The Price of Desire (10 page)

She had no need to reel him in—she had already caught him. At this moment, with her naked body just a few feet away, he would give half of what he owned to make her his. The Captain would never know what a fool he had been to give up such a woman for mere money.

“So, to our bargain,” she said as she ran a cake of soap first along one arm and then the other, her voice as even as if she were talking about nothing more engrossing than the weather. “Exactly what are you proposing?”

“Your father left you with nothing.”

A flash of anger crossed her eyes so briefly he wondered if he had imagined it. “As you see.” Her voice was cold. No, he had not imagined her anger, though whether she was angry with her father’s improvidence or with him for mentioning it, he could not tell.

“I am a wealthy man.”

She let her gaze roam pointedly around the rich furnishings of the bedroom. “So I see.”

The knowledge of her nakedness beat an insistent tattoo in his blood. Grabbing a chair, he pulled it over to the tub, positioning it so he could stare openly at her nakedness. “And I want you.” In her pauper’s dress, she had been a delicious morsel. In the bath, she looked like one of the irresistible sirens of old who had tempted sailors to a watery death on the rocky reefs that surrounded their island country.

Her back arched, making her nipples break the surface of the water. “As I recall, you have already had me.”

“Ah, yes, the conservatory.” The memory of their first lovemaking flooded in on him with a rush, making him stand fully at attention. Damn it, but the woman was a tease. Surely she had to be fully aware of how she was affecting him and was doing it on purpose.

“Exactly.”

“That was only a nibble to whet my appetite. I’m still hungry. I want the full banquet.”

“You want a good deal.”

“I am prepared to pay well for my pleasures.”

A flicker of distaste crossed her face. Though she had begun it, she did not like this bargaining with her body. She had not been born to be a whore, exchanging pleasure for money. Still, he admired her for making use of her one remaining asset to ensure a future for her family.

“How well?”

She had been generous to him in the conservatory, giving herself to him without a thought of taking anything from him but pleasure. Now it was his turn to show her that he could be generous, too. “I will settle a sum of five hundred pounds a year on you.” He could easily afford it, and such a sum, though not wildly extravagant, would keep her in decent comfort. She would never have to beg for her bread again.

Her face paled and she gave a hiss of indrawn breath. “That is generous of you.” Her voice shook just a little as the enormity of what he was offering sank into her brain.

But he hadn’t finished yet. “You will have the town house at your disposal for as long as you choose to live there. I will send Teddy to school, and any of your sisters who wish it. They will each have one thousand pounds for a dowry to enable them to marry respectable men, and Teddy shall have the same to help him enter a profession.”

As he spoke, she gradually recovered her composure. “And if I were to…if we were to…” Her face reddened and her voice tailed off into embarrassed silence.

He divined what she had been too shy to mention. “And if we were to be blessed with children, I would acknowledge them and support them while I was alive, and they would have a goodly share in my estate when I am gone.”

Her gaze held his. “And what will you expect from me in return?”

He had never noticed before what a glorious shade of brown her eyes were—deep and clear, with a hint of gold in the very middle. “In return, you will be my lover, my mistress, and mine alone. You will take no other man to your bed, indeed you will scarcely look at another man without my express permission. You will belong to me, body and soul.” Those were his terms. He would take nothing less.

Perching one leg on the rim of the tub, she soaped along its length. “Do you expect your five hundred pounds a year to buy you a slave?” Her voice was calm enough, but he could hear a definite spark of interest in it. She was not put off by his terms, not at all. The thought of being his slave excited her.

“Not only a slave, but a willing slave,” he clarified. “I expect that my money will buy me a woman who will spend her days thinking up new ways to please me, and her nights putting her ideas to the test. A woman who will travel on a sensual journey with me, as eager to taste and feel and experience everything as I am. A woman who will not only willingly lift her skirts for me to fuck her in the conservatory at a fancy party, but who will beg me to take her to places she has never been before.

