Page 29 of The Virgin in the Rake's Bed
“And what of you, have you got your eye on anyone yet? Is there not a suitor on whom you might call to put into practice all I have taught you?” he asked, but Catherine blushed.
It seemed the question did not come easily to him, and she rather wondered if he asked it because he believed he should, rather than because he hoped for an answer which revealed another.
“It is all that I can do to come here to Westwick Manor. I must always pass through the Somerset residence for fear of being followed. To contemplate two deceptions would be quite impossible. Besides, it is known about the ton that I am to be married to you. I cannot seek out another man, not at the moment,” she said.
Ian pondered this for a moment, as though he too had not fully considered the implications of their actions. “I suppose that is true, though I encourage you to try,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye.
“But my education is not entirely complete. Surely there is more to be learned,” Catherine replied, thinking back to the moments their lips had met, desirous of further instruction.
Ian smiled at her, rising from his place opposite, and coming to sit next to her. She could smell his cologne, his handsome face now close to hers, a smile playing across it as he swilled the brandy in his glass.
“Very well, we have talked of dancing, and we have dined together, much has always been achieved in our seduction of the gentleman, but what of later, when the guests have retired to the drawing room, and a dark corner beckons,” he said, setting aside his glass.
Catherine felt a shiver run through her at his words, and she turned to face him, her heart beating fast at the prospect of what was to come. “We are in the drawing room of some grand house after dinner?” she asked, and he nodded, his hand touching her leg and tracing a line across her skirt.
“And I have charmed my way to your company. I have asked you to dance – twice – I have sat opposite you at dinner, and you have deigned to allow our foot to touch mine, I am quite enamored of you and now I have joined you in the drawing room, eschewing the company of the gentleman with their cards and cigars in favor of an audience with the woman who has quite captured my heart,” he said, and Catherine laughed.
“But what if I am caught up in the company of some dreadful woman who insists on my hearing her play the pianoforte, or examining her album of pressed flowers?” Catherine replied.
“Ah, but you are too skilled to allow yourself to be caught in such a web. No, you have extracted yourself and come to take a little air here in the far corner of the room by the window. Night has fallen, and the candles are lit, but here we find ourselves unobserved in a dim corner of the room, the anticipation is quite unbearable, and the gentleman has taken his chance,” he said, still with his fingers tracing a trail over her leg.
“I suppose I would be quite flattered. You have evidently made a terribly great effort throughout the evening,” Catherine replied, enjoying entering again into the game.
“But do you allow me my fun, or do you spurn me as one whom you have led along like a puppy at play,” he asked.
Catherine blushed. She could not imagine behaving in such a way. In real life, she did not like playing games, and believed in straightforward behavior. Games were for silly women who titivated behind their fans and gossiped into the early hours.
“I would not have arrived at such a moment if that was my intention, sir,” she replied, and he smiled at her, slipping his hand into hers.
“Then what do you intend? Am I to have my little piece of fun, or are you to keep me at arm’s length, desperate for something more?” he asked, raising his eyebrows as Catherine looked ponderous.
“I suppose it would depend on my feelings for the gentleman, though I think I have already made them clear by a second dance and the touching of a foot at the dinner table. I would not spurn him now,” she said, as Ian edged a little closer.
“And you would not rebuff him at the final moment, even when he slipped his arm around you?” Ian asked, doing precisely that, and sending a shiver of delight running through Catherine, who gazed up at him with wide and hopeful eyes. “There would be no rebuttal,” she gasped, and he smiled at her, drawing her close to him.
“And what about now?” he asked, their lips meeting in a kiss.
Chapter Sixteen
“Would a kiss be permissible?” she asked, as their lips parted a moment later.
There could be no denying that Catherine had enjoyed the sensation, and the thought of an evening which led to such a moment was most attractive, but she wondered how such a thing would work in practice, and if it did not require some spark such as she already possessed for Ian.
“A lady is in her rights to refuse, even if the gentleman makes his move, but you offered no resistance,” he replied, still with his arm around her.
“I liked it,” she said, for that was the truth.
“And I am sure the gentleman liked it, too. He will be thinking how lucky he is that a woman – a lady – such as you has deigned to plant her favor on him, and he will be wondering what happens next,” Ian replied.
It was a question which Catherine had asked herself, too, wondering what it was that came next after the sharing of a kiss. She knew about the intimate acts, for both Rebecca and Samantha had spoken candidly of them, and she knew it was expected that such an act take place in marriage, though neither Rebecca nor Samantha had confined their own activities to the marital bed.
“Then I am at liberty to choose. I suppose we might now be spied by one of the party and a kiss would be all that we are permitted,” she said, and Ian laughed.
“But the night is going on, the candles are flickering, it grows darker and gloomier in the corner of our make-believe drawing room. No one is observing us, no one can see, no one will know if a hand is proffered,” he said, returning his own hand to her leg.
“Or even slip out unobserved to the terrace, or some distant part of the garden, even the library,” she said, and he laughed.
“Now you are learning,” he replied.
