Page 2 of Taming Ivy
“I missed you, Seb. Terribly, I’m afraid.” Setting her glass down, Veronica slid closer. Her fingers rested against the lower portion of his belly before twining with sly intent in the whispery black hair snaking a trail beyond the edge of the sheet. “Had you sent for me, I would have come to you. No matter the others warming your bed. A familiar face might have been welcomed in your travels.”
“Perhaps.” Taking a firm grasp of her hand, Sebastian removed it from his abdomen.
A small clock on the fireplace mantle chimed the hour. Damnation. Two hours wasted yet it felt like much more. Rolling from the bed, he remembered squandering days in Veronica Wesley’s bed and quite happily, too.
That time in his life could be centuries ago. A lifetime ago.
Flopping against the abundant pillows in a huff, Veronica’s pretty face turned sullen. Sebastian hunted for his clothes, feeling her hungry gaze devouring his naked form. Finding his shirt lying on the floor near the door, he gave it a slight shake.
“I saw your aunt a week past at the Hadderly ball.” Her voice wobbled, thin and high. “It was her first social event after…everything.”
Sebastian paused in fastening the ivory buttons. Veronica was not stupid. She was beginning to understand the purpose of his visit and would say damn near anything to delay his departure. He hauled on his breeches in silence, hoping to find his boots quickly. Earlier she had yanked them from his feet with the skill of a master blacksmith removing shoes from a racehorse, flinging each expensive boot over her shoulder without a care for where they might land.
“Wasshethere?” Overturning a velvet-tufted ottoman, he trusted his revulsion in the subject matter was not too apparent.
“Yes.” Veronica seemed torn between wanting to say nothing more yet also wanting to please with information. Desperation to bind him to her by any means was chewing away the edges of her dignity.
Sebastian’s mouth twitched with a ghost of a smile. Jealous women made excellent informants. And spies.
“Such a strange thing. Lady Kinley was ghostly white after speaking with your aunt. Everyone speculated as to their conversation, although none were privy to it.” Her restless fingers plucked at the sheets. “Lady Garrett departed immediately. She missed the entire fiasco.”
“Fiasco?” Sebastian murmured. Veronica held little fondness for the recent source of gossip in London’s uppermost echelons of society. And it was disgraceful - men flocking to that girl simply because one mad, infatuated soul took his life after the loss of her fickle attention.
“One can hardly describe it as anything else. Quite appalling, even if thetonis clamoring for Lady Kinley, proclaiming her this Season’s “Darling Incomparable.” It was scandalous... enough to guarantee Lady Hadderly’s ball would be declared a sensation.” An unconscious thread of admiration curled into Veronica’s tone. “Viscount Basford stepped in on Lord Walsingham and as they argued Count Monvair waltzed off with her. Basford stormed after the count, everyone began pushing and shouting. Lady Hadderly feigned a swoon, just after vowing to see them all banished for the rest of the Season from every ball. Not that she possesses that sort of power, but she does hold a rather high opinion of herself. In the midst of it all, Lady Kinley just vanished! While old Lord Hadderly shuffled about, howling about silly girls, fainting fits and ill-mannered men.”
“Enough, Ronnie,” Sebastian grated out between clenched teeth. Thank God. One elusive boot peeked from beneath a flowing puddle of burgundy-hued velvet drapes. A moment later, its mate was located behind a decorative screen close to the commode room.
He regained his composure by the time he shrugged into a forest green afternoon coat, one he tossed onto the floor with no care for its exorbitant cost. While checking his appearance at a vanity table, messy with cosmetic pots and perfume vials, Sebastian pulled a tiny box from his coat’s inner pocket, placing it amid the clutter. Running a hand through his tousled black hair to bring it to some sort of order, he was amused by Veronica’s reflection in the mirror. She was pinching her pale cheeks, biting her lips to bring some color to them.
Sebastian motioned her to come to him, planting a distant kiss to those reddened lips. “Thank you for an enjoyable afternoon.”
“Will you come again tomorrow?” Her eyes held a shimmer of tears. She already knew his answer but was compelled to ask regardless.
“You know I won't, Ronnie.” He lifted her chin with a forefinger. “However, we shall remain friends, if you grant me that honor.”
Veronica accepted the official ending of their affair with admirable grace and pragmatism. “We’ve been friends for so long, something like this cannot possibly jeopardize it. I can give Lord Alimar serious consideration now, I suppose. He’s been quite persistent to make more permanent arrangements. Told me I was foolish to wait for you, but I've had other lovers since you left.”
Sebastian detested this element of affairs, the final chapter, this closing curtain. Although his mistresses praised his generosity and compassion, garnering accolades for kindness to a woman at the end of his use of her never failed to strike him as rather bizarre. Veronica was taking it better than most, but then again, she had years to prepare herself for this moment.
“Should you ever require anything, you have only to ask. I can arrange it so you would never…”
“You needn’t even say it, darling,” Veronica interrupted with a small, sad smile. “I know very well a kind heart exists in there.” The palm of her hand pressed flat to his chest as she sighed. “Somewhere beneath all this glorious wickedness.”
Their gazes held until Sebastian cleared his throat and turned to gather the remainder of his personal items.
It was too damn easy to shed the women in his life. A pretty bit of jewelry, a few kind words and he was free to carry on. It was almost embarrassing. Still, relief overrode the prick of shame when he glimpsed Veronica’s dismal face peering down from the second story bedroom window.
She must believe he could not see her as she stood half hidden behind the wine-red drapes. Sebastian nearly raised a hand in farewell before thinking better of it. The stale air of London was hardly an improvement over the bouquet of sex, bourbon, and faint cigar smoke found within Veronica’s suite of rooms, but it blotted his guilt until it eased. As his luxurious coach merged onto bustling Piccadilly Street, those drapes fell back into place.
Veronica probably facilitated between giddiness and disbelief over his parting gift. The golden topaz and diamond necklace with matched earrings cost a small fortune, a penance gladly paid for the failure in officially ending their affair four years before. Settling against the leather squabs, Sebastian shoved her from his mind. She was his friend, but also just another woman, one in a long string effortlessly replaced. It was a pattern often repeated in his life; a few coins spent, a meaningless token and an emotionless ‘thank you’ for hours wasted making loveless love.
Over and done.
“She’s little more than a high-born, spoiled courtesan.”
Lady Rachel Garrett’s shrill voice was as ear piercing as Sebastian remembered. Her hands twisted in her lap, making him want to give her something. A ball of yarn, a chicken that needed plucking. Anything to absorb that frantic energy and put it to good use.
“Perhaps,” he replied.