“I do not want a corpse lying underneath me on the bed, mutely accepting whatever indignity I may perform on her. I expect my five hundred pounds a year will buy me a woman who will be an active and eager participant in our lovemaking, open to teaching and being taught. A woman who will be endlessly accommodating and wildly inventive, a woman who will endeavor to match me in every way.”

“You want me to
want
to sleep with you.” She paused in the act of soaping her other leg and tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her shiver. “All the money in England could not buy a woman’s desire.”

“Did you couple with me in the conservatory because I was wealthy? Or because you wanted me?”

She turned her head away from him with a pout. “I was upset. You were there.”

How delightfully transparent she was, and virginally shamefaced about enjoying the pleasures of the flesh with him. “Do not lie to yourself. You wanted me. If you are to accept my offer and become my lover, I will not allow you to lie, either to yourself or to me, about your desire for me. I would have you shout it from the rooftops.”

She turned back to him, her face wearing a mulish expression. “And if I do not accept, what then? Will you throw us all back onto the streets tomorrow morning without ceremony? You cannot take us back to the workhouse. They will not take us back—they had already given us notice we had to leave in the morning.”

There was no question of her refusing him. He would not take no for an answer. One way or another, she would be his. “I would not throw you into the streets, no. Not even a dog deserves to lead such a life as that.”

“You would not throw us out?” The disbelief and cynicism in her voice belonged to someone twice her age.

“I would not throw you out. But neither would I feel inclined to treat you with as much generosity as I would treat my lover,” he added with brutal honesty. “I would see that you and your older sisters obtained suitable employment, and Teddy and the younger girls were given apprenticeships that would, in time, enable them to support themselves. I would do that much for anyone in your situation.”

All trace of the sultry temptress was gone, making way for the practical businesswoman that lurked just below the surface. “Employment?”

She need not think she could escape him that easily. He had not rescued her so she could be a governess in another man’s household. Still, she might as well believe that she had a choice in the matter. She would take to the life he had planned for her more easily if she believed it was the life she had chosen for herself. “As a nursery maid or a housekeeper, or even a governess, if your education were to prove up to the challenge. The lad could be sent to the counting houses. They could no doubt use him there.”

Her face fell. “We would be separated, then.”

To be good at bargaining, she would have to learn how to hide her emotions better. “That is the lot of plenty of families too poor to stay together,” he said casually. “You would at least survive.”

She nibbled on one fingernail. “If I were to become your mistress, you would send Teddy to school?”

“To Eton, if he liked it.”

“And help him to enter whichever profession he chose? The army? The clergy? Law?”

“Naturally he would have the choice. I would help him in whichever way he needed it.”

Her face had brightened with every answer he gave her. “And dower all my sisters?”

“With a thousand pounds apiece.”

Her forehead creased into a frown. “A thousand pounds is little enough inducement for an honest man to marry the sister of a whore.”

“It is a thousand more than they would otherwise have,” he pointed out.

“It’s not at all certain that any of them will ever marry, and then all your promises will cost you nothing. Make it fifteen hundred each and give them a sporting chance.”

He revised his earlier opinion of her astuteness. She wasn’t too bad a bargainer after all. “Twelve hundred and not a penny more.”

“Twelve hundred then.” A triumphant smile spread over her face at the agreement they had reached. “But it must be signed, sealed, and agreed to in front of witnesses.”

There was no doubt about it—she was a very sensible young woman. “I will have my lawyer draw up the papers in the morning.”

“And one last thing.” She hesitated before she spoke again. “My father was a successful man, until one foolish investment ruined him. I do not mean to insult you or your business acumen, but I do not wish to trust my future to a speculator, even as successful a one as you seem to be.”

She did not trust a speculator? He raised his eyebrows, waiting to see what was coming.

“I want the capital to fulfill all your promises lodged safely in the Bank of England. I dare not risk losing everything all over again.”

