Lady Vice by Wendy LaCapra

Author:Wendy LaCapra [LaCapra, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Vice, Decadence, Murder, Brothels, The British East India Company, Historical Romance, Georgian Romance, Romance, scandal, The Furies, Vauxhall Gardens, Criminal Conversations, Historical, Scandalous, Entangled
Amazon: B00TODAAWW
Publisher: Entangled: Scandalous
Published: 2015-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Max grasped Lavinia’s hand as she led him into her sitting room. When he had seen Sullivan carrying her through the crowd, his heart had seized. They’d only just found each other. He’d thought…he’d thought…

He lifted her knuckles to his lips, kissed them, and then squeezed her hand.

He’d thought he’d lost her once again.

The gentleman within him wanted to fall on his knees and clasp her tight enough to always keep her safe. The barbarian born of his time in prison wanted to steal her away, threatening dismemberment and death to anyone who pursued.

What he wouldn’t give to savagely satiate the tension straining his tendons, thin as old leather straps.

“Do not bother to stand,” Lavinia spoke to her friends.

She nodded in turn to Sophia, Thea, and Wynchester while, together, Max and Lavinia claimed the settee. His leg brushed hers and, despite her newfound display of purpose and authority, she blushed like the girl he remembered.

He soared like a besotted cub.

“How wonderful of you to join us.” Sophia looked over with the weary, anxious eyes of a drowning sailor. “In your absence, Their Graces invented a ripping game.”

Lavinia’s lips quirked. “How does one play?”

“I ask a question in the categories of weather, temperature, or comfort, Thea responds with a single-word answer, and then the duke adds a punctuating grunt.”

“Intriguing,” Max said. “How does one win?”

“Their Graces are working out the details,” Sophia replied with a wry lilt.

Max leaned toward the glowering duke. “I should have warned you, Wynchester. Lady Sophia speaks things as she sees them.”

Sophia visibly calmed and a dimple creased her cheek. “A man with an excellent memory is an asset to be cherished, Lavinia.”

Again, Max covered Lavinia’s fingers. “Listen to your friend.”

He knew she had meant her lash-filtered look as admonishment, but her glance left him tingling with heady wonder.

The duke cleared his throat, eyes fastened on his wife. “I’d like a turn with a question.”

“Ask, by all means,” Thea said. “A duke must do as he pleases.”

…and so the opera began. This could be very entertaining. Max settled back into the cushions, content to observe the Furies swarm since he, now, was not their object.

“What are you doing here, duchess?” Wynchester demanded.

“Tsk,” Sophia said. “That question does not fall into one of our categories.”

“I am sporting, so I will answer.” Thea pulled back her shoulders. “You heard Sophia; I am inventing a ripping game.”

“You should not be here,” the duke said.

“Not a question.” Thea feigned a sigh of disappointment. “I told you, Sophia. He can be quite thick.”

“What were you thinking?” The duke squeezed his eyes into angry slits. “What are you ever thinking?”

“Why, nothing, of course,” Thea answered. “With such a piddling thing as a female mind, how could I be expected to think?”

Ouch. The invisible thread that attached the Wynchesters tightened through an excruciating moment of silence.

“You may grunt now, duke,” Thea added.

“Come now, Your Grace,” Sophia said in a conciliatory tone. “Surely you trust your wife’s discernment.”

“Why should I, when my wife revels nightly under the Lord of Misrule?”

“I beg your pardon!” Thea gasped.

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