Free Her Secret Fantasy by Gaelen Foley Page A

cancel, believe me. Let’s go before she shows up. We’ll sail off to the other side of the lake. And take a moonlight swim.
Naked,
” he specified with a smoldering look.
    She laughed at the playful emphasis he gave the word, though she got the feeling that he was quite serious.
    “You are a thoroughgoing rogue, aren’t you? Major!” she suddenly exclaimed as he lifted her off the railing and swept her into his arms. “Put me down,” she scolded half-heartedly.
    “No. I am taking you with me,” he announced, carrying her across the garden folly. “Somebody’s got to help you escape, after all.”
    “Escape what?”
    “You tell me. All I know is I’m here to rescue you.”
    “What makes you think I need rescuing?”
    He snorted. Was it so obvious? “You can’t have been enjoying yourself at the ball very much if you were out here,” he pointed out.
    “Well, you’ve got me there. For heaven’s sake, put me down!” she ordered, laughing as he carried her across the garden folly. “I cannot possibly go for a moonlight swim with you. However intriguing your proposition might sound, I can’t. I have to go back.”
    He stopped and looked at her, still holding her in his arms. “To whom?”
    Lily just sighed.
    “Husband? Lover?”
    “Derek? Darling? Where are you?” A female voice softly calling his name interrupted just then from somewhere in the garden, fair warning that they were about to have company.
    Good God,
Lily thought, realizing belatedly the danger to her reputation.
    “Damn,” said the major under his breath.
    “Put me down!” Lily whispered.
    He obeyed, but held onto her wrist. “Wait.”
    “Let me go before we’re seen! I have to get back to the ballroom!”
    “At least tell me your name,” he insisted softly. “I want to see you again.”
    “No.” Lily blanched behind her mask. “I can’t.”
    “Why not?”
    “I just—can’t.”
    He stared at her. Lily gazed at him imploringly.
    Awareness hummed between them, but when he reached out and took the edge of her satin mask gently between his fingers, intent on stripping it away, Lily stopped him in distress, laying a hand over his. “No.”
    She needed her mask more than he knew.
    “So, you’re just going to walk away and I never get to see you again? You won’t tell me your name. If you won’t let me see your face without that silly mask, then in future days, I could walk right past you and not even know who you are.”
    “I’m sorry. It’s for the best.”
    His eyes asked why, but he shook his head and shrugged off what he apparently interpreted as a rejection of
him.
“Very well. Suit yourself.”
    “Derek, darling, are you there?” His companion was not yet in sight, but they both could hear her coming closer through the garden.
    Lily sent a guilty glance in the direction of the woman’s voice. Good God, if the lady discovered her out here alone with the “stud of the Season” it could lead to universal gossip, ruin, and the wreck of all her marriage plans. Failure. How would she ever explain it to Mother?
    When she turned back to him in panic, he was staring at her, as though memorizing every detail of what he could see of her face, her hair. She shook her head to discourage him and mouthed a regretful,
“No!”
    Then she yanked her hand out of his light hold and fled.
             
    Derek furrowed his brow, watching his lovely mystery girl race away.
    Everything in him wanted to chase, but he knew it would only upset her, and besides, still stung and rather put out by her rejection, he did not grovel and plead for any female.
    She turned a boxwood corner by the maze, and even after she had disappeared, he remained mystified. What an eccentric young lady!
    No doubt she was trouble. Her secrecy made him suspect she was some sort of schemer. She certainly seemed to have something to hide.
    So, very well, then, she wanted no part of him. No matter, Derek thought with a snort. He had plenty of others to