The viscountess’s eyes narrowed and she leaned over the counter so that her pretty face was just before Jane’s. “That sounds like a threat. A reminder that you could use what you know against me?”
The bell at the door rang again, but Jane didn’t look. Instead, she sucked in a breath. “N-no, not at all. I was truly only trying to put your mind at ease that?—”
“You must be aware that I could far more easily destroy you than you could ever hurt me,” the viscountess continued as if Jane had said nothing. “Do you think anyone would shop here if they knew that a former whore ran the place? That she might have opened her legs for their husbands…or occasionally their wives? You’d be shunned, given the cut direct.”
“I think that’s enough.”
Jane jolted at the interruption from behind the viscountess. Both women turned toward it at the same time and heat filled Jane’s cheeks as she realized it was Ripley who stood there, his handsome face impassive even if there was tension to every muscle in his body.
The viscountess glared at him. “And just who the hell are you to tell me such a thing?” Ripley tilted his head and said nothing, just stared at her, unspeaking and unmoving until she shifted. “Another one of the whore’s lovers? Of course.”
She pivoted and stomped across the room, raising her voice as she said, “Come along, Bowerton, I think the quality of this shop has gone down significantly. I cannot imagine shopping here anymore.”
The viscount looked confused at the sudden and very rude order, but he followed his wife out like a whipped dog, the ring of the bell echoing in Jane’s ears as the door slammed behind them.
She rested her hands on the countertop and took a few breaths before she lifted her eyes back to Ripley. She had always been fascinated by his face. It almost surprised her every time she saw him and marveled at the chiseled angles of his jawline, the dark focus of his eyes. Christ, even that slash of a scar across his eyebrow gave him a rakish look. His tall, broad-shouldered beauty was a bit of a balm on her soul, even if she wished he hadn’t been involved in this humiliation.
“That seemed personal,” he said softly.
She shrugged. “An old lover.”
His brows lifted. “And the wife was confronting you over it?”
“She was the lover,” she said with a laugh. She had no concerns at Ripley’s reaction to that revelation. Some might be shocked at the idea, but she knew his proclivities. They seemed to be of a mind that pleasure was pleasure and the source was not that important.
He nodded. “Ah, I see. And was the lady always so…disagreeable?”
“Never quite so directly cruel, no,” Jane said. “And her fire was much more endearing when it came with money to soothe it. I think it was a shock to her to see me here, twisted further into her world than I ever was before. I’m sure her husband doesn’t know she takes female lovers. I’m certain she never told him she’s never orgasmed with anyone but a woman.” She sighed. “She has to strike before I do and I don’t doubt Elizabeth will.”
“You think she’d try to ruin you?” Ripley asked.
“She said she would. Right before she called me a whore and you so kindly interrupted like a knight to the rescue.”
Ripley’s mouth tightened. “Not a knight, I assure you. Just a concerned friend.”
Jane stared at him a moment. Over the past few years, they had become friends. After the training he’d offered on that horrible night years ago, Esme had become a fighter in his stable. She had bloomed, even before she found the love of her life and married, returning to the world where she belonged. During that time Jane had struggled being so near the man before her, but she’d found ways to do it. To cherish what he was and not hope for what he could have been if it was a different world or a different life.
But there were times, like now, when he stood close to her and she could see the fascinating bend of his nose up close, the arch of that scar across his eyebrow, the fullness of his lips and she longed to fall into him.
Only once she started falling for a man like this, there wouldn’t be an end to it. She would fall forever and that was terrifying.
“I’m happy to have such a friend,” she said with false brightness. “But you cannot have come here today only to save me from demons draped in diamonds. Were you here to shop my wares or for some other reason?”
He smiled a little, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Actually, I’ve come on an errand from mutual friends. Delacourt was at the boxing club this morning and he brought a personal invitation to a fete he and Esme are hosting next week. He mentioned you hadn’t responded yet and asked if I would check in with you.”
Jane bent her head. “Oh. Yes, the invitation. I received it a few days ago.”
“But you haven’t answered,” he said evenly.
“No.” She sighed. “It isn’t that I don’t want to see Esme. I miss her terribly. But…”
“But she’s back in her world.”
Jane nodded. “And if that encounter you interrupted tells me anything, it’s a stark reminder that I don’t belong anywhere near that world. I hardly belong in the one where I currently reside.”
Her hands were still clenched on the countertop and Ripley reached out to cover one. He never wore gloves and so it was his bare skin that touched hers. She sucked in a breath as she lifted her gaze to his. There were only a few times where this man had ever touched her over the years and those fleeting grazes always stirred such things in her. Heated desires and dangerous hints of emotion.
“Esme loves you,” he said.
