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Daring still further, when I returned to the booth I ‘accidentally’ left the curtain askew, so he could see in as I changed into the next costume. I believed I was starting to better understand my mark—he was a warm-blooded male just as any other and I could use my feminine sexuality to lure him from the cave in which he usually kept himself. I just had to know the limit because there certainly was one with Nicolo. He would play but only so far and only so long. What was painfully obvious was that he wanted, no needed, to remain in charge at all times.
As to the gap in the curtain, Nicolo certainly wasn’t getting a ‘good’ view, probably no more than a glimpse of flesh through it, but such was the point. I wanted to be discrete about my seduction—offering him bits and pieces without serving up the entire cake.
The knowledge that he was straining to see those bits and pieces, that I was making him work for it, excited me. When I walked back out, the look in his eyes was enough to tell me he appreciated what he saw.
It was all valuable, stoking the frisson between us. The more he desired me, the more he trusted me and the more likely I was to get him alone. But I couldn’t give in—I knew that much. One of my first lessons had been on the art of keeping a man tethered—allow him inside me and that tether would loosen and eventually fall away. As would his interest.
“That will do for now.”
Nicolo had selected a costume I could wear for the present; a hasty marriage between a page boy’s outfit and what looked like a magician’s assistant. It pinched and rubbed in places but it was certainly more to my liking than the maid’s uniform.
“Have something tailored and ready by tomorrow morning.”
Gauthier raised a hand. “That’s awfully soon, Master. We have the lady’s measurements but…”
Nicolo shot a steely look at the tailor and Gauthier blanched.
“But, of course, it will be done.
I wondered how much Nicolo had done to justify the fear in which people held him, or if that fear was simply owing to his reputation.
Somewhere in the castle, I heard the clock bell chime midday.
“Ah,” Nicolo looked up. “Time to see if Prince Balduin is awake.”
