“I’m… Perhaps… I need to go back to the house and change my dress.”
Justin’s smile was warm, just for her, as he stepped forward and pulled gently on the ribbons at the base of her throat. He’d chosen the green for good reason. He didn’t want to use his imagination to create her feel or her warmth. The gown would fit her like a glove and leave plenty of skin for him to lick when the fancy took him. It was what he would do if she truly was his mistress in every way.
When Carmalina closed her eyes, he could no longer see distress in the dark, forlorn orbs but he knew it lingered. She was so tense.
The cloak slipped from her shoulders.
He wasn’t aware he held his breath until he exhaled in a gush of warm air and stunned appreciation. Her gown was so dark it almost matched the color of her hair. It was gloriously, scandalously cut so low he could almost see the edges of her dusky nipples. He had to wrestle the impulse to throw the cloak back over her shoulders and take her straight home. When he said there would be no gossip about her tonight, he’d been wrong. Oh so wrong.
“Oh, bella,” he muttered, the material of her cloak crushed in his tight fists. He was so struck by her stunning beauty that he forgot where he was. Dropping the cloak to the floor, he closed the distance between their bodies and held her cheeks in his warm hands. “Open your eyes, Carmalina.”
She tried to shake her head but he held fast. Slowly, hesitantly, her lids rose. A single tear rolled down her face, following the line of his thumb where he claimed her.
Justin brushed it away, leaned in and sealed his lips to hers. Had she not worn such a gown, he would have remembered they stood in full view of the first of Lucifer’s many rooms, their shared exchange seen by anyone who cared to glance their way.
The kiss was a light one, meant to both reassure and fluster her in such a way her nervousness would dissipate and the passion he knew she possessed would take over and guide her into the hell.
He was not wrong. As he reluctantly pulled away, gone was the timid little sparrow in a wolf’s costume. In its place was a confident seductress with a smile bright as the summer sun. “Magnificent,” he breathed, unable to remove his hands from her smooth skin.
“You’re making a scene, my lord.”
“Justin.”
“Justin, everyone is looking.”
Justin shrugged and let his fingers stroke from her cheekbones to her jaw, all the while contemplating kissing her again. “Let them look.”
* * *
Carmalina was mentally shaken more than she would let him see. Had he kissed her to make a scene, or had he kissed her because he’d wanted to?
His tight hold on her face, the look in his blue eyes, his whispered words, was any of it real? He obviously came here a lot, was well-known to the man at the door. He would have known the kind of reception that awaited him if he caused a commotion in the doorway.
She wanted to hope his wasn’t a contrived performance but the alternatives were too much to bear. Carmalina was a smart woman, but the few short days she’d known Justin had shown her that in his presence, her wits fled along with her reason and her ability to think logically.
“Oh, darling, there you are.”
A shrill voice and the sudden tensing of Justin’s fingers on her face told her this woman was someone she probably didn’t want to meet. Justin dropped his hands and whirled to greet the woman who’d interrupted their moment. Contrived or not, Carmalina worried when he hid her beyond the shelter of his broad back. Was this one of his doxies? Should she meet her or not? She now wished they’d discussed some proprieties in the carriage, not that there was any kind of preparation for a moment like this one. Did the present mistress converse with a past mistress?
“Darling, I have missed you,” the more annoying than shrill voiced cooed, followed by twin kisses Carmalina could only hope were to Justin’s cheeks. A surge of jealousy roared through her body and her fingers clenched into tight little balls.
“I have been busy, Sarah.”
“What is more important than paying a call to an old friend?” Carmalina could imagine the woman pouting as she spoke.
“Not what. Who.” Justin’s reply was lazy but hit its intended target dead centre.
Carmalina decided the gasp from the stranger was not nearly enough. How dare the woman be so shameless in her attentions towards Justin? Was he not there with someone else? Did Sarah not see the show they’d put on or was she deliberately ignorant in the hopes she could sway him away?
Fear and hesitation bowed under her fury. Over her dead body!
“Who?” Sarah finally found her annoying voice and demanded.
“Oh dear.” Carmalina ducked beneath Justin’s arm with a secret smile hovering on her lips. “I’m afraid it’s my fault. The tub was so glorious and Justin insisted I stay in it.” She wrapped her hand around his forearm. “What a delicious way to spend a cold afternoon.”
For a moment both Sarah and Justin merely stared at her and she wondered guiltily if she’d done it wrong, but when Justin threw his head back and laughed, Carmalina smiled in earnest. It was worth whatever gossip arose from the night to hear him laugh so unreservedly.
Sarah humphed, glared at Carmalina—at which Carmalina winked audaciously—and then stomped away and was swallowed up by the people in the room. The staring people. Their curiosity was a living thing. It reached out to touch her, to try to find a way to discern her nature, her character.
“Bravo, love,” Justin whispered in her ear.
