“Oh, yes, thatwaswhat you were doing. You’re wearing the smug grin you have when you are freshly fucked.”
Without warning, she grabbed him around the neck and pulled him down and he felt her tongue probing into his mouth. He pulled away from her and looked around. Thank goodness, this floor was as empty as the top one had been.
“Horatia, I must protest—”
She spit in his face and slapped his cheek. Hard. It hurt. He put his hand up to his stinging jaw. He remembered in time not to take out his seed-encrusted handkerchief to wipe off her spit.
“I can taste her on you, Phin,” Lady Starling screeched.
He remembered now, fondly, Caro’s fingers in his mouth after she had stimulated herself to climax with him inside her. So arousing those fingers had been, so wickedly coated with her own lovely honey, and yet, with Caro, it had seemed as natural as kissing and not at all perverse. But what a pity he had not yet licked her nubbin.
“Who is it? Is she still up there now?” Horatia started for the stairs but kept her eyes on his face. He couldn’t help it, his eyes looked down, as if he could see Caro on one of the lower floors.
Lady Starling stopped in her tracks. A look of dawning realization. “Oh, Phin. It’s that mast of a woman, isn’t it? The one I saw earlier this week at the theater with Edmund Haskett, the new Marquess of Sudbury. I passed her paying for her books as I came in. She was with that plump little mouse, Lady Lutton.”
How could he have been found out by Horatia so easily? Phineas cursed his inability to conceal anything.
“Ha!” Lady Starling crowed. “You always did have a thing for your friends’ women. After all, that’s how we met. Because of George Danforth. I wonder if I should tell Edmund you’ve been licking the quim of his mistress on the top floor of Hatchards?”
A wash of relief. She didn’t really know who Caro was. But he still had to shut Horatia up. Because if she did blab to Edmund, the marquess would quickly realize the woman Lady Starling was describing was his sister.
“You mustn’t tell him.”
“Mustn’t I?” She smiled. Her sly smile. How he had once swooned over that smile. Now he hated it. Give him his tall, unsmiling Caro.
“What do you want, Horatia?”
“Well, contrary to what you might think,” she tapped him with her lorgnette, “not you. But if you are occupying Edmund’s mistress with your tongue, I might set my cap for the marquess myself. Of course, I am curious about his famous phallus. And he’s a beautifully tall, big man. And all women love a tall man, Phin. Even a short woman like myself.”
“I’m average—”
“–height. Yes, I know. You remind everyone of that, often enough.”
“Lord Sudbury wouldn’t be interested in you.”
“Why not? Wouldn’t a dowager viscountess make an excellent marchioness? You know, I was never interested in marriage with you. You were for fun. And we had such a lot of fun, which was just what I needed last summer. But now I’m looking for marriage, security. A big cock and a big man with buckets of money.”
Phineas gritted his teeth. “I wish you every happiness, Lady Starling.” He bowed.
But Lady Starling blocked his way.
“Don’t be so quick, lover. If you want me to keep quiet about what you’re doing with your friend’s mistress, you’re going to help me seduce your friend.”
Caroline and Lady Lutton walked north, back toward Mayfair and the Sudbury town house. Caroline hugged her parcels to her chest, having declined delivery of her books.
“Amanda, I would like to write a l-letter to a gentleman.”
“Do you have an understanding with the gentleman?”
She looked at Lady Lutton. What did she mean byunderstanding?
“Are you engaged, Caroline?”
“No!”
“It is not considered proper to write a letter then.”
Caroline paused in her walking and Lady Lutton stopped as well. “B-b-but I want to tell him to leave me alone.”
