“Are you finished? Because the supply of chalk in this country is limited, you know,” Seth said softly.
Jason blinked and realized the tip of his cue was now thickly powdered. He cursed and blew some away before he turned to make yet another shockingly bad shot. Seth shook his head with a snort of laughter.
“So are you going to tell me what is so heavily on your mind?”
Jason set his cue on the rack and folded his arms. “Nothing. I am perfectly fine.”
“Something to do with your family?” Seth asked, his tone gentled. “The anniversary of your father’s death is months away, and that is usually when you retreat into yourself.”
Jason unfolded his arms and smiled briefly at his friend. Although Seth didn’t understand the true reasons why Jason lost himself around the anniversary of the earl’s death, he appreciated the marquis’ attentiveness and care in the matter.
“I am not brooding over my father,” Jason said softly.
Seth examined him closely and frowned. “Then what is it? Despite your reputation, you never gamble, your finances are in order and your servants are content. The only thing left that could plague a man is a woman.”
He began to chuckle and Jason knew he should do the same to put Seth off the truth he had stumbled upon, but he couldn’t quite manage it. Not when those unwanted images of Jacinda flooded his mind once again. How had he come to desire her so completely in such a short period of time?
Seth’s laughter trailed off and he stared at Jason with wide eyes. “Wait, is it a woman?”
Jason gritted his teeth. He didn’t know why lying was coming so difficultly. He was normally quite good at hiding any true emotions from the world, even from his friends, and yet now he couldn’t shake his head in the negative.
Seth stepped back. “Your silence speaks volumes, Northfield. A woman, troubling you? I admit, I am shocked at this, and relieved.”
“Why relieved?” Jason asked in confusion.
His friend smiled. “I didn’t know you could be moved by such things.”
Jason took a swig of his drink before he replied. “What are you going on about? I have been with plenty of women and been moved. And moved them, I might add.”
Seth’s lips pressed together. “I’m not talking about pleasure or sex, and you know it. Women do not distract you, Jason. You use them, take your pleasure and set them aside when you are bored, which normally happens very quickly.”
Jason glared at him. “Thank you for telling me I behave like an utter bastard. I appreciate the support.”
Seth shook his head. “I don’t accuse you of cruelty. You seem to turn the women away gently enough. In fact, I’ve never met a former lover of yours who did not speak highly of you, though many have lamented not really knowing you at all.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Is there a point to this?”
“Only that this woman, whoever she is, must be very different from the rest if she ruins your billiard game, makes you woolgather and has you drinking whiskey so early in the afternoon,” Seth said with a shrug.
Jason hesitated. Jacinda was different, that was certain.
“I wonder if you might want a confidante,” Seth said, interrupting Jason’s wandering thoughts before he could again ponder the sweetness of Jacinda’s body.
He tensed as he looked at the marquis. “I would normally confess to you if there were anything to confess, I promise you.”
Seth arched a brow. “Please don’t lie to me. If you do not want to talk to me about this, at least give me the real reason.”
Jason set his drink aside and paced to the window. He looked down onto the street with a frown. “I suppose I owe you that,” he admitted after a long pause. He turned to look at his friend. “I might tell you something but for the fact that you and your wife are so thick.”
Seth stared at him, confusion plain on every line of his friend’s face. “And?”
Jason cleared his throat. “If I tell you something, I must assume I am also telling Isabel. And this cannot involve her.”
“So your lady is in Society,” Seth said. “I am shocked further. But you could not care if Isabel knew about her unless she was close to my wife and would inspire her opinion on the matter. That narrows down the suspects.”
“Could you not just let this go rather than investigate it like you are on the guard?”
Seth laughed. “No, I’m too intrigued. It cannot be Isabel’s sister.”
“Lady Serena?” Jason said with a bark of laughter. “A very pretty girl, yes, but I do not wish your wife to string me up by my balls in Hyde Park. So no, I do not have interest in her.”
“Good,” Seth said with a nod. “Because Isabel might do exactly what you say if she thought you were playing about with Serena. That really only leaves two other possibilities.”
“Leave it alone,” Jason growled, but Seth ignored him.
“Grace? You are of a temperament; I suppose it wouldn’t be the worst match.”
“High praise for both the duchess and myself,” Jason drawled with a glare for his friend. “But no, Grace and I have no interest whatsoever in each other.”
“But that only leaves Jacinda as a friend Isabel would put any concern into you pursuing, and that cannot be,” Seth said with a shake of his head.
Jason frowned. This was what Jacinda had endured for years, being seen as a fallen woman and unworthy of appreciation. How hard to have to face both judgments, even from friends.
“And why wouldn’t it be?” he said softly. “Why would you be so shocked? Is Jacinda not pretty?”
Seth nodded. “Yes, she actually is very pretty, no matter how she tries to hide it, or perhaps is forced to hide it behind high-necked gowns.”
“Is she not intelligent and kind?” Jason pressed, his tone growing harder with every question.
“You know I would never question either of those traits,” Seth said in frustration. “You think I am saying that you would not pursue her because there is something wrong with her, but in truth I do not mean that at all.”
Jason folded his arms. “Then you are saying something is wrong with me?”
