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Daisy felt it again, that slow sensual tug towards him, the hyper awareness of his every leam of his eye, the play of muscle in his shoulders

‘You were tellingto be an outlaw’ She felt it but she wasn’t going there Not today, not when she was in such an emotional tumult

‘Coward’ The as soft, silky, full of proone ‘So I was Ready to see the rest of your hohteenth century and start exploring the Georgian part I’ll warn you, there’s a lot of it I think we’ll stick to the ground and first floors today The second floor is largely empty and the attics have been untouched for years’

‘Attics?’ A frisson of excite through the attics at ho chests filled with fa to discover in the recently renovated, perfectly decorated house Photos sorted into date order? Yes Tiaras dripping with diamonds or secret love letters? No But here, in a house that epito

‘Would you mind if one day I had a look? In the attics?’

Seb walked towards the door and stopped, his hand on the huge iron bolt ‘One day? I think you’ll need to put aside at least six ue it all, although I suspect much of it is junk, but there’s too much to do elsewhere The whole house could do with so I don’t know if your talents run in that direction but please, feel free towith a grade one listed building,’ he added quickly

‘And there I was, thinking I could paint the whole outside pink and add a concrete extension’ But she was strangely cheered A house with twenty bedrooms and as many reception rooalleries—was no save her a purpose, a role here Maybe, just maybe, she could make Hawksley Castle into a home Into her home

CHAPTER FIVE

‘MORNING HUNGRY?’

Seb half turned as Daisy slipped into the kitchen, tiptoeing as if she didn’t want to offend him with her presence

‘Starving I keep waiting for the nausea to start’ She was al a fraud if she wasn’t doubled over with sickness It would be easier, he ad it on trust that she was even pregnant in the first place, although she had offered him plenty of chances to wait for confirmation

‘You ether How did you sleep?’

‘Good, thanks Turns out five-hundred-year-old beds are surprisingly comfy’

The problereed to move in To make this work, to fulfil her criteria as far as he could, uest and yet he wasn’t ready to share his space with anyone

Even though part of hi next to those long, silky limbs

Luckily Georgian houses were built with this kind of dilemma in mind When he first took a leave of absence and returned to Hawksley six le the corandparents’ old rooms, not his own boyhood bedroom on the second floor

There was a suite adjoining, the old countess’ suite, a throwback to not so long ago when the ularly share a bed, a roo room and bathroom occupied a corner at the back of the house with views over the lake to the woods and fields beyond The suite was rather faded, last decorated some time around the middle of the previous century and filled with furniture offor all that

‘There is a door here,’ he had said, showing her a small door discreetly set into the wall near the bed ‘It leads into my room You can lock it if you would rather, but I don’t bother’

The words had hung in the air Were they an invitation? A warning? He wasn’t entirely sure

It was odd, he had never really noticed the door before yet last night it had loomed in his eyeline, the unwanted focal point of his own room He had known she was on the other side, just one turn of the handle away Seb’s jaw tightened as he flipped the bacon He could visualise it now as if it were set before him Small, wooden, nondescript