Alexander intended making her his mistress. If he were to seduce her, as the increasing ache of his penis told him he was so longing to do, then he knew he would be well and truly lost, totally enslaved by her beguiling loveliness!
He viewed Angelina through narrowed lids. “What sort of woman was this Miss Bristow?” Certainly not a lady, if her teachings to Angelina were anything to go by! What had Hopkins been thinking by placing a sixteen-year-old Angelina in such an establishment? Perhaps, knowing of Angelina’s background, the man had mistaken Alexander’s eventuaal intentions toward her.
“Oh, she’s a wonderful woman, Xander!” Angelina moved to once again sit beside him on the bed. “Very much a lady.”
“A lady!” Alexander repeated scornfully.
“Oh, but she is, Xander.” Angelina frowned. “She insisted on teaching ‘my young ladies,’ as she called us, all the social graces as well as our normal lessons. We had to learn to embroider, paint and play the piano before she would even consider telling us about our own sensuality.”
Alexander eyed her warily. “Your own sensuality …?”
Angelina gave a husky laugh. “Miss Bristow saw no reason why a woman should not enjoy the bedding as much as the man, and with that in mind—”
“Enough!” Alexander rasped as he held up a protesting hand.
Angel smiled warmly. “Many of the other girls thought some of the things Miss Bristow explained to us to be quite impossible, but I was sure that the right man—you, Alexander—would be interested in ensuring that I also experienced pleasure in our lovemaking …”
“Stop, Angelina!” Alexander said forcefully, realizing he would have to attend to having Angelina’s disruptive presence removed from St. Claire House as soon as possible. If he did not, he was sorely in danger of giving her that “pleasure” she spoke of so openly!
“Well … perhaps not now,” she allowed. “But tonight, once we have become better reacquainted …? Miss Bristow was at great pains to tell us lovemaking should be a mutual pleasure. Of all the senses. Vision. Touch. Hearing. Smell. As well as taste.” She licked her tongue slowly over the firm swell of her bottom lip as she said the latter.
Alexander found his gaze mesmerized by the eroticism of her tongue’s movement, in that moment easily able to imagine Angelina lowering her head to caress his erection in the same way.
Dear God, he ached intolerably just thinking of Angelina doing such things with him!
“Cease and desist, Angelina!” he muttered agitatedly. “And kindly remove yourself from my bedchamber at once. As I am now fully awake I may as well take my bath.” He glared at her.
She stood slowly, the sunlight once again making the material of her nightgown and robe transparent. “Perhaps I might help you with your bath, Xander, and we could become better acquainted in that way? I could wash your back and chest and—other things.” She threw back the bedclothes to fully expose the length of his erection to her avid gaze as she reached out and touched him.
Alexander found the strength to push her hand away and pull the bedclothes back over himself. “As soon as I am dressed I am going to soundly spank your bottom!” he warned thunderously.
“Really?” Angelina’s eyes widened with interest. “Would it not be better if we were both to remain undressed when you did that, Xander? Miss Bristow said that a little pain during lovemaking—only a little, you understand?—can heighten the senses and—”
“I believe Miss Bristow has said altogether too much!” He gave another aching groan.
Angel looked at him with concern. “Are you in pain, Xander? Can I do anything to help?”
‘Xander’ was in great pain! He was also in danger of completely embarrassing himself as visions of putting Angelina over his knee and spanking the bareness of her bottom threatened to tip him over the edge!
“My only need is for privacy, Angelina,” he declared gruffly. “Now!” he added with firm emphasis.
“As you wish, Xander.” And, as she had the night before, Angelina pouted her disappointment before turning and slowly walking to the door.
CHAPTER FIVE
“HAS IT NOT BEEN A happy day, Xander?” Angelina beamed across the small table at him as they dined alone together that evening.
Alexander’s gaze glowered over the rim of his glass of claret as he grudgingly acknowledged how lovely Angelina looked this evening in a gown of cream silk, with her golden hair curling onto her bare shoulders.
In fact, Alexander had found it a most frustrating day!
For one thing, it was proving far more difficult to relocate Angelina than he had initially thought.
Having promised Hawkins that he would see to Angelina’s future, Alexander could not just throw her out into the street to fend for herself. Neither could he send her to a hotel when she had no chaperone.
Instead, he had decided that perhaps his aunt Elizabeth might be persuaded into having the girl—as long as Angelina was cautioned first concerning any attempt on her part to discuss the finer points of her education with his aunt … Alexander had driven Angelina in his carriage to his aunt’s house in Grosvenor Square this morning, only to find his aged relative had unhelpfully taken herself off to the country for the day to visit her daughter, and was not expected back to town until much later this evening.
Alexander did not even entertain the idea of sending Angelina back to Brighton to the dubious guardianship of the overinformative Miss Bristow!
Consequently Angelina had now been at St. Claire House with him for almost twenty-four hours, during which time she had more than capably confirmed her claim to be able to deport herself with all the elegance and charm of a lady.
Andrews, Hopkins much younger replacement, had taken one look at Angelina this morning, when she strolled into Alexander’s study uninvited, and completely fallen under her spell, rendering the normally reserved young man virtually incapable of fulfilling his secretarial duties.
The household staff were falling over themselves to accommodate her. So much so that their meal this evening had consisted of Angelina’s favorite dishes.
All that was needed to complete the bedlam would have been a visit from one of his younger brothers, who no doubt would have become equally smitten with Angelina’s beauty and charm. Luckily Alexander had at least been spared that!
Still, despite keeping himself busy, it had hardly been a happy day as far as Alexander was concerned, and dinner alone with Angelina was making his head ache almost as much as another part of his anatomy had once again begun to do the moment he joined her.
“You are looking tense again, Xander,” Angel chided softly before rising to her feet. “I shall endeavor to help you feel better.”
Alexander could envisage several ways in which his tension might be eased, but he turned to eye her warily as she moved to stand behind him. “What are you doing?”
She smiled. “One of the girls at school suffered from severe headaches and I learned a way in which I might ease them. Just relax,
