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“I need to talk to you,” she said in a whisper. If Rohan could manage to corner Lord Elsmere before they left they might leave with an invitation to their gathering, where the old lady could have a taste of Rohan’s…energy. It would serve him right. He could pleasure the old hag while Melisande could find a way to stop them.
“Later,” he murmured under his breath, swirling her gracefully around the room. “You’ve just gotten to the point where I don’t have to manhandle you to move you. ”
“Now,” she shot back. “There’s a room over there. Dance me into it. ” Curtains draped the doorway on the far side of the room, and the door stood ajar, the other side dark and beckoning.
He glanced at it, then back at her, and an odd expression danced in his dark green eyes. “That’s probably not a good idea…are you certain?”
“Absolutely,” she said, starting to lose patience with him.
“As you wish, my lady. ” And a moment later he twirled her into the room, and the door closed behind them, locking them into the darkness.
12
Maybe not a good idea after all, Melisande thought, as Rohan’s grip tightened, and she felt her body being drawn closer to his lean, hard chest. “What are you doing?” She tried to keep the nervousness out of her voice, but it trembled anyway, and she put her hands between them, trying to push away from him. He was much stronger than she would have guessed, and his arms were around her now, holding her.
“This, my sweet, is one of the rooms the Elsmeres keep for dalliance. Once someone disappears in here they don’t emerge for an hour or more. ”
“What in the world do they do for an hour?”
There was silence in the darkness. Then he spoke. “You’re a widow, Lady Carstairs, and you’ve had at least one lover. Surely even you can guess. ”
She’d forgotten he somehow knew about Wilfred Hunnicut, damn him. She was the one who’d made the wretched mistake of giving in to Wilfred’s blandishments; she needed to pay the price. “But what do they do for an hour?” she persisted. “What do they do after the first ten minutes?”
There was a soft explosion of laughter from the man in the darkness, an almost enticing sound. She had no reason to feel uneasy, she reminded herself. He wasn’t hurting her, wasn’t coercing her. He was simply holding her, and in the inky black of the room she couldn’t see him. He could be anyone. He could be someone she actually wanted to be with, someone who attracted her, aroused her. If such a man existed.
“Please, my angel,” he said softly, “tell me your lovers lasted longer than ten minutes. ”
They shouldn’t be talking about this. But somehow, in the dark, it no longer seemed forbidden. “Do you count the time it takes to rearrange your clothing?”
“No. It takes more than ten minutes to strip a woman completely, though I’m adept enough to do it in a little less. ”
“Strip?” She was horrified. “Naked?”
“Precious, don’t you talk to your gaggle at all?”
It was just as well he couldn’t see her. Her face felt hot, and she knew it was flooded with color. “Occasionally… If I’m confused about something. It’s not as if I’m without experience in these matters. ”
“It seems to me you’re confused about a great many things. Someone needs to take your education in hand. ” His hands were on her arms, and they tightened just slightly as she felt her body being pulled closer to his.
“I don’t see any reason for it. ” Her voice had a slight waver in it, and she cleared her throat. “I don’t intend to marry again, and I fail to see any value in having a lover. If one has to put up with being pawed one might as well be married, I suppose, and I can do very well without either. ”
“You don’t like being pawed?” His voice was low and sinuous, and she could feel a strange heat curling at the base of her spine.
“Not particularly. In fact, you might release me. ”
“I might. But I’m not about to,” he said softly. “What about kisses? Are they equally heinous?”
This was getting to be dangerous, and she had the sudden fear that she wasn’t going to escape this room without being kissed. Though why in the world an accomplished rake like Benedick Rohan would want to kiss her was beyond her imagining.
“Chaste kisses are perfectly all right, if there’s strong affection between partners,” she said with what she considered great fairness.
“And how do you define chaste kisses?” There was still that damned amusement in his voice. She considered trying to pull free, but she knew that loose hold on her arms could tighten instantly.
She refused to let him embarrass her. “A kiss that lasts less than five seconds is usually sufficient to express affection. ”
“Five seconds? You timed it? Oh, my darling Charity!” He was laughing at her, and she moved to stomp on his foot again, but clearly he was more comfortable in the dark than she was, because he moved deftly out of her way. “Have you ever had a kiss that lasted more than five seconds?”
“I know what you’re talking about,” she replied. “Emma told me about that kind of kiss, which, I must inform you, sounds utterly disgusting. Why in the world would you kiss someone with your tongue?”
