Page 46 of Aurelia

Chapter 9

Aurelia did not sleep a wink that night.

She desperately regretted not staying in her room and writing the blasted letter to her mother rather than what she had ended up doing.

She had kissed Lord Crewe.

That’s not all you did with him…

She winced at the memory of how she’d rubbed herself against him like a—like a bitch in heat, there was no denying that is how she had behaved. She’d seen female dogs behaving in such a way in the past and had looked away in embarrassment.

And now she had turned into one.

Aurelia groaned.

Everyone knew what decent society thought about women who went about kissing and rubbing against men. If Lord Crewe had not been a gentleman and sent her off when he had, who knew how much more might have happened?

You would have mounted his thigh, that is what.

“Oh, do shut up!” she snapped, burying her flaming face in a pillow.

Strangely, it wasn’t the thought of that sensual rubbing that kept her up for the rest of the night, but what might have happened if Lord Crewe had not put a stop to it all.

As a result of all her tossing and turning, Aurelia rose later than usual and went down to the breakfast room with a heavy, muzzy head and was barely able to keep her eyes open as she gulped down a pot of tea and two pieces of toast before returning to her room and promptly dropping into a dreamless nap.

An hour later she awoke somewhat refreshed, until she recalled that she had kissed and groped her employer.

“Urgh.” She shook away the thought and tidied up her hair and clothing before marching determinedly down to the specimen room.

It was, thankfully, unoccupied and she managed to find her samples and scurry back up to her own workroom, where she put in a full day of work, despite her sluggish start.

She took a long, solitary walk before dinner, hoping to clear her head. Instead, the time alone only gave her more opportunity to ponder and fret and work herself into a lather before dinner.

What she should have done was go for a ride with Lady Celsa, instead. At least that way she would have spent the time fending off adolescent barbs rather than engaging in introspection.

For once, she wasn’t the first to arrive for dinner. Indeed, she dragged her feet so long that she was even a few moments late.

“I apologize,” she murmured when she slipped into the room.

“No harm done, Miss Burton,” his lordship said easily.

Aurelia didn’t know how she had expected him to behave—embarrassed? Amused? But he was no different from usual.

She blushed and stammered a bit for the first half-hour as he peppered her with questions the way he always did, but by the time the meal was over she was beginning to think that that she had imagined the entire episode.

Or maybe he was such a rake that something as innocent as a kiss—although there was nothing innocent about the way he kissed—was scarcely worth remembering for him.

Whatever the reason, the first and most awkward meeting was over.

Aurelia was still a bit concerned the following evening when she went down to dinner—not late, but not too early, either—that there might be some residual awkwardness but that meal, too, passed smoothly.

And so it went, day after day, until three weeks had passed and Aurelia was convinced that the kiss had been an especially vivid dream.

Even so, she made every effort to avoid being alone with his lordship. Not because she feared that he would ravish her, but because she couldn’t seem to trust her normally prudent judgment whenever she was in proximity to him. The kiss might have been a dream, but there was no denying that she wanted it to happen again.

Badly…

Aurelia shook herself. She had been daydreaming. Again.