Page 45 of Tempting the Scoundrel
No, more than that. She could be honest now; there was no one about to witness her folly. Alexandra was falling in love with Lord Locke.
Stupiditywas another word, one reserved for a woman who fell in love with someone who did little more than engage in harmless flirtation. His smile was devilish; it made her blush. But he had made no move to kiss her. His touch, if it lingered, could have been entirely in her imagination.
Foolish. Yes, that word, as well. In the privacy of her bedchamber, she spent too many hours recalling the way Nick’s swimming costume clung to his body. The lines of his muscles were visible through the fabric, lean and sleek like a large cat’s. She often imagined herself removing his clothes to lick the water off his skin. She loved to wonder at the sounds he’d make. How he’d touched her all over, his hand trailing down her hips to find the mound betwixt her thighs.
Quim, she had heard the maids call it once, when they didn’t notice her listening. Another word stored away in her mind, so little used.
Alexandra’s own hand would stray to the waistband of his swimming costume to seek the skin beneath.Cock.Here was another term she dusted off for the first time. It was illicit, forbidden in the language of gentlewomen, but the honesty of it appealed. It was for bedrooms.Cock.What would Nick’s look like? How would he respond if—
A soft scratch at her bedchamber door startled her. Alexandra pressed a cool hand to her cheek. “Yes?”
One of the maids entered with a swift curtsy. If she noticed Alexandra’s flush, she didn’t breathe a word of it. “Apologies for the intrusion, milady, but Lord Kent is askin’ for ye in ‘is study.”
Alexandra frowned. George Grey might have been her father, but he was no more familiar with her than a stranger—a stranger who found her very presence distasteful. He made no effort to conceal the fact that he found Alexandra’s commentary on political matters vulgar, her manner unladylike, and her behavior in polite society to be coarse.
Yes, Alexandra was hardly known for being demure, a fact her brothers teased her over often enough. But George Grey loathed his daughter over one very simple, undeniable fact: Alexandra resembled her mother.
It was strange, to be a wholly superfluous and unwanted offspring in a union of such animus. Kent’s heir and spare were achieved in quick succession—marital obligation achieved—and yet earl and countess had conceived one more child to torment each other with. Her. Alexandra did not pretend to understand that disastrous union. After all, she had not known her mother beyond the five minutes after her birth.
Now Alexandra existed only as a reminder of the woman her father abhorred. Death had done little to ease that.
Alexandra dismissed the maid and traversed the halls to her father’s study. She found him bent over his desk, scratching neat numbers into columns, and felt a stirring of irritation. The Earl of Kent was a master at budgets and making money. He took better care of his various properties than he did his own children, and estate matters accounted for much of his absence. Alexandra couldn’t have seen him more than three or four times in the last eight months.
“Good morning,” she said, trying to hide her impatience. “Was there something you needed?”
Alexandra’s attention slid to the longcase clock. Nick would be at the lake now. She was going to be late.
George set down his pen. “Do you have somewhere you need to be?”
“No.” Her answer came in a quick rush. “Only my afternoon walk. My maid said you asked to see me,” she reminded him. A wordless way of saying,hurry the bloody hell up.
His eyes snapped to hers.Cold eyes, she thought. The color of a sea in winter. Her brothers had inherited them, but James and Richard’s were warm and full of laughter.
“It’s been brought to my attention that you’ve been seen in the company of our new neighbor, Lord Locke.” George leaned back in his chair. “More than once.”
Had he beenspyingon her? Alexandra tried to keep her expression even. Who could have seen her? A servant? The gamekeeper? If they had—oh god, someone would have seen them swimming together.
Without an escort. It wasn’t proper. It wasn’tdone. A woman’s reputation was gossamer thin, as fragile as burned paper. One hint of impropriety—the slightest bit of force—and it collapsed to ash. Ruination.
No, Alexandra thought. Nothing had happened. She would reveal nothing. “What of it?” her voice didn’t tremble, of that she was glad.
The earl’s expression hardened. “You’re not to see him again, Alexandra.”
Her mouth hung open. She had expected strong words, something about having a care for her reputation. If he had a mind to do so, he could visit Nick and issue some idiotic demand that they marry to keep the village tongues from wagging.
But this? He was forbidding her? “Ibegyour pardon?”
“Did you lose the ability to understand English? Shall I say it in another language you know?” At the absurd suggestion, he continued his cruel words in the French tongue. “You are to end your acquaintance with Lord Locke. No daughter of mine is going to be compromised by a penniless Baron, let alone one previously employed as a common schoolmaster.”
Alexandra’s lips flattened. She would not play his game. “You’ve barely acknowledged me as a daughter,” she said in English. “Why do you care to whom I show affection?”
“If it reflects on my name—”
“Youwere the one who insisted I rusticate here after deciding I was a danger to my own marriage prospects in London. Now I finally meet a man whose presence I can tolerate and you’re telling me to reject him because he was aschoolmaster?” She gave a dry laugh. “I don’t even have words for how patently idiotic that sounds.”
Kent rose and planted his hands on the desk. “Listen to me,” he hissed. “If you want to spread your legs and fuck a glorified commoner after you’ve wedded a suitable gentleman, that’s your business. God knows you take after your whore of a mother as it is.”
Alexandra slapped him. The sound seemed to echo in the small room, and the red mark of her palm was stark against his shaved cheek.