“Yes,” Seth teased, and Jason couldn’t help but smile despite his frustration. “What I’m really saying is that you have been nothing but friends with her for years. And she is not your...your type.”
Jason couldn’t help but think, yet again, of Jacinda arching up as he pleasured her, of her taste, of the way her sex flexed around his fingers as she came. He shook the thoughts away swiftly so he wouldn’t be humiliated by a hardening cock.
“Perhaps we have been wrong about my ‘type’ all along,” he said.
Seth stared. “Have we?” His friend shifted slightly. “If we have, does that mean you are serious about her?”
Jason hesitated, for the question made him want to think of Jacinda in other positions besides his bed. But he shook his head. “No, of course not.”
Seth moved toward him. “Jason, she is not a woman to be played with and then set aside. What is left of her reputation is balanced on the tip of a pin as it is. An affair with you could set her over the edge and she might never return.”
“Now you are lecturing me as your wife would,” Jason said. “But I have no intention of playing with her. I actually believe I could help her.”
Seth stared at him rather blankly. “Help her,” he repeated. “How?”
Jason tensed. He wanted to share the plan with Seth now that his friend had guessed the truth, but he had no intention of humiliating Jacinda by revealing everything. He would have to choose his words carefully.
“Her fall was a very long time ago and yes, it still haunts her, but there are men who would still consider her as a bride if they could only be convinced to actually look at her. Look past what some in Society have labeled her to be.”
“I suppose,” Seth granted with hesitation. “If she could be made to be seen as a temptation, she might be able to overcome her past. Especially if her
father added to the pathetic dowry he has provided since her fall.”
Jason wrinkled his brow. He hadn’t even considered that an added financial incentive might help her. But that was a topic for another day.
“What better way to make a woman attractive to the men around her than to have her conquer London’s most eligible and inscrutable bachelor?”
Seth was now staring at him as if Jason had grown a second head. He blinked a few times before he said, “You.”
“Of course me. I have been pursued by mamas for nearly a decade and no one has even had me dance with them twice in one night.” He smiled. “If I suddenly begin expressing a serious interest in Jacinda, other men will begin to wonder what it is she has that I might want. Once they begin to look at her, see her better qualities, one of them might very well desire her for her own merit. She will be able to overcome her scandal, marry well and escape that prison she inhabits at her aunt’s. Everyone wins.”
“So you will court her out of charity?” Seth still sounded utterly incredulous despite what Jason thought was a very clear explanation of the plan.
“When you say it that way, you make it sound terrible,” he snapped in frustration. “Don’t you think she deserves better?”
“Of course I do. Jacinda is one of the kindest women I know. She deserves a happy life. But this scenario you suggest could easily backfire, and then what will you do?”
Jason’s thoughts shifted to Jacinda’s desire to become a man’s mistress. He had no doubt that if his main plan didn’t work, she could easily obtain the protector she wanted. The idea of her in another man’s arms, in another man’s bed as his object of pure pleasure...it left a bad taste in Jason’s mouth.
“If it comes to that, we’ll decide what steps to take next,” he said.
“We?” Seth repeated. “So you and Jacinda are already of a mind on this?”
“We have discussed it and she is currently deciding whether or not she wants to attempt the ruse,” he admitted. “Obviously there is a great deal more risk for her in this than for me.”
“Yes,” Seth said, but he was looking at Jason in a way he didn’t understand. As if he was...worried.
“Now will you tell Isabel what I have said to you?” Jason asked as a way to change the deeper subject.
“Jacinda will likely do that herself,” Seth said with a laugh. “They are thick as thieves, she and Isabel and Grace.”
“Yes.” He groaned inwardly. “I shudder to think what they’ll say to her.”
Seth shrugged. “They have her best interest at heart, as you say you do. Perhaps you will not be so far apart on the subject as you believe. Now, come, I wanted to show you the work being done on the new gazebo.”
Jason followed his friend from the billiard room, but as they walked together, his thoughts wandered yet again. Seth said he had Jacinda’s best interest at heart, but he hadn’t been thinking about that when he had his mouth on her. His mind had only been on her pleasure.
And more than anything, he wanted to give her that pleasure again and again.
Jacinda wrung her hands as she stared into the two very shocked faces of her best friends. She couldn’t blame them for their surprise. She had been in Grace’s parlor, the only place where her aunt allowed her to go unchaperoned, for all of ten minutes when she told them about Jason’s offer of pretended courtship.
Not about his touching her, of course. Not even about Carnthorn’s humiliating and intriguing offer that had set Jason’s plan in motion. Those things she would keep to herself. She could only imagine what her friends would think or how they would counsel her if she revealed all.
“So do you think I should take Jason’s offer?” she asked, hoping for some other reaction beyond their gape-mouthed stares.
Isabel exchanged a glance with Grace and then leaned forward to set her tea on her dish.
“Dearest…” she began, and panic gripped Jacinda.
They were going to tell her not to do this. And they would be so persuasive about it that she would be able to do nothing else but agree with them. In that moment, she knew how desperately she wanted to go along with Jason’s plan, both for its potential for a different life...and for its passionate side effects.
