Page 39 of The Earl's Secret
“That is all well and good, but it does pose something of a problem,” she said.
“Oh?” he said, his voice strained.
“How am I supposed to unfasten my buttons and remove my dress alone?”
“I… ah, never thought of that,” he said. “I cannot say I am particularly familiar with female garments.”
Cassandra continued to gaze at his back, noticed the way his hands curled and uncurled from their fists. “That’s not what I would have guessed.”
“Says the woman who is nothing like what others think or say about her.”
“That is true,” she said, looking down at her fingers. “But you actually have the freedom to do as you please.”
“What was it you said to me?” he asked, dipping his head, his voice low and husky. “That you had no desire to pursue a connection with any other man?”
“Yes.”
“What if it was the same for me?”
That caused Cassandra to freeze herself, her entire body tensing up. He couldn’t possibly mean what she thought he meant… could he?
“You are not telling me that you… that you have not been with other women because of me.”
Silence stretched between them.
“Are you?”
“Perhaps.”
Cassandra found herself standing there with her mouth gaping open, for once completely uncertain about what to say.
“But Devon… it’s been years.”
“So it has.”
“And you mean to tell me, that in all that time, you never… you didn’t…”
He whirled around now, his eyes full of anguish as he stared at her.
“Have you?”
“Of course not,” she managed.
“Well, then, why would it be any different for me?”
“Because I thought that you didn’t want me, that it was all a game, that what we did was something you were accustomed to… todoingwith women.”
He walked slowly toward her now, his every step seeming in time with the pounding of her heart. He reached out and took her hands with his, his touch sending waves of shock through her body, warming the frigidness that was beginning to settle in.
“There is much you do not know,” he said, his eyes intent on hers. “I can answer any questions you like – but first you must dry your gown so that you do not freeze on me. Understood?”
She nodded woodenly as she turned around, displaying her back to him.
“Help me?”
CHAPTER16
Devon had just admitted more to this woman than he ever had to anyone before.
