It had been a long day, helping Mrs. Keates acquaint herself with her two servants and settling her into her new home, a small, tidy place in a middle class neighborhood not far from the far more extravagant home he’d bought for Lysandra.
Regina Keates’ happiness and utter friendliness had made it all worthwhile.
“How could you do this?” Lysandra burst out.
Andrew stared at her. She had been bubbling with tension since she arrived at her cousin’s home hours ago, but he hadn’t expected this explosion within moments of being along in his carriage. Hadn’t she seen how happy her mother was? Couldn’t she understand that Andrew had freed her mother from the ugliness of the Ingram home in order to help Lysandra?
“Give your mother a place to stay that doesn’t require you to give up three-quarters of your purse and keeps her from being abused?” he asked softly. “Yes, I am a ghoul, I know.”
Lysandra shook her head. “How could you insert yourself into my life? Do you know what kind of explanations I shall have to make?”
He shrugged. “Your mother seemed to accept the story that you have come to work for me and part of our arrangement was that I would help you procure this little home for her.”
Lysandra rolled her eyes. “She accepts it now because she is thrilled to be away from my bastard of a cousin. But after a few weeks, as her elation fades, do you not think she will begin to question this? She is not a fool, you know.”
“Honestly, Lysandra, I thought you might have told her your grand plans to save her,” Andrew said. “I had no idea she thought you continued to work for your old employer or that you were a ladies maid.”
Lysandra snorted out a laugh that had no humor or warmth to it. “Why would I tell my mother that I was whoring myself to escape her husband’s sins? To save her? To save myself?”
Andrew flinched. “Is that what you call it? Whoring yourself?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. When I’m with you, it doesn’t feel that way. But when you give me money, a home not only for me but for my mother, clothing… I cannot be able to repay you in any way. Save one.” She sighed. “And even in that element, I’ll fall short. Perhaps I am nothing more than a whore, dressed up as something more.”
Andrew cupped her chin and lifted her face so she was forced to look at him. She seemed defeated and he hated himself for it. He had made her feel this way, after all. Despite his good intentions.
“I watched you today with your mother, Lysandra,” he said softly. “How patient you were, how you made her laugh. Today you were no man’s mistress. You were just a good and decent woman trying to do right by her mother.”
She blinked, tears sparkling in her eyes as the late-afternoon light streamed around the curtain covering the carriage window.
“But I didn’t do right by her. You did. You brought her away from my cousin’s home and into her own. But what about when you are finished with me? How will I afford that place?”
He leaned down and kissed her lips gently. “We’ll work it out, Lysandra. I promise you.”
She pulled away and stared at him. “Tell me one thing, Andrew. Why did you do this for her?”
“It wasn’t for her,” he admitted, knowing he shouldn’t say those words, but doing so despite the consequences. “I did this for you.”
She stared at him in the quiet of the carriage, and he realized he was holding his breath. Waiting for her to respond to his revelation. Finally, she pushed away and moved to the opposite side of the carriage.
“Please don’t,” she whispered.
He tilted his head. “Don’t?”
“Don’t pretend you care for me even in the slightest way when you leave as soon as you’re finished slaking your desire,” she said, her voice trembling.
“I care more than you know and more than I wish I did,” he snapped back and then sucked in his breath.
Why the fuck had he said that?
She stared at him, then opened her mouth, and he lunged for her, desperate to stop this conversation in the one way he knew how. He dragged her across the carriage against him and kissed her hard. To his surprise, she responded with just as much passion and anger as he did. She ripped at his shirt, opening it to slide her hands in against his chest with a hiss of breath that merged with his.
She straddled him, hiking up her skirts around her thighs just as she had the last time they made love in this very vehicle. As she kissed him, she began to writhe over him, rubbing herself against his clothed cock until it pressed against the fabric and ached deliciously.
He cupped the back of her head to kiss her again, but she pulled away and shook her head. He held back, no matter how hard it was, and watched her. He expected her to mount him or undress herself, or anything but what she did next.
She dropped to her knees on the floor before him and extracted his aching cock from his trousers. With one quick glance up at him, she drew him into her mouth.
He arched against the seat, thrusting into her mouth as he lost a fraction of control. If his motion bothered her, she didn’t protest. In fact, she made a low moan of pleasure in her throat that reverberated up his cock and through his entire body.
“Jesus, Lysandra,” he gasped as she swirled her tongue around him in a slow circle and lit him on fire with pleasure.
She didn’t slow her pace, but began thrusting her mouth over him again and again with vigor and passion. He squeezed his eyes shut as wave after wave of pleasure built in him and finally crashed over him. He tried to pull away as he came, but she held tight to the base of his cock and took every drop.
The carriage pulled to a stop as she wiped her mouth and returned to the seat across from his. Andrew hurried to cover himself and only just managed to do so as the driver opened the door and helped Lysandra down. She turned and held up her hand when he moved to leave.
“I find I have a bit of a headache, my lord,” she said softly. “So I will bid you good night.”
She didn’t wait for him to respond, but turned on her heel and strode into her house without so much as a backward glance.
