She sat up straight and cleared her throat. “Yes, please.”Regina didn’t know whether she cared for brandy, but Nicole drank it from time to time, and Regina had decided to be bold today. She might as well be bold in every way.
Daffin stood again and made his way to the sideboard in the corner, where he splashed brandy into two glasses. “I have a feeling I may need one as well,” he said as he returned and handed her one of the snifters.
She slid one of her gloved hands out of the fur muff and took the glass from him, eyeing it carefully.
He went to sit behind the desk again and took a healthy sip from his own glass. His slightly stern visage gave nothing away. “It’s good to see you, my lady.”
Ah, small talk. Something at which she excelled. “Yes, it’s been several months. It’s good to see you, too.” And then, “Please call me Regina as you did in Surrey.”
He grinned at her and nodded. “I’ve heard your uncle’s health has improved.”
“Slightly, yes. We’re thankful for every day we have with him.” Uncle Edward had suffered from a disease of the lungs for many years. The fact that he was still alive was nothing short of a miracle. One she was grateful for, even though the older man was currently making her life miserable. The duke’s ultimatum was part of the reason she was here today.
“How is your grandmother?” Daffin asked next.
Regina’s grandmother, Lady Harriet, was a feisty old woman who said and did outrageous things, usually while waving her ubiquitous handkerchief in the air. She knew Regina fancied Daffin. However, she had no idea the lengths her granddaughter was willing to go to get him. “She is quite well, thank you.” This time, Regina cleared her throat. “I’ve been reading about you in the paper.”
An annoyed look flashed across Daffin’s face. He took another drink. He didn’t care for his publicity, apparently. Interesting, but not surprising. No doubt people with secrets disliked reporters nosing around in their affairs, and Regina suspected Daffin had a great many secrets. That was why he fascinated her so thoroughly. His ridiculous good looks didn’t hurt, either.
“You said you have a proposal for me,” he said finally, leveling a look at her that said he’d dispensed with the chitchat.
Hmm. He didn’t appear to be in a flirting mood today. That didn’t bode well for his agreeing to bed her. But she’d come this far. She might as well get on with it. She took a fortifying sip of brandy, which burned down her throat and made her eyes water. Drat. She should have practiced drinking brandy before now. Nicole made it look simple. The truth was it tasted like poison. Regina much preferred wine. “Yes,” she managed to choke out.
“And that proposal is?” Daffin drummed his fingertips along the top of the wooden desk. He was doing his best to appear nonchalant, but he was curious. She could tell. Excellent.
“My birthday is the thirteenth of January,” she announced, her belly roiling, the glass trembling in her hand. She set the thing on the desk to keep from sloshing its contents on her lap. She’d never be able to explain to Genevieve why her pelisse smelled as if she’d taken a bath in alcohol. “Today is December thirteenth.”
“Happy birthday?” he ventured, with a furrowed brow.
Regina snapped her mouth shut. Lord, she was doing a poor job of speaking in his presence. She’d practiced this countless times in her bedchamber in a whisper. She’d memorized it, experimented with her inflection, her tone. She’d changed the wording a hundred times before settling on theperfect speech. But seeing Daffin in the flesh distracted her. His height, his broad shoulders, his blond hair and sharp green eyes, and the scent of his cologne, which filled the office with its spicy clean scent and made her head spin in a very good way—these caused all of her practiced speeches to fly out of her head. She tried to remember her next line. Something about a present she wanted?
“I have decided what I would like for my birthday,” she announced. Drat. That wasn’t how she’d meant to say it. It made her sound demanding, possibly entitled.
Daffin’s brow remained lowered. He stared at her, his head cocked to the side, a mixture of confusion and concern on his face, as if she were an inmate escaped from Bedlam and it was his task to coax her back there without causing a scene. “Do you want me to purchase it for you?” he asked, slowly.
She half laughed, half snorted, and immediately regretted the noise. Oh, lovely. She was here to offer the man her virginity, and she’d just made the most unattractive sound imaginable. This was going poorly. If she had any hope of salvaging this mission, she needed to get to her point.
“No, I, er, that is to say… I wantyouto be my birthday present.”
Daffin’s eyes widened. “Pardon?”
“I mean…” She sat forward on her seat, sweat trickling between her breasts. Her breathing turned shallow. She tapped her slipper against the wooden floor in a staccato rhythm. Anxiety made her blurt. “I can pay you if you’d like.”
Daffin’s brow dipped into a deep frown. “Pay me? For what, precisely?”
Oh. Dear. God. She had made acompletebungle of this. She considered jumping out the window, only she’d probably end up twisting her ankle or dirtying her gown. Besides,not only would that be cowardly, but how in the world would she face the man ever again if their paths were to cross? And they were likely to. Daffin was a friend to Mark and Nicole.
“My apologies.” She took a deep breath and forced herself to start over. She swallowed hard. “Allow me to explain.”
Daffin leaned back in his chair, watching her with open curiosity.
Regina pressed her gloved hand to her middle to still the nerves running amok in her belly. “For my thirtieth birthday—before it, actually—I have decided that I must… that I want to…” Her face heated. She cleared her throat. “Divest myself of my…” She stared at him, unable to force the word out of her dry throat.
“Of your…” he prompted, his eyes still narrowed on her.
“Virginity,” she blurted. She grabbed her drink and sucked down an indecent amount of the stuff, which only served to spin her off into a coughing fit.
When she finally stopped coughing and returned her tortured gaze to his face, Daffin’s was a mixture of surprise and… interest? He tugged at his cravat, sticking a finger under the neckcloth to pull at it. He opened his mouth to speak. Closed it, and opened it again. Finally words emerged from his perfect lips. “I thought that’s what you meant to say, but I had to be certain.”
