Free Absolute Pleasure by Cheryl Holt Page B

fingers. No one had ever stroked her similarly, not even when she was ill as a child, so the gesture was strange, but also pacifying, and she pondered what it would be like to have him caress her more exhaustively.
    "I realize it's February," he mentioned, cutting into her reverie, "but might you have a summer dress available?"
    'They're packed in my closet but easily located."
    He perused her again, in that punctilious fashion at which he excelled. His right hand resumed its seductive massage, but his left trailed down her brow and chin, across her nape, coming close to, but stopping before, he caressed her breast.
    She was paralyzed with expectation. Her heart skipped several beats, her breathing arrested, as she waited for him to slip lower, but he didn't. Instead, he simply gestured horizontally across her bosom, the motion nonchalant, as if he hadn't intended any naughty conduct.
    "Wear a gown that's had the bodice cut back," he requested. "Choose one that you might don for a garden party. Something flowing and casual. Your most feminine side needs to shine through."
    "As you wish."
    She'd never paid much attention to color or chic attire, and fancy gala dresses had never been her style, but her mind was already awhirl with thoughts of what she might find in her dressing room that would be suitable.
    Furtively, she peeked down at her conservative brown day dress. It sheathed her from neck to wrist to toes, and what she'd long classified as functional now seemed dowdy and old-maidish. Perhaps a new wardrobe was in order.
    "Until Friday, then," he said as if they were polite strangers.
    "Until Friday," she echoed.
    "Let me escort you to the house."
    "No. I'll see myself out. I know the way."
    He was about to argue, so she walked to the door, opened it, and briskly stepped through, pulling it shut behind. She wanted her departing reminiscence to be that of him sheltered in the midst of his sensual retreat.
    On the stoop, having abandoned the hot, muggy air, and the sultry, foreign surroundings, she shivered. A cold, fat raindrop plopped on her forehead.
    "Ah, reality returns," she groused, realizing that she muttered the phrase constantly, reality having become so untenable. Abruptly freezing, she sped across the yard and into the town house.
    Even now, she was counting the minutes, counting the hours, until Friday afternoon.
     

Chapter Five
    John Preston walked toward the receiving parlor where Mary Smith waited for Lady Elizabeth.
    No doubt, Miss Smith was growing apprehensive about what precisely was transpiring between her friend and Gabriel. She'd been extremely reluctant to leave the lady to her own devices, and John had had to summon all his charm—a substantial amount—in order to ease her concerns as to her friend's decision to remain.
    John was amazed, himself, by how freely the exalted noblewoman had agreed to privacy for her initial session. Despite his son's renowned way with women; Gabriel usually had to suffer through several appointments before his potential paramours were comfortable enough to meet sans a chaperone.
    Surprisingly, Lady Elizabeth had seemed downright eager for solitude, but John wouldn't try to deduce what her early acquiescence might portend. He'd never comprehended women, their thinking or their motives, which meant that females had been the constant impetus for many of the snarls in which he'd become enmeshed.
    A true gallant in the old-fashioned sense of the word, he was habitually plagued by their troubles, sucked into the middle of their trials and tribulations, and thus, he was perpetually besieged by the need to offer his services.
    Women were the ultimate mystery which, of course, made them all the more fascinating. He'd rarely met one whom he didn't find to be incredibly appealing, except for that horse-faced shrew his father had demanded he marry when he'd been a mere boy of eighteen. Her nasty disposition, and her jarring nature, had grated ferociously.
    Advanced age brought