“Please, before you speak,” she interrupted with an apologetic grimace for Isabel. “Let me explain myself further.”
Isabel seemed slightly taken aback that she would be so forward, but nodded. “Go ahead.”
“You must understand how much I do not want this life anymore,” she pleaded, shooting her gaze between Grace and Isabel. “I have been stuck for seven years and I hate it, I despise it to my very core. What Jason offers is a chance at a different life. A marriage could bring me freedom, repair my standing amongst others, give me children, perhaps even bring me some happiness.”
Isabel took a long breath. “The fact that you list happiness as the last amongst the virtues of a marriage makes me very sad, Jacinda.”
Grace arched a brow. “I think the order of the virtues would very much depend on the marriage.”
Isabel shot Grace a look and then took Jacinda’s hands gently. “If this scheme of Jason’s works out just as you two hope it will, do you really want to be wedded to a man who only wanted you because someone powerful claimed you first?”
Jacinda stiffened at the word “claimed”, for it brought her to mind of Jason’s lips against her, of the pleasure that rocked her and continued to make her tingle, even a day later.
She shook her head and made an attempt to focus. “I wouldn’t. But if a man pursued me because of Jason, then we came to truly like each other, how would that be different than any other marriage? If my observations over the years are correct, half the fun for men seems to be the chase.”
Grace’s stare held on her, appraising. “It seems as if you have already decided what to do, regardless of any counsel you have asked for from us.”
Jacinda hesitated. Grace’s tone held no judgment about her statement.
“I suppose I have,” she said, fighting the choking urge in her chest to apologize for having an opinion at all. “I want to do this. I want what Jason offers.”
Grace smiled, an expression that always changed her face, opening it and revealing her true beauty beyond the cool, icy exterior she often showed the world.
“Good for you, Jacinda,” she said, squeezing Jacinda’s arm gently. “This is your life. You do not have to ask for anyone’s permission, nor ever apologize for your decisions.”
“Then I’ll tell Jason tomorrow,” Jacinda said, buoyed by the support.
She shot a glance at Isabel. Unlike Grace, she wasn’t smiling, but continued to look worried. Jacinda’s certainty faded a fraction.
“Isabel?” she whispered.
Her friend smiled. “I’m with Grace. This is your life and we will both support you and aid this endeavor in any way we can. But…” She trailed off and turned her face, as if questioning what she would say.
“But?” Jacinda urged her, though she wasn’t certain she wanted to hear words of discouragement now that she had admitted what she wanted.
“Be careful,” Isabel said. “I-I know too well how these arrangements can lead to true feelings. It worked out for me, but I would hate to see you hurt at the end of this.”
Jacinda frowned. “Because Jason would be incapable of caring for me, I suppose you mean.”
Isabel shook her head. “Not you, darling. Anyone. He has never let anyone close.”
Jacinda didn’t respond. Isabel was wrong. Jason had let her close, once, a very long time ago. Certainly he would not repeat it, for he never mentioned it except as leverage to get her to be equally honest.
“I’ll be careful,” she reassured Isabel. “I do not have any illusions about feelings forming or about changing Jason’s mind on the concept of marriage or love. Now, I’d love to hear about your plans for that little country estate you have just bought, Grace.”
The duchess shot her a very strange loo
k, but then began to talk about her newest home. Even as Jacinda half-listened to her friend, she couldn’t help the thrill that worked through her body. Tomorrow she would truly begin on a new chapter in her life. The first new start in years.
And she couldn’t wait.
Chapter Eight
“Don’t be missish about it. It’s called a cock.”—The Ladies Book of Pleasures
Jason followed behind the Duchess of Jameswood’s butler down a long hallway toward a parlor.
“Any idea why the duchess asked me here to meet her?” he asked.
The servant sniffed at him over his shoulder. “I am not privy to the details, my lord. I was only told to bring you to the Purple Parlor when you arrived.”
Jason nearly laughed. Calling parlors by their colors was something of the rage, but most people had green or blue parlors. Leave it to Grace to have a purple one.
Of course, his amusement did nothing to quell his confusion or his worry about what Grace wanted to see him about. If Seth was right and Jacinda had spoken to the duchess and Isabel about his offer, well, he could only imagine she wanted to have a word with him about inappropriateness.
“The Purple Parlor, my lord,” the butler said, motioning to the door and then bowing away, rather than opening it and announcing Jason, as would be usual.
Jason watched the man go in confusion and then faced the door. Whatever Grace said to him, he knew one thing for certain: he was going to see Jacinda and force her to turn him down in person if that was her decision.
He opened the door and stepped inside, but to his surprise it wasn’t Grace waiting for him within, nor even Grace and Isabel. Jacinda was alone in the room, pacing the floor. She didn’t notice his entrance for a moment and he took the opportunity to observe her.
Her cheeks were flushed pink and she fiddled with a loose string on her sleeve from time to time. When she stopped to look out the window to the garden below, she muttered something to herself that he couldn’t hear. She was nervous, though he wasn’t certain if that boded well or ill for him.
There was only one way to find out. He cleared his throat.
A Moment of Passion (The Ladies Book of Pleasures) Page 7
