Page 13 of Gentlemen Prefer Heiresses
“That would have been highly inappropriate.”
“Yet going to a brothel with me wasn’t?”
Her face warmed. She didn’t think she could have gone with anyone else. She’d spoken true. She did trust him. And not only because he was Rex’s brother, but because she sensed he would protect her at all costs. And he’d always shown her kindness. While his attention had seemed brotherly on the surface, she’d often felt an undercurrent of desire simmering through him. Or perhaps it was only wishful thinking on her part. He’d never done anything untoward.More’s the pity.“I didn’t know that’s where we were going until we got there.”
“Lesson learned. Never traipse off with a gent until you know exactly where he is taking you and precisely what his intentions are.”
“So tonight was a lesson for me, was it?”
“You seemed to make it so. What did she teach you?”
She was grateful for the darkness because she was relatively certain her face was sporting a mottled blush. “They were not things to be discussed with a man.”
“Yet they are things to be done with a man.”
More, it was things toknowabout a man. “I’m not going to divulge the details of what I might have learned. It is for me to know.”
“And for me to find out?”
Heat swamped her as she envisioned how he might find out, with her showing him. Venus had explained how a man’s body worked and all the places where he was most sensitive, how to touch him with her hands and her mouth. She squeezed her eyes shut, realizing at last why the girl had gone down on her knees.
“Share with me some of the vocabulary words she taught you.”
Her eyes sprung open. “I’m certain you know them all.”
“Perhaps I don’t. Tonight might turn out to be a lesson for me as well.”
“Perhaps you will have learned I’m not so dull after all.”
His harsh curse rent through the confines of the carriage, and she regretted that she’d ruined his jovial mood.
“Gina, I don’t find you dull.”
“You said you did.” She hated that her voice sounded as though it was surrounded by tears. He’d spoken with her at the theater. He’d instructed her on how to increase her odds of winning at the roulette table one night when they’d crossed paths at the Twin Dragons. He’d waltzed with her at the ball where Rex had proposed. When Tillie had accepted, Andrew had leaned down and whispered, “Well that will change things between us.”
She hadn’t known precisely what he meant. She supposed that they would be related in some distant way.
“I was striving to get Rex to leave off,” he said now. “He was warning me to stay away from you, not for the first time. I didn’t need the lecture. I am well aware your reputation must take precedence above all else if you are to secure a good marriage. I want that for you. I’m not going to do something untoward that puts your future happiness at risk.”
“Tonight seemed rather untoward.”
“Things that take place within the shadows of the night need never see the light of day. No one will find out about our little excursion. Besides, you initiated it.” He sighed. “Although I shouldn’t have accepted the temptation.”
“Do you find me tempting?”
“I was referring to the temptation of teasing you. I view you as a sister.”
That was disappointing. “So you would have taken Grace there?”
“Absolutely not. My sister doesn’t need to know about the things going on in a place like that.”
She laughed. “She’s married! She isdoingthe things that occur in a place like that.”
“Good God! Don’t make me start thinking about what Lovingdon might be doing with her. I’m rather certain she’s still a virgin.”
“She has children.”
“Who came about through immaculate conception. And you do realize this conversation is inappropriate.”
