Harlequin Historical April 2018 Box Set 1 of 2 by Louise Allen Marguerite Kaye & Elizabeth Beacon

Author:Louise Allen, Marguerite Kaye & Elizabeth Beacon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488087509
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises Limited
Published: 2018-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

To her surprise, Sophia had slept deeply, awaking as the morning light crept through a gap in the curtains, in a very different mood from the one in which she had fled from Jean-Luc the previous night. Pulling on a wrap, she padded over to the window and pulled the heavy curtains apart. The sky was changing from grey to pale blue, the few scattered clouds white and fluffy. She opened the window to lean out, relishing the welcoming kiss of the sun on her skin. It was going to be a lovely day.

She closed her eyes, surprised to discover that her memory of the previous evening’s events was no longer tainted by embarrassment. Last night had been a revelation. Jean-Luc had been right, there was no such thing as simply a kiss. Until that shocking moment of release, she had been quite lost in those kisses and Jean-Luc’s touch and his taste. Her hands roving over his body, she had relished the effect she was having, because it was an echo of the effect he was having on her.

Was that why it had happened? Startled, her eyes flew open. Last night, she had not set out to induce pleasure, but she had done, almost effortlessly. Last night, there had been none of the physical intimacies she had experienced before. They had been fully clothed, for heaven’s sake, and yet she had surrendered to the wave of passion, the surging crescendo, in a way she never had before. She was not an expensively purchased toy for Jean-Luc to play with. She was not a well-trained automaton, dutifully responding to his cues. He had given her no directions, and he had expected nothing from her. He would have ceased at the merest indication from her. He had not gone galloping off intent on his own journey to completion. It was she who had galloped off uncontrollably! It was perfectly natural, Jean-Luc had said. And in the bright, revealing light of this June morning, Sophia saw that he had spoken the truth.

Hopkins, she supposed, had earned the right to affect indifference, having bought her body to do with as he wished, requiring only that she appeared to enjoy what gave him pleasure. It should have been different with Frederick. He had professed to care, but in the end had proved he cared only for himself. His subsequent behaviour demonstrated that beyond doubt. She’d thought it was the province of the male, to take pleasure from the female. She’d assumed that every woman did as she had learnt to do, to simulate her enjoyment. And she’d been wrong.

Though the circumstances, Sophia thought bitterly, until now had hardly been conducive. With both Frederick and Hopkins, she had been burdened by the bargains she had struck. She had knowingly sold herself twice, albeit the nature of the arrangements had been very different. Jean-Luc was also paying for her services, but on an entirely contrasting basis. He had no rights to her body. That was the enormous and very significant difference.

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