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“Is it really true?” Genevieve asked, her eyes widening. “You were really stuck on those pages because of awoman? You have a new lover?”
He took a long swallow of his drink and glanced at his brothers with a scowl. “We are failing our sister. What in God’s name is she doing asking me about lovers. What do you know about lovers, Vi?”
Her cheeks dimpled when she grinned. “Spare me your outrage, Luc. I am two and twenty, not a chit out of the schoolroom. And you are avoiding the question.”
Aware of all three of his siblings’ curious stares on him, he rolled his shoulders and lifted a hand to his neck to massage the tight muscles there. “She is not a new lover. Just someone I recently met.”And have not been able to stop thinking about.
“What is her name?” Vi asked impatiently.
“I do not know,” he admitted gruffly.
“This promises to be interesting,” Oliver said, dropping his weight into a chair and crossing his legs at the knees. “Regale us.”
“I am not of a mind to tell you anything,” Lucien said with a glare at his brother. Except this Miss Mimi had been haunting him for the past three days. It was damn nonsense, but he could not bloody well stop thinking about her. That frank blue gaze, the ready curve of her mouth that said she loved to smile and laugh, and her glib tongue. And the way she had felt pressed against his body for that very brief moment. At the oddest time of the day, he found himself reliving that moment, wondering who she was.
“Ohplease, Luc,” Vi begged. “I will make that spiced rum cake you love so much if you tell me.”
He held up two fingers.
“Two cakes?” she asked hopefully.
“Yes, by this week.”
“Done,” she cried happily.
“And you are not allowed to eat my cake,” he said with a narrow-eyes stare at Edmond and Oliver. His eldest brother remained inscrutable while Ollie grinned, and Lucien suspected he would have to find a way to hide the damn cakes. “Make an extra cake for Edmond and Ollie to fight over.”
Vi laughed. “I will. Now tell us about your lady.”
“I met her on the way to Mayfair,” he said, taking another swallow of his brandy. Quickly he recounted the experience.
“Shejumpedinto your arms,” Vi breathed. “Why I cannot imagine it.”
“I never said jumped,” he said drily, already knowing his sister’s romantic and creative imagination was showing her the scene in an entirely different manner. “She rushed into my arms and clasped my elbows.”
“What did they mean to do,” Ollie mused. “Rob her?”
“I suspect it.”
“She is quick thinking,” Vi said admiringly. “And then you walked her home.”
“A part of it.”
“And she did not tell you her name,” Edmond said, his darker gray eyes cool and watchful. “You know what that means.”
His sister winced and then sighed. “Perhaps she is not a nob but a servant.”
“Or a governess in a fine family,” Oliver said. “They do pepper Mayfair.”
“She was dressed elegantly. Gloves, bonnet, boots, and a coat of the finest quality,” Lucien said, walking over to the window and staring down at the street. He was conscious of Edmond beside him and knew exactly what his brother thought.
Their kind did not mix well with those who were their supposed betters.
“You should forget her if she is quality,” Edmond said after a long silence. “We mixing with them never ends well. You should know better than I on that matter.”
Lucien’s gut tightened as he recalled what a fool in love he had been with the daughter of a viscount. Somehow he had truly believed she loved him in return. Why else had she gifted him her body and allowed him to sneak into her chambers to tup her long and well for the night? The shock when he had appeared at her house to speak with her father had burned. Her damn father had even said a gentleman did not challenge those lesser than themselves or he would have called Lucien out and put a bullet in him. Simply for daring to ask for his daughter’s hand for the viscount had not known of their intimate relations. The ugly memories did not wound as much as they had five years ago when they had been fresh and bleeding. They more served as a memory and a powerful reminder of the kind of people they should not allow close to their family and in their lives.
“I do not know who she is,” he said, “I believe this conversation to be unnecessary.”
