Page 20 of Her Wicked Longing
“Yes,” shewhispered.
“Good, because I need to speak with you. Aboutus.” His green eyes were like summer glens, dark emerald and full ofsecrets.
Speak about us? Thereisno us. He does want there to ever be an us.She pulled free of him. Anything he wanted to say wouldcrushher.
“No. Whatever you want to say, don’t. I won’t agree, and I don’t want to hear it.” She pulled the door open and fled into thecorridor.
“Audrey, wait!” Jonathan called her name, but she didn’t stop. She would never stop running away from the man who would break herheart.
* * *
Jonathan swalloweddown the acidic taste of disappointment as he watched Audrey flee. The words“Will you marry me?”withered upon his lips and died. She didn’t even want to hear him out. He’d given up on resisting her and had decided he would take the risk andpropose.
But now she didn’t want him. Had it all been some elaborate game she was playing? Seduce a former servant and risk the scandal? When faced with actually marrying him, she ran away as fast as shecould.
Jonathan leaned back against the wall in the bedchamber, his chest tight with an almost unbearable pain. He didn’t want any other woman,couldhave no other but the very woman who didn’twanthim.
He glanced at the mirror, replaying every exquisite and torturous moment of having Audrey come apart in his arms. He’d received no pleasure of his own other than watching her climax. She’d closed her eyes, those dark sooted lashes fanned across her cheeks and those kissable lips parted, her pink kittenish tongue licking them as she panted. Lord, she had tempted him like noother.
“Well, if it isn’t Monsieur St. Laurent.” A cool feminine chuckle came from the doorway. He turned to see Evangeline Mirabeau watching him. She was a lovely woman, all her curves displayed in a thin, dampened gown. Her honey-blonde hair hung in perfect ringlets. She was a true Frenchcourtesan.
“Miss Mirabeau,” hegreeted.
She smiled, a knowing smile. “Once, long ago, you and I were more intimatethanthat.”
He didn’t want that reminder. She’d been a fine lover, and her beauty was unquestionable, but the passions she had once roused in him were a mere candle flame compared to the inferno that Audrey createdinsidehim.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Once, but nolonger.”
“You wound me with such certainty. Ah well,c’est la vie.” Evangeline glanced around the room. “Well, where’s your petite friend? The Sheridan girl? I assume you escorted her here for herlessons?”
“Lessons?” He raised a brow at the woman, completely confused. Audrey came here to learn how to be acourtesan?
The Frenchwoman tilted her head. The amusement in her eyes dimmed as she grew serious. “You donotknow?”
“Knowwhat?”
“That she is interested in…foreignetiquette?”
Jonathan shifted restlessly as he tried to understand what Evangeline was saying. “Etiquette…I don’t… What does that have to dowithyou?”
“Ah, I see. You care for her,n’est-ce pas? You came here was out of concern for her safety?” She sighed, as if she was about to do something she was not accustomed to doing. “I do not expose a client’s secrets, but if you do care for her so, then I suppose you should know. Her intention to learn the ways of the French court are not simply for fancyballs.”
“What doyoumean?”
“I cannot say, but perhaps your friend Avery Russellwould.”
“Avery?” Suddenly, Evangeline’s mysterious comments made sense. “She’s here to learn how to be a spy?” Jonathan sputtered out the word. “Audrey wasn’t here to learn the art ofseduction?”
“Mais non, we covered that over tea a fewmonthsago.”
What the devil did she need to learn how tospyfor?
And then it hit him. She spent a lot of time with Charles, and Charles from time to time assisted Lucien Russell’s younger brother, Avery, with his espionage missions within London. Audrey had been practicing disguises, but he hadn’t realized that she would actually seek someone out to teach her how to beaspy.
Evangeline was still smiling. “I’ll have to reschedule with her since you scared her off.” The woman looked at him expectantly and didn’t seem to care that she actuallyhadexposed her client’ssecret.
With a low growl, he fished out a few pound notes and handed themtoher.
