Improper Relations Read Online Free

me, and all the while I continued to circle and push and rub against the spot, my pulse racing, my mouth dry with anticipation.
    And then it happened. Whatever I had felt a moment earlier, blissful though it was, couldn’t compare to the waves of pleasure that began to implode within me. I was so surprised that I nearly pulled my hand away, but Leo was there, guiding me, whispering words of encouragement, telling me to embrace it, let it happen, let it come.
    When it was over, when the spiraling curve of delight had dwindled to a memory, he took my hand and wiped my fingers with his handkerchief, and then turned me around so I could nestle in the curve of his arms.
    “Do you believe me now?” he murmured.
    I opened my mouth to answer, and then I heard the chime of the hall clock. “It’s half past—I must go. I daren’t be late.”
    “Will you come to me again?”
    At that I froze. “Again? I dare not—”
    “What you felt just now is only the beginning. Come to my rooms tonight, after dinner, and I’ll show you more.”
    I wanted to ask, wanted to know what he meant, but there was no time. Without so much as a word of farewell I left him and hurried upstairs.
    Aunt Augusta was in a difficult mood that afternoon, and that evening too. When we were in Dorset I was expected to dine with the family, unless guests were expected. It wouldn’t do to have the poor relation sitting at table as if she belonged, so on those evenings I took my meals with Mrs. Taylor, the housekeeper. But tonight it was only Lord and Lady Dorchester, Cousin Arthur, Cousin Leo and myself.
    Only Leo never appeared, which led to yet another discussion of his imprudence, his inability to settle down, his ungentlemanly habits and his louche behavior.
    Was that the real Leo? I wondered. Or was there more to him than his reputation would suggest?
    I was grateful for his absence, for it gave me the chance to think on his offer. Staying in the library, allowing him the liberties he’d taken, had been the most audacious act of my life. Indeed, it had been the only such act I had ever committed. If I were to seek him out tonight, I would risk everything—my good name, my position in his parents’ household, my life as I knew it. If we were discovered, I would be cast out, and the workhouse would be my only refuge.
    And yet…
    He’d shown me delight, when I’d thought my life barren of it. He’d shown me bliss, when I’d assumed none existed.
    I’d been starving, my whole life, and hadn’t known it until today.
    I would go to him again.

Chapter Three
    I thought dinner would never end. My appetite had vanished—I’d never really enjoyed the richly sauced dishes that Lord Dorchester preferred—and it was all I could do to consume the merest portion of what was served.
    Nor did Aunt Augusta appear to have enjoyed her meal. After only a bite of her rhubarb tart she rose abruptly from her chair and indicated that I should follow. I hastened after her, hoping she wouldn’t be afflicted by insomnia tonight.
    I had forgotten, however, about the bottle of tonic her physician had prescribed on his last visit. Tonic, indeed—I’d sniffed its contents and it was nothing more than laudanum mixed with brandy. No sooner had we entered her chambers than she was asking Reed, her maid, for a dose. In an hour, at most, I’d be free.
    I read from her favorite volume of Lord Tennyson’s poetry as she readied herself for bed, my voice low and soothing, just as she preferred. The clock on her mantel chimed the half hour, then the hour, and still I read, not daring to stop until she’d given me leave. At last, her voice muffled by her pillows, she told me I might go.
    Setting the book aside, I curtsied and wished her good night. I took my little oil lamp, the one that normally lit my path to my modest bedchamber on the floor above, but as soon as I’d left her rooms, I extinguished it.
    I approached Leo’s chambers silently, my heart in my throat—what if