Andrew blinked after her in disbelief. So she would do something so wildly passionate and then just…leave? It felt like a rejection. It felt like he’d been used. It felt like…
Exactly like he made her feel every time he walked away from her.
He shook his head as he motioned for his driver to take him home. Somehow this supposedly brief affair had transformed into something far more than he had ever anticipated. And now he had no idea what to do about it.
“Miss, may I help you?” Lysandra’s maid asked as she peeked her head into her chamber.
Lysandra stopped pacing long enough to give the girl a cursory smile. “No, Faith. I’ll undress myself tonight.”
The maid’s eyes went wide at the odd request, but then she nodded before she bobbed out of the room and left Lysandra alone. She immediately went back to pacing.
Yes, she knew it was foolish not to let the maid attend to her, but seeing the girl only reminded Lysandra that Andrew had paid for both the maid, and for her. And since he had paid, he could now demand anything he wanted. Whether that be her body or her secrets or entry into a life she would rather keep separate from this one.
Yes, she appreciated that her mother was safe now. Comfortable. But how could he not understand how precarious a position that put her in? What if her next protector refused to keep her mother in that place? What if she never found another protector after Andrew discarded her? She would be far worse off and her mother would likely end up on the street after Andrew’s heavy-handedness with August.
Not that she hadn’t enjoyed that little exchange, but still. The temporary pleasure at August’s fear and humiliation could easily transform into long-term problems. But Andrew didn’t have to think about that. In his mind and in his world, he took what he wanted and that was that.
But tonight she had turned the tables on him.
She stopped pacing as she thought
of the feel of him in her mouth. The way she had stolen control from him in some small way. It had been an act of revenge…and an act of pleasure. He had been shocked by it, shocked by her, that had been clear by the way he reacted to her and her dismissal of him.
Would it backfire on her? Perhaps. But at least, for the first time in a long time, she had taken control of her life. She had refused to bow to someone else’s demands, someone else’s rules.
And that, as much as Andrew’s cock, had been a great pleasure, indeed.
Chapter Seventeen
After a restless night tossing and turning, living and reliving Lysandra’s passionate possession and ultimate rejection of him, Andrew was in no mood to do anything but sit in his office and brood. In fact, he was still just waking up when his servant knocked on his door.
“Come,” he growled, loath for the interruption when his head hurt and his mind was so unfocused.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your work, my lord, but your father is here to see you,” the footman said as he opened the door a fraction. He arched a brow. “I did mention you were working, but he is quite insistent.”
Andrew wrinkled his brow. “The earl is here?”
The footman nodded, just once, and from the drawn look on his face, Andrew could see just how “insistent” his father had been.
He groaned. Today was not the day to face his father’s judgments and suggestions, but what could he do? Turn the man away? That would certainly cause a most interesting reaction. But not one he wished to face at present.
“Bring him here,” he said as he reached for the bottle on the corner of his desk and poured himself a strong drink.
The footman bowed his way out. Andrew got to his feet as he took a sip of gin. He straightened his jacket and prayed his father wouldn’t be able to see his distraction.
The door opened, and the earl walked in, owning this room as he had owned every room he had ever inhabited, probably since birth. Andrew had always admired that quality about his father, worked to create such presence in himself. But it also caused his stomach to tie in knots.
The earl frowned as Andrew came around the desk and held out a hand.
“Father,” he said. “I didn’t expect you today.”
His father shook his hand and looked him up and down as he did so. His perusal was in no way subtle and from the looks of it, there would be no avoiding his father’s thoughts on what he saw.
“I hadn’t seen you in a few days, Callis,” the old man said. “Wondered if I should worry about you, especially after all the talk I’ve been hearing.”
Andrew returned to his seat behind the desk and motioned his father into the opposite. “Would you like a drink?”
His father eyed the bottle with a frown. “A bit early for me. And for you.”
Andrew pushed his glass aside slowly. “You say there is talk? What could you mean by that?”
“It’s all over Town that you’ve taken a new mistress,” his father said.
Andrew was glad he hadn’t been drinking, for he would have spit the alcohol across the room. He cleared his throat.
“Blunt, as always, Father.”
The older man smiled slightly. “Well, I’ve always believed in getting right to the point. No use dilly-dallying around a subject, eh?”
Andrew lifted his brows slightly. “No, I suppose not. But why call this particular rumor to my attention? After all, most men in our circles have mistresses. In fact, I have had them myself in the past, and they never caught your notice.”
His father nodded. “That is true. And honestly, when I heard this story, I admit I was actually pleased. I’ve been telling you for years that you should find a woman to get you out of this funk of yours. But then I heard a bit more about this…this person you have involved yourself with.”
Any humor Andrew might have found in the situation vanished in a second at that statement and his father’s tone of voice as he said it.
“Person,” he repeated slowly.
His father nodded. “Yes. Lysandra Keates is her name, is it not?”
“What do you know of Lysandra?” he asked, trying to keep his own tone calm and unreadable.
His father observed his expression carefully. “Do you know she was a servant?”
