moment itself, nor the heat of her against him, but the ease of it. As if his body had known something his head refused to acknowledge. Christ, his muscles tensed with the mere memory of the way her limbs wrapped with his. A man could lose himself in a woman like that. He could lose himself...
His friend grinned, motioning to the spread. “I returned ten minutes ago.” He sent Oliver a look that spoke volumes. “The boy insisted on waking you.”
Oliver looked to Leo, who pretended to be enthralled by a speck of dust on the wall. Just how long had this little brat stared at them sleeping? He thought Louisa had asked, but he couldn’t recall the answer. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. “Is there something you wish to ask me, young master?”
The boy’s head whipped up to him, and he pursed his lips, brows furrowing, before asking, “Are you going to marry my sister?”
Oliver nearly choked on air. Of all the all the blasted questions... His gut tightened at the bluntness of it. He ignored Helgate’s snicker, and measured his words. “Will you marry Miss Hale if you sleep in the same bed as her?”
This time it was Helgate who choked.
The boy hesitated.
Oliver pressed more. “Why do you want to sleep in the same bed as Miss Hale?”
Leo didn’t hesitate this time. “Because Louisa did it with you!”
“Oh? And why do wish to do what your sister does?”
The boy paused again, but not for long, “Because it’s only fair.”
These two... The siblings truly doted on one another. There was no other explanation for it. Even if it sometimes expressed itself in odd ways.
“Fair?” Oliver chuckled. “Then if she did it with me, as you say, shouldn’tshebe the one askingmeto marry?”
The boy suddenly nodded his small head. “Yes, she should take responsibility for you.”
“I doubt your father would agree.”
Leo cocked his head. “Why?”
