“Because the circle permits objects to be rendered to the mouth.”
“Objects? What sort of objects?”
He pressed his lips into a firm line before answering, “Cock.”
“Ah.” The area between her thighs pulsed.
Her response seemed to vex him, for he took her by the elbow with the intention of guiding her toward the doors.
"Wait! I am not yet done."
"We are done."
"Are you frightened or too timid to entertain my questions?"
He started dragging her toward the doors. "There is far more depravity here than you could ever imagine."
"You know not what I have imagined."
He paused to look at her but then continued to pull her toward the exit.
"I protest!" she cried. "If I were Miss Hollingsworth, you would not treat me in such a brutish manner."
"Indeed, and you are not Miss Hollingsworth, as you say."
She resisted his tugging. “You think me a simpleton, naïve and innocent. You insist on this characterization of me, but it is not the truth. I have engaged far more than you know, than I have divulged."
"I doubt that what you have done compares to what occurs here at the château. What you fancy might be curious goings-on here are far more harsh and daunting when experienced in the flesh."
She attempted to free her arm from his tight grasp. "And that is why I wish to experience it!"
"Experience it? You wish to have cock in your mouth?"
"I have tasted of it before."
He stopped. "I don't believe you."
"I most certainly have. You see, there is a side of me you do not know. No one knows save Lady Katherine. She came upon me once with the stable hand. She saw my prurience. Thankfully, she did not condemn me for it. Everyone else sees me as this plain, boring spinster-in-the-making. But there is more to me than meets the eye. It is not a part of me I exalt. Till Lady Katherine had come upon me, I was much ashamed of these wayward desires, but they have strength unto themselves. And this is my last chance to explore them, to better understand them. You know not how relieved I was to think that perhaps I am not such the rare deviant. And now that I am to wed Haversham, I shall never be able to satiate this fiery thirst! This was my last and only chance."
Her bottom lip trembled, and tears seemed to come from nowhere, threatening to spill profusely from her eyes. She looked away, not wanting Alastair to see the glisten in her eyes. It was enough that she had bared her soul to him. Merciful heavens. She had said a great many things to him just now. What precisely had she said?
Silence permeated the air between them as she attempted to contain the trembling that had taken hold of her.
“Then let us proceed with this wish of yours.”
She looked at him, perplexed. “Pardon?”
“This last chance of yours. Let us make the most of it.”