“Which is why you wouldn’t ruin me, even accidentally. You’ll guard my virtue far more ferociously than I will.” Aurorapressed her hips down once more, satisfied when his breath hitched. The heady feeling from the rum punch was making her rather bold. “This is a brilliant solution.”
“Absolutely, positively,no. You are out of your bloody mind.”
Aurora brushed her mouth with his, eliciting a noise that assured her Worth would capitulate. Eventually. Just as she would marry for love.
Rolling to the side, Aurora came to her feet, heart racing wildly about in her chest. She brushed bits of grass and twig off her skirts, as Worth stared up at her.
“No, Aurora.”
“We’ll see.” Calmly walking over to the hedge, she pushed herself through the branches.
Chapter Five
What the bloodyhell had just happened?
Charles lay in the grass, blinking up into the sun. Had he hit his head on the bloody statue of Zeus?
“I think I’ve just been blackmailed.”
Aurora Sinclair, brazen little minx, had just asked Charles to satisfy her inquisitive nature on sexual matters least her curiosity about such things lead to ruination and scandal, which would damage the reputation of her family further.
Because Charles would be discreet and not accidentally compromise her.
Good God.
Charles stood, brushing the grass from his coat and trousers, which were so tight they were in danger of cutting off his circulation.
“Practiceon me? What am I? Some sort of fencing dummy? A stud put out to pasture to please the mares?” The thought of bending Aurora over, lifting her skirts, perhaps over a fence in some bucolic countryside and—
Damn. It.
He’d heard the tales of the former Lady Emerson, Aurora’s mother, the same as everyone else in London. She’d been an actress, considered wanton, tempting the Earl of Emerson to make her his mistress. The scandal had quieted to a whisper until Tamsin and the Duke of Ware were found in a compromising situation which resulted in marriage. Likemother, like daughter, the gossips intoned. Now society watched for Aurora to make the same misstep and indeed be her mother’s daughter.
Which Aurora was bound to do if she wasn’t stopped.
A bark of laughter came from him. “This is worse than being tempted by the devil himself. How preposterous she would even assume that I would agree.”
His cock twitched. Twice.
But wouldn’t it be better than Grisham touching Aurora? Or some other idiot?
“I can’t honestly be considering her proposal.” He turned to the path and started walking back out the way he’d come. Charles didn’t care for mazes, but he was rather good at puzzles and had memorized every turn he’d made fearing he’d be trapped indefinitely with Lady Bryant. All the while his mind worked out the dozens of scenarios in which he could pleasure Aurora while leaving her virtue intact. Debauched, wicked things.
His cock throbbed again.
“No.” Charles stopped abruptly. “How would I ever look Drew in the eye? Or Emerson, for that matter?”
Aurora would cause a scandal of monumental proportions if her behavior didn’t cease. Society would be outraged. Not even the Duke of Ware or his formidable mother would be able to salvage Aurora. As a friend of the family, wouldn’t Charles be saving her from such a fate?
What utter rubbish, though he sounded noble.
The entire walk back through the maze, Charles considered and reconsidered Aurora’s ridiculous proposal. Debated the merits. Chastised himself repeatedly for even entertaining the very idea. Images of Aurora, naked before him, hair falling over her breasts as she asked for direction kept flooding his mind making any sort of decision impossible.
“I am not completely honorable, but I can’t go about debauching the younger sister of my best friend and business partner,” he mused under his breath. “Though I dearly want to. Nor can I allow her to risk her reputation.”
Charles was a rake after all, which made Aurora’s assumption that she would be somehow safe under his tutelage mildly insulting. But entirely true. He wouldn’t risk being forced to wed should Emerson find out. The only sane thing Aurora had said was that Charles would make a terrible husband.
Marriage was not in his future. Not anymore.
