“There, that is the thing you draw upon when you want to feel confident. No one can take that feeling from you except yourself. That love will always be there, and you can use it to be confident.” Derrick’s handsome face was one of those memories, one from many years ago, but it was him all the same.
“You see,” he said softly. “I can see the difference already.”
“Can you?” she asked, a little mystified that the glowing warmth inside her head had faded.
His eyes dropped to her lips. “I can. It’s irresistible.”
Arianna wanted him to kiss her, but she feared if she pushed him too quickly her plan might not work.
“What’s my next lesson?” she asked in a whisper, allowing her eyes to fixate on his mouth.
Derrick’s shoulders dropped slightly as he seemed to relax. “There are ways to hold your head,” he said. His fingers were still on her throat, gently coaxing her to tilt her head a little. “When you expose your throat like this, it sends a man a primal suggestion of surrender.”
“Surrender?” That confused her. “Why would that...?” Her words trailed off as he stroked the column of her throat.
“When a man and woman come together in the physical sense,” Derrick said with a sensual glint in his eyes, “the female often surrenders herself to her chosen man. It’s nature. We conquer you wild, beautiful females, and you tame us right back.”
His words were sinfully vivid, and the imagery he evoked seemed more animal than human. It sent a shiver through her that had nothing to do with dread. She clenched her thighs together at the sensation of an unfamiliar dampness there.
“But don’t worry. Even when you surrender, you still have power over us.” He leaned in another inch until his breath whispered over her skin.
“I do?” She knew she was the one who was supposed to be weaving a spell over him, but he had completely captivated her instead.
“Yes, a man worth having in your bed is a man who will do anything to win you, to claim you, to prove that he deserves you.” Derrick’s lips were almost touching hers. “That is the power of the feminine surrender. To the right man, you become the master of his happiness.”
This game of seduction was far more complicated than she’d imagined. Was she in control as he had said, or washein control? She honestly didn’t know. Derrick’s lips faintly caressed hers before he stepped back and plucked an orchid bloom from a pot and held it out to her.
“That is enough for tonight.”
She took the flower in her hands, the soft velvet petals cool to the touch.
“Before you see me again for Christmas, ask a florist why orchids are scandalous.” He offered her a final rakish smile before leaving her alone in the conservatory.
She gently curled her fingers around the delicate orchid and pressed it to her chest. She would visit the florist tomorrow, but until then she would dream of tonight and relive thatalmostkiss.
Lord Seabright was as dangerous as his reputation warned. The charming young man she had grown up adoring had changed. Now he was a man, tempting, enticing, and seductive. If she wasn’t careful, she would be the one to lose in this game, and instead of winning herself a husband, she might lose her heart.
What a bloody messhe was in...
Derrick didn’t think about the late hour as he entered his club on Bolton Street. Watier’s, a club infamous for its gambling, was also famous for its quality food. As a result, it drew both the reckless and the famished alike. Normally, Derrick found amusement in placing wagers and enjoyed playing a hand or two of a game called macao, but tonight he found himself in an ill mood. Emotions were dueling inside him for dominance, and he didn’t know which would win. Half of him was restless with the need to satisfy the lust that Arianna had created, but the other half was peacefully still in a way he had never felt before in his life.
He clutched the memory of tonight into his mind, not wanting to forget a moment of it—how the warm air of the hothouse had cocooned him and Arianna in that private paradise of blooms until he had no thoughts of anything else outside their private enclosure. Some strange and wondrous thing had filled his chest when he had spoken to her of confidence and thinking of those who loved her. He had the sudden desperate urge to be one of those people inside her mind. But he couldn’t be.
He couldn’t love her. He’d learned a hard lesson and had his heart broken. He wasn’t about to open himself up to that pain again. Even if he did, the last person on earth he could fall in love with was Lucas’s little sister. Even when they had been friends, Lucas would have killed him for looking at Arianna with such desire.
Yet here he was, tempting fate by agreeing to spend a week with her in the country because he wanted to share himself with her and teach her what she wished to know of men, and he was hoping Lucas would never know. He might as well run about in a roomful of gunpowder while carrying a lit taper.
Derrick passed through the gaming rooms and froze at the sight of Lucas at the other end of the room. That was unexpected. Both he and Lucas had memberships here and at Boodle’s. But it had become an unspoken agreement that Derrick would havethisclub and Lucas would remain primarily at Boodle’s. What the devil was he doing here tonight?
Lucas won a hand at whatever game he was playing and with a grin looked about the room. His smile faded as he saw Derrick. For a moment, neither of them moved. Then Lucas collected his winnings from his table and stood. He gave Derrick the barest hint of a nod in acknowledgment before he exited the room, leaving Derrick alone in a hall of men like him. Men who would pay a steep and dangerous price for what they desired.
Four
Three days later
Armed with a copy of a book calledFloriography, Arianna perched on the edge of the library window seat that faced Asgil Hall’s front gates. She had been watching the coaches pull up for the last hour as their guests for Christmas week arrived. Invitations had been sent to those who lived near the country estate and a few friends of the family who’d come from London.
Asgil Hall was tucked away neatly in the countryside, almost as neatly as one would find a book on a shelf. It was the only fine mansion in the area, but quaint. Cozy cottages and small, respectable manor houses of other families abutted its lands.
