“Come now, Lady Cressida, you were so bold and courageous to steal away from a ball and sneak to my home. Do not let that courage desert you in the face of a few kisses,” he teased.
“You are not a gentleman, Mr. Fairbanks, but a rake of the first order.”
He nodded soberly. “A fair and accurate assessment.”
“You do not deny it,” she said with a gasp of outrage.
“Of course not. Is that not one of the reasons you approached me? That I am a wicked libertine bound to be fascinated by your offer?”
She leaned back against the door. “Were you?”
“Were I what?”
“Fascinated.”
“It is the reason I am negotiating for kisses instead of money.Bah, what is money in comparison to the delightful taste of your mouth? Nothing, I say!”
For a moment, she looked startled, and then she surprised him by laughing.
“I approached you because I thought you a gentleman who did not mind taking a risk, because your portrait skills are incomparable and that you might be tempted to indulge my revenge.”
He allowed that artless little flattery to roll off his back. “Ah…so it is for revenge then?”
What had happened? Did this mean she had a falling out with the marquess? Nicholas could not see how it would be an act of revenge to receive a nude portrait of this celebrated beauty. No, indeed. But he did not fool himself that his reasoning might be hers after being exposed to the convoluted reasons of females by way of his sisters.
Her eyes crinkled at the corner. “Delightful revenge.”
“So, how many kisses are we negotiating for? Ten? Two dozen or more? We must not overdo it, or we might be tempted to venture beyond certain boundaries. While I might kiss a lady promised to another man, I would not b…er…cross certain boundaries.”
Her eyes glowed with good humor. “Alas, I am afraid there will be no kisses, Mr. Fairbanks.”
He pressed a hand over his heart. “I am wounded with piercing disappointment. How ever shall I live with it?”
Lady Cressida hesitated for a tiny moment before she sauntered over to him, her walk graceful and unintentionally sensual. Well, Nicholas thought it artless simply because he had enough experience to know when a young lady was innocent of the ways of the world and sensual matters. Though the young lady was quite lovely with her mass of auburn hair streaked with a russet-color highlight peppering several strands, and bright, pale green eyes with flecks of gold at the center and a cheek that dimpled when she smiled, there was an air of innocence about her. Proven even more by how startled she had seemed at the idea of mere kisses.
Nicholas almost held his breath when she stopped scant inches from him and peered up from beneath long lashes. While innocent, she had certainly mastered the art of flirtation.The little minx, he fondly thought.
“Mr. Fairbanks, if you are not willing to accept money for painting me, I propose the unequivocal delight you will receive from painting my nude body will suffice as your payment.”
“Unequivocal delight,” he echoed, amused by her audacity.
“Of course,” she purred, stepping even scandalously closer. Her eyes reflected the surprising glimmer of intelligence and humor that stroked against his senses. “Have you truly thought about that I will be, as you said earlier,gloriouslynaked?”
His breath hitched and his heart stuttered.Hell. His body responded as if she had already stood naked before him. A hot, heavy ache pooled low in his groin, and Nicholas gritted his teeth and savagely suppressed the feelings.
She tapped a gloved finger thoughtfully against her slightly pointed chin. “I have been called an incomparable by many this season, a diamond some say, others say a rare rose. It is not conceit that I can say many agree that I am beautiful, and it is more than my dowry of fifty thousand pounds is the catch.”
“I have heard the rumors,” he said drily. “And I am sure it is not a conceit, this recitation of your charms.”
She grinned and held up two fingers in a small pinch. “Only a smidgen, I will allow. However, you must consider that you will boast what no other gentleman has boasted, Mr. Fairbanks. You get to see the incomparable Lady Cressida Winters…exquisitelywithout all her clothes on. You will not be able to touch, my good sir, but your eyes…I daresay they will be happy with what they behold.”
Nicholas’s throat worked on a swallow, and he tried his best to push the evocative images of her curves splayed before him on his chaise, those bright eyes pinned on him, all on display for him to stare at. To paint, to immortalize that sensual beauty on the canvas. It would be a feast of the senses all, but one—touch, and the bloody temptation would erode his willpower until he was desperate.
Her lush mouth smiled after her eyes skipped over his face with soft intensity. “I shall consider that you have not given me a reply yet, sir, and I shall await it.”
She dipped into a small curtsy, rose, and hurried from the room. Nicholas chuckled when the door closed firmly behind her departure, astonished that this lady with her unusual and scandalous request had pricked the boredom which had held him in an unremitting grip for the last few weeks.
Just who are you, Lady Cressida Winters, and why am I stirred to find out?