Page 73 of A Rogue's Rules for Seduction
“Definitely not a complaint,” he chuckled.
“Besides, you’ve got cock to spare. A little whittling down will hardly make much difference. And,” she added wryly, “my quim isn’t a lathe.”
“Hell of a way to turn a table leg.”
“And the production method is innovative, too.”
Dusk had fallen, and the rain had barely lessened. He didn’t give a damn. Hopefully, this would be another biblical flood, wiping out everyone else in the world except him and Willa. They’d stay in this cabin for the rest of their lives, eating soup and making love, and that would suit him very well.
Maybe he ought to pray for that to happen, just in case. He wasn’t a churchgoing man, but he could change his ways if it meant being with Willa like this.
Later.Watching Willa enthusiastically eat the food he’d prepared for her and smiling at him with lust in her eyes inspired some very ungodly thoughts.
“This actually reminds me of a meal I had in Bruges,” she mused after taking a bite of cheese. “It wasn’t the most elegant meal, but I don’t think I ate better than when I was there.”
“Left an impression, did it?”
“Oh, it’s a lovely town.” Her eyes sparkled in the candlelight. “It’s not as fashionable as Brussels—not yet. But I’ve a feeling it will become a place no traveler can resist. There are canals, and the most wonderful medieval buildings. It’s as thoughyou’ve stepped back in time, with only the clothing of the people to remind you that you’re still in the modern nineteenth century, not the fifteenth.”
“The decay of Ratcliff or even the new elegance of Hans Town is what I know best.”
“I pictured you there, beside me as we walked Bruges’s cobbled streets.” Almost shyly, she added, “Wherever I went on the Continent, I thought about what you’d think of a place. How you’d enjoy it. What we’d talk about as we explored it together.”
A warm, almost giddy feeling unfolded in him, as if he’d had too much whisky. “Thought you’d spent your whole time abroad cursing my name.”
“I did,” she said candidly. “Whenever I tasted a new food, like apfelstrudel, or saw a beautiful statue in a piazza, like the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Rome, I kept thinking, ‘Dom’s such a bastard—would he like this? I ought to tell that scoundrel about it.’”
He slid his hand across the table and wove his fingers with hers.
“Would you ever go back?”With me?
She stared down at their interlaced hands. As if she heard his silent words, she said sadly, “I don’t know. I’ll try to be satisfied with what I have and where I am at this very moment. No looking beyond tonight. Not even to tomorrow. Can we agree to that, at least?”
Tomorrowwouldcome whether either of themwanted it to or not, and if all joy in this world was fleeting, Dom would take his for as long as he could.
“You cooked,” she protested as Dom took their empty bowls back to the small kitchen. “The least I can do is help tidy up. I’m reallynota princess, you know.”
“I’m well aware,” he answered, “but tonight I’m taking care of everything.”
“What should I do while you clean?”
“Look decorative,” he teased, and was rewarded by her throwing him a rude hand gesture.
While he wiped out the pot and their bowls, she wandered around the cabin, poking her head into any available cabinet and closet.
“Curious as a cat,” he said when she opened a trunk at the foot of the bed and crouched down to rifle through the contents.
“I don’t think this is yarn.” She straightened, and he nearly dropped a bowl when he saw lengths of satiny rope in her hands. “Unless it’s for a very large cat.”
He strode to the chest and peered down into it. There was more rope, as well as buckled harnesses, paddles, riding crops, and, yes, even a leather-covered phallus.
“Accommodating host, that Longbridge. Hedoeskeep this place well provisioned. Don’t touch that,” he warned when Willa reached for the artificial cock.
She pouted. “Why not?”
“I’m going to assume it’s been cleaned, but even so, it’s bad form to touch someone else’s dildo without their express permission.”
“I didn’t know there were rules governing that sort of thing.”
