Once Upon an Accident 02 - Lessons in Seduction by Melissa Schroeder

the muddy street. Few people were out due to the weather. Those who were dashed about. She knew that feeling. Her own inactivity the last few days had driven her batty. She was ashamed to admit that it wasn’t just the house confinement, and it was not her cousin. The truth was her knowing that each day that passed she was closer to the end of her last season and the loss of her dream of being ravished. Wherever would she find a willing man then? Her means of access would severely be shortened.
    Turning away, Cicely decided to visit with Victoria, leaving her worries for another time. Sitting in a study, listening to the rain and reading an old diary would only make her depression worse. Nothing would be solved today and worrying would only frustrate her. A few more days without Douglas and she might clear her mind of the memory of the taste of him, the feel of his mouth against hers, and how thrilling it had been to lose herself in that kiss.
    Even as she searched for ways to move on, to find another man for her quest, she knew Douglas would never leave her heart.

Chapter Six
    In which Lady Cicely unveils a most interesting surprise.
    Douglas shifted his weight from one foot to the other, waiting for Lady Cicely to arrive. Anticipation skated along his nerves and his palms were sweating. Not since he was a boy of three and ten had he had this reaction to confronting a female. At that time it was an upstairs maid named Dottie who called him sweet and pinched his cheek—and not the one on his face.
    But this was different. It was more like…frustration. Being exhausted on top of that had not helped either. Since their interlude in the library, he had not seen her—at least not in the flesh. But each night he would find himself in bed thinking of her, that kiss and her reaction to it. No matter how many times he tried, he could not wipe out the memory of her sighs and moans, the way she tasted.
    Douglas shifted his feet again, trying to ease the heaviness in his groin. He’d woken up more than once with a need for a woman and knowing that for some insane reason, Cicely was the only one who would be able to ease the ache. He had never been one to pine for a woman since they usually approached him. With his title, finding a bedmate was never a problem.
    Now, though, he found himself waiting for a virgin who kissed like sin and was searching for a man to deflower her. Her absence from events had made it even more annoying. For some reason, she, Lady Anna and Lady Victoria had been missing from society’s gatherings. He had made the rounds at every place he could think she might be but she had not given him the chance to confront her about her reprehensible behavior.
    Irritation still lit through him that she had run off from him that night. He was certain she had planned on meeting someone. Trying to figure out who that someone was had driven him mad the last few nights. But she had known before she left that it had been him. He distinctly remembered her moaning his name.
    With a sigh, he shifted again. At the rate he was going, he would probably embarrass himself. Trying to distance himself from that particular memory, he moved his attention to his mission to keep Cicely from enacting her stupid plan. Douglas worried that she may have already embarked upon her task of seduction with some unknown man of the ton. It was unacceptable that she ruin her fragile reputation over such an asinine plan. It must stop. He needed to know just who she had been planning to meet there, in the library, unchaperoned, in the dark.
    That one thought had cost him more sleep than any other.
    Trying to move away from his proprietary thoughts about Lady Cicely—which seemed to vacillate between aggravation and arousal— Douglas studied the others in attendance at The Historical Society meeting. He was unimpressed. Did she really enjoy these engagements?
    This particular monthly meeting was being held by Lady Ballston, a meticulous leader in the