Beauty Tempts the Beast (Sins for All Seasons #6) - Lorraine Heath Page 0,54
he was biting down.
“But you taught me to kiss.” To feel, to melt, to want, to need.
“It shouldn’t have happened.”
“At some point it was on your lesson plan, surely.”
“You think I have planned out exactly what I’m going to show you?”
“I would have thought so, yes. It’ll save us wasting time. I’ve planned out my lessons for your ladies.”
He seemed both stunned and disgruntled. “I told you. I find a lady’s words seductive.”
She scoffed. “You can’t have found anything seductive about last night’s tale of horror.”
“You confided in me more than you ever have. It was more than your words. You let me feel your pain.”
“You find my pain an aphrodisiac?”
Shaking his head, he squeezed his eyes shut. “No.”
When he opened them, she saw true remorse reflected there. “I wish you didn’t know what it was to feel pain of any kind, but you trusted me with it, not to abuse it, not to take advantage. I took advantage.”
“Did I give the impression I didn’t welcome it?”
“You were vulnerable.”
“You were comforting me.” Perhaps that was the reason it was wrong. What had passed between them hadn’t been based on seduction, lust, or attraction. He’d seen someone hurting and sought to ease the hurt. Perhaps in the morning light, despite how little there was of it, he’d realized she wasn’t a temptation.
“It won’t happen again.”
“What will these lessons entail then?” If not kisses, caresses, and embraces?
“Althea, is being some man’s mistress truly the life you want?”
“I can’t have the life I want.”
“What you have mapped out for yourself is not the life you deserve, and if it’s not the life you want but you accept it as your due, then you’re giving all those judgmental toffs power and a victory they have not earned.”
“You know nothing at all about it.”
“You might feel differently if you knew why I go by Beast.”
Perhaps she would have asked, perhaps he would have told her if the cab hadn’t at that precise moment come to a smooth halt on a street lined with shops, if he hadn’t handed the money up through the tiny opening to the driver, the doors hadn’t sprung open, and he hadn’t leapt out and immediately handed her down. If the pavement hadn’t been crowded, the rain increased its tempo, and they’d had to rush toward shelter beneath the eaves. Or she’d thought they’d sought an escape from the rain until he shoved open the door, and she noted Dressmaker in elaborate script painted in gold on a sign over the threshold.
He waited for her to precede him into the shop and suddenly it was the last place she wanted to be. She wanted to be at the Mermaid talking, wanted to be on a park bench beneath a shared umbrella as he confided something as intimate as she had last night.
She was unacquainted with this dressmaker but welcomed the familiarity of bolts of fabrics, the scent of dye, the sight of pattern books, and the din of women discussing various styles. A woman who appeared slightly older than Althea excused herself from a small group of three other ladies and approached them.
“Mr. Trewlove, what a pleasure to see you again.”
“Beth. Business seems to be flourishing.”
“It doesn’t hurt to have a duchess as a client.”
He turned to Althea. “Beth has been my sister Gillie’s seamstress for years now. This is her establishment. Beth, I’d like to introduce Miss Stanwick.”
“It’s lovely to meet you,” the shop owner said.
“You as well.” She’d not been to a seamstress since her world unraveled, had never had one not address her as Lady Althea or go out of her way to ensure the duke’s daughter had the very best needleworkers at her disposal.
“She’s in need of a few frocks,” Benedict said. “A couple for everyday wear. One appropriate for a ball. And one designed for seduction. That one should be in red.”
He spoke the word seduction so easily, as though it was appropriate to announce she was in need of something to accomplish that objective. She had no doubt her cheeks flamed as red as the outfit he’d ordered be made for her.
“I don’t know that I need one for a ball.” She kept her voice low, hoping not to be overheard.
“It can be used for seduction as well, possibly more effectively.”
He provided attire appropriate for the ultimate goal of the ladies under his care. But Althea’s lover would provide her with a gown. She wouldn’t attend a ball without him, so acquiring his attention came