Her heart was racing, but not because she was afraid of Holbrook. Her husband would have been yelling at her by now if she’d dared to defy him in such a manner. He would be hurling insults at her and belittling her.
The fact that Holbrook was giving her the power in this arrangement gave her pause.
She was no longer a young woman who’d be forced to marry because she’d been compromised. Widows—nay, even married women—took lovers with an alarmingly casual indifference, and no one seemed to care.
She could try this. She could allow this handsome, intriguing man to court her. But she was only now realizing that she hadn’t heard the first part of his wager.
She straightened to her full height and clasped her hands at her waist as she faced him. “I’m afraid I heard nothing beyond your desire to court me. What was your wager?”
He held his arms behind his back, and she had the unsettling realization that he was holding himself in check so he wouldn’t reach for her again. Despite the tension that was still visible in his body, she could see that he was amused by her.
“You will allow me to court you if I can bring you to release.”
Her brows furrowed in confusion. “You will release me?”
Chapter 8
How on earth was it possible this woman didn’t know what that word meant when it came to relations between a man and a woman? Her husband was the worst sort of bounder if he’d never seen to his wife’s pleasure. Perhaps that was why he’d had so many lovers. No one wanted to sleep with him more than once.
“I will, of course, release you if you decide you don’t want to have anything to do with me.”
He ignored the internal voice that was shouting about how he was lying to her. He would never force her, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t above seducing her. Especially since she’d been the one to propose a love affair.
There was also the uncomfortable realization that Lucy Mansfield could very well be the one for him. Still, he didn’t want to scare her away. He would have to proceed with caution.
He continued his explanation. “But the term release has another meaning when it comes to intimate relations between two people.”
He wondered if he would have to spell it out for her, but the flush of color that rose in her cheeks told him she’d figured it out.
“But a woman can’t… release with a man.”
The sudden image of plunging into Lucy and giving her his seed threatened his composure. As it was, he was barely hanging on to his need to drag her into his arms again. She’d enjoyed their kiss, and he suspected she wouldn’t mind a repeat performance, but he was playing a long game and couldn’t rush things. If he wasn’t careful, he’d lose this opportunity to make her his altogether.
“Pleasure, my temptress. The sudden release of sensation within your body when you’ve reached the heights of ecstasy.”
Her eyes widened. Then she licked her lower lip again, and he wanted to groan with frustration. The fall of his trousers had been uncomfortably tight since he’d kissed her.
He saw the way her throat worked as she swallowed, and an irrational fear gripped him. She was going to change her mind and walk away.
“I… don’t think that’s possible. I’ve never found pleasure in the act of… I don’t think I’m able to.” She let out an embarrassed huff.
“I don’t believe that’s true. You might not have found release with your husband, but that doesn’t mean you can’t. Just that your husband was a selfish bastard who thought only of his own pleasure.”
She stilled, her gaze lowered to the floor, and he wanted to kick himself. He’d never met Mansfield, but despite the fact he hated what he’d heard about the man, it was possible she still loved him.
“I apologize. I… don’t really know what to say, but I shouldn’t have spoken ill of the dead.”
She wrapped her arms around her waist, and he expected her to turn away. Instead, she lifted her gaze to his. “I hated him. Not at first. When we married, I foolishly thought I was the most fortunate woman in the world. But it didn’t take long for him to play me for a fool.”
She turned toward the windows, and he wanted to put his fist through a wall. “He was the fool, not you. Any man who had you but failed to treasure you…”
He took a deep breath and unclenched his fists. Their conversation had taken an unpleasant turn. The last thing he needed was for Lucy to be thinking about another man even if he was her deceased husband. No, he wanted her to think only of him.
He moved so he was standing before her again, taking heart from the fact she was still here, talking to him.
“Lucy…”
She shook her head and dropped her arms. His heart plunged.
