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He looked once more at the time. “My lady, perhaps we can discuss this another time. I have an engagement this evening.”
“With Miss Adams?” she could not resist.
He took a step toward her, and the smoldering look in his eyes made her heart leap into her throat.
“For one who claims she can be the right submissive for me, you are unnecessarily impertinent.”
Though her legs trembled beneath her skirts, she managed to lift her chin and meet his gaze. “Then punish me, Master Ashley.”
His nostrils flared. He stood close enough to manhandle her, and she wished he would reach out, grab her, kiss her, or drag her into one of the rooms equipped with the delicious instruments of pain and pleasure.
Her lashes fluttered. “I give you complete leave to do as you wish to me. My body serves at your pleasure.”
She quivered with heat inside at the prospect.
“I must go,” he said brusquely and stepped past her.
She whirled around to see him put on his hat as he headed toward the doors. Suspecting that her prospects would diminish to nothing if he made it out of the room, she hastily added, “My offer is good for the present only.”
Her heart quickened, hoping that he would not call her on her bluff.
Turning around, he took several angry steps back toward her.
“I am not a patient woman,” she explained.
“Are you also unreasonable?”
“Now who is being impertinent?”
He pressed his lips into a grim line, and for the first time, she sensed he could have a temper. But she had chosen to go down this path and would see it through.
“And unreasonable?” she added with a toss of her head. “Consider: your sex would deem you a fool for declining the chance to have your way with a willing woman, a woman eager to submit herself for your pleasure.”
The flames in his eyes were not merely a reflection of the fire in the hearth.
“You know not what you desire, Lady Pennington,” he said. “I am certain there are others that can satisfy what you think you seek in me.”
“But I am fixed upon you, Mr. Ashley. I thought you would be flattered?”
“I would you could bestow your attentions upon another, one more worthy.”
“You wound me.”
“My lady?”
“You do not esteem me enough to be flattered by my desire for you.”
“My being flattered has no bearing on the matter.”
“True,” she agreed. “The matter is simple: I am a woman accustomed to getting what I want, and I want you Mr. Ashley.”
His chest fell and rose as he considered his situation. He must know that he held few, if any, cards.
“I am flattered, Lady Pennington, and were it not for certain circumstances, I would certainly consider you a woman worth pursuing –”
“I require none of your sweet talk, Mr. Ashley. I think I have made it plain what I want.”
“You may think differently tomorrow.”
