Page 14 of A Rogue's Rules for Seduction
He’d experienced his share of propositions, both before he’d entered Society, and after. Usually, they were made by women who thought him a coarse brute and fancied the idea of his big, rough hands on their silken bodies. He’d been glad to prove them right. Of course, once he’d met Willa, he’d stopped responding to those propositions. Nothing was stopping him now from taking up Lady Shipton’s obvious offer.
Except his cock shriveled to a husk at the thought.
“My taste for dares has shrunk now that I’m not a boy,” he said.
“Who wants a boy, anyway,” Lady Shipton said, “when a man will do much better?”
Willa laughed again, and Dom’s gaze whipped toward her. She was running her finger around the rim of her wineglass and Cransley was entranced as she did so.
God, she looked so lovely in that green gown. It had been his favorite of hers—was she wearing it tonight on purpose? Was it a message? Defiance, without a doubt. Shewantedto torment him.
Did ever a man bless the rack that tortured him, praising the machine that pulled his limbs from their sockets, applauding the device that made his existence hell?
“Jealousy can be a powerful weapon, too,” themarchioness said. When Dom turned his attention back to her, she gave him a knowing, sultry smile.
“Jealousy assumesoneof the parties gives a damn about the other,” Dom replied.
“And we know thatisn’tthe case,” Willa threw in.
“Just so, princess.” Dom took another long drink from his glass.
Her lips pressed into a line, and she used the tip of her knife to poke angrily at a piece of fish.
Dom started to rise from the table, but Finn placed a hand on his arm.
“Not yet,” his friend advised.
“I know the rules,” Dom said lowly. “But I can’t sit at this table any longer.”
“Try. Politeness might not mean much, but Willa’s been watching you all night. She’d be thrown badly if you stalked from dinner like a wounded bear.”
“It wouldn’t matter to her. She’s not even looking at me.”
Finn gave a slight smile. “Kieran said you’d won academic prizes at Oxford, but those prizes don’t seem to cover astuteness.” At Dom’s dubious silence, Finn added, “Trust me, Dom. She’s quite aware of your presence at the table.”
Dom rubbed his chin. Come to think of it, every time he glanced in her direction, her earbobs danced, as if she’d just turned her head away from him.
He stayed seated through the rest of the meal.
There was still a part of himself that could hardly believe that he, a man who’d once slept with rats scurrying across his face, was actually having a sumptuous dinner in an ancient but elegant dining room in an even more ancient but elegant manor house. The clothes on his back could have paid for a year’s rent, just as the onyx ring on his finger could have bought months’ worth of food.
And yet... was this life any better than the tough but honest living he’d eked out in Ratcliff?
At the end of the meal, Longbridge got to his feet. “We aren’t going to separate the sexes—in fact, we’re all going to repair to the parlor.”
The guests murmured, interested and intrigued, and even Dom wondered what the hell Longbridge meant by that.
Everyone filed out into the hallway, though Willa lingered in the dining room, taking one final drink of wine.
Dom lingered, too.
“Princess.” He took a step toward her.
She slammed her glass down onto the table, and the servants who had been in the chamber to clear the plates scurried out of the room, leaving her and Dom alone.
“You don’t have my permission to call me that,” she snapped, color high on her cheeks. “You lost that privilege when you abandoned me at the altar.”
His jaw tightened. “I hurt you, and you’ll never know how much I grieve over that.”
