Hendershot tried to follow, but Richard stopped him with a hand to his chest. “I need to switch rooms with you.”
Richard removed his own key with the card and ribbon tied around it, pressing it hurriedly into the other man’s hand.
“Why the sudden change of heart?” Hendershot asked, removing his key and passing it discreetly to Richard.
Richard grasped it in his hand, his heart soaring, his member harder than it had ever been in his life. “Because I have just met Aphrodite herself, and I must have her.”
He strolled out of the room, searching for his goddess but unable to find her.Soon, he reminded himself. Soon she would be his.
CHAPTER5
Winnie exited the ballroom, needing a moment to breathe. She had never experienced such an intimate encounter in her entire four-and-twenty years of life. To be sure, her late husband had kissed her once on their wedding night. The smell of alcohol was so incredibly overwhelming that she nearly expelled the wedding breakfast.
That was her first and only kiss until now.
Pressing her back against the wall in the deserted hallway, Winnie clutched her hand to her beating heart, trying to calm herself. She could still feel his lips against hers, his body controlling her the way he wanted. It was exhilarating to be played like a piano forte and still left wanting.
Taking several more calming breaths, Winnie reveled in her choice of a hiding space. Several lusty gentlemen had approached her after the handsome stranger. They did nothing for her; she could not stop thinking about the man who had set her entire being on fire in a room full of strangers.
With her mind made up Winnie made her way to the Gretna Green room. Hopefully her handsome, wicked stranger would be there waiting for her. Walking down the main hallway, Winnie easily blended in with the other ladies who were excitedly climbing the stairs ready for a night of pleasure.
She had never experienced pleasure, not with another person of course.
Winnie ignored the constant chatter of the girls, some switching keys to be with certain gentlemen. Holding on tight to her own key, Winnie prayed that her handsome stranger would appear.
Reaching the long hallway filled with at least twenty rooms, the ladies rushed down the halls like it was a sale at the modiste. They giggled as they reached their assigned rooms, joyous shouts from the gentlemen reached Winnie in the hallway as the courtesans entered. She walked and walked, finally reaching Gretna Green which was the last room at the end of the hall, away from everyone.
Hands sweating, heart pounding profusely, and abdomen tied in knots, Winnie couldn’t believe what she was about to do. After meeting him—whomever he was—feeling his passion, his powerful body pressed against hers, it all became real. She was really doing this, and there was no turning back, not for her. Not for Lady Winifred Musgrave. She was no longer a lonely and scared girl. Tonight, she would be a woman at last.
It took multiple tries to place the large brass key inside the keyhole. The trembling in her hands was nearly unbearable. It wasn’t fear; it was excitement. He was on the other side of that door, of that she was certain.
The key slid in on her third—or fifth—try. The click of the lock unlatching had her pulse pounding. Winnie wrapped her free hand around the cool metal doorknob, hesitating for one second before she turned and opened the door.
She took one deep breath, her heart was lodged in her throat, and stepped inside.
He lounged barefoot on the four-poster bed, his long legs reaching the edge. Winnie had forgotten how tall he was in their moments apart, but now seeing him barely fit a gigantic bed jarred her memory.
Her handsome stranger was even more good-looking away from the dim lighting of the ballroom. He lounged back on an array of decorative pillows as if he had not a care in the world.
Closing the door behind her, she turned away from him, her hands shaking, her nerves threatening to send her into a swoon like a debutante in her first season.
“Are you trying to leave me, goddess?” he drawled out lazily.
Placing the key on the dresser near the door, Winnie turned around to face her stranger. Overly long blonde hair hung freely over his mask, kissing the top repeatedly.
“I have no plans of leaving,” she told him, walking to the edge of the bed standing tall in front of him. “How did you get access to Gretna Green? I know for a fact that Kitty goes to great lengths to control the parties.”
He laughed like she’d told him a jest, and she had not. “Madame Delcour does indeed like to control her parties, but I get what I want…and I want you.”
“Do you often break the rules?” she asked him, wondering how he could obtain the key to her room.
Winnie had informed him where he could find her, and he did. It was titillating to have someone want her. A man of such strength and power wanted her.
“Have you never broken a rule to get what you wanted?” His question shocked her because that was exactly what she was doing.
Wasn’t it?
“Yes, but only when I have to.” They both fell silent as he stared at her.
