Page 25 of Desperately Seeking Seduction

“Of course not. I would never force a woman into my bed. I don’t have to.” He smirked again and held out a glass of wine to her. “Let us toast to our arrangement.”

“What arrangement?”

“To cause no trouble for each other,” he suggested. “The last thing I want is a scandal or to be married.”

“I feel the same.” She could drink to that. And did. Downing the glass in one unladylike long gulp. Stratford chuckled but said nothing about her mannish behavior. She backed away from him. “Excuse me, my lord.”

Lord Stratford rolled onto his stomach to watch her go, kicking up his heels up behind him. “Where are you going now?”

“To sleep, of course, since you can obviously have no further need of me tonight.”

“But the bottle is not empty, Winston. There’s an unbreakable rule among men that once opened a bottle must be consumed until the last drop.”

She regarded him with suspicion. She’d never heard of such a rule and yet many men did drink until there was no more in the bottle. Many fell asleep where they sat, too. And if Stratford did that, she could retrieve the key from down his shirt and be ready to leave at first light.

Winston was not expecting to sleep when she went to bed tonight.

“Cuthbert would not have hesitated to finish these two bottles with me, but then again, he is rather better at his job,” Lord Stratford murmured, turning away from her. “An excellent man and companion, too. That is why the best valets command the highest wages.”

She squinted at the back of his dark head, suddenly realizing she was clearly not being paid the same as Cuthbert. But she was doing everything just as well. “How high?”

“Stay and I might tell you.”

She returned to the other side of the bed to look at Lord Stratford’s face. He had his nose in his glass, so it was impossible to know if he was in earnest or merely teasing her again.

“If this is some trick to bed me—” she began.

“I’d sooner drink alone, Win,” he promised, swinging the glass wide. “Your virtue is quite safe from me. Besides, lovemaking should be fun. At least it is the way I do it.”

“Is there more than one way?”

“Indeed, yes.” He suddenly laughed, pointing at her face. “Dear God, you must be a virgin to be blushing so hard. My, my. Not male and not even bedded yet. What a shockingly dull life you must have had before coming into my employ.”

“It’s been more trying than anything else since,” she taunted, fighting down her blush. He was the most frustrating man she’d ever met. His strutting about naked had been startling…though not entirely unpleasant.

She caught sight of a ghost of a smile hovering on his lips and then he brought the glass back to his mouth. He took a sip and sighed. “An excellent vintage. I’m glad I picked these two bottles from my late father’s private stock, especially to sweeten your heart toward me after locking you in all day. A pity you have no appreciation of fine wines.”

“It was tasty,” she assured him. Wine was much like everything else. Consumed and forgotten.

Lord Stratford’s lips turned down in clear disappointment over her words. He seemed to feel things different than most men she’d known.

She helped herself to another glass.

“Try sipping it this time instead of gulping it down,” Stratford suggested. “Hold the flavors in your mouth a moment.”

She tried it his way, and then swallowed.

“Better?”

“Not worse,” she replied quickly.

He laughed. “That is what I like about you, Winston. You’re very hard to impress.”

She didn’t think she was that particular, but it never helped to show partiality to something she might miss one day. Like him.

She shook her head, unsure where that thought had come from. She could not like her employer too much. It wouldn’t be proper for a valet, or for her, either.

He patted the bed beside him, suggesting without words that she should join him again. And she did.