AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tomorrow night perhaps?” She swallowed. They were right outside the house. She grabbed the door. “We’re here and I should dash in before all the drying goes to waste.”
Before he could say another word, she was on the cobblestones, running at full speed towards the house, drenched again.
* * *
The door of Jay’s room swung open and hit the wall with a thud. He jumped and pulled his robe tighter against his body.
“You need to teach me how to kiss,” a female voice demanded.
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
This was a dream, right? It had to be a dream. Ursula was there, in his temporary bedchamber, wet, seriously wet, gown-and-petticoats-sticking-to-her-limbs wet. Her skirts were half-flat, showing the outline of her body, her rather fetching body. She was more than just her upper half. Her narrow waist and curved hips and—how long were her legs exactly? They were slender, and shapely, he could tell that much. He licked his lips.
No, this would never do. He’d sworn off women since he left the asylum and he’d made it a whole two years. Besides, her father was downstairs and her uncle returning and her powders were running and he was becoming a bit too excited. Why did she have to be even more beautiful wet than dry? Now he was having all sorts of flights of fancy.
He needed to engage her, have her talk, have her insult—oh for the love of everything holy—that got him all perturbed as well. She needed to leave. He’d assumed he’d have more time to excise any physical desire he had for her from his system after the game, but apparently even in a huff she worked at an astonishing speed.
“You need to teach me how to kiss,” she repeated.
Ursula stepped forward, shut the door, and flopped onto the desk chair near the bed. “I don’t think I know how to do it right. You also have to teach me how to talk. The poker and reading people isn’t enough. I need to know what to say, perhaps specific topics and things I can just memorize. I think that was the mistake in your method—I need more help. But that can be later. Right now, kissing.”
Now it was his turn to blink. Who did she think she was? Also, why was she still in his room? He was still naked, and she wasn’t moving and this could never do. How could she be so unaware? He’d underestimated the situation.
Jay cleared his throat. “Ursula, you need to leave this room, immediately.”
“What?”
He cursed himself. The catch in her voice was obvious. Tears welled in her big blue eyes, so blue, like a cloudless sky, but somehow even more clear.
“You won’t help me? I thought you wanted me to be more pleasant and you’re good at all of those things. You were willing to teach me poker which is supposed to lead to reading people and knowing what to say, what’s just a little more? I know I haven’t been exactly nice to you, but I don’t always mean it. I really don’t, and I apologize if you were offended. I just try to be honest and accurate and I was frustrated before and I’m sorry about that. I really am.”
Glistening droplets slid down her already wet cheeks. Cold and wet and sad. Bloody Hell. Why did she have to do this? Crying always killed him and Ursula crying—his head throbbed, and his throat filled. What was wrong with him? Their relationship was temporary, but right now, he just wanted to take her in his arms and tell her not to cry and that she wasn’t really awful, even if it wasn’t true. Well, not awful, she wasn’t awful, just near hopeless.
Jay shook his head. Impossible, simply impossible.
“Ursula, I can’t help you, at least not now. I’m not wearing any clothing. You have to leave. This isn’t proper. Your father will murder me. You won’t be getting into any more parties if that happens, though I suppose you could run the banks yourself which might be enjoyable.”
He shot her his most charming smile. The tears still rolled down her neck and her lips were tight, but a welcome and comely flush crept into her cheeks.
“But you’ll help me when you’re dressed?”
She never did let up. She’d pick and push and force every point and concession until she died.
“When I’m dressed and you’re changed and dry, and had something to eat, we can discuss it, perhaps over more poker. You’d have to be willing to trust me just a small bit. Even you admit that I’m good at certain things. There’s a strategy to what I’m doing. I’ll make it clearer. I’ll at least give you tips, the first being when you’re interacting with another person, try to put yourself in the other person’s position, view the situation from their perspective.”
“But I already do that. I know that I’m supposed to try to think about how the other person would feel and tailor my comments accordingly, but sometime
s I get so angry and things just pop out and—”
He held up his hand. She’d need to figure out how to listen.
“Not just that, Ursula. Approach everything like a business deal. Think about the other person’s goals for the interaction and how what you’re saying helps or hurts them. Do they want to feel clever, attractive, noticed? What qualities do they want reflected back at them? For example, what would someone just out of a bath, wearing just a robe want?”
Ursula opened her mouth and paused. She cocked her head to the side and did that thing she did with her lips, the odd little sideways thing that was strange but prepossessing and he was in trouble.
Jay turned around and clenched his fists. “You need to leave, Ursula. I need privacy to get dressed. We’re partners, not lovers, so there are certain things that shouldn’t be done.”
She emitted a loud, sniffing, sigh. “Since we have no intention of being lovers then I don’t see what the quandary is. You’re not attracted to me and I’m not attracted to you, but I suppose there is propriety. I shall change.”
