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Her clear, decided intentions nearly faltered She ht put this off until later, Much later
Sure as day followed night, Drake would also abandon her; soon For the other reason lords forgot about their e She didn’t frequent his exclusive circles, but she got to hear the gossip Hishim for a match for years He’d taken his sweet ti tongues, though, assured everyone that he’d settle for Lady Millicent, and his mother was on cloud nine with it
“Oh, you’re in those days?” He growled and ground closer “We can be… inventive”
Inventiveness was his middle na overheated with the idea, al nuptials The thought launched excruciating anguish over the same nerves It caused her to want to scream, pull at her hair Then thrash every delicate object in view Then she only could shed a river of tears like Ophelia, or Juliet, in their tragic grief for love and loss But unlike Juliet, Hester was not loved While like Ophelia, she was drowning in a dark brook of sorrow and hurt
With a gargantuan effort and a dwindling will, she pulled hiht allowed her ri that afforded her to look as cold as that brook where Ophelia died And encrusted her voice with the icy shards she intended it to display
“I called you here because I’ our liaison” As she swivelled to hied person
The veritably savage scowl that shtforward as she’d expected
Drake Theodore Rannell Aldridge stared at Hester froenerations of Worcesters while his mind worked frantically to assi Back in the day, he'd sown his wild oats and counted a good number of notches on his bedpost He didn't remember their nale refusal Not a bloody one Worse, not one of those women had abbreviated their liaison Not a bloody one!
Now, this slip of a girl looked at hin notion She'd been the longest e of weeks, two ot bored with their lack of substance, lack of ination
Hester had gifted hi As aand the arts And Drake would always marvel at her creativity in the performances she put in their joint soirees His townhouse stood perpetually open for those who also enjoyed the fine accomplishments of new painters, new poets, or new sculptors And Hester fit in them so perfectly it became a wonder Their soirees listed already as one of the ht after in London, even if they started with scandalous fame In the year that passed, the presence of dukes, earls, and rich low to them
As for the morals, she had it in spades She didn’t ask for money, or dresses, or trinkets In fact, Drake wondered if she had a single materialistic bone in her delectable body He’d not seen her fussing, gossiping, or ue either As far as he knew, her passion rested on the arts and the plays she recited majestically A passion so intense it bled everywhere!
He’d leave her iroin responded even harder to her His brain needed a shake, and he kicked at it mentally
“What do you , he kept his temper in check
“I spoke English, and you heard me” Her melodious voice could acquire any tone she desired, but she said that with a flatness that hadn’t been there in the ti that, her eyes flashed with determination
Whenever she directed those beams at his person, she unbalanced hied with her every reen when she felt happy, to hazel in the candle-lights of the stage But in the throes of fierce perdition, they transforulfed him That was how he knew her core would clamp on him in such a hopeless way he'd be dooht hie since the first time he laid eyes on her, his helpless desire for her
Her answer and his reaction to her clouded his brain further “Of course you’re not ending it” He growled This simply wasn’t done Mistresses left for two reasons Their keepers tired of therit, they betrayed their keepers, at which the latter kicked them into the street
That she e he had difficulty dealing with it "You're bedding someone else" To his own ears, his voice carried a cartload of contempt After an indoin His and only his, and that's how he'd intended it to remain
Her eyes shifted again to a basil shade that indicated her irritation Every time she looked at him, a bonfire lit in his veins To hell if she bedded another, he wouldn’t be able to stop wanting her He’d been waiting for this affliction to end, but it gave no sign of dousing any time soon
Those lips that put only one thing to his rin “Naturally, there must be a man involved because a woet her applying her lips and her iination to him
Her use of by herself seized his fractured attention “No other men then” And hoped his relief didn’t show as vividly as he felt it
Those delicate brows pleated in annoyance “Do you think I’d have the tiht in the storm of heat, “inclination for such?”
He knew he didn’t because he invariably ended their sessions, half-dead, in paradise, and thinking of when he could go for et this nonsense and proceed with our evening”
At that, her entire fraid she resembled a sculpture on a rock by the sea, her contrariety see toht away"
Just like that sea, the seriousness of her words threatened to pull hi pulled at him Vexationyes, frustrationmost certainly, but there was one other element in this mixture that he refused to call loss He’d not felt it before, ould he at this moment? A mere woman, a mistress didn’t inflict the likes on him, ever