She shut the door as she left, and the room was suddenly so empty. Although it was a lot easier on the eyes.
David sat down in the chair—the less rickety one; he’d checked—and raked his hands through his hair. His heart was thumping in his chest, and as for the rest of him—well, there were parts that were demanding assiduous attention that he couldn’t do anything about, not at this moment, not without risking embarrassment.
And they never did actually figure out what her chemise was made of. But now he certainly had a lot more information than he had prior to her arrival. He knew, for example, that her figure was curved and lush, and that her bottom was round and full and felt luscious under his hands.
That she’d learned plenty since they started kissing, and that she responded to him as keenly as he did to her; surprising, since she’d said he’d been her first kiss.
He ached to be more than her first kiss. Literally ached, in fact.
He shifted in the chair and dug his hand over his erection, wishing it would just subside already. What if Gotam came in, or one of his brother’s servants? He’d have to quickly remove his jacket and drape it over himself, or something equally ludicrous. As though he were a callow boy again, not a man who had never had a problem finding sexual satisfaction.
But his cock’s enthusiasm did not show signs of abating, not when his mind replayed every single sigh she made into his mouth, or how she arched into his body, or how her breasts—that he hadn’t even gotten to touch—pressed into his chest.
He was doing a terrible job of settling himself, wasn’t he?
Think, David, think. Think of treaties, and negotiations, and long, dusty rides over miles of unforgiving Indian countryside.
Better. A bit.
And women who dressed as they pleased, and were totally without artifice, and whose softness and—
There was a knock on the door before he could wind himself entirely back up again. Gotam didn’t wait for his response. He opened the door and poked his head just inside. “She’s here.”
His heart leapt. So soon?
Gotam rolled his eyes as he shook his head. His friend was quite adept at doing multiple things at the same time. “No, not her, idiot. Lady Radnor.”
Oh. That was something else entirely. “Can’t you—”
Gotam shook his head again. “I tried. She’s insisting she see you.”
“Fine.” David rose and smoothed his jacket down where her hands had been. “Show her into the library.” He didn’t want Louise here, not so soon after Charlotte had been. He still felt as though he could sense her presence, and her warmth, although that could have been just the residual effects.
Speaking of which—he glanced down at himself, grateful to see things were back to normal. Or normal without Charlotte around, at least.
Giving his jacket one last pat, he strode out of the salon and walked across the hallway to where Gotam was holding the door open for him. “Thank you. Tea, please.”
He left the door slightly ajar. Not that it would dissuade Louise if she got it in her head to act improperly, but it at least indicated they were in a different setting now, in different circumstances.
She frowned at the door, then kept the frown on her face as she looked at him. “I saw someone leaving as I was arriving. A lady,” she clarified. “Who was that?”
“Do sit down. Gotam will bring tea in a moment.” He gestured to the chair facing his brother’s desk and sat in the chair behind it.
She sat with an exhalation that sounded strongly like a harrumph. “You have not answered my question. Who is she? And what is she to you?”
What was she to him? She was his assignment, initially, but had become more, even as she wore less. Because she wore less, in fact.
But he couldn’t get distracted with thoughts of Charlotte.
“I have to make a few things clear.” He paused and drew a deep breath. “This—this cannot continue.”
She blinked, and then shrugged. Not the reaction he’d expected. When she spoke, her voice was almost placating. “Of course we cannot cause a scandal. You are so gentlemanly, not wishing to sully my reputation.” She got a gleam in her eye he was very familiar with. Uncomfortably so, now.
“But we can sully other things, now that Will—now that I am a free woman. And then, after enough time has passed, we can make things official.”
Why didn’t she just leap across the desk and punch him in the throat? That would be far less painful.
“I don’t think you understand.”
The door opened to reveal Gotam with the tea. David had never been so torn between wishing his friend were less prompt and grateful for his interruption.
They sat in silence as Gotam laid the tea things out.
When everything was placed just so—Gotam had been observing just how it was done in English households—he spoke. “If there’s nothing else, my lord?”
“No, thank you. Thank you, Gotam.”
The door shut.
Leaving them alone.
“What don’t I understand, David?” She’d clenched her jaw, so perhaps she was on the way to understanding.
He swallowed hard and spoke. “I will not continue our liaison, Louise. I will not marry you. Not now, and not later.”
She half-rose from her chair, and he speculated as to whether she was actually going to leap across the desk.
The tea things might prove to be an impediment, however.
“There’s someone else, isn’t there?” She thrust an accusing finger at him. “Whoever that … that person was who left here, isn’t it?” She didn’t wait for his response. She stood up and folded her arms across her chest.
Her impressive chest, as she well knew. She watched his eyes and smiled, that self-confident smirk that seemed to say “I am stunning, so is my bosom, and everyone agrees with me.”
Did his face ever have that particularly smug smile? He would have to ask Charlotte. At last! A question he could ask her!
She nodded, as though confirming what she already knew. “You haven’t thought this through properly. We belong together. You will see that, in time.” She slid around the desk and reached her arms around his neck, pulling his face toward hers.
“Kiss me, David.” Her mouth was inches from his, her body—her alluring, curvaceous body, he had to admit—was pressed against his, and her voice was low and sultry. Nothing had changed from the first time he had been with her, and yet …
Everything had changed. He had changed.
“No.” He drew her arms from around his neck and held her away from him. “I don’t regret what happened between us, not for a moment, but it cannot continue. It will not continue,” he added, in case he wasn’t absolutely clear.
She bit her lip as she gazed up at him, and he could almost see the gears in her brain whirling away—How can I persuade him? What are my other options? How should I respond?
And then she shoved him so he stumbled back, and turned on her heel, stomping—in her tiny little slippers, so they hardly made a sound—to the door. She reached for the handle, then swung back.
“I know you better than you think. You think you can do without me? Without this? That you’ve found someone else to be with?” She flung her head back in disgust. “I don’t think so.”
She yanked the door open and flew through it, slamming it behind her. It was an impressive exit, barring the fact her shoes didn’t make a sound.
As soon as he heard the front door slam, he dropped into his seat.
Gotam walked in a few seconds later.
“That went well, didn’t it?” David said with a wry smile.
Gotam advanced into the room and sat down in Louise’s recently vacated chair. “Sorry,” he said, sounding anything but. Gotam always did take a certain pleasure in watching David suffer—he said it was just payment for sailing through life as easily as he did because of his looks.
Whereas David would usually point out that it was his face that brought him the trouble in the first place.
David picked the teapot up from the tray on the desk and poured tea into his cup. “It went as well as it could have.” He raised his eyes to Gotam. “She saw Ch—Lady Charlotte leaving.”
Gotam sat up straighter in his seat. “Did she recognize her?”
David plucked a lump of sugar from the bowl and put it in his cup, then considered and added another lump. “No, I don’t think so. But given what the lady normally wears, I think it’s only a matter of time before she figures it out. Likely they will encounter each other.”
He took a sip. Too much sugar.
“And what will you do?”
Protect her.
Where had that thought come from? “I think Lady Charlotte can handle Lady Radnor perfectly well without my assistance.”
“You hope,” Gotam said, helping himself to tea he poured into the cup meant for Louise. “Or you will face certain scandal.”
Gotam didn’t need to say the rest.