Page 7 of Her Beast

It had sounded revolutionary to Julia, especially since her own female role model—Nadine—had always behaved as if women didn’t evenhavebodies below the neck.

Of course, Julia now knew what a hypocrite her stepmother was after spying on her afternoon trysts with Matthew.

Thanks to Lily’s careful instruction at school Julia was quite skilled at bringing herself pleasure with her own hand, but it still wasn’t as wonderful as the things Lily had done to her using her lips, tongue, and fingers.

Unfortunately, Julia was no longer a schoolgirl, sharing a room and a bed with her best friend every night. Instead, Lily was now far away and married to the Earl of Bankton, a man more than twice her age.

The earl had bought Lily a slapping string of hunters for her wedding gift and then he’d dragged her all the way up North to live. In Julia’s opinion even fourteen prime goers and nearly year-round hunting couldn’t make up for being married to a man older than her father. But Lily seemed happy and insisted that the earl did everything he could to please her—underlining the wordeverythingfive times in her letter. Annoyingly, her friend had not explained whateverythingmeant. Julia suspected that the mysterious comment had something to do with sexual intercourse and that Lily was, for the first time in their friendship, withholding valuable information.

“Julia?” Solomon said, reminding her that she wasn’t alone.

“Hmm?”

Solomon patted the bed beside him. “Come sit with me for a moment.”

There was no denying that her stepbrothers’ tutor was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. But, for all his beauty, Solomon didn’t make her heart pound or cause any tingling in her sex.

He was just too… perfect.

Julia felt a pang of guilt. All her life she’d heard the same thing: that she was perfect, that she looked like an angel, that she was the sort of beauty who came along only once in a generation. It had always annoyed her and yet here she was thinking the same thing about somebody else.

“Are you sure you’re… er, alright?” he asked.

“I’m fine, Solomon.”

Julia didn’t tell him that the experience had been underwhelming and bland.Solomon had a tender heart and was a good person and Julia was a slut to want him to do the sort of vulgar, rough things she’d read about in the dirty stories that Lily had sent to her.

Solomon gave her a tremulous smile. “It was a magnificent experience, Julia, and I’m privileged that you chose me to receive such an honor.”

It was difficult not to roll her eyes. Julia knew she’d get a poem about theexperiencefrom Solomon in a few days. He didn’t just resemble a poet, hewasone. Albeit not a very good one.

“We can do it again on Saturday,” Julia said.

Maybe she would enjoy it more with him a second time. Especially if she could persuade him to keep at it a bit longer than he had. Or maybe she could convince him to allow her to inspect his penis this time, maybe even take him in her mouth, although he’d just about fainted when she’d suggested it once before.

His sky-blue eyes clouded with concern. “I’m—I’m not sure doing it again is a good idea.”

Julia wasn’t surprised by his words, nor was she put off by them. It had taken her months to convince Solomon to come to this unused bedchamber with her today; he might resemble a fearless hero from a fairytale, but he was timid and cautious.

When Julia didn’t respond to his rejection, his alabaster cheeks flushed—as if he could read her mind and was embarrassed to be thought such a chicken-heart.

“It’s not that I don’t want you,” he assured her. “But if your father catches us, he’ll kill me, Julia. You are betrothed to Lord Basingstoke,” he whispered, as if Julia didn’t already know that.

“Yes, but I’m not married yet, so it isn’t really a sin.”

His brow furrowed at her reasoning.

“Besides, Sebastian has a mistress so why should he care what I do?”

“It’s, er, not quite the same thing, Julia.”

“Why not?”

“Have you thought about what will happen on your wedding night when Lord Basingstoke learns you aren’t a maiden?”

“It will be too late for him to do anything about it by then, won’t it?”

Solomon blanched at her response. “You are too innocent—you don’t understand. He will be furious when he learns that you’re no longer, er…”

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