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Grapefruit, that I knew how to eat.
Except that I hated grapefruit. It was too sour.
Montgomery grabbed a second spoon and ate the fruit elegantly out of its rind.
Maybe I should give grapefruit a second chance. It might be sweeter than I remembered. I valiantly speared some with my spoon, but apparently I did so too vigorously, because juice squirted all over the front of my dress. I couldn’t help my little yelp of surprise, which finally made Montgomery look at me.
“Sorry,” I cringed, holding up my spoonful of grapefruit. “Juicy little suckers, huh?”
I wasn’t sure because I was so far away from him, but I thought I saw a smirk to the side of his lips. He went back to his paper a second later and I rolled my eyes and shoved the grapefruit in my mouth.
Only to choke on it. Blech. Ugh! So sour! I managed to swallow the bite but couldn’t help the way my face contorted at the sour flavor.
I immediately grabbed the closest cup I could and chugged it, looking for some relief. Too bad the cup I grabbed was what I thought was orange-juice. But when the juice hit my tongue, it only made the sourness worse.
Dear God, had they mixed the orange-juice with grapefruit juice, too? Who were these sadistic bastards?
I barely managed to keep myself from spitting it out, but I couldn’t help choking and coughing as soon as I swallowed it down. Some of it went down the wrong pipe, too, so I was coughing even harder.
And then suddenly Montgomery was there, his firm hand pounding my back. “Are you okay? Just try to take a deep breath.”
I knew my face must be as red as a lobster as I gasped for breath. Oh yeah, I was the absolute picture of elegance right now. Facepalm.
My eyes watered as I pushed my chair back from the table and doubled over, trying to catch my breath. That only made me cough harder. Montgomery continued to rub my back and then he magically produced a cup of ice water. I grabbed for it and sipped the cool water, coughing a few more times before finally catching my breath.
“Thanks,” I finally managed to croak, looking up at Montgomery through wet lashes. Dear God, I must look like a mess. If this breakfast was a test, I just failed dismally.
“You’re welcome. Here.” He handed me a white cloth napkin and I swiped at my face, cringing at the mascara that came away on the crisp white linen. I swiped underneath my eyes, hoping to minimize the damage.
“I guess I’m a failure at this elegant lady stuff, huh?” My smile was wobbly as I looked up at Montgomery.
He frowned briefly. “You’re doing just fine.”
He pulled back and looked like he was about to go back to his end of the table, but I reached out and clasped my small hand around his wrist. “Wait,” I whispered. “Don’t go.”
He looked surprised by my request.
“I just mean, can’t we talk a little? I’m not really sure what happens now. What happens next, I mean. Will it always be like last night? Them all… watching us like that?”
I couldn’t keep holding his gaze while I remembered everything from last night. I dropped my eyes back to the table, but I didn’t let go of his wrist. The next second, though, he pulled it away out of my grasp.
“No. It’ll be different.”
I looked back at him, startled. “What do you mean?”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I thought they would’ve told you more to prepare you.”
“They didn’t.”
His jaw flexed as he looked out the window. “I’m beginning to see that.”
I stayed quiet, waiting for him to continue.
After a short silence, he did, but he kept looking out the window, not at me. “It’ll be different. Invitations will continue to come for events of different kinds. We’ll continue to be asked to”—his eyes flicked my way, but only briefly—“to perform. Like we did last night.”
Perform. Perform sex.
I blinked and looked down at the table.
“What’s my safeword?” We hadn’t talked about it last night. There really hadn’t been time.
Montgomery looked surprised by my question. “It’s whatever you want it to be.”
“Pearl necklace.”
He barked out a laugh, and I felt my chest go warm.
A noise from behind us had me looking over my shoulder. There were footsteps on the stairs. Montgomery shifted beside me, and I knew he was looking too.
It was one of the women from last night. Another one of the prospective belles. And she was obviously doing the walk of shame, barefoot, her hair disheveled, and still wearing her ballgown from the night before. Beside her was a tall, thin man with short gray hair.
He looked in our direction and smiled. It wasn’t directed at me, though. He smiled at Montgomery, and I felt Montgomery go ramrod stiff beside me.
