Page 40 of Five Nights with a Rakish Duke
“So, My Lady, what material do you like?” Madame Gerard asked and gestured around the room.
Penelope wandered to and fro, unable to take the smile off her face from the excitement of it all. She passed a hand over some silks but found errant thoughts entering her head.
Would Asher like the green silk or would he prefer the pastel blue?
Realizing what she was doing, she backed up a little from the materials. It seemed Asher had taken up position in her head, and despite her determination not to be drawn in by his charms, it had happened anyway.
Oh God… I am in trouble.
“Adam?” she said, turning back to her cousin. “Would you help me choose?”
“Of course, cousin, I would be happy to.”
Penelope couldn’t understand Adam’s kindness, but one thing was clear. His mission that day to make her smile had worked absolutely, and for that, she loved him dearly, as much as a cousin could. She pushed all thoughts of Asher out of her head and concentrated on Adam instead.
* * *
Asher threw down the letter in anger.
“What has you so upset?” Dorian’s question made Asher look up from the desk to the doorway where his friend was leaning on the doorframe. “I would have thought after another night with Lady Penelope, you would be –”
“Yes, thank you,” Asher said, cutting Dorian off, much to his surprise.
“Hmm, that’s odd.”
“What’s odd?” Asher asked as he reached for the letter again, reading the contents in frustration.
“You usually do not mind any comments about the ladies you spend your nights with,” Dorian said with a mischievous smile as he walked into the room and sat down on the other side of the desk.
Asher flinched and turned his head down to the letter. For some reason, it niggled him to hear Dorian talk so casually of Penny. She was more of a lady than the others he had been with, of that he was certain, and he would not hear a word said against her. That was all.
“I am being discreet,” Asher said by way of explanation.
“You’re always discreet, but so secretive?” Dorian smirked. “No, this is a new side of you.”
“Dorian, that’s enough,” Asher commanded as he closed the letter. “I have another more pressing matter on my mind now than Lady Penelope.”
All morning Asher had thought of nothing but Penny.
It is simply that we have not made love yet. That has to be it. The lust is burning me alive!
“What is it?” Dorian asked.
“This,” Asher said, proffering the letter for his friend to read. Dorian took the parchment and turned it around to read it, his cheeks turning up into a small smile as he scanned the text.
“Ah, I see,” he said after a minute and lowered the letter back down. “Your stepmother is eager to see you fulfill your promise.”
“Does she have to be so eager that she has to come to London?” Asher asked in frustration as he stood to his feet, huffing as he stepped away from the desk and placed his hands in his pockets. This second letter had arrived in the early hours of the morning, revealing his stepmother’s intent to visit London and meet whoever he was courting.
“She seems to be under the impression you are courting someone,” Dorian pointed out, to which Asher offered his friend a warning glare.
“I do not know where she got the idea from. I said I would, at some point…”
“That would give her the idea then,” Dorian said with a laugh. “So, who will you court?”
“No one yet,” Asher said, turning around as he paced back and forth across the floorboards.
“Are you delaying because of Lady Penelope?”