The next half hour rushed by in a whirl of introductions, unsubtle innuendos, raised brows, inappropriate touching and forbidden whispers in her ear that made her blush like a girl just out of the schoolroom. She had so many strangers kiss her cheeks she feared she may have to wash her face. But truly, she barely paid attention at all. Her mind was full of the image of Sarah. Whoever she had been to Justin, she was no longer, but Carmalina kept thinking about the contrast between herself and the other woman.
Sarah’s tight blond ringlets were pulled high atop her head; how they cascaded halfway down her back, her pretty little blue eyes set in a narrow, perfect face. Her full pink lips had pouted prettily above a delicate chin. Her breasts had been large and practically burst from her gown but the rest of her frame beneath her pink dress had been so very slim. Carmalina wondered how the woman stood up straight. She would feel chubby standing next to someone so petite and wondered which body Justin preferred.
He’d seen all of her curves and flesh that afternoon in the bath and hadn’t seemed repulsed in the least except for the walking away part. But the difference between her and Sarah was like day to night. Confusion distracted her but at least she was no longer nervous about being in a hell with London’s most scandalous rogue. She would show him—and everyone else—that she was worthy to stand by his side, to be in his bed and in his life.
So she flirted shamelessly and found every reason possible to stay at Justin’s side, to touch him, lean against his arm as he played a hand of whist.
The heated glances he pierced her with and the way he kept trying to find a comfortable position on what looked like a cushioned chair told her everything she needed to know.
She was absolutely doing it right.
* * *
Each time he peered around the room or at the player to his left, her overflowing cleavage filled his vision until he saw nothing else. The lovely sight had held him enthralled so many times, he was losing abysmally. Already his purse was at least half as light as when they’d entered.
He didn’t care. All he wanted to do was whisk her away to one of the upstairs rooms. Teach her that playing with him this way was dangerous.
After losing yet another hand, he decided enough was enough. “Bella, I believe it is time to give you a guided tour of the establishment.”
“There is more?” Her dark eyes were delightfully innocent and held curiosity for all to see. She enjoyed herself.
He hadn’t had an ultimat
e plan for the night. Justin imagined his songbird would sit quietly and blush prettily, take everything in, but he’d severely underestimated her courage. The vixen even had the audacity to take on his ex-mistress.
He’d nearly choked to see Sarah cowed so sufficiently. She was one of the only factors he had overlooked when he’d decided to bring Carmalina to Lucifer’s.
Everywhere they went they ran the risk of running into one his previous paramours but he hadn’t figured it to happen so quickly and he certainly hadn’t considered she would handle herself so admirably.
It was marvelous the way Carmalina had risen to the occasion. By morning the city would be twittering with the news that he’d spent the afternoon with his mistress in the bath. No one had to know he wasn’t in the tub with her. Although he more than regretted not throwing aside his reservations and taking the plunge. In more than a few ways.
Oh well. He’d missed out that time but not for much longer. He had to think to the future. He had to devise a way to get beneath her skirts and soon, otherwise he was going to be in a world of pain. And trouble. Whenever one of his friends kissed her cheek or leaned too close or stared at that scandalous gown for too long, he wanted to throw him to the ground and pummel the life out of him.
“Be careful, Justin.” His good friend, Geoffrey, appeared at his shoulder with the ominous warning.
Justin looked to see where Carmalina had disappeared to while his thoughts wandered but she was safely ensconced in what looked to be a lively discussion with a very ancient viscount.
“Careful?” Justin turned back to his friend.
“You look like you are about to murder someone.”
“I was thinking about it,” Justin admitted with a grimace.
“The lucky fellow?” Geoffrey asked with a chuckle.
“I haven’t found him yet.”
“Quite delightful.” Geoffrey nodded in Carmalina’s direction. “Your new toy.”
“I believe I found him,” Justin growled.
“Down, boy. I was merely admiring her spunk.”
“You saw that, did you?” He knew his friend referred to the confrontation with Sarah.
“Unfortunately, I arrived too late. I heard about it at the Bostons’ soiree.”
“Already?”
“Juicy gossip tends to travel faster than the one spreading it.”
“Lucky me,” Justin replied drily.
“Who is she?”
“You don’t know?”
“While the gossip is good, it does lack several pertinent facts. Seems you neglected to introduce Lady Sarah to your friend, although she does look vaguely familiar.”
“Carmalina Belluccini.”
“The opera singer?”
“The one and only.”
“Interesting.”
Geoffrey was his closest friend and knew what Justin attempted with his scandals. Although Geoffrey was born to a good woman of good family, he was only just accepted in their circle having come into an unexpected inheritance the year before. He was now a minor baron and still getting used to his title. They were an unlikely duo but had one thing in common. In some way, shape or form, both men had been woefully neglected by their families growing up.
Geoffrey hadn’t ever really gone into the specifics of his childhood but he didn’t have to. When like calls to like, one knows it.
“If you will excuse me, I believe Carmalina wishes to be rescued from reaching her death by ennui.”
Leaving Geoffrey chuckling behind him, Justin edged the ancient Viscount Hunter out of the conversation and steered Carmalina away.
“That was rude,” she scolded gently.
