Page 35 of To Pleasure a Prince
“Why has Draker not revealed them before?”
His Highness waved his bejeweled hand. “I suppose he enjoys holding them over my head, the impudent scoundrel. And now he seeks to thwart me by gadding about town with Lady Regina and keeping me from seeing my daughter, damn it!”
“Patience, my liege, patience. They agreed to court for a month, and Lord Draker won’t last more than a week with Regina.”
He hoped not, anyway. Simon would never survive a month of courting Louisa. A month of seeing her in blue satin and pearls, but imagining her in a lacy chemise that clung to her breasts and her belly and—
He swore under his breath as his pulse leaped into triple time. Christ, but she was beautiful. She would make some man a hell of a wife.
Not him, unfortunately. As prime minister, he would need a wife groomed to be a society hostess, not one allowed to grow wild in the country. A woman with sophistication and polish and a knowledge of her place. Louisa was both too naive and too headstrong to be a proper wife for him.
Yet he desired her. He found her innocence enormously appealing and her ungoverned tongue refreshing. She differed vastly from the calculating misses he generally met in society. If not for her connections and the future that Prinny intended for her, Simon would make her his mistress in a trice. All that wealth of black curls spread out on his pillow…those temptress’s lips whispering naughty promises…those slender white arms opening to his embrace—
He groaned as his breeches grew tight. No point in thinking about it. He could never have her as his mistress. Draker would eat his liver for breakfast if he tried. And the prince would join him.
“This courtship might work in our favor if you’ll only leave matters to Regina,” Simon went on. “I give her a week at most to have Draker eating out of her hand. Then he’ll do anything Regina asks, including letting me court his sister. You’ll have your chance at Louisa yet.”
“I’d better. Charlotte and William will marry soon, and I must have someone to watch over the princess whenever they travel to the Netherlands.”
After the lax care that Princess Charlotte, Prinny’s only legitimate daughter, had received under his estranged wife, His Highness was taking no chances. He wanted nothing to ruin this politically advantageous marriage between Princess Charlotte and Prince William of Orange. Charlotte’s mother had already behaved with a shameless lack of regard for her position. Prinny wanted no taint of scandal attached to Charlotte, since she was next in line for the throne.
The prince paced before Simon. “You say that Louisa has a kind heart and good sense. Surely she will be eager to serve her half sister as a lady-in-waiting. And I will have someone I can trust to be my ears and eyes in Charlotte’s household, someone I can mold.”
Simon suspected there was more to this than a mere desire to have Louisa serve the princess. But if so, His Highness was not revealing it. That made him nervous. “You’re assuming that Louisa will side with you, and not Draker, whom she adores. She may not be all that pleased to hear that you’re her father.”
“Nonsense. She’s been without one for years—what girl doesn’t want a father looking out for her interests?”
Simon broached another delicate subject. “She may also not be pleased to hear that I am…not planning to marry her.”
His Highness eyed him closely. “You haven’t done anything foolish, have you? Made her promises you don’t mean to keep? Or seduced her into falling in love with you?” He leaned in close. “Or anything worse?”
“No, indeed,” Simon said hastily. He preferred keeping his ballocks attached to his body, thank you very much. Although he wasn’t sure how much longer he could restrain his desire to kiss her. Just once. To taste that innocent mouth—
“We discussed this at the very beginning—that she would be better off married to a man whose interest in her is not political,” His Highness warned.
“You’re encouraging Charlotte to marry for political reasons.”
“Yes, and I married Charlotte’s mother for such reasons, too; look how badly that turned out. But Charlotte and I have duties, so we cannot marry where our hearts lead. Fortunately, Louisa is free to follow her heart. When she does fall in love, I want it to be with a man who reciprocates her feelings, a man capable of seeing her as more than a means to an end. And we both know you’re not.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Simon could easily see her as more than a means to an end…in the bedchamber. But he couldn’t exactly admit that to her father.
“Now we shall have to hope that Lady Regina does indeed distract my son enough to gain us the opening we need. Otherwise, I shall not be pleased.”
And if His Highness were not pleased, Simon would lose any chance at advancement in the government.
“Don’t worry, you can count on Regina. They don’t call her La Belle Dame Sans Merci for nothing.”
Chapter Eight
The proper chaperone should never put her needs above her charge’s, even when attending favorite entertainments.
—Miss Cicely Tremaine,The Ideal Chaperone
La Belle Dame Sans Merci is certainly in fine form tonight,Marcus thought sourly as they arrived at the Italian Opera House. Like a society hostess at a party, she acted polite, interested…remote. As if she hadn’t been melting in his arms behind that column just last night.
Damn her. He couldn’t stop thinking about that, about kissing her mouth again, her soft, yielding—
He cursed under his breath. Had he lost his mind? This was how she sucked those other fools in, by making them clamor for the taste of her, then treating them with cool disdain.
