Page 38 of A Potion for Passion

He didn’t actually want her to touch him. Which shocked the hell out of him. What was wrong with him tonight?

He forced his arms to hang loosely by his sides as she peeled off his jacket and laid it on the bed. She gave him a seductive smile before snipping the stitching on his hidden pocket with the scissors and then taking out the silk. The gorgeous ribbons slid between her hands like liquid gems, catching the light from her bedside lamp. She gasped in delight, and ran her fingers sensually over them, shooting Lawrence another warm smile.

It was always a pleasure to watch a woman’s face light up when she saw what he had brought. The fact that he might also receive payment in kind as well as in coin was a bonus.

But not this time. Now, the pleasures he once enjoyed with female customers just seemed…tawdry.

“I trust you are fit and well,” she said with a saucy lift of her chin.

“Quite well,” he answered, scanning her figure, outlined alluringly in the thin nightgown with the light behind it. Normally, he’d have been stirring with excitement by now. It had never taken much to awaken his lust with Pen.

But this evening he was left cold and unmoved.

Something was definitely amiss.

Her hips swayed enticingly as she approached him, and already her slender fingers were reaching for the hem of her nightgown, ready to pull it up over her head.

He quickly stepped forward and caught her wrists. “I can’t stay,” he said, forcing disappointment into his voice.

She frowned. “Why not?” she asked, twining her arms around his neck and fixing her heavily lidded eyes on his lips. “You’re not usually in such a hurry.”

“Business, regrettably,” he replied, scrabbling about for a reasonable excuse. “My supplier has a fresh consignment of lace for me to look at and won’t wait around.”

She stepped closer, until her breasts once again rubbed against his chest, the hard nipples pressing provocatively against him. “Lace?” she queried, her interest piquing in a different direction.

“You’ll like it,” he said, and planted a kiss on her forehead. The woman had always smelled good up close. But tonight, her scent only reminded him of another.

Flora. Who smelled even better. Sweet and fresh, like a nosegay of spring violets.

Flora would never try to seduce a man so brazenly. Yes, she’d stolen a kiss from him this morning—several, in fact—but there had been an innocent vulnerability behind her awkward approach that warmed his heart even now.

Lady Pen was a woman of considerable passion, but it was selfishly used.

Flora would give of herself with grave generosity, he was certain, with no ulterior motive in mind.

He saluted Pen with a quick press of his lips against hers, just enough to satisfy her of his sincerity. It wouldn’t do to annoy such a good customer.

“Forgive me,” he murmured as he disentangled himself. “I mean to get some of that lace just for you. I’ll call again, as soon as I have it.”

He reached down to grab his jacket.

Pen’s brow furrowed, but her eyes were alight with greed. “Brussels lace?” she inquired.

“Only the best for my lady,” he assured her with his most disarming smile.

He backed out of the room before she discovered how uninterested in her charms he really was. “I’ll be back in a few days,” he promised, then blew her a kiss before hastening down the staircase to make his escape.

The cool night air hit him as he dropped down from the ballroom window before closing it behind him. The air brought with it a breath of night-scented stock, the heady, sweet perfume reminding him of the sweetness of Flora’s lips.

Lips he longed to taste again, with a soul-deep hunger he’d never felt before.

But how could he possibly make love to a softhearted gentlewoman with no one to protect her from him? No one to help heal her heart at the end of their few weeks together, when he and his medicine show moved on? It would be selfish and cruel, and he didn’t want to be either of those things.

He chuckled ruefully as he climbed back over the high garden wall. How was it that Flora, by making herself more of a woman, was making him less of a man?

He would have to try and concoct a remedy for that.