Page 18 of What a Courtesan Wants
“What are you doing here?” Benedict demanded, coming to his feet. “You’re supposed to be with Lady Bowery.”
Aubrey’s hand curled into a fist as he imagined just what David had been up to before arriving here. That he would feel any ounce of possessiveness toward the prickly woman who’d held him at arm’s length was absurd. But, there you had it.
Rolling his eyes, David came further into the room, pulling the door shut behind him. Within the shop itself, Madame Hershaw’s assistants had closed for the night and were preparing for a long night of toiling over garments. While the gentlemen did their best to keep their affairs as private as possible, the girls often heard things through the walls. They didn’t seem to mind the long hours of work when it meant they could be privy to what went on in the back room.
“I was with her no more than ten minutes before she announced she would have no further need of my services.”
Aubrey couldn’t help a laugh at that, relief flooding him in a rush. “Only ten minutes, eh?”
David lifted a paperweight off Benedict’s desk and hurled it at him. Aubrey caught the thing with another laugh, now amused by how ridiculous this all was. It shouldn’t tickle him so much that David had also been cast off by the woman, but it made him feel a little better about his own bitter dismissal.
“What the devil happened?” Benedict asked, clearly flustered.
Taking up a decanter from the sideboard, David poured himself a liberal snifter of scotch and then turned to lean against the heavy cabinet. Taking a healthy swallow, he shrugged one shoulder.
“We talked for a bit, but all the while I could see that her mind was elsewhere. Then, when it came time to get down to business, she balked.”
It lay on the tip of Aubrey’s tongue to ask him just how far things had gone before Lucinda had cried off. Had David been privileged to see the nude curves of her body? Had he touched her, tasted her? Had she kept him from kissing her the way she’d done Aubrey?
As if reading his mind, David went on, clearly confused as well as annoyed by his fruitless encounter with the lady. “She wouldn’t even let me kiss her, Ben. You know how easily I could have had her if she’d let me kiss her.”
That was true enough. Talk about David almost always centered around his mouth, which he was rumored to be quite talented with. Aubrey couldn’t help another surge of triumph at knowing David hadn’t tread where he himself had been denied.
“Devil take it,” Benedict muttered, pounding a fist against the desk. “Is there no pleasing that woman?”
There was, and Aubrey had it on good authority that it could be done. Despite the barriers she had erected, hehadmanaged to make her moan and scream as her cunt clenched around him in climax.
“I’m going to pay her a visit,” Aubrey declared, turning toward the door. “Someone ought to take her to task for wasting our time and treating David so poorly.”
Aubrey didn’t even add that he wanted an explanation for the way she’d treated him. Truly, it was no different than how the women before her had behaved, but at least they’d all had the grace to do it for longer than a bloody week.
“Aubrey,” Benedict called out, halting him in the doorway. “Leave it be.”
Turning back, he shook his head, jaw clenched tight with determination. “If a man had treated a female courtesan this way, he’d be a cad. Are you suggesting we let her get away with this because she’s a woman?”
Benedict opened his mouth to protest, but then snapped it shut, furrowing his brow.
“The man has a point,” David chimed in. “I say carry on, Aubrey. Give the little harridan what for.”
“In a respectful manner,” Benedict added quickly. “Perhaps you may ask her reasons for her decision, but you should not under any circumstances give her cause to be angry with you or the agency. The last thing we need is another woman with a vendetta against us.”
“To expose us would be to expose herself,” Aubrey reminded him. “And don’t worry … I’ll be diplomatic.”
Neither of them tried to stop him as he left the office and took the back door out into the alley. He could not do this again—simply allow himself to be tossed over without demanding answers. Their callous dismissal of him had been annoying, but this felt different somehow. And even if he couldn’t fully understand why, he could not deny the way it made him feel. He couldn’t let it go unchecked.
He could get there faster by hiring a hackney, but decided he needed the long walk to cool his head before arriving on Lucinda’s doorstep. Stepping out onto the lane, he turned in the direction of St. James Square, determination propelling his every step.
“I don’t knowwhy I bothered,” Lucinda murmured between sips of sherry.
She lay draped over the settee in her private drawing room, swaddled in her nightgown and robe and addressing Magnus’s portrait. Mr. David Graham had departed from her company an hour ago, leaving her to contemplate their encounter while drowning herself in spirits. To say she was disappointed would be an understatement.
As arranged by Benedict, her new courtesan had arrived promptly at nine in the evening. She had received him in a different drawing room, hoping to speak with him for a while before retiring to her bedroom with him. Thoughts of Aubrey—memories of him touching her, spanking her, filling her with his cock—had disturbed both her sleeping and waking hours. She’d found herself needing to take her mind off him and fulfill the urges and desires such musings inspired.
On first glance, David had seemed perfect for the job. Tall and broad-shouldered, he possessed a head full of thick, glossy black waves and riveting blue eyes akin to deep, clear lagoons. The color was further enhanced by a swarthy hue to his skin that hinted at Mediterranean heritage. He was downright pretty, a fact that was further emphasized by a smooth-shaven jaw and a pair of shapely lips with a bit of a pout to them. Lucinda could imagine the man had no shortage of women throwing themselves at him, and supposed he must be high in demand as a gentleman courtesan. Benedict himself had told her she was lucky to have caught David between keepers.
However, after she had offered him a drink and drawn him into conversation with her, it became clear that an arrangement between them would never work. For one thing, the man struck her as being entirely tooyoung. It wasn’t that she thought him an infant—he had told her he was six-and-twenty, only a few years younger than herself. However, it wasn’t his actual age as much as his demeanor that put Lucinda off. He had none of Aubrey’s quiet power, and his mouth had a quirk to it as if he found life itself to be one grand joke. And while she was well aware that she’d asked for a courtesan lacking intensity, Lucinda couldn’t help but feel as if Benedict had missed the mark. There was something decadent and frivolous about David, and Lucinda had a need for neither of these things.
When he’d slid closer to her on the sofa and attempted to kiss her, she had turned her head to avoid the press of his mouth—but David hadn’t been deterred. He’d begun kissing her neck and pawing at the front of her bodice. Lucinda had set her sherry aside and given herself over to him, intrigued that he’d at least taken charge of the encounter. A dominant he was not, but if he had even a handful of the right qualities, he would do as a lover.
