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Dunford quickly shed his clothing and pulled out his dressing gown For one brief moment he was entirely and quite splendidly naked, and a shiver of thrill ran through hied breath and pulled on hisdressing gown Not now, he told hiirl She deserves better She deserves to htly around his waist He probably should have left on his undergar to be uncoh He'd just have to ht The poor girl would probably faint at the sight of a naked man as it was Lord knoould happen if she saw one as quite aroused, as he undoubtedly would be, all through the night

"I'm all done, minx," he said "You can come out now"

Henry poked her head out from under the covers Dunford had dih the gauzy curtains, and she could see his very large, veryby the chair She sucked in her breath She'd be all right as long as he didn't smile at her If he did that, she would be lost Dimly it occurred to her she probably couldn't see hirins of his were so devastatingly effective, she was convinced she could probably feel the force of one through a brick wall

She settled against the pillows and closed her eyes, trying very hard not to think about hiht, Dun"

She heard hi of his name Just don't smile, she prayed She didn't think he did; she was certain she would have heard it in his laugh if his lips had stretched out to their full, rakish grin Just to be sure, however, she opened one eye and peered over at him

Of course she couldn't see his expression, but it was ainto that wing chair--well, trying to settle into it at least She hadn't noticed howhow very vertical it was He ain He must have shifted positions two dozen times before he finally stilled Henry bit her lip "Are you comfortable?" she called out

"Oh, quite"

It was that very particular tone of voice which held no trace of sarcas quite hard to convince so that was obviously not true

"Oh," Henry said What was she supposed to do? Accuse hi for thirty seconds and then decided--why not?

"You're lying," she said

He sighed "Yes"

She sat up "Maybe we couldWell, that is to say There estions?" His tone was quite dry

"Well," she stalled, "I don't need all of these blankets"

"Warmth is not my problem"

"But perhaps you could lay one on the floor and make a makeshift mattress out of it"

"Don't worry about it, Henry I'll be fine"

Another patently false statement

"I can't just lie here and watch you be uncoo to sleep, then You won't see a thing"