“No. I think you’re an innocent, and you may trust me when I say Wrexley thinks it, as well. He relies on it.”
“Innocent, yes, but perfectly capable of making my own decisions, despite what our courtship and betrothal may have led you to believe. In any case, Lord Wrexley doesn’t have anything to do with—”
“You think to compare my courtship with Wrexley’s reprehensible scheme?” Finn clenched his hair in his fists, so frustrated he was ready to pull it out by the roots. “Wrexley isn’tcourtingyou—he’sseducingyou. That you don’t seem to recognize the difference shows you aren’t able to make a reliable decision. Not about this.”
Miss Somerset hadn’t the faintest idea how easy it would be for a man like Wrexley to manipulate her into a seduction. Tonight it was some titillating literature to put pictures and words to the vague ideas in her head. By tomorrow it would be an innocent kiss, and then another, the second one not so innocent. He’d work on her by degrees until he’d stolen her virtue, just as he’d done with Miss Hughes.
Once he’d ruined her, she’d have no choice but to marry him, and God knew what would happen to her then. Someone as debauched as Wrexley wouldn’t settle quietly into a respectable marriage. He’d very likely install Miss Somerset in his moldering country estate and leave her there alone while he traipsed off to London to squander her fortune on whores and wagering.
Finn ran a shaking hand down his face. Wrexley was leading her into an abyss, without her ever realizing she stood with one foot hovering over the edge.
It will be your fault if she falls.
If he hadn’t all but forced her to jilt him for his despicable behavior, they’d be betrothed even now, and she wouldn’t be vulnerable to the machinations of a man like Wrexley.
“Go to bed, Miss Somerset.” He stepped back so she could pass by him. “We can discuss this tomorrow.”
“There’s nothing more to discuss, my lord.” She held out her hand. “I’ll have my book back, if you please.”
He let out a short laugh. “I think not. You have no business reading it, and you know it yourself, or you wouldn’t have tried to run away before I could get a look at it.”
“If you think I ran away from you because I’m ashamed of it, you’re very much mistaken, Lord Huntington. I ran because I knew you’d disapprove and would do just as you have done—try and take it away from me.”
“You’re damn right I don’t approve, and I don’t think your grandmother would, either.” Finn tried to speak calmly, but dear God, this woman drove him mad. “And I haven’ttriedto do anything. Ihavetaken it away from you.”
“And now I’ll have it back.” She wiggled the fingers of her outstretched hand. “As I reminded you today in the stables, Lord Huntington, we’re not betrothed anymore, so what I choose to read, or what horse I choose to ride, is none of your concern. I shouldn’t have let you order me away from Chaos to begin with, and it was the last time you’ll issue commands to me. Now, my book, please.”
He stared into her furious blue eyes, his breath coming short. Christ, he couldn’t remember ever being so livid in his life. “So it’s to be ruination, is it?”
“Ruination?” She laughed, but she looked so enraged Finn half-expected her to leap upon him, knock him down, and snatch the book from his hands. “No, I thought I’d settle for a bit of reading for tonight.”
He turned the book over in his hands, but he didn’t offer it to her. “Very well, Miss Somerset, if you insist on having it, I suppose I can’t stop you. As you say, we’re no longer betrothed. Before I give it to you, however, a question, if you would. What kind of man sends an innocent young lady in search of something like this?”
“I don’t know, my lord. Perhaps the same kind of man who’d blindfold a lady with a cravat.”
Her voice was low and clear, but the silence echoed so profoundly after those words fell between them it was if she’d shouted them. But here it was at last, the part of the conversation she’d heard between him and Lady Beaumont she hadn’t dared to mention since that afternoon in her bedchamber.
She dared now. She dared all manner of things now, whether she should or not, because she didn’t know enough to be wary.
But wariness could be taught.
Finn moved closer to her and slid his thumb across her jaw in a light caress. “Ah, but the two things aren’t the same at all, sweet.”
Her eyes went wide, either at the caress or the endearment, or perhaps just at the look in his eyes. “No, they’re not. One is much worse than the other.”
“I agree. There’s no sin in blindfolding or binding a lady who’s aware of what she’s doing and consents to it for her own pleasure.”
His tongue curled on the wordpleasure, lingered over it, and a small smile lifted the corners of his lips as she tried to suppress a shiver.
Tried, and failed.
“But a man like Wrexley, a man who’d use a young lady’s innocence against her, or prey on one who doesn’t yet understand her own desires? That man is a villain. But you don’t need me to tell you that, do you, Miss Somerset? You’d have me believe you know all about men like Wrexley, and men like me, as well. Isn’t that right?”
She didn’t quite meet his eyes. “I know enough.”
No, you don’t. Not yet. But you will.
“Once you read your book, you’ll know even more.” He held out the book to her, but when she tried to take it, he refused to let it go. “Go ahead, then. Read it.”
