his masculine organ digging into her belly.
Heavens! What an odd reaction to have toward a man. She was thoroughly agitated, and she hadn’t even laid eyes on him yet.
The minutes seemed to creep by, the ticking of the clock on the mantel resounding through the room like the crash of a gong with every second. She barely got through a paragraph, her gaze flitting to the clock too often for her to concentrate. When nine minutes had gone by, she stood and made her way downstairs.
She entered the drawing room to find Diana seated in her favorite armchair, a cup of tea in her hands. Of Mr. Burke she saw only his head and broad shoulders over the back of the sofa.
“Ah, Calliope, there you are,” Diana said, with a bright smile. “Please, do come and join us.”
Mr. Burke’s shoulders tensed beneath his navy-blue coat, then he surged to his feet and turned to greet her. He was a far cry from the man she’d met this morning—so much so that Calliope had a hard time reconciling this version of him with the one who had said such filthy things.
He was the very image of a gentleman. His dark brown hair gleamed in the light of the sun streaming through the open drapes, his face scraped free of stubble.
But then, their gazes clashed, and a subtle shift revealed the man hidden beneath the polite mask. There he was … the man whose eyes turned into molten pools of green fire as he trailed his gaze from her face and down her body. She flushed hot, and annoyance prickled her spine.
“Miss Barrington,” he said with a boyish, lopsided smile. “It is lovely to see you. I thank you for agreeing to meet with me again.”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Burke. I trust you are rested and ready to continue our previous conversation.”
A slight tick at the corner of his mouth hinted at amusement, but he did an adequate job of keeping a straight face. “Quite.”
“Well,” Diana said, coming to her feet and setting her teacup aside. “Now that the proprieties have been observed, I will make myself scarce. You needn’t worry about the intrusion or gossip of servants. Our staff is very discreet.”
This she said for the benefit of Mr. Burke, for Calliope already knew this to be true. The servants were unfailingly loyal to Hastings, and that allegiance extended to the countess and her sister. Ekta would bluster and protest at her being left alone with a man who was not a relative, but the maid was having her afternoon nap and would never know. If she asked, Calliope would simply insist that Diana had never left the room.
Then, they were alone, with no sound but the pop and snap of the fire interrupting the quiet.
Mr. Burke cleared his throat, leaning his hip against the side of the sofa. “Calliope, I—”
“Please, I would prefer it if you called me Miss Barrington, even in private. Such familiarity is unseemly.”
The man furrowed his brow as if he found her request utterly ridiculous, but he shrugged. “Very well … Miss Barrington. I wanted to apologize for our misunderstanding this morning.”
“Only for the misunderstanding? You aren’t sorry for taking liberties with my person, or … or the things you said?”
That infuriating smile of his was back, half his mouth turning up. “I cannot pretend to be anything other than what I am. I am a courtesan, and I thought a goddess had come to be seduced, so I acted accordingly.”
She blinked. “Goddess?”
“Calliope … Greek goddess, chief muse of poetry, music, and song. It seemed apropos. You certainly live up to the beauty of such a moniker. Do you happen to possess a talent for singing as well? Or perhaps you are a poet?”
Calliope squared her shoulders and steeled herself against his flattery. Flowery words were something she could handle. What she didn’t know how to grapple with were the coarser words he’d used with her this morning.
Fucking Christ, you’re gorgeous.
What had he expected her to say to such a thing?
“That is hardly relevant. Allow me to assure you that compliments and flattery are not a necessary part of our arrangement.”
Instead of being cowed by her iciness, he simply slouched against the sofa, looking far too comfortable in someone else’s drawing room. She had a feeling this man made himself at home in every space. He seemed to suck all the air out of the chamber and dominate it with his presence.
His mouth quirked with mirth. “They