“Hunter won’t remember in the morning, I can assure you. Besides, I don’t intend for a man old enough to be your grandfather hanging about your skirts for the rest of the evening.”
“What do you intend?”
Justin thought he detected a hint of huskiness to her voice and his hand tightened on hers where it lay on his sleeve. He could tell her, but he didn’t want to scare her.
“I am going to give you a tour of this fine establishment. The rest will take care of itself.” He waited to see what she read into his meaning and when her eyes twinkled and her smile deepened, he gathered her into his arms and kissed her again.
* * *
Carmalina’s nerves were on edge and increased with every step she climbed. Justin pressed his hand gently into the small of her back to urge her on. She had no idea what he wanted to show her at the top of the stairs but the fact they were alone and no noise came from high above told her the rooms were not used for gaming.
The sentry at the bottom of the wide staircase had nodded silently and stepped aside for them. His stern face betrayed nothing that may indicate what waited. Justin was also silent, his face pulled tight into what appeared to be a grimace. Should she be scared?
There was no “should” about it. Carmalina was terrified. The only thing that stopped her from fleeing was their agreement, and the single fact that he was a gentleman.
If he hadn’t taken advantage of her this afternoon when she’d been vulnerable before him, then she doubted he would now but a sense of foreboding sat prominently in the forefront of her mind. She hated not knowing what to expect from him, from the situation and circumstance, what the consequences would be if she gave in to his intoxicating presence.
Stop thinking of consequences! Her own reputation was shredded and she never really had any standing in his world, so the damage was already done. It was how they proceeded that would change her life and her fortune. She’d accepted his offer when she’d had no choice, but the truth, if she cared to examine it, would show her she had had a choice.
One always has a choice.
After deciding to throw her caution to the wind, she was the one who held the power in her own life. She was the only one to be affected by the outcome. But was she really ready to travel along this path? Once that line was crossed, the time to change her mind, to undo it, would be long gone. She would be fallen in every sense of the word.
The strange sense of elation filled her. Would it be a relief to no longer worry that she was a woman but yet not? She supposed she wouldn’t know until the moment came.
“Where are we going?” she finally asked, breathless after the climb up the steep staircase.
“You’ll see.” Justin’s whispered words were so close behind her, like the devil sat on her shoulder luring her to sin. Where was the angel to put her back on the path of the straight and narrow?
“I’m not sure I like surprises,” she told him, her voice husky, wantonness going hand in hand with the devil’s pitchfork.
“I do.”
Another shiver ran along her spine, this time igniting a flame to the coals sizzling low in her belly. If it was sin and surprise he had in mind, she was sorely tempted to indulge him, but not here. Not in this strange place.
As they walked down a narrow gallery, she noticed the lurid pictures hanging on the walls illuminated by a single branch of candles. She tried to avert her gaze but her eyes were drawn to the canvases and she found herself curious.
Perhaps the liquor she’d consumed made her more courageous, or maybe it was the atmosphere, simply being there with him. She paused and turned so she could stare, her lips parted slightly as she tried to decipher what she saw.
One picture was of a Roman bath, the six men as naked as the day they were born, all in various poses of relaxation. But it wasn’t what the men did that made her brow furrow in concentration; it was what the naked women in the picture were doing to the men.
Carmalina had seen the male form many times over the years but never like this. She’d never thought a man’s member particularly enthralling but seeing these masculine examples with their smiles and passion in their eyes made her all the more curious. She longed to ask Justin if this was the imagination of the painter making the male form more glorious but she didn’t want him to think her so naive.
“Se
e any position you would like to try?”
Her cheeks flushed hot and the throb in her belly moved lower into her sex. The urge to press her thighs together beneath her gown grew stronger.
Narrowing her gaze, she looked closer. One man reclined on his back on the step at the edge of the bath as a woman leaned over him and seemed to be poised to take his member into her mouth while another man stood at her bottom. “Certainly not that one,” she proclaimed.
“Which part?” Justin’s voice held a hint of his amusement.
“Women do not behave like this.”
“Some do.”
“Why?” She didn’t want to ask, but it didn’t make sense to her. They didn’t appear to be forced to do the things they were doing. One woman sitting on a man’s lap, his hands cupping her large breasts, seemed to be enjoying herself immensely.
“Some do it out of necessity, some because they enjoy it. And then there are those women in the world who believe sexuality is a perfectly natural way of being. See those two?” He pointed to two women kissing each other as a man looked on, his hand on his own sex.
Carmalina nodded, her eyes drawn to the three and then gasped aloud.
“The two women aren’t afraid to explore each other and the fact that this lucky fellow is watching, and aroused by it all, will drive them along.”
“Interesting.” Carmalina nodded but secretly vowed she would never do this for a man. It was positively shameful.
“You seem quite shocked.”
“I am.” Only two words but she gave away so much with their utterance.
“It is not so different from a man kissing a woman.”
“You have kissed a man?”
Justin choked. If on laughter she wasn’t sure. “Absolutely not,” came his definitive reply. Not laughter then.
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