Fascinated

'And this…' He lowered his head again pressing her lips, slipping his tongue between them forcefully, and shocking her to her toes.

What was this-this heat, this wetness, this forbidden invasion-ah! She wrenched away from him, her heart pounding wildly.

'… is the kiss of a man.' 'Oh!' She rubbed her hand against her mouth. 'And the least of what you might expect from a man like Marcus Raulton,' he added brutally, just as Reginald pounded on the door.

'Open up, open up…' he sang out. 'I've got tea and toast and hot chocolate and cake.'

Jeremy stepped back, and Regina sagged against the door for one revealing instant. Then she turned and unlatched the door and held it wide to admit her father and the maid who was pushing the tea cart behind him.

'Here we go. Sustenance for the morning,' Reginald said brightly, motioning where the maid was to situate the cart and waving her away. 'Have some tea, my boy. Regina, you look slightly flushed.'

'Flushed out,' Regina said tartly, turning her back on them to pour herself some chocolate, her brains utterly scrambled from just that one overwhelming moment of male domination.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, she castigated herself as she sank into a chair in the farthest corner to examine her feelings. She should stop this right now. She wasn't equipped to handle this-either Jeremy or Marcus Raulton. Oh, especially the likes of Raulton.

She took a deep sip of the chocolate and rimmed her lips with her tongue. Dear God, what kind of kiss was that? She felt like a fool. Ancilla was right: why didn't women know anything? Why wasn't there a tutorial for kisses?

She cast a quick glance at Jeremy, who was sitting in the wing chair and jawing away with her father over inconsequen-tials. Men didn't go all topsy-turvy over a kiss, she thought resentfully, and it made her even more furious. Jeremy was as cool as a cucumber, and she was just as green.

She might just as well get it over with now; confess the whole to the both of them and that would be the end of the game.

She gripped the chocolate cup so tightly, she almost broke it. She just couldn't do it. Looking at the two of them sitting there, Jeremy so smug and unmoved by what to her had been a gross invasion of her person, and her father acting as if nothing had gone on behind closed doors when, in fact, he was probably congratulating himself for engineering it-it made her blood boil.

She could just picture them the day she had overheard them at Sherburne House, toasting the success of their little scheme to have Jeremy pretend to lust after her. High-handed wretches, the two of them.

That memory alone ought to keep her on her course. Jeremy must be punished for his complicity and her father for his presumption, and who cared what indignities she had to suffer.

She would make Jeremy suffer, too. But how-how? What if… Another thought struck her. What if… Could she? In spite of that awful kiss? What if she could make Jeremy fall in love with her?

Wouldn't that be too delicious? Oh, it would serve him right. It would be such a triumph, to set her sights on Jeremy, captivate him, and then throw him over.

And all in the course of pretending to pursue Raulton. What a scheme.

If she could get past that horrible kiss. And anything else he had in store for her. Nonsense, she could get past anything. What was a kiss, after all? It was the rest of it that gave her pause-the part about it being the least of what she could expect from Raulton.

What was the most?

Well, she had some idea. She lived in the country, after all. She had been to the barn. Of course, animals didn't kiss so that didn't enter into it. Blast it, would she never stop thinking about that kiss?

Probably not. And maybe it was best to initiate another one, and another so that she would not be so shocked next time. A person could get used to anything, she thought stringently. And how unpleasant could it be after that?

'Well,' Reginald said suddenly, loudly, putting down his cup with exaggerated care, 'I beg you'll excuse me. I have some letters to write and, of course, Almack's tonight. Have you secured an invitation, Jeremy?'

He slanted a glance at Regina. 'Not yet.' 'Oh do,' Regina urged him. 'I fear I am fatigued and will want only to stay home tonight. But every matchmaking mother will welcome you with open arms, dear Jeremy.'

'I think,' Reginald said carefully, 'I will leave now.' He got up slowly, as if his bones ached, or maybe it was just his sensibilties, because he was exhausted dealing with his daughter. But sometimes he did look rather small and frail, Regina thought, watching him depart, and even she perceived it was not the burden of the Season weighing him down.

All would be fine in the morning, she was certain of it. Her father was nothing if not resilient. The question to hand now was Jeremy. What to do about Jeremy lounging in the wing chair and looking insufferably arrogant and male, like a lion who has cornered its prey. She felt cornered, constricted, and somehow he made her feel all that while he was still sitting some ten feet away from her.

The power of a man on the hunt was something to be reckoned with, she mused, an excellent lesson for any woman to comprehend.

'And so,' Jeremy murmured, 'you eschew Almack's tonight, knowing full well Raulton will be there. I would think you would want to put yourself in his way whenever you could.'

'Do I? You tell me, Jeremy dear. Does a man like a woman who is obvious? Do I want to look as if I am chasing him? Or would it profit me more to continue on with our lessons so I will have the wherewithal to handle him when the time comes?'

A faint smile played around his mouth. 'Yes, yes and yes.'

'Thank you for nothing,' Regina snapped. 'You are of no use this morning whatsoever. Perhaps you ought to go.' And in fact, she hadn't expected him to stay. So now what?

'I'm very comfortable where I am, thank you. And we have a long way to go. I don't think I've ever seen such aversion to my kisses. Obviously, I have much to learn myself. Or perhaps I should present some testimonials next time I want to kiss you…?'

Her chin went up. 'You took me by surprise is all. And how many women have you kissed, by the way?'

'Enough to know not to confess my sins to you,' he said, his voice laced with amusement.

Oh, and now he was laughing at her. She had never felt at such a disadvantage before. Blast him. Blast the strictures of a society that kept a woman ignorant of everything.

The real question was, how far she would go in her spurious quest for carnal knowledge. She eyed Jeremy consideringly over the rim of her cup. That kiss notwithstanding, there was nothing dislikable about Jeremy except that he knew her too long and too well. Not a disadvantage, except-that kiss. And maybe that was why it had shocked her so. If she had feelings for him, it probably would have been wholly different.

So, it was just a matter of getting used to it. A woman could get used to anything. At least, that was what her father kept telling her, and this was obviously what he meant.

He meant the forbidden things. The things no one talked about, except men in their clubs late at night as virgins slept and mistresses waited and anticipated.

Her instinct was utterly right about that: even to pretend to tame a man like Raulton, any woman had to know things. Carnal things. Forbidden things. Things that mistresses knew.

Well, here was she, with a man at her beckoning who was willing and ready to show her everything she needed to know. And Jeremy was not unattractive, in his cocksure way.

So there could be no more shriveling up at his kisses-because for all she knew, he had a new mistress, so she must be every bit as eager and responsive to even keep him interested enough to continue with her plan.

How hard could that be?

She bit her lip. Deuced hard, when a woman didn't know what she wanted or how to ask for it. No, she had asked for it, and then she had gone and reordered the rules, forgetting there was another component of the game: her father's scheme to circumvent her pursuit of Raulton.

And he had just gone and left her and Jeremy alone.

So, she thought, new gambit and Jeremy's move.

'Well, at least you didn't faint dead away at the word sins,' Jeremy commented dryly, watching her intently. 'Perhaps you can be educated after all.'