Page 10 of Only Pleasure Will Do

“They don’t hold with keeping a woman locked up, but they’re paid well enough they won’t do anything to help me.” No matter how much coin she promised them, the two had never even hesitated in their refusal to aid her escape. Either they were very well paid or, more likely, well intimidated by Tommy Redmond.

Sir Reginald looked up from his writing, his pencil faltering as she continued her observations, her gaze not leaving him the whole time.

“In the afternoon, a young boy brings the food. He’s only been employed a matter of weeks and is very skittish. Had I enough time, I’m certain I could persuade him to release me.” A confident, sensual smile turned up the ends of Amorina’s lips. “Lucy and Samuel have apparently taken care of prisoners like me before. God knows what those people had done to Redmond. The new lad, of course, has not, therefore he’s the one I would choose to try to turn.”

A flicker of surprise shot across Matthews’s face. He cleared his throat and dropped his gaze back to his notepad. “A sound judgment.” He continued his writing, although he glanced at her, new respect in his eyes. “I’m very pleased to find you’re skilled in the arts of observation and fact gathering.”

“I’m the madam of London’s most exclusive brothel, Sir Reginald. My business, my life’s blood, depends on my ability to observe, to listen, to anticipate my customers’ every need. I would never have been as successful as I am had I not been meticulous in every aspect of running the business.” Her tone had turned cold. Amorina Vestry did not suffer fools at all. Now she’d had enough of this gentleman praising her for a skill she’d honed to a sharp knife’s point at the tender age of seventeen. “You will find, Sir Reginald, that we will get along much better if you refrain from underestimating me.”

Astonishingly, he grinned at her and wrote two words on his notepad. “Duly noted. Were you able to get them to speak to you, or did you glean this from observation and overheard conversation?”

Mollified, Amorina relaxed her guard once more. “I’ve listened for the most part to the pair in the morning, and I’ve surprised some information out of them a time or two, but they mostly ignore my attempts at conversation. Once I appeared more docile to them, however, the two seemed more inclined to talk, even answered a few questions. The young lad, however, talks a good bit, although he won’t give me his name.” She smiled mirthlessly. “I wonder if he thinks that will prevent me from seducing him.”

“And have you attempted to do so?” To Matthews’s credit, the words weren’t weighted with censure. He asked only for information.

“I’ve been easing into it. As I said, he’s skittish. Opens the door, slides the food in, and bolts the door back.”

Sir Reginald’s brows shot up. “I’m surprised you haven’t taken the stool to him.” He rubbed the back of his head where a lump the size of a large chicken egg poked through the silky darkish blond hair.

With a shake of her head, Amorina pursed her lips. “For all that he’s young, he’s canny. Or someone told him to beware. He stands well back from the door and slides the tray in with a long stick then slams the door shut. After that, he’ll talk to me a little.”

“Well, you’ve been extremely resourceful and helpful, Madam Vestry.” Sir Reginald shut the notebook with a snap and carefully put it and the pencil away in an inner pocket. “When your jailors come this morning, we will see if together we can make good our escape. Even though I’d wager they will know I’m here, the routine you’ve established will help us lull them into a false sense of superiority. We will play them like a fish on a hook, Madam Vestry.” His brilliant gray eyes sparkled in anticipation.

“There’s one problem, Sir Reginald.” Amorina glanced up at the windows where sunlight was streaming into the square room, washing the brick walls with the golden glow of morning.

“What’s that, Madam Vestry?”

“Samuel and Lucy should’ve been here by now.” Waving her hand at the wall, Amorina strode to it and pointed to a gouged-out section of mortar some four feet above her head. “The room is never this well-lit when they come. The sun’s rays are usually just touching that missing section of mortar. I know because that’s what I look at when I’m standing on the third step.” With a glance at the silent door, Amorina bit back the fear trying to claw its way out of the recesses of her mind. “Now you’re here, they’re not coming. Maybe no one will come.”

Unperturbed, Matthews actually managed to smile at her. “Tommy Redmond wanted you alive for a reason, otherwise you’d have been dead in your carriage. My presence may have made him rethink his plan, but if he wanted you then, he wants you still.” He grasped her shoulders, flooding her with a vibrant, warm sensation that surprised her. “Whatever his reason may have been, I swear to you, I will not let him succeed in it. I will keep you safe.”

