Page 10 of A Story of Love

“I’m afraid Severn doesn’t have my well-developed sense of humor—especially not since he’s been the subject of your prying.” Gregg’s voice floated up behind her as they ascended stairs so narrow and utilitarian that they must be used by servants.

“Prying?” Lori’s attempt at sounding innocent failed miserably. “Er, if you mean me digging in his rubbish, I assure you that I found nothing. What else could he be angry about?”

Gregg stopped on the landing and unlocked yet another door. His chuckle echoed eerily in the gloomy stairwell. “You’ll find out soon enough what he’s angry about, Miss Fontenot.”

Chapter 4

A short time earlier…

Fast was getting his knob polished when an ear-piercing scream came from outside his window and almost rendered him a eunuch.

“Bloody hell!” he shouted when the Countess of Mansfield’s otherwise velvet mouth deployed some very un-velvet-like teeth on the head of his cock.

The countess jolted at his yelp, mercifully halting the clenching of her jaws before irreparable damage could be done.

Grimacing, Fast carefully extricated his prick from her mouth.

“Oh, Fast! I’m so sorry. Are you hurt?” Lady Margaret Mansfield caught her full lower lip with the same pearly white teeth that had just been clamped around the most vulnerable part of his body.

Fast examined his rod, which had shrunk with alarming, but prudent, speed when faced with an almost full set of ivories. There were distinct indentations, but no blood.

A sharp rap on the door interrupted his examination. Before he could shout just a moment, the door opened a crack and Gregg, Fast’s closest friend and erstwhile first mate, peered through the gap.

“Sorry to interrupt, my lord, but I heard your shout.” Gregg’s keen gaze slid from the kneeling peeress to Fast’s prick—nothing Gregg hadn’t seen in the past as the two men had whored across half the world together—and lifted an eyebrow. “Er, everything still intact?”

Fast was in no mood for Gregg’s clever tongue. “Get your arse outside and find out what the hell made that noise.”

“Aye, sir.”

The door shut with a snap and Fast turned back to Meg, who reached for his softened cock. “I feel dreadful about what I almost did to you! Please let me—”

He laid a staying hand over hers. “Er, thank you, but I believe we are finished for tonight, love.” He quickly tucked himself into his breeches and then stood and helped the peeress to her feet.

She pushed out her lower lip and pouted up at him. “Are you angry with me?”

“Of course not.” Fast leaned low and claimed her mouth with a deep kiss to demonstrate there were no hard feelings.

When he pulled away, she sighed and gave him a wry look. “You’re going to send me home, aren’t you, you stubborn, gorgeous man?”

“Mmm-hmm,” he murmured, kissing her lightly on the nose while sliding his hands beneath the loose robe she wore and cupping her generous breasts. “That I am, love.”

She rubbed a hand over his breeches, cupping his cock, which had bedded down for the night. With her other hand she gestured to the messy four-poster bed, where Fast had spent several pleasurable hours making Meg scream—with pleasure rather than pain—earlier in the evening. “It hardly seems fair that you’ve done all the work tonight and were finally receiving your reward when we were so rudely interrupted.”

“Oh, darling, if you think I don’t enjoy worshipping your delicious body then I must not be doing it right.”

She gave a husky laugh. “If you did it any righter, I would not be able to walk at all, Fast.”

He grinned, released her breasts, and nudged the robe off her shoulders. “You must get dressed. I’m going to have your carriage brought round.”

She grumbled but moved toward the pile of clothing he’d stripped off of her several hours earlier.

While she dressed Fast opened the door that led to a private entrance reserved for this suite of rooms. A maid named Dora dozed in front of the barely glowing fire.

The brothel madam, Mrs. Marlowe, had assured Fast that Dora had been sternly cautioned against gossiping about her master’s secret visitors.

“Dora?”

She opened her eyes and blinked blearily at him. “Yes, my lord?”