Page 15 of Unmasking the Earl

Phew. That felt much better. The thought of Julian was familiar and safe.

“Hold your breath,” Wycherley said. “I need to feel your gaze on me.”

She gazed intently at Wycherley’s profile and tried to imagine he was Julian. But, surely, it wasn’t possible to make a man turn round just by looking at him.

Evidently, it was. Wycherley turned to her with a smile and said, “Excellent.”

She let out a sigh of relief…until he said, “Now, lower your fan and run your tongue lightly over your lips.”

She faltered. She’d seen Lady Lucy do that very thing at the Duke of Paxton’s refreshment table, but thought her rival was just gathering in a stray cake crumb or drop of wine. The insight into what the woman had really been up to staggered Cassie. Well, if Lady Lucy could do it, so could she.

“Hmm, not bad,” Wycherley remarked. “But you need to look less like you’re eating a water ice.”

She tried again.

“Better. I’m going to look you in the eye now and show you that I welcome your regard. And that I want you. See if you can return my gaze without blushing.”

Wycherley proceeded to scrutinize both her face and her figure, top to bottom and back again, and his expression conveyed there was no doubt he liked what he saw.

Good Lord.

This was so embarrassing! She felt an overwhelming urge to sit down again and fold her arms across her bosom.

Flustered, she jerked her fan back and forth to cool her burning cheeks.

He chuckled. “See what can be done with merely a look? Get it right, and I promise, Mr. Carnforth will come running.”

She shook her head fitfully. “But I couldn’t possibly ogle a gentleman like that! It would put him off, surely?”

“Believe me, most men enjoy such flirtation. But beware of being too obvious. A woman should always retain a certain air of mystery, keep a gentleman guessing. Slowly reel him in…and then let the line out again.”

She frowned, thoroughly puzzled. “That’s not what it says in my etiquette books.”

He smiled and lightly touched her chin with his finger. “Learn your lessons from life, my dear, not from books. Only actual experience brings real knowledge.”

She thought about that for a moment. It made a lot of sense.

“Let us imagine the question of mutual attraction is in the air,” he continued. “How will you act upon it?”

“I’m not sure I know what you mean…”

“You’ve flirted, and he has given you a look that says you have his attention. What next?”

She considered for a moment. “Well, there’s not much I can do unless we’re alone, which is unlikely to happen.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Like now, for instance? One may need to be a little devious to grasp that moment of privacy, but it’s possible. However, much can be done in public, too, with subtlety. Dancing, for example. A man can do a number of things while you’re dancing to signal his interest.”

She was aghast. “In front of everyone? But that’s scandalous!”

“He may take a lady’s hand thus.”

Cassie had never had a gentleman press his fingers between hers in quite so suggestive a way. Nor had anyone rubbed their thumb softly over the back of her hand, or stroked that particularly sensitive point on her wrist. She tried to imagine Julian doing it, and couldn’t.

A vision of Mr. Ganstridge thundered unbidden into her mind. No, he was definitely not up to such subtlety. And he wouldn’t know anything more refined than those clod-hopping country dances where the women got tossed up into the air or swung around vigorously with their skirts flying and their ankles showing.

Wycherley was looking at her questioningly, so she quickly banished all thought of Ganstridge.

“But how am I to respond?” she asked. “And how can I make Julian want to do such things in the first place?” When he never had before…