Free Educating Aphrodite by Kimberly Killion

Chapter One
     
    “Have you completely lost your wits?” Vincent Delacroix
stood upright behind his pine desk and wrenched his fingers into pitch-black
hair. “You’re the bloody Countess of Warwick for God’s sake! A lady of noble
breeding. Not a common doxy.”
    Unable to hold his boiling black glare, Alexandra twisted
her gloves in her lap and blew a white-blonde curl from her eyes. “My husband
obviously doesn’t want a lady in his bed.”
    “Christ, Alexandra!” His harsh tone indicated his
opposition, and she’d yet to tell him the whole of her plan. “Your husband is
the proprietor of the Piacere Theatre. Not to mention a close friend.”
    “Which is why I came to you.” Perhaps this was madness.
Perhaps loneliness drove her toward lunacy, but she was desperate to rekindle
the passion in her marriage. Unfortunately, she lacked the courage and
experience to accomplish her task without Delacroix’s assistance.
    “I cannot begin to fathom why you would go to such
measures.”
    The light-blue silk choker that matched her eyes seemed to
tighten around an expanding knot of frustration. She swallowed it hard and
raised her pale lashes to Delacroix. “Sebastian and I have not been…intimate
since I conceived Edward.”
    The angry lines between Delacroix’s dark brows disappeared.
He scrubbed his tightly groomed black beard in obvious astonishment. “Your son
is nearly a year old.”
    Shame burned her face and stung her eyes. Alexandra bit back
the tears and looked down the expanse of her fashionable gold gown trimmed with
frills and flounces and lace. At twenty-three, she was fit and well-kept and
upheld her role as Countess of Warwick with elegance and grace, but hidden
beneath layers of perfumed petticoats was a woman that no longer appealed to
her husband. “It has taken me months to accept the fact Sebastian no longer
desires me.”
    “Forgive me. I did not know.” Delacroix rounded the desk to
kneel in front of her. He captured her cold, wringing fingers then raised her
hands to his warm lips. He kissed one, then the other, and offered her a
sympathetic look that began to tear the thin layer of restraint guarding her
temper.
    “I don’t want your pity. I want your help.”
    “I’ll help you.” His agreement came quicker than she’d
expected. “What exactly is it you had in mind?”
    Hope swirled behind her breast. She sat up taller. “I want
to dance in Saturday night’s performance of Aphrodite .”
    Shock widened his dark brown eyes. He stabbed a finger
between his cravat and neck and yanked. “You know about the performance?”
    “I know everything.” She knew about the actresses slated to
dance at the Piacere Theatre. They were the same women who warmed her husband’s
bed and satisfied his carnal appetite. “I know Sebastian is playing the role of
Adonis and will select the woman who performs in the finale. I also know that
same woman will attend him privately the remainder of the night. I want to be
the temptress behind the mask who catches his eye.”
    Delacroix stood and walked away from her to a side table
where he poured himself a hefty noggin of bourbon. “Then you’re willing to
defile yourself before an audience.” He angled his chin over his shoulder.
“With me.”
    Heat crawled up Alexandra’s neck, spread across her face,
then scalded the tips of her ears. That was the one obstacle she hadn’t quite
figured out how to get around. The literal climactic ending included three
players—Aphrodite and her two lovers, Ares and Adonis. More specifically,
Sebastian and Delacroix. She’d never been with anyone other than Sebastian. And
she’d certainly never been with two men at the same time. But her faithfulness
had gained her naught but an empty bed. “I am willing to resort to whatever
means are necessary to have my husband back in my bed.”
    “Warwick will kill me if I agree to this.” He emptied the
contents of his glass in one loud gulp.
    “I do not need your