“Lady Catherine.”
“Only in formal situations. Among friends I’m Catherine.”
“And you expect us to be friends?”
“I do indeed.” She sat in a nearby chair. “Now, tell me the true reason you don’t want to marry Claybourne.”
“I like her,” Jack said. “I like her a lot.”
Luke tossed back the whiskey Jack had poured for him before pressing the glass and his ear to the wall in Jack’s sanctuary—a room nestled beside Frannie’s. Damnation, he couldn’t hear a bloody word.
Jack took the glass from him, refilled it, and handed it back. “She has a lot of spunk.”
“She’s damned irritating is what she is. I’m already regretting the bargain.”
“She’s a beauty.”
Luke slumped down into a chair. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“She’d make a dead man sit up in his coffin. Damn, I might even be willing to kill a bloke myself to earn her favor.”
“I’m not doing it to earn her favor.”
“I know. You’re doing it to earn Frannie’s.”
They fell into contemplative silence until Jack asked, “Do you think unmarried women fantasize?”
Luke looked up. “About what?”
“About bedding.”
“No. They wouldn’t know where to begin.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why wouldn’t they know where to begin?”
“Because they don’t know the first thing about what goes on between a man and a woman.”
“Once they’ve learned they could fantasize.”
“Possibly.”
“So Lady Catherine isn’t a virgin.”
Luke had a strange reaction. His entire body tightened and he felt a need to…what?
Defend the lady’s honor? Strike out at whoever had taken her innocence? Had someone forced his attentions on her? Was that the reason she wanted him killed?
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
“She indicated that she fantasized about men. Now I’m left to wonder if women would pay to have their fantasies realized. Perhaps we should expand our business to include offerings for ladies.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Men have a need that women don’t.”
“I spend a good deal of my day contemplating various tantalizing aspects of women, not to mention all the various exciting things I could do with them. You don’t believe they think about men?”
