“Try me.” After a pause, he added, “I had to polish up my own speech, you know.”
“You did?”
Her surprised look reminded him that he’d glossed over the details of his past.
“’Ad to, luv, didn’t I?” he said in the Cockney accents of his youth. “Wanted to be a nob, so I ’ad to learn to walk and talk like one.”
“’Ow…how did you learn?”
Gazing into her wide, curious eyes, he hesitated. He wasn’t sure he wanted to tell his wife that it had been Imogen who’d coached him. Back then, he couldn’t afford elocution lessons, so he’d learned by aping Imogen and her family. Day in and day out, he had listened to the Hammonds and privately rehearsed their accents and manner of speech. When he practiced with Imogen, she’d giggled, calling him her Knight-in-training and giving him pointers on how to further polish his accent.
But Imogen had no place in his marital bower, and he didn’t want Fancy to be distracted by his past. In truth, he had no problem concentrating on the present, not when his nearly naked wife was gazing at him with her soft doe’s eyes.
“I practiced.” He stroked her downy cheek. “It takes time.”
Fancy blew out a breath, her rosy lips rounding in a pout that made his cock strain with longing.
“That’s the problem,” she said. “I only ’ave…have a week until Princess Adelaide’s soiree.”
Ignoring his arousal, he said, “Tell me how I can help,chérie.”
“I don’t know that you can. I think…I think there’s something wrong with my mouth.”
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with your mouth,” he said with conviction.
In fact, he was about to explode watching her tongue wet those perfect, plump lips.
“Well,somethingain’t working. Mr. Stanton keeps telling me to keep my jaw loose, to breathe the sound from the back o’ my throat, and I ’ave…have no idea what he means,” she said mournfully.
A proper gentleman would console his wife. Perhaps utter a few soft words of encouragement. He would definitely not have the depraved thoughts that Severin was having.
Truth be told, he had been entertaining the idea and waiting for the right time to introduce this particular variation on the theme to his wife. Now was probably not the right time but… He struggled briefly with his lust.
To hell with being a gentleman,he thought.
“I think I can help you with that, sweeting,” he said.
She tilted her head. “How?”
Anticipation sizzled up his spine. He kept his expression bland.
“Take off your chemise, and I’ll show you.”
Fancy blinked at her husband. “I ’ave to be naked for this lesson?”
He arched his brows. “Do you want my help or not?”
Shedidwant help, and the truth was she wouldn’t mind something else either. Now that her flux was over, she was eager to resume her marital activities. She had enough liquid courage left in her to reach for her chemise and pull it over her head.
She looked up into her husband’s eyes. What she saw in his smoldering gaze was more intoxicating than any beverage. Her heart thumped giddily.
“Nicely done,” he said.
His calm, almost cool reply heightened her excitement. Grabbing a pillow from the bed, he tossed it onto the floor in front of him.
“Now kneel, sweetheart,” he said.
Her pulse raced. Was he inearnest? His expression said that he was. They’d never done anything like this before, and the idea of being on her knees, naked at the feet of her fully clothed husband, stirred the darker shadows of her desire. There were faint crinkles around his eyes, a sensual slant to his mouth that suggested they were playing a game. A new, sophisticated sort of game that a duke could apparently play with his duchess.
