Chapter 9 #2
“Perhaps it’s easier to let people believe what they think than challenge their perceptions.
” He set down his cup. “I didn’t come here to talk about me.
There is trouble brewing elsewhere.” He related his conversation with Mr. Cox earlier that day and his unfortunate encounter with Calloway, and Carenza grew very quiet.
“I could strangle Olivia,” Carenza eventually said.
“You wrote the advertisement,” Julian reminded her.
“I didn’t. I merely made suggestions, and Olivia decided to put the original draft in the newspapers! I thought that was just for fun between friends.”
“Perhaps Mrs. Sheraton isn’t as good a friend to you as she should be.”
Carenza looked at him. “Please don’t involve yourself in the matter of my friendships.”
“Am I not also your friend?”
“Yes, but this is a completely different conversation and you know it.”
“I’m just warning you not to assume her values are the same as yours.”
“And I’m asking you to stop talking.” She glared at him. “And currently, you and I are not friends. We are lovers.”
Julian raised an eyebrow. “Can we not be both?”
She blushed. “I don’t do … that with my friends.”
“Strip them naked and demand things? I’m glad to hear it.” He paused. “There is no need for such intensity between us, Carenza. We are perfectly capable of carrying off a light affair and a friendship.”
There was quite a long silence as Carenza folded her arms and sat back, her hazel eyes calm. “If you think what is happening between us is ‘light,’ then I cannot imagine what your other affairs have been like.”
“That’s exactly my point.”
“You wish to end the relationship?”
He frowned. “I didn’t say that. I just meant that such affairs are generally conducted with less intensity.”
“I see. You’re suggesting I’m too forward.”
“That’s not—”
“You’re just like Hector.” Her smile disappeared. “He didn’t want an equal partner in bed, either. He wanted someone to applaud and admire him.”
“I know what Hector was like, and I can assure you that—”
“Of course. You have intimate knowledge of my husband’s rutting ways because you had a first-class view of them!” She breathed out hard through her nose.
“Carenza, will you please calm down and let me finish a sentence?” Julian snapped.
“Calm down?” She looked him right in the eye. “I think I’ve heard enough. You agreed to an affair on my terms. Perhaps Allegra was right and all you are fit for is—”
“Don’t.” He reached over and cupped her chin.
“What? Talk? Enjoy bedding you?” She tried to jerk out of his grip, but he pulled her close and kissed her hard.
She wrenched her mouth away. “That’s not fair.”
“Neither is deliberately maligning my character and offering me no right to reply,” he growled. “If we were truly alone now, I’d turn you over my knee and spank you.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she breathed.
“Is there a lock on that door? Because if there is, you sorely tempt me to let you find out I am a man of my word.” He kissed her until she stopped trying to bite him.
She responded with equal gusto. “And I can’t believe you have reduced me to fighting with you over the breakfast table!”
He eased back, his breath as harsh as his inconvenient need for her. “This is what I’m talking about—this lack of discretion in both of us. Anyone could come through that door and we’d be scuppered. We cannot allow our passions to overrule our good sense.”
She stared at him and slowly nodded. “You might have a point.”
“Thank you for at least acknowledging that!”
“Perhaps we need to extinguish this fire between us in a different way,” Carenza said.
“How so?”
“Feed it for a few days and let it die down naturally.” She looked down at her hands. “I’ve been invited to a house party this week. I’ve been wondering whether I should go.”
He regarded her closely. “I have a better idea.”
She might have rolled her eyes. “Of course you do.”
“I will arrange a party at my hunting lodge in Epping. I’ll invite only those who either know about our affair or who would be willing to turn a blind eye to it,” Julian said. “Would that suffice?”
“I suppose so.”
He rose to his feet, aware that his body was aroused and that another trip to the boxing salon to work off his passions would be necessary. He almost groaned when Carenza leaned forward and kissed the prominent bulge in his buckskin breeches. He gave her a severe look.
“I do hope you are similarly inconvenienced.”
“I might be, but I hide it far better.” Her smile was wicked. “Perhaps you’d better put on your cloak before you advertise your condition to the entire world.”
“Perhaps I should avail myself of your facilities and take a hand to myself.” He glanced ruefully down at his groin. “It wouldn’t take more than a few strokes to bring me off.”
“Or I could—”
He stepped back to avoid Carenza’s seeking hand and bowed. She pouted, and the urge to unbutton his breeches and slide his cock between her lips almost overwhelmed him.
This would never do. He needed to regain control of himself.
“I’ll be in touch.”
She nodded. “As you wish.”
“Goodbye, Lady Carenza.”
“Have a lovely day.”
He left, careful to carry his cloak over the front of his breeches like some callow lad.
On the way back to his house, he wanted to kick himself.
He’d failed to convince Carenza there might still be repercussions from the advertisement and, even worse, he’d botched reducing their affair to a more conventional level and probably made things worse.
Good Lord, no wonder his mother looked at him with disdain.
He reached home, intending to leave for the boxing salon immediately, only to be accosted by Simon in the hall.
“I have the list from Mr. Cox, sir.”
“Thank you. You may leave it on my desk.” Julian was already moving toward the stairs when Simon cleared his throat.
“You might want to read it now, sir.” He handed Julian the note to peruse.
Julian scanned it quickly and raised his head. “Why on earth are Walcott and Lady Brenton on here?”
“I don’t know, sir, but I might be willing to take a guess.”