Forbidden by Susan Johnson (good books to read for teens .TXT) 📕

they'd shared confidences from the sterner discipline of Isabelle and numerous governesses.

He grinned back at her with an unburdened joy she hadn't seen in months.

Good Lord, Daisy thought, startled at the full array of family assembled in the hallway below. Was something of importance being discussed? Hopefully not, with Nadine in attendance. Mentally reviewing her appearance, she also hoped her dress was suitably composed, with no buttons left undone or chemise straps showing. Was her hair still properly arranged? Although distinctly nervous, faced with such a fascinated audience, she resisted checking, in the event her gesture caused comment.

She needed an excuse, she rapidly contemplated, stepping off the last carpeted stair, only fifty feet separating her from a certain inquisition. An excuse for Nadine at least. The others might be inclined to politeness. Unfortunately her mind was blank of suitable subterfuge, filled instead with graphic images of Etienne, her emotions pervaded with erotic sensation. Damn him, she couldn't think.

Fortuitously, at that precise moment, the entrance doors were thrown open by two footmen, and a sweeping cool damp breeze blew in from the ocean, bringing in its wake her uncle Kitredge Braddock with Valerie Stewart on his arm.

Attention was immediately diverted from Daisy.

Valerie! With Kit! The shock of their attachment registered in varying degrees on everyone's faces.

"Greetings!" Kit shouted, waving, his grin instant. "Well, darlings," he drawled as he strode nearer, his white tie slightly askew like his lopsided smile, "and the whole family's here now."

Wildness on the prowl was Daisy's first thought, with wanton sybaritic pleasure on his arm, she waspishly appended, taking in her brother's short-lived ex-wife, suitably unchaste in purple chiffon lined provocatively in blush silk. A sportive match, at least, without great need for conversation. Like Etienne and his darling Nadine, she peevishly noted.

Kit gave Daisy a smile and a brushing kiss on her cheek as they both reached the waiting group, then turned his sunny grin on the mildly shocked countenances observing him.

"Sorry I'm so late," he affably said to everyone in general, his dark brows rising slightly in the direction of his disheveled auburn hair, "I met Valerie earlier today at Bailey's Beach. Valerie, you don't need introductions, do you?" he casually added, swinging her hand in time to some inner music.

"I don't know everyone." Valerie murmured. Like Nadine, a connoisseur of masculine beauty and sensual pleasure, Valerie focused on the Duc de Vec, who hadn't previously come into her predatory range.

"I see why you didn't show up for dinner," Trey murmured, while Valerie flashed a pretty smile at the Duc who was being introduced to her by a sulky Nadine. Trey's brows were raised in masculine understanding of Kit's delay.

Kit grinned. "Your ex-wife is…"

"… Accomplished," Trey said, his smile discerning.

Kit's grin broke into a wide smile. "Definitely a woman of accomplishments."

"Just as long as you don't have something she wants."

"Oh, I think you've financed her sufficiently to leave me and all her other 'interests' free from her avaricious instincts. Thank you, by the way." Kit chuckled.

"A cheap enough price for my freedom. You're more than welcome." The intervening years and the contentment of his life had mitigated his resentment toward Valerie. She'd also had the good sense to keep her distance from Belle, the child she'd left for him to raise.

Taking in the massed array of family, Kit quietly inquired, "Have I missed anything?"

"Only a possible case of one absent sister. You arrived opportunely and saved her from everyone's avid regard."

"Daisy?"

Trey nodded.

"Absent with… from?"

"With… I believe." Trey's eyes moved in the direction of the Duc.

Kit's brows rose again, his green eyes wide with interest. He and Daisy had been the last holdouts against the heated tempests of love—for quite opposite reasons. On his part, he'd always found the delectable choices too limitless to narrow down; Daisy's critical selection process, on the other hand, eliminated most of the male population.

"You're looking well, Trey," Valerie said, transferring her attention from the Duc who had been engaged in conversation by a protective Nadine, to her ex-husband.

"And you're looking… healthy, Valerie." A mildly sardonic intonation took into account the precarious state of her bountiful bosom alarmingly close to popping out from the immodest confines of her low-cut gown.

She was pleased he'd noticed, recognizing his lazy, assessing scrutiny. She would have kept him if she could have, Valerie thought, taking in her former husband, dark and beautiful as sin with those silvery eyes she could still remember smiling at her from very close range in those long-ago days when they'd still been lovers. But Trey Braddock-Black had been elusive, even within her marriage trap.

"No hard feelings?" she inquired, he voice dulcet and inviting.

"Not after two years," he said with a cultivated civility. But his pale eyes took on a hard edge for a moment when he considered how she'd almost ruined his life. Reaching out, he took Empress's hand in his and pulled her close.

Turning from her conversation with Jolie, Empress quietly said, "Hello, Valerie." She leaned into Trey's shoulder, sure of his love, secure against Valerie's style of attraction, confident of her husband's faithfulness. "Was the beach busy?" she asked, Kit's comment about Bailey's Beach piquing her interest since she knew Valerie wasn't the athletic type.

"Not early in the day." Valerie smiled at Kit. "The water was cold."

"We went out for a sail instead," Kit offered. Which explained to everyone the lateness of their arrival. Kit's sailing craft, specially designed for ocean travel, had all the luxuries—including an extremely large stateroom.

With Daisy too close for comfort and Valerie's capricious attention a possible threat, Nadine abruptly declared, "I want to dance." Unshy and assertive under the most benign circumstances, with the Duc's strong arm beneath her hand and her husband sleeping peacefully off in the far west wing, she was avowedly determined to keep the Duc for herself. "Right now," she added, firmly, gazing up at the Duc.

"Excuse us," Etienne said. He had no choice short of publicly embarrassing his hostess by refusing, although he knew his leaving with