Page 2 of The Secret of My Seduction
He laughed. “I do know! I just never thought—” He stopped short and cleared his throat. “Well, do what you must.”
Bathsheba kept her composure by the narrowest of margins. Liam could be cold and calculating, and he didn’t waste time on platitudes or trivial conversation. Generally she admired that. “I plan to. Since it’s as much to your benefit as it is to mine that the…er…experience be as thorough and as inspirational as possible, I propose that you assist.”
For the first time she could ever recall, Liam’s face went blank, then flushed a girlish shade of pink. He didn’t even sputter or protest, just stared at her in disbelief.
Bathsheba raised her brows, pleased to have silenced him for once. “It’s for the benefit of our mutual business endeavor.”
“You wantme—?” Liam’s eyes narrowed. “What sort of idiot do you think I am?”
She frowned. “Not an idiot. I’m not asking you to fall in love with me or even engage in a prolonged affair. Three or four times ought to be sufficient. Think of it as a research inquiry.”
“I am not a scientific experiment!”
“Neither am I,” she said coolly. “But I know you’ve got quite a reputation with the ladies—or so says the gossip—and I’d rather learn from the best.”
His face was still flushed. “How dare you gossip about me.”
“You don’t mind if I listen to every sort of tawdry tale about everyone else in society, but your name is beyond the pale?” She gave him a reproving look in spite of herself. “You encouraged me to listen. It’s hard to stop when a familiar name comes up.”
“You could if you tried,” he snarled, shoving back from his desk and bounding to his feet. “What the blazes would your brother say if he knew what you just asked me to do?”
“Good heavens, why would you tell him?” she exclaimed. Daniel didn’t even know Liam published her books. That had been her bargain with Liam: he must keep her identity secret at all costs, from Daniel and from the rest of the world. “It’s none of his concern. I’m twenty-nine years old, not a little girl Danny must protect.”
“’Tis a bloody stupid idea,” he snapped, sounding more Scottish than ever. “Put it from your head.”
Bathsheba sighed. She’d braced herself for this reply, but it was still disappointing. “I take it that means no. Very well.” She got to her feet, then hesitated. “I trust you’ll be kind enough not to tell anyone about this.”
“Of course not—” He glared at her. “What are you going to do now?”
“Find someone else, obviously.”
“Don’t you dare!” In three strides he was across the room, barring the door before she could march through it. “Where did this lunatic idea come from?”
He had wedged himself between her and the door. Bathsheba had never been so close to him—nor to any man who exerted this sort of pull on her—but she refused to back away. He was only half a head taller than she, but her pulse skipped a beat as she looked up at him. “The usual urges, Liam,” she said, quietly but firmly. “How can I write about lovemaking all day and not wonder if I’m describing it accurately?” Not to mention lying awake at nights perishing of curiosity about the heights of bliss one could achieve, with the right lover.
He looked like a storm cloud, dark hair curling wildly against his loose collar and his eyes turbulent. “Who would you ask?”
“I’ve spent enough time among the rakes and scoundrels of London to know it won’t be impossible to find one willing to toss up my skirts. I had hoped to avoid it being a stranger, but—”
“Sit down,” he growled. He jerked his head toward the chair she had just vacated.
Surprised, Bathsheba sat down.
Watching her closely, Liam paced the confines of his cluttered office. He combed one hand through his hair, mussing it even more, and Bathsheba’s stomach contracted involuntarily. No, she didn’t want it to be a stranger… She wanted to learn passion from a handsome, slightly dangerous man, and Liam fit the bill in every particular. The fact that he knew her, respected her, treated her as an equal for good and for ill, just made it even more logical that she should ask him.
The fact that she found him wildly, irrationally attractive ought not to figure into it, except as a private measure of delight for her. At first she had feared that was a fatal weakness in her plan, as his answer would matter far more to her than it should, but she had persuaded herself it was worth the risk. What was the harm in giving in to her secret infatuation?
But who knew he would turn into a stuffy prude at the first mention of a casual affair? Bathsheba spent her evenings haunting the edges of society. Everything she’d overheard indicated that rakes wanted precisely that: not love, not attachment, nothing but a few passionate nights in bed.
Of course, she’d also heard that rakes enjoyed the chase, the thrill of pursuing a reluctant woman, and she’d just scotched any prospect of that. But when she thought of how long it would take to entice Liam into wanting her, then pursuing her, pretending reluctance, before finally succumbing… Who had time for that? She wanted to knownow.
Finally Liam stopped pacing. “Why do you think you need more experience?” A bit of the flush returned as he spoke the last word. “Lady Xsells quite well; just keep on doing what you’re doing.”
“It’s getting stale,” she tried to say, but he slashed one hand.
“Bollocks. Just write more of the same. People love it.”
“It’s boringme.”