For the first time, her request gave him cause for concern. “You do not know what you are asking for.” He ran his hands through his hair. He’d never considered she would make such an unusual demand of him. Lodging such a vast amount of money in the Bank of England would seriously cut into his working capital.

“On the contrary, I know exactly what I am asking,” she replied a little stiffly. “You are asking me to become your mistress. In doing so, I lose my reputation and become a courtesan, which is nothing more than a fancy term for a common whore. All I am asking in return is that you ensure that you are able to hold up your end of the bargain.”

He could feel his temper rise with every word she spoke. All his dealings were honest and aboveboard. He did not deserve her mistrust. “I would never cheat you.”

“I trust you would not intend to. Just as my father did not intend to lose all his money and end up bankrupted and disgraced.”

Making over a certain amount of income a year was one thing; setting aside the capital to generate that income was quite another. Much as he wanted her, he would not let her lead him around by the nose. “I cannot afford to make over such a capital sum. Not all at once. It would cripple my business dealings.”

“Then I will be a governess.” She shot him a sidelong glance from under her lashes. “Maybe I will have the good fortune to work for a lonely widower who is looking for a wife and isn’t fussed about a dowry. Or maybe one of my employers, or one of their friends, will be a wealthy rake and will be able to set me up as I deserve. I am sure I will study to make it worth their while.”

The thought of her studying his wants, his desires, seeking to please him in all things, made him stand to attention even straighter in his trousers. He’d tasted her once, and their encounter had given him a yen for her that demanded to be satisfied. She knew it, too, the little witch, lying back in her bath, stark naked and unashamed, daring him to turn his back on her and leave her for another man. By God, but he would not let her go now, to have her innocence despoiled by some aristocratic rake who would use her and discard her with as little thought as if she were an embroidered handkerchief made to wipe his nose on.

He did a few rapid calculations in his head. “I can’t do it. I don’t have the ready money to deposit.”

“Then I had best brush up on my French and my dancing so I can find a good position. Do you dance?” The sultry look in her eyes hinted at the kind of dancing she wanted from a man. “Will you dance with me until I find an employer? One who can recompense me as I deserve?”

He had never waltzed in his life, but he’d dance the shaking of the sheets with her any day. “But I do have a small property in Hertfordshire that brings me in about four hundred a year,” he said, as an idea occurred to him that might keep both of them happy. “The yield could perhaps be increased with close management. I could make that over to you, if that would meet your needs.” Giving away the land would not hurt his business interests as tying up his business capital would.

Her eyes lit with interest. “A small property? You would make over some land to me?”

“I have no sentimental attachment to it. In fact, I’ve never even seen it. It was given to me as part payment of a debt and brings me in what was promised, so I have never bothered with it.” He pulled a wry face. “I am a railway speculator, not a farmer. I know nothing of sheep and pigs and cows.”

Her whole body was brimming with excitement. “That would take care of your obligations to me, but what of Teddy’s profession? And my sisters’ dowries?”

He had her now. She was going to accept his offer. “They will have to rely on a speculator’s promises. I will pay them when they wed. Not before.”

He could almost see the wheels clicking around in her head as she weighed up her options. Eventually she gave a quick, decisive nod. “I will accept the property, then. I will be your mistress, and will study to be everything you ever dreamed of.”

Caroline sank back into the bath, letting the cooling water flow over her body. It was decided. She would be a courtesan, a woman who used her body to entice men, to drive them so wild with desire that they would support her in comfort, even in luxury. Her stomach turned over, bile rising in her throat. She only hoped she would be up to the challenge.

Dominic would not be too much of a problem, at least at first. It was clear he already desired her. Enough to make over a small property to her.

She hugged her exultation close to her chest. A small property was even better than money in the bank to her—when Dominic eventually tired of her, her family would have somewhere to go. They could all live in the house as well as draw an income from the farmlands. She only hoped he did not tire of her too soon, but considered her worth the extortionate price she had demanded of him.