“Good. He did display some suspicion about how we arrived at this agreement. I hope it doesn’t need to be said that the details of our arrangement must remain completely secret.”
“Did you think I was likely to tell Marcus I’m engaging in a carnal relationship with his mother?”
The wordscarnal relationshipsent a shiver down her spine. “I hope not.”
Felix turned to the food laid out before them—a vast amount for only two people. “Are you hungry? I wasn’t sure what you preferred, so I asked the cook to make a bit of, well, everything.”
She surveyed the spread. There was indeed some of everything here. Raw oysters, scarlet-red lobster, juicy sausages, fruit from figs to pears, and even a cheesecake.
“Are we expecting others?” she asked with an arched eyebrow.
He chuckled. “Not tonight.” He began to make himself a plate, and she gestured for him to make her one too, which he piled high with a bit of everything.
It was customary for a servant or two to wait upon the dinner service, to pour wine and remove empty plates, but tonight, the dining room was empty. Felix had clearly planned for privacy.
They ate in silence. Lucretia tried desperately to think of something to say, something safe and mundane, but her mind could only conjure memories and sensations from the last time they’d been alone at night. Heat gathered in her core, spreading in tingles over her skin, and her appetite—for food, at least—abruptly diminished.
Felix ate in measured, almost delicate bites. She remembered that about him from the dinner parties they found themselves at together; he tended to eat without the messy gusto that other diners displayed. Each bite was carefully calculated, speared, and eaten with precision.
Again, her mind went back to their moment of passion. He had been anything but delicate or precise then. His movements had been powerful, hungry, almost desperate. As if his appetite had overwhelmed him, reducing him to nothing more than greedy lust.
There was a smug satisfaction in seeing him so changed from his usual scheming aloofness, knowing that she had been the cause of such a shift. She wanted to do it again, wanted to see him undone and lost to passion.
“Does the food not please you?” Felix asked.
Lucretia realized she’d been staring down at her plate without actually touching it. “It’s excellent.” She decided to jump straightinto this strange thing they were embarking on. She sensed he was waiting for her to bring it up, not wanting to rush or pressure her. “I was merely giving some thought to our curriculum.”
A slow, wolfish smile spread over his face. “What is our first lesson to be?”
“Anatomy, I think.” Her stomach gave a flutter.
“How academic.”
“Am I correct in assuming you’ve never seen a woman unclothed?”
“Not the bottom half.”
That made sense; entertainment at dinner parties or other gatherings often featured scantily clad dancers, so it was not unthinkable that Felix would have glimpsed plenty of breasts despite his celibacy.
“Are you ready to begin now?” he asked.
Lucretia could tell he was trying to maintain his usual restrained, indifferent tone of voice, but she detected a current of eagerness hiding just beneath the surface, a slight tension behind the syllables. Despite the nerves twisting in her stomach, she was eager too.
Now was as good a time to begin as any, so she nodded. “If you’re finished eating.”
He slid his plate away with quick finality. “One thing first.” He rose from the table, went to the door, and called out to whatever servant was lurking in the corridor. “Bring some more lamps, please.”
A flush heated her cheeks as Felix returned to the table. The mention of lamps somehow made her fully comprehend what they were about to do—even though it was all her idea. She was going to bare herself to him. To let him look at her, in a way even Cornelius hadn’t done. Of course, Cornelius had seen allparts of her over the course of their marriage, but she had never intentionallydisplayedherself to him.
Two servants brought a pair of tall oil lamps, the metal stands elaborately worked in a pattern of twisting vines. Felix instructed them to place the lamps directly between him and Lucretia, after which they lit the lamps and departed without a word.
Lucretia’s heart thumped once they were alone again. An answering pulse throbbed between her legs. Divine Juno, was she really about to do this?
She swallowed hard, mouth gone dry.
Felix glanced at her. “Are you nervous?”
“No.” The breathiness to her voice belied the denial.