Safety was not something Amorina had come to expect during the past seven years of her life. She ran a dangerous establishment where large numbers of sometimes violent men came nightly to seek their basest pleasures: drink, gambling, and sex. Although she took the best precautions possible—the newest locks on all her doors, well-oiled and maintained; ample bodyguards for both her and her girls; and an escape mechanism that all the girls were instructed to use should the need arise—to feel herself safe to any but the most rudimentary of degrees was to proclaim herself a naïve fool and open herself to a swift demise. She’d learned to accept that expectation and lived her life accordingly.

Yet Matthews’s words touched a long-forbidden piece of her, a place in her heart so well protected she often forgot it still existed. The only spot that had not been iced over and killed by the horrific circumstances of her life. A spot she now guarded with every hard-won bit of respect or fear she’d managed to wrest from the cruel members of a dissolute world. The one piece of her former self that still existed. And that piece believed him.

His hands still firmly on her shoulders, Amorina stared into his smoky gray eyes, a slight ring of golden-brown circling the center and found calming self-assurance in his gaze. This man would protect her from whatever Redmond, or anyone else in the world, would attempt to do to her. His honor ran bone deep, as did his confidence in his abilities, and with good reason. After their encounter last year, she’d made it her business to investigate Reginald Matthews, both from professional and personal motives. What she’d found out about his character and habits had pleased her, enough that she’d planned to seek him out for a private rendezvous. Something she’d not indulged in for years. That hadn’t ended well, but this man seemed different in many ways from the other one. Due to the press of business, she’d had no time to make such a proposition to Matthews. Not that she hadn’t thought about it. Extensively.

She stared into his striking face—the strong jaw usually so determined now relaxed slightly, the straight nose that flared a bit at the end, the high forehead that signaled intelligence, and those wide, sensual lips that might do anything, go anywhere…With his large hands actually on her body, frissons of heat danced down her arms and gathered in more intimate places below. The erotic fantasies about this man she’d indulged in for the past year came blazing back, making her lick suddenly dry lips. Her body tensed with longing as the memory of the forbidden encounters she’d created overwhelmed her.

They were in a room, not at her house nor his, but a rustic cottage out in a wood far from the hum and bustle of the city. Quiet, save for the chirping of birds and the soughing of the wind in the trees. Eagerly, she pulled him into the one-room house, a rough wooden table and chair in the center, set with better than humble fare—good bread and cheese, to be sure, but roast chicken as well, meat pies, heaps of vegetables in cream sauce, and a glowing bowl of trifle streaked with layers of rum-soaked cake, strawberry jam, and clotted cream. In some of her fantasies, they ate before continuing to the bed, but in some the table became the bed, with the food an interesting accompaniment to their lovemaking.

But now they didn’t stop to eat. Today there were other appetites to satisfy first. She led him to the narrow bed, just large enough for two if they lay snugly together, or atop one another. She stood a-tiptoe to taste his lips, soft and sweet, his breath smelling of citrus.

He wrapped his arms around her, lifting her up, not breaking the kiss, but deepening it, slipping his tongue into her willing mouth, where she greedily sucked it and gloried at his cock’s response. After wresting his lips from hers, he paused before burying his mouth in her neck, nipping lightly, making the hairs on her nape prickle. They moaned together, a chorus of desire.

Setting her back on her feet but continuing to rain kisses all over her, he unpinned her stomacher and pulled her gown down over her shoulders until it pooled at her feet, leaving her in corset, demi-panniers, and chemise. With a swift flick of his clever fingers, the panniers went flying, then he smiled as he scooped her breasts from the confinement of the stays, leaving them to sit pertly on top of the corset’s edge. He feasted on the sight of them, his breath coming in panting bursts as he slowly traced his forefinger down and around first one then the other, paying special attention to the taut nipples that had contracted into hardened points.

The ache in her nipples connected to the throbbing in her groin where she burned with desire for him. For all of him. She tried to reach the buttons of his fall, but he laughed and shook his head. “Patience, my dear. We want this to be slow and glorious, don’t we, Madam Vestry?”

“Madam Vestry? Is something the matter?”

Amorina blinked, startled and mortified to find herself standing in the brick room with Sir Reginald in front of her, his keen eyes taking in God-only-knew-what expression on her face.