So he would seduce her, without ever kissing her—he hadn’t forgotten what she’d told him the night before, that the Rogue would be recognized by his kiss.
Lucy would fall, without being kissed…and hating him all the while.
That was what would make it exciting.
He wouldn’t pretend to be anything other than what he was—but that didn’t mean he couldn’t lay the groundwork for Lucy to begin to believe there was more to him than met the eye.
Women loved to think they saw something more in a man, something deeper and more honest than the face he showed the world.
The waiter delivered their tiered cake stand loaded with iced biscuits and sugared almonds and finger sandwiches, topped up the hot water in their teapot, and left them to speak to the lady sitting alone at a table near them.
Spying an opportunity, Thorne tilted his chin in the direction of the single lady and said, “I didn’t bring you to Gunter’s for the tea cakes.I think you’ll find this interesting.Do not crane your neck, if you please—you can manage a little subtlety, surely.”
Shooting him a glare, Lucy angled her head to study the lady.Thorne would put her in her early thirties, perhaps, with fair skin and ash-blonde hair styled in a severe chignon rather than the frivolous curls that were all the rage these days.Quite prim, Thorne thought, sitting there with her spine ramrod straight as she sipped her tea slowly, as though trying to make it last.
“What about her?”Lucy asked irritably.“She looks like any other proper lady to me.”
“Just watch.”
The waiter had bent down to have a quiet word with the fair lady.Thorne watched Lucy’s curiosity kindle as the lady’s pale cheeks took on a becoming flush.Cautious excitement made the woman’s eyes sparkle as she followed the waiter’s subtle gesture across the tearoom to another lady sitting alone.
The second lady was of about the same age as the first, though her dark hair was already shot through with strands of gray that lent her an earthy air that was only enhanced by the tanned hue of her face.She looked like a woman who spent a lot of time outdoors—gardening, perhaps, or… Thorne glanced at her sensible boots tucked under the small table.Horses, he decided.
After exchanging nods and smiles across the room, the fair lady rose hesitantly and made her way toward the horsey lady, joining her at her table.The waiter poured them both new cups of tea from the same pot and left them.
“What just happened?”Lucy asked, her brows knit.“At first I thought the waiter was letting her know her friend had arrived, but then they seemed not to know each other well.”
“I would be surprised if they ever met before today.”
Lucy glanced again at the table where the ladies sat, now chatting amiably, leaning in toward one another as though they were the only two people in the room.
“So why did the waiter…?”
“Gunter’s is a terrific bore,” Thorne said, not bothering to modulate his tone.Patrons at the nearest tables shot him disgruntled glances, until they saw who’d spoken and hastily averted their eyes.“It’s all the things I abhor, and that you have indicated you detest also—a place where the eminently respectable members of the Ton go to see and be seen, in a vain attempt to combat the dullness of their trivial lives.”
“Would you please lower your voice,” Lucy hissed, rather red in the face.“You are insulting.If you hate it so much, why did you bring me here?”
He tilted his head, aware of the angle of his jaw and the fall of sunlight from the window that would glint off the gold in his hair.“Because that is not all Gunter’s is.It is also a place where ladies of a certain persuasion can be discreetly introduced to other ladies who share the same tastes.”
Surprise widened Lucy’s eyes, but her voice was nothing but admiring when she said, “So…if a lady takes a table for two, but is seated alone, it means she is open to being invited to join another single lady at her table?How clever!Though it is very stupid that anyone need go to such lengths to hide who they wish to love.In Paris?—”
“Yes, the Continental attitude toward these sorts of arrangements is decidedly more open.I daresay the only place in England that rivals the City of Light for sheer decadence and sexual freedom is one of my house parties.”
Thorne’s own sister, Rosalie, had been engaged in a torrid affair with her best friend, Lavinia, these seven or eight years.Both ladies were married to men who didn’t give a damn what their wives got up to and the feeling was entirely mutual, to the satisfaction of all concerned.
“But given that London is awfully staid and stuffy about such things, it’s wonderful that a place like Gunter’s exists with this fascinating, secret aspect to it!”
“There is a shadow side to London, if one only knows where to find it,” Thorne said softly, casting his lure.“This city holds many secrets.”
“And you know all of them, I suppose.”Lucy regarded him with a narrow stare, clearly aware that the bait he’d set outwasbait, yet tempted nonetheless.
Thorne let a smile spread slowly across his face.“Of course.I’ve sampled every illicit pleasure and explored every corner of the underworld.”
“In a vain attempt to combat…what was it?The dullness of your trivial life?”
Turning his own words back on him.Thorne acknowledged the hit with a single dip of his chin.“Just so.”
“And I suppose you are offering yourself as a tour guide?To show me the illicit delights of your secret London?”
