The Raven Prince (Princes #1)(54)

“Christ all Jaysus! Fell in a pigsty, did you?”

Edward began pulling off his stockings. “Are you aware that some valets actually spend their time helping their masters to dress and undress rather than making rude comments about their person?”

Davis cackled. “Ha. Should’ve told me you were having problems buttoning your pantyloons, m’lord. I would’ve helped you.”

Edward scowled. “Just put away the cravats and get out.”

Davis tottered to the highboy, pulled out a top drawer, and dumped the cravats in. “What’s that slimy stuff on your mug?” he asked.

“Mrs. Wren kindly gave me some salve for my bruises this afternoon,” Edward said with dignity.

The valet tilted toward him and inhaled with a loud snuffling sound. “That’s where the stank is coming from. It smells like horseshit.”

“Davis!”

“Well, it do. Haven’t smelled anything near that bad since you was a lad and fell on your arse into that pigsty back of Old Peward’s farm. Remember that?”

“How could I forget with you around?” Edward muttered.

“Gor! Thought we’d never get the stank out of you that time. And I had to throw away them breeches.”

“Pleasant as this recollection is—”

“ ’Course, you never would’ve fallen in if you hadn’t been ogling Old Peward’s daughter,” Davis continued.

“I was not ogling anyone. I slipped.”

“Naw.” Davis scratched his scalp. “Your eyes were about falling out of your head they were, gawking at her big bubbies.”

Edward grit his teeth. “I slipped and fell.”

“Almost a sign from the Lord above, that,” Davis said, waxing philosophical. “Gawp at a girl’s bubbies and land in pig shit.”

“Oh, for God’s sake. I was sitting on the railing of the pigsty and I slipped.”

“Prissy Peward sure did have big dugs, that lass did.” Davis sounded a little wistful.

“You weren’t even there.”

“But that pigsty stank had nothing on the horseshit on your face now.”

“Dav-vis.”

The valet made his way back to the door waving a liver-spotted hand in front of his face as he went. “Must be balmy to let a woman smear horsesh—”

“Davis!”

“All over your face.”

The valet reached the door and slanted around the corner, still mumbling. Since his progress was, as usual, slow, Edward could hear his nattering for a good five minutes more. Oddly, it became louder the farther Davis moved from the door.

Edward frowned at himself in his shaving mirror. The salve did smell terrible. He reached for a basin and poured some water into it from the pitcher on his dresser. He picked up a washcloth and then hesitated. The salve was already on his face, and it had pleased Anna to put it there. He rubbed his thumb across the edge of his jaw, remembering her soft hands.

He threw down the washcloth.

He could wash off the salve when he shaved in the morning. It wouldn’t hurt to leave it on tonight. He turned from the dresser and took off the remainder of his clothes, folding and placing them on a chair as he did so. There was at least one advantage to having an unusual valet: He had learned to be neat with his apparel since Davis didn’t deign to pick up after him. Standing naked, Edward yawned and stretched before climbing into the ancient four-poster bed. He leaned over and blew out the bedside candle and then lay there in the dark staring at the shadowy outlines of the bed curtains. He wondered fuzzily how old they were. Certainly older than the house itself. Had they originally been this awful shade of brownish yellow?

His eyes sleepily swept the room, and he saw near the door the shape of a woman.

He blinked and suddenly she stood by his bed.

She smiled. The same smile Eve wore when she’d held the fateful apple out to Adam. The woman was gloriously nude except for a butterfly mask on her face.

He thought, It’s the whore from Aphrodite’s Grotto. And then, I’m dreaming.

But the thought drifted away. She slowly rubbed her hands up her midriff, drawing his eyes with them. She cupped her breasts and leaned forward so the tips were at the level of his eyes. Then she began to pinch and tease her own nipples.

His mouth went dry as he watched her nipples elongate and turn cherry red. He lifted his head to kiss her breasts, for his mouth fairly watered with the need to taste her, but she moved away with a taunting smile. The woman lifted her flowing, honey-brown hair away from her neck. Curling tentacles clung to her arms. She arched her slender back, thrusting her breasts up and forward like juicy fruit before him. He growled and felt his cock throb against his stomach at her teasing.

The woman smiled a witchy smile. She knew exactly what she was doing to him. She smoothed her hands back down her torso, past her thrusting breasts, over her downy belly, and paused. Her fingers just touched the glinting curls of her bush. He willed her to move them farther, but she teased him, lightly combing through her maiden hair. Just when he could stand it no longer, she chuckled low and spread her legs.

Edward didn’t know if he still breathed. His eyes were locked on her hands and her *. She parted her nether lips for him. He could see the ruby skin glistening with her fluid and smell her musk lifting from her flesh. She dipped one slender finger into her cleft. Slowly, she stroked up and found her clitoris. She petted herself, her finger moving in slippery circles on the bud. Her hips began to rotate, and she let her head fall back and moaned. The sound mingled with Edward’s own groan of pure lust. He was rock hard, pulsing with need.