Beauty Tempts the Beast (Sins for All Seasons #6) - Lorraine Heath Page 0,27

go?

Althea couldn’t believe she’d been so bold as to make such a demand of him. It amazed her that he could stand so still and give away nothing, not his thoughts nor his feelings. She wanted to be able to do that.

“I don’t think you’d find it a hardship to teach me.” She kept her voice low, a little raspy like Jewel’s, and could have sworn she heard his breath hitch slightly.

He lowered his head, and her lips tingled in anticipation of his mouth claiming hers. “The first lesson”—his voice was equally low, equally raspy—“is not to give anything too easily.”

When he stepped back, she stumbled forward, realizing too late that she’d been leaning into him, balancing herself against him. She’d been seeking to seduce him, and it seemed she’d been the one seduced. She might have been embarrassed if he’d gloated or given any indication that he knew the effect he’d had on her. But he merely studied her in that calm, assessing way he had.

Then his gaze went to her hand, still clutching one end of his neck cloth. She released it as though it had suddenly caught fire.

“I need more scotch for this discussion,” he said. “More sherry?”

At least he wasn’t dismissing her request completely out of hand. “Yes, please.”

After snatching up her small glass, he headed for the decanters. She lowered herself into the chair, glanced over at the fire, thinking the flames were probably cooler than her skin right now. She did hope she hadn’t turned a blotchy red beneath his studied stare.

He set her glass on the table beside her, and she wondered if he’d done so in order to avoid any risk of her touching him. His neck cloth was still dangling loose; he hadn’t bothered to retie it. She liked the look of him a bit mussed but could hardly countenance that she’d begun disrobing him. Whatever had come over her?

She took a sip of the sherry. She’d never had a libation this early in the day. Perhaps it had influenced her.

“Other ways exist to gain means and freedom.” He was settled back in the chair, keeping his distance from her, and she feared she’d destroyed whatever easy comradery they’d finally established.

“It’s important I have a protector.” Otherwise, her brothers would continue to feel responsible for her. She was striving to free them as much as herself. “If I am accomplished, skilled at pleasuring, I will have a choice in selecting the one lord I will welcome into my bed, and can be particular regarding the man whose favors I will accept. To that end, I need to be one of the most sought-after courtesans in all of England. Which means I must have mastered seduction.”

“The occupation you are seeking is not an easy one. Why travel that path when you could be a governess, a lady’s companion, something respectable?”

No one among the aristocracy was going to hire her except as a bedmate, but she realized she had more reasons than that.

“I don’t want respectable. I had respectable. I had friends I loved, thought they loved me, but when I needed them the most, they turned their backs on me. Because of something that wasn’t my fault. I want to return to Society on my terms. As the mistress of a lord, I will wield some semblance of power.”

“Why do you need a protector?”

She rolled her eyes in frustration. “Why do you ask so many questions?”

He leaned forward again, and she was grateful less distance separated them. “If I’m to have a role in you acquiring this life you’re seeking, I want to make damned sure you understand all the ramifications of it. You will be treated as though you are an object, property leased for a spell, to be used at the buyer’s whim.”

“Even in the most stately of homes, women are often treated as property. Are you not familiar with the laws that govern marriage, that apply to women?”

His sigh was long, drawn out. “Once you embark on this journey, doors that are now open to you will begin to close.”

“They are closed now. Without my father’s title, wealth, power, and influence behind me, no lord is going to marry me. I have no dowry. By the time I have earned your generous pounds, regardless of which deadline I meet, I shall be a quarter of a century old, gathering dust on the shelf.”

“As I mentioned, I know a good many untitled men who have accumulated fortunes that rival those