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“Oh, Lisa dearest, you are so good, so easy to be with,” Oscar said, and unaware that he and Lisa had an audience, he dropped a kiss on her lips

It was only a short, quick, little kiss, but Lisa i his hand to her cheek

Lisa’s father found his voice at this juncture “What is theof this?”

Sara had to forcibly look away She couldn’t smile, she told herself She must not smile, but when she saw the hurt and confusion on Godwin’s face, she couldn’t help herself, and hurriedly clapped a hand over her lips

She couldn’t have hoped for a better result Lisa’s father took her away Godwin bowed to her and left the ball Her cousin stopped her fro away and said, “This is your handiwork I aave her? You have engineered this from the start”

“Nonsense,” she said, and went

to her parents to complain of a headache and ask that they take her home

Later that sa, with her mind and heart blissful with the results of her successful plotting, she quietly left her bedroom and went out the backdoor of the house with her parents, as always, none the wiser

She could see hiure of a man whose black cloak flapped in the wind behind him She started to run towards him over the pebbled path, with her arms opened wide

She had everything she could possibly want She had ruined Lisa in Godwin’s eyes, just as she had hoped she would And it wasn’t even her fault, she told herself She hadn’t ainst Oscar’s hand Ha! It was all working in her favor

Godould turn to her now, and she would have a husband and a position in society that all other women would envy

But no she had the man of her drea arms enveloped her

“My love,” he murmured as he bent to kiss her lips

“I have missed you,” she said when he let her up for air She reached feverishly into his breeches and found what she wanted, what she needed “Raoul…we have to find a way to see each other more often”

He said nothing to this She are that he rarely spoke and often wondered at it His ly once more His body was so hard, so desirable that all she could do was surrender to his touch