“Nor have I,” Vivien said. “He is young, but he has means.”
Lucien nodded. “Well, then it seems she is making a future just fine. She doesn’t need me. She never did.”
Vivien watched him for a moment, a knowing expression on her face. Then she inclined her head. “You seem to be ready to go. Good evening, Stenfax.”
“I won’t be back. Goodbye, Vivien.”
And he turned and fled the room before Elise saw him. Before he had to see her locked in a future that once again didn’t include him.
Elise watched as Winstead shut the terrace door behind himself and stepped toward her with a smile. He was a handsome enough young man, but she felt nothing as he reached for her hand and drew her toward the terrace wall.
All she could think about was Lucien.
“May I call you Elise?” Winstead asked.
She nodded. “I would prefer it, truth be told.”
He smiled. “And you shall call me Theo,” he said.
She tried to keep her expression serene as he reached up to brush a lock of hair from her cheek. But in her mind, she saw Lucien again. Lucien doing the same a dozen times before and after she had betrayed him.
“I want to be your protector,” Winstead said softly.
She caught her breath. This was what she had been waiting for, and yet she felt no pleasure in the pronouncement. “Yes?”
“I have been enchanted by you since I first saw you here, Elise. Would you be interested in my taking that role?”
She drew a long breath.Interestedwas not the best term for it.Resigned to itfit better, but there was no use in engaging in semantics. It wasn’t this man’s fault that he wasn’t the one she loved or that circumstances had forced her to this path.
She forced a smile and said, “Yes. I would.”
“Good, then we must come to terms,” he said, his face lighting up. “I admit you are my first mistress.”
She flinched at the reminder that this man was several years younger than she. “Well, you are my first protector, so we’ll learn together.”
He leaned, and his breath was warm on her lips. “So we shall.”
He kissed her then. A warm, sensual kiss that should have curled her toes. Instead all she felt was horrible guilt. She was betraying Stenfax just like she had betrayed him once before. She was betrayingherselfand everything in her heart.
And yet she had nothing to do about it. When Winstead pulled away, he smiled. “I have been waiting to do that a while now. Thank you.”
She nodded slowly. “Terms,” she encouraged him.
“Ah, yes. Well, I have small home to provide you. And an allowance, which I think is generous enough to manage what you would like to have.”
“I have a maid. May I bring her?” she asked.
“Of course. I will include her wages in the household expenses.” Winstead leaned back and looked at her, his eyes filled with a hungry, eager light. “I’d like to call on you twice weekly if you’d be open to that. And we could go to an event together once a month or so.”
He was being very reasonable in his requests and yet Elise’s heart had begun to pound with anxiety. When he said he wished to call on her, he meant visit her to take her to bed. She would go to his bed. Hell, she was rather surprised he hadn’t insisted they make love already as some kind of test.
“Elise?” he pressed, his face falling slightly at her silence.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m—I’m nervous, I admit. All of that seems fine, Theo. But may I ask that…that we make the move quickly? My situation at my current home is precarious and it would be better if I went sooner rather than later.”
His eyes widened slightly. “I had no idea, I’m sorry. Certainly, I can have you moved in a few days at most if that will work for you.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, very much so.”