“And?” Andrew asked, probably more sharply than he should have.
His father leaned back in his chair, but there was nothing nonchalant about the action or his next statement. “A servant for my friend, the Earl of Culpepper?”
Andrew leaned forward. “Culpepper?” he repeated in disbelief.
He had never asked Lysandra about her prior employer. She had seemed loath to discuss the particulars beyond that the man had crossed a line with her. In truth, Andrew hadn’t wanted to press her on the subject, not when he drove her so hard on so many other topics and “lessons”.
But now that he knew… Culpepper was almost exactly in between his age and his father’s. Andrew had never liked him. He was a pompous man with a quick temper, but Andrew did…or had…respected him.
He shook his head. There was no use getting into all of that with his father. Not since he still wasn’t entirely sure of the earl’s motives.
“What of it?” he pressed. “Many a woman has begun as a servant and turned to the more lucrative life of a mistress or courtesan. Especially when she is as young and attractive as Lysandra is.”
“Do you know why she left his employ?” his father asked softly.
Andrew pressed his lips together. He wasn’t going to spill secrets that weren’t his to tell. “No.”
“She made a blatant attempt to seduce Culpepper,” his father said, disdain dripping from every word. “And then she demanded an exorbitant sum of money to keep her mouth shut about the affair.”
Andrew clenched his hands into fists on his desk and drew a few deep breaths. So that was what Culpepper was saying? An interesting lie considering that Andrew knew Lysandra was a virgin. Or she had been. But such statements, said by such a powerful man…no wonder she had been unable to find work as a servant.
The bastard had destroyed her.
And Andrew felt a strong desire to return the favor.
“More to the point, you look at her history… Her father had terrible debts, her mother lives with her cousin and he’s as shady a merchant as has ever lived.” His father shook his head. “Her entire family is uncouth and greedy and it seems her apple has fallen firmly beneath their tree.”
Andrew fought to maintain calm in both his voice and demeanor. “I see you’ve done your research, my lord.”
“I had no choice once I started hearing the gossip over the past few days and Culpepper approached me with his concerns.” His father shrugged.
Andrew opened his mouth to argue but shut it again. He knew his father too well to expect him to apologize for prying. It was in his nature.
“I appreciate your concern—” Andrew began.
“Concern?” his father interrupted with a snort. “I’d call it more than that. At four different parties this week alone I was approached by the gossips. Mothers wondering if this delicate situation meant you were thinking of coming back on the mart, men warning me that Culpepper had spoken to them of the situation as well. Hell, some of your old cronies even approached your brother.”
“And how do you know that?” Andrew asked.
His father shrugged again. “He spoke to me about it.”
“Sam met her,” Andrew insisted. “He liked her.”
His father laughed. “Well, your brother likes everyone. He can afford to like everyone. He has no responsibilities in life as long as you fulfill your requirements to produce an heir.”
Andrew flinched.
“This is a pointless argument.” His father waved his hand. “The reason I’m approaching you about this is to tell you that this girl is after your purse. You may be too enamored to see it, but a bad mistress can ruin a man. Look at Baird.”
Andrew shook his head. Recently Viscount
Joseph Baird had lost a great lump of his fortune and the entirety of the respect he once had because of an obsession with a woman of highly ill repute, Winifred Birch.
“Lysandra is nothing like that,” Andrew snapped. “And I’m certainly nothing like Baird.”
Except on that count, he might be wrong. Baird had shown up at the woman’s house at all hours of the night, loudly demanding to see her long after she had bled his accounts to nothing. Andrew could almost see himself doing the same. Certainly, one day away from Lysandra and he longed to touch her again, consequences be damned.
“I’m certain Baird thought the same thing.” His father sniffed. “That the Birch woman was all goodness and light because of whatever tricks she could do in his bed. But when a man is mesmerized by a woman’s body, he sometimes does foolish things.”
“And that’s what you think of me,” Andrew said, still barely hanging on to respectful calm.
His father shrugged. “It’s been a long time since you were with a woman, and I’m sure a woman of her type offers certain…advantages when it comes to pleasure.”
Now Andrew pushed out of his seat and left it rocking behind him.
“Enough,” he barked, slamming his hands on the desk. “Do not speak of her in such a fashion again.”
The earl drew back at the tone and was silent for a long time, staring at him with the same expression of appraisal he had had when he first entered the room. Finally, he shook his head.
“You should end this affair, son.”
Andrew flinched. His father never referred to him as anything but Callis. He must be truly concerned.
“Why?” he asked dully, retaking his seat.
“Because you are addled by it.” His father shrugged. “Find another woman. Or do as the ton has been demanding and put yourself back on the marriage market. If anything has been proven by this mistake you’re making, it’s that you are most eligible. I’ve never seen chaperones quiver with such delight at the notion that a man might be available.”
Andrew downed the drink he had set aside in one slug. “No,” he said when he was finished. “I’m not ending anything and I’m certainly not headed back to the marriage mart.”
An Introduction to Pleasure: Mistress Matchmaker, Book 1 Page 14