Page 13 of A Duke's Christmas Carol
Adrian would have preferred to walk out into the garden completely naked and lie down in the snow. Although, he thought, perhaps he ought to do that anyway, to see if it might shock the memory of his lips on Valerie’s clear out of his mind. It would certainly help to cool the ardor that tried to rise whenever his thoughts wandered back to that moment.
“Are you listening to a word I am saying?” Richard asked with a roll of his eyes. “I am telling you my best stories and you are sat there like a statue.”
“I did not realize you were done,” Adrian replied drily.
Her mouth was so soft… and, if I am not mistaken, she moved to kiss me back.
“Well, I was not, but a friend ought to interject with cheers of encouragement and whistles of appreciation,” Richard said, as he reached for the decanter of port on the table between them and refilled his glass. “Her body, Adrian—I have never seen a body like it!”
Such curves… that narrow waist… those shapely hips… that perfect bosom… and, God, that mouth.Adrian shifted in his armchair and tapped the side of his port glass in agitation, simply to give his hands something to do. Hands that refused to forget what Valerie’s figure had felt like, and arms that still craved that embrace.
“It would not matter if she could not sing a note,” Richard continued, undeterred, “for when she stands upon a stage, no one is really listening to her sing; they are too enthralled by that immaculate figure. And I, lucky soul that I am, was blessed indeed to see it stripped bare.”
Adrian cleared his throat, though it did little to clear his mind. “Are there any young ladies left in Paris that you havenotseen… in repose?”
What would Valerie look like, lying bare upon my bed? Crying out ‘Your Grace’?
“Plenty, my good man,” Richard replied eagerly, no doubt mistaking his friend’s question for genuine interest. “It is betterto keep my affairs out of the country. I sail off to France, spend two glorious months in the company of women with every appetite you could imagine, and I return with my reputation in pristine condition. I highly recommend it.”
“You will not convince me,” Adrian said, sipping his own port.
Richard grinned. “Yet, it will not stop me from trying. I am nothing if not determined.” He leaned forward in his armchair and smacked Adrian on the knee. “Come, man, do you not miss it? You might live like a monk now but, you forget, I knew you before all of this.”
“All of this?” Adrian’s tone hardened, his eyes narrowing.
Still, at least in mild anger he was not thinking about Valerie anymore.
“You know what I mean,” Richard replied, wafting a casual hand around the ‘family’ drawing room where they were enjoying their port. “Your isolation. Your retreat from society and everyone in it—present company excluded, of course. You cannot be rid ofmeso easily.”
Adrian’s temper subsided. He should have known that his friend meant no ill-will in his remark. Indeed, they had been friends for so long that, by now, Adrian should have been able to guess what Richard was going to say before he said it.
Usually, it pertained to women. Richard’s one vice. In everything else he was prim and proper and a stickler for rules and duty, but when it came to the ladies, he was every bit a rogue. It was, perhaps, why hecouldenjoy debauchery at his leisure, his reputation spotless, for who in thetonwould ever believe that the righteous Richard Harte could be such a scoundrel behind closed doors?
“I am aware that I cannot be rid of you so easily,” Adrian said with a dry chuckle. “You have proven that tonight, riding here in this storm like a madman. I would not have been offended if you postponed.”
Richard grinned. “I relish the challenge. Besides, it gave me a grand excuse to see what my American Quarter Horse can do, after all the trouble I had importing him.” He sighed contentedly. “Goodness, he is a fine beast. Charged through the snow as if it were nothing.”
“If you had to choose, would it be horses or women?” Adrian said with a raised eyebrow, for the only thing Richard loved more than ladies was his collection of horses. The rarer and more unusual, the better.
Richard sucked in a sharp breath. “Now,thereis a trying question.” He paused. “No, I cannot do it. I cannot answer. Meanwhile,youstill have not answeredmyquestion.”
“I have no interest in dalliances anymore,” Adrian said with a shrug.
In truth, it had been years since he had even had that. On rare occasions, when the nightmares were at their peak and he had not slept for days, hehadinvited a few ladies to the castle to keep him company. To distract him, really. It had never been worth it, though, and he had a suspicion that the rumors about him had only intensified after such encounters.
Would it be worth it with that… frustrating vixen?The same hunger that had led to his earlier mistake gnawed at the back of Adrian’s mind once more. How could his thoughtsnotwander to more now that he had known what she felt like pressed against him?
“Dalliances? Nor do I, my dear friend.” Richard smirked. “Indeed, I am to be a married man.”
Adrian had chosen a bad time to sip his port, almost spitting out the mouthful as he stared at his friend. “Pardon? But… I thought you said you werenotmarrying the French chanteuse?”
“Can you imagine?” Richard snorted. “Do not be a dolt, Adrian; I am not marrying any Frenchwoman. Rather, I am due to marry a sedate, boring, sensible Englishwoman. So, there shall be no more dalliances… just secret trysts and ‘business ventures’ that take me abroad from time to time, so no one—least of all my wife—is any the wiser. Meanwhile, I get everything a man could possibly want.”
Distaste left a somewhat sour flavor in Adrian’s mouth. “If you are not serious about marriage, Richard, you should not enter into it.”
“Oh, but I am perfectly serious,” his friend insisted. “It is my duty, and I have always been serious about my duties. Still, I would not be the first gentleman to have a marriage of convenience, and if my wife is not averse to sharing, then she need not be in the dark about my… alternative enjoyments. But I have yet to meet her, so I cannot say what her reaction will be.”
“And if she is a jealous creature?”
