Free Katie Rose by Courting Trouble Page B

her innocent words, and his breathing quickened. Could she really mean what she said? Could Winifred Appleton really boldly proposition him in his own office, intending to let him—
    “So I think this is the only answer,” Winifred continued. “The … passion between us is interfering with our work, and I presume the only way to subdue it is to experience it to the fullest.”
    “I see,” Charles said. Understanding dawned as he finally grasped her reasoning. His seduction had been effective, all right, so much so that she wanted to experience it all in an effort to put him from her mind! Only Winifred could have possibly come up with such an idea, he marveled.
    She was offering him the chance of a lifetime—an opportunity to make love to her. He would have to be a fool not to consider it. He stared at her once more. She had lowered her face again, and he felt a moment’s sympathy for her, knowing what it had cost her to make this daring proposal. Lifting her chin with his fingers, he gazed deeply into her eyes.
    Her expression made his breath stop. Along with shyness and embarrassment, he saw confused desire smoldering there, and a need that was as urgent as his own. His mouth went dry, and it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms right then and there.
    “Winnie,” he said hoarsely, “what makes you sosure that once we have … consummated this relationship, the passion between us would die?”
    “It always does,” Winifred said, surprised at his question. “One does not see married couples acting entranced with each other over time. And even the most ardent lovers eventually become disenchanted.”
    “I see,” he replied, knowing all too well what she meant. Unfortunately, Winifred’s observations about married couples were correct. He, too, knew few of them who rushed home into each other’s arms. His own parents maintained a cordial relationship, yet so formal that it was hard to believe they had ever experienced the kind of desire he felt for Winifred. But between some married couples, he knew, such passion did exist.
    Winifred didn’t know what she was asking, Charles was certain of that. But what were her motives?
    “Winnie, this is not because of the apprenticeship, is it?” he questioned. “I would not want you to enter into something like this because you felt indebted to me.”
    “Of course not!” Winifred said, thunderstruck. “I am clerking for you in exchange for your help in preparing for the bar examination. I certainly feel I am contributing more than my share to your office,” she bristled.
    “Yes, you are,” Charles said softly. “But Winnie, I am not convinced you have thought this all the way through. Someone here has to have some sense. There are many possible repercussions, physically, emotionally—I am not certain you understand what you are proposing.”
    “I most certainly do.” She gave him a penetrating look. “Charles, I am determined to do this, but I sense you are not entirely committed to carrying it through.I find this peculiar, given that you have done everything in your power to seduce me since I have been here. But if you have had second thoughts, then I will proceed with someone else, if necessary. Perhaps Mr. Marton will stand in for you, if you feel compromised.”
    Charles swore under his breath. Winifred knew unerringly how to skewer him, and it was all he could do not to turn her over his knee. Yet in all fairness, she was perfectly correct. It was he that had seduced her—too successfully, it seemed. As she gazed at him with all the directness of a hardened trial lawyer, her hazel eyes brimming with eagerness, he realized he could not resist her, no matter what his resolutions or his common sense told him. He was as trapped as she. Chuckling, he shook his head in defeat.
    “All right, then. Where and when do you want to commence with this?”
    Winifred breathed a sigh of relief. “I don’t know about such things,” she confessed.