“I accept your challenge, sir. We may walk, and I shall work to ferret out the cause of your distress.”
“Ah, well, that is no easy task.”
“I have never been one to choose the easy path.” She said the words, but in her heart she knew she lied. A careful look at her life revealed that she had always chosen the easy path of staying at home, caring for her father, and creating a place that was hers alone. It was only because Ronnie continually charged into her home that she was at last driven to seek an alternative. She might say that she’d chosen the difficult path in London, except that Trevor and Eleanor had arranged everything. She had performed, danced, and even spoken as she was told.
But no more. She was a woman reborn and would take her future in her own hands. And given that Trevor had spurned her, she supposed her best option was Mr. Rausch. So she allowed him to walk her through the garden. They greeted several friends, but never lingered. And when their path wended toward a more secluded corner, she allowed it to happen.
“Well, sir, we have had a lovely walk, haven’t we?” she began. “But as we cannot expect to remain alone for long, pray tell me what is on your mind. Please don’t say that I am the cause of your distress.”
He smiled and possessed her hand. “On the contrary, it is my business affairs that upset me because I must go away to Africa for a time.”
“Africa!” she gasped. “Oh, I have often longed to go there just to see the animals.”
“There are creatures there nothing like what we have in poor England,” he agreed. Then he pulled her fingers to her lips. But rather than kiss them, he lifted her hand higher and higher until the button below her elbow was revealed.
“Mr. Rausch—”
He pressed a finger to her lips, telling her to be quiet. She raised her eyebrows at his impertinence, but didn’t object. After all, she had decided to be amused by boldness today, right? But when he thumbed her glove undone and began to push it down her elbow, she wasn’t intrigued as much as confused.
Then he brought it to his lips. Not her arm, but the glove as it slouched on her wrist. She felt the tickle of his lips and heard a slight sound as he sucked the button inside his mouth. He was…suckling her glove.
She looked at him, wondering if he meant to be erotic. Obviously, the answer was yes, and there was a certain wild thrill to be had when undressing in public so a man could fondle her arm. But she wasn’t aroused. And when his tongue traced a circle along her skin, she shivered, not from excitement but a vague, wet revulsion. All she could think was that he was licking off her perfume. And then he looked into her eyes.
She expected to see a dazed hunger there. Some sort of sexual need such as on Trevor’s face whenever they touched. Instead, she saw calculation. The kind of narrow-eyed inspection that her father gave rare beetles or something new and different trapped beneath the glass of his microscope.
This was not physical desire. This was analysis.
“Miss Smithson, you surprise me,” he said. “And I assure you, I do not surprise often.”
She tried to pull back her hand, but he held it still, idly stroking her bared wrist. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Did you feel no desire then?”
“I—” She swallowed. “It was pleasurable,” she finally admitted.
And it had been. Just not exciting.
“Damned by faint praise,” he said as he straightened to his full height. “I suppose I shall have to persuade your mind then.”
“I have always been impressed by the way your mind thinks,” she said honestly. “You are not as educated as you pretend, but your thoughts are keen. And you know how to listen. That is rare, even among learned men. I find it quite stimulating.”
His expression shifted into a genuine smile. It wasn’t polite. Not the cultured shift of lips and chin to show amusement. This expression showed teeth and looked odd in this manicured garden. And yet it was the warmest she’d ever seen on him.
“Mr. Rausch—”
“I want to take you with me to Africa, Miss Smithson. I want to show you giraffes and rhinoceros.”
She tilted her head. “Would that not be rhinoceri?”
He chuckled. “I have no idea, but I would show you them. And at night, I would teach you things that would excite you. I would show you ways to pleasure that can only be learned in the Orient.”
She arched a brow. “Would we be traveling to the Orient?”
“Yes,” he said, the word pitched lower and more seductive.
She began to think about the creatures to see in the Orient. She had never had a desire to travel the world before. Never thought to go beyond the streets of London. Her explorations had been reserved for chemicals and formulas, but now he sparked in her a desire to explore the world, and she took a step toward him.
“So you wish to learn?” he asked. “Shall I tell you about the creatures in China—big bears that are colored black and white and are the gentlest of creatures?”