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“I am so sorry,” Jo said quietly.
“About what?” Selena’s tone was frosty.
“Mick. I am so sorry that I didn’t see your feelings toward him developing.”
Selena wiped her cheeks and laughed softly. “I don’t know what that was, Jo. He wasn’t gentle with me. He wasn’t… nice. But for some reason, I felt excitement at the idea that he chose me.”
Jo grimaced. “I understand.” And she did.
Selena looked up sharply, her gaze filled with surprise. “You do? But you loathe him!”
Jo let out a soft laugh. “I do. But I understand what it feels like to crave the attention of a man who is… well, not good for you.”
Selena studied her silently, then sniffed and wiped at her face again. She folded her handkerchief and blew her nose. “It’s the damnedest feeling, isn’t it? He didn’t make me feel good. In fact, I always felt this shame after we were intimate. But um… I don’t know. Now I feel worse than before.”
“Did he hurt you?” Jo asked suspiciously.
Selena shook her head. “Not on purpose.”
“Those bruises on your arm,” Jo said as gently as she could.
“He held me… tightly,” Selena confessed. “I tried to twist away from him. I told you that I didn’t want to… not at first.”
Blood inside Jo boiled as her face heated. “Did he force you?”
“No!” Selena let out a nervous laugh. “I mean… he accosted me when I was alone and I said no at first. But then he insisted and insisted again, and it was just easier to agree than fight him.”
“Selena…”
“I know, I am horrible—”
“No! Don’t even say that!” Jo cried passionately. “You said no! That pig of a man should have taken no for an answer and instead, he forced you!”
“Don’t say that, Jo.” Selena shook her head. “My body reacted to him. He could feel it.”
“My body reacts sometimes when I am riding in a carriage on the cobblestones,” Jo said angrily, and Selena fell into heaps of laughter. Selena was distressed, but at least Jo made her laugh.
Selena wiped her tears again. “He was… It wasn’t bad. And the next time it was just a pure moment of passion.”
Jo let out a shuddering breath. She understood something about moments of passion. She’d succumbed to one herself, hadn’t she?
“And then I just thought that maybe he wanted me.Me.” Selena swallowed and shook her head. “But now I see that I was a temporary distraction.”
Jo looked out the window forlornly.A temporary distraction.At least the viscount was upfront about his intentions. While Mick… Well, he was just a pig.
Actually, it was an insult to a pig to compare the two.
Jo didn’t say any of that to her friend. That’s not what she needed. Everything started to make sense though, the ripped clothing, the nights missing from the room. Selena was having a secret affair. But why Mick? He was nothing but a pompous cad.
And why Richard?
Jo grimaced. Would the man ever leave her thoughts?
“I think I am going to leave the house party early,” Selena said, sounding defeated.
“No. You can’t. You can’t show him how much it hurt you. You can’t—”
Selena pursed her lips and shook her head. “He already knows. He doesn’t care. Whether I find another man or stay mourning his loss. Whether I live or die. He doesn’t care.”
