Rounding the desk corner, he caught her by the waist.
“The difference is that you like doing whatItell you to do,” he said. “Admit it.”
She looped her arms around his neck. With her dimples peeping out, she looked so adorable that his heart stuttered. “Perhaps I don’t mind that dictatorial side of youtoomuch.”
“Then kiss me,” he challenged.
Her lashes fluttered. Then she rose on tiptoe. The soft brush of her mouth set fire to his blood. When she lapped at the seam of his lips like an inquisitive kitten, he let her in. The kiss grew hotter, and, before he knew it, he’d planted her arse on the desk, her skirts ruched in his fist—
A banging pierced his haze of lust.
“Corbett? Are you in there?” Fanny’s insistent tones filtered through the door. “I need to speak with you.”
With an oath, he set Primrose on her feet and instructed, “Wait here.”
He stalked to the door, cracked it open. Fanny stood there, fist raised to knock again.
“I’m busy,” he said shortly.
“You’ve been busy for the past week. We need to talk about the Nursery—”
“What nursery?” Primrose’s voice emerged from behind him.
Fanny’s gaze darted over his shoulder. “What’re you doing here?”
“I’m here with Andrew,” Primrose shot back.
Christ.“Fanny, I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” he said impatiently.
“But I have a new list of items that need to be approved for the Nursery—”
“Whatisthis nursery she’s talking about?” Primrose demanded.
Before he could answer, Fanny drawled, “A milk-fed miss like yourself wouldn’t understand. Then again, there’s a lot you don’t understand about Corbett here, isn’t there?”
“I know him better than you do,” Primrose snapped. “You’re nothing but his employee. A bumptious oldbawd.”
“Better a bawd who knows how toreallyplease a man,”—Fanny’s hand slapped onto one out-thrust hip—“than some green chit who thinks lying on her back is all it takes. Really, Corbett, don’t you get tired of showing her around the bedchamber by her leading strings?”
“Shut your mouth, Fanny,” he growled, “and be on your way.”
The menace in his tone finally sunk in; his employee flounced off.
The minute he closed the door, Primrose rounded on him. “Are you sleeping with her?”
“I’ve already told you the answer to that,” he said curtly.
“Haveyou slept with her?”
“For Christ’s sake, no.” Striving for patience, he raked a hand through his hair. “I do not have sexual affairs with my employees. Ever.”
“What is this nursery, then?”
Seeing the suspicion in her eyes, he realized there’d be no peace until she had her answers. Stubborn chit.
“Although I encourage the use of contraceptive measures in the club, accidents still happen. The Nursery House is a new initiative of mine, a place where wenches can go to deliver their babes safely. Fanny is helping me with the project.”
“Oh.” Primrose’s lashes fanned. “So that is all you and Fanny are doing together—working?”
