His Lady Mistress by Elizabeth Rolls Page B

pocket and stared at it in disbelief. Who thedevil would come visiting past midnight? Mentally he ran over the list of guests, wondering which of the bolder married ladies might have decided to live dangerously.
    Lady Moncrieff? Apparently she’d given up, but with him leaving tomorrow, perhaps she thought to try more direct tactics. Or Mrs Highbury? The handsome widow took delight in sailing close to the wind at times. He glared at the closed door. Whichever of the two it chanced to be, he had no interest in their shop worn, calculated charms. She would leave if he didn’t answer. Then he would go up and find…The door opened. His jaw dropped in outraged disbelief. By God, he’d give the impudent hussy a set-down! How dare she invade his—?
    A small figure in a shabby dress slipped into the room and shut the door carefully.
    ‘Selina?’ He couldn’t quite believe it, even with the sudden, and distracting, pounding of his blood.
    ‘Y…yes, my lord.’
    The whisper barely reached him. He got the distinct impression that she was holding herself in the room by sheer force of will.
    ‘What do you want, Selina?’ Even as he asked the question he knew that there was only one thing she could have possibly come for. Perhaps her initial refusal had been no more than teasing. Perhaps she had thought to get better terms by holding him off a little and his imminent departure had forced her hand. Triumph and desire in equal parts stormed through him.
    His conscience twitched, suggesting that he ought to mention the possibility of becoming his aunt’s companion. His eyes roved the shapeless dress, remembering the soft curves it concealed. His conscience didn’t stand a chance.
    She had come to him of her own free will. She was his. Or she would be very soon. Completely. Was she trembling? In the dying light of the fire and a branch of candles he could not be sure.

    Her voice came out strongly enough this time. ‘I have a proposition for you, Lord Blakehurst.’
    Oh? Hadn’t he propositioned her ? She hesitated and he waved for her to continue. ‘Go on. I’m listening.’
    ‘If your offer still stands, I should like to be your mistress for three months…’
    ‘Three months?’ How the devil did she know how long his various affairs usually lasted?
    She bit her lip. ‘Is…is that too long? I realise you probably don’t really want me as a mistress for that long, but I thought you might consent to take me for that time to give me a start. After all, your reputation…I thought you could teach me what I need to know…to attract the right sort of attention. Then some other gentleman might…when you tire of me…’ Her voice trailed off.
    When he tired of her? Realising that he hadn’t had anything like enough brandy, Max took another gulp. He’d had no idea his reputation had descended to these levels. An apprentice mistress, no less. He tried to ignore the ache in his groin, which urged him to get on with the indentures. Fast. And disabuse her of her ideas about other gentlemen.
    ‘I see,’ he said. ‘It might take a little longer than three months.’ A damn sight longer if he had his way. For once in his life, he could not see the end of an affair in its beginning. Other gentlemen, indeed!
    ‘It might?’
    ‘Oh, yes,’ he said. ‘Almost definitely. But, of course, there is one thing that would have to be ascertained before I have my solicitor draw up an agreement between us.’ A couple of things, actually, like whether or not she really wanted to take this step. But he wasn’t telling her that.
    ‘An agreement?’
    ‘Of course. That’s how these things are done.’
    ‘Oh. Is it? What would have to be ascertained first?’
    He smiled and set down his glass on the bedside table. ‘Whether or not you can please me in bed, my dear.’

    Watching her closely, he wondered if she were about to flee. God knew he’d been blunt enough. He could see the tension in her body and longed to ease it, to take her