James was standing there with an amused smile on his face, watching me exploring, but when I came to the final door in the bedroom that I hadn’t opened yet, he stepped forward.
“This is for me to show you, Toni.” And he reached forward and opened the door. His hand behind me encouraged me forward and I went through into the bedroom of another, even larger and more palatial suite. Unquestionably masculine. Tidy, but lived in.
I jumped when I saw a movement in the sitting room. A manservant was placing a tea tray on the side table, then he moved away without even glancing in our direction. The main door to the suite closed behind him as I stared in shock. Then I felt movement behind me, and I turned to see James bolting the door between the bedrooms.
“This way, Toni,” he said, moving forward into the sitting area. I swallowed and followed him.
He smiled over at me. “Come and sit down.”
He chuckled, making me feel a bit better. “You’ll find I drink a lot of tea. Especially when I’ve got to do a lot of talking.”
I must’ve looked surprised, because he chuckled again — God, it was a sexy chuckle, and made my heart beat faster — and said, “I need to explain a few things to you.”
I went over to the sofa, and perched on the edge. “Why do you need all these suites and places to have tea? Surely there’s a sitting room downstairs?”
He looked serious. “Well, of course. But I wanted to be a little more private here. I want to talk to you about aspects of what your life will be like, how you will need to behave in order to be accepted in the village and other places. I can’t allow you to make mistakes in etiquette, and be looked down on by the other people you will mix with. You’ll be a Countess, one of the senior peerages, and you will need to know how to behave.”
He sat next to me on the sofa. “Toni, I’ll be the first to tell you it’s going be hard bloody work, and you’ll have to accept that.” He smiled that little tiny crooked smile at me, and I suddenly didn’t care if it would mean working all hours just to please him and have him smile at me like that again.
“It will be hard work, and you’ll hate me sometimes. That’s why I had to get you to commit to this properly first.” His hand covered mine, on my lap, his fingers overlapping onto my thigh, and I felt my throat tighten up and my heart begin to race.
“But, I don’t see why we can’t also enjoy some aspects of your training, do you agree?” His voice had become soft and caressing, his fingers just delicately touching my leg, the lightest of pressure feeding the electricity between us.
“Ye … yes,” I quavered. Oh God. He must be aware of what he was doing to me. I tried to make my breathing slow down, my trembling hands keep still, but I knew I wasn’t having much success.
“The only thing you really have to know this instant is the need for utter discretion. People in the public eye, whether it’s through titles or wealth or pop celebrity, they all find their lives dissected in front of the media unless they are very careful and discreet.” His hand was tracing its way down my leg and had reached my knee. I never knew just how sensitive my knee was until then.
“Do you understand that, Toni? It is vital that whatever happens in your life now is utterly private. There is no posting stuff on social media or anything like that, until it’s been approved by me. Is that clear?”
I was almost ready to bury my hands in his hair, pull his mouth to mine. “Yes, I understand.”
“Good.” He lifted his hand to my face, his finger just touched my chin and he raised my face towards his. I stared at his face. Serious, his eyes flickering over my features, settling on my mouth. I was finding it hard to breathe, surely he was going to kiss me. It’d been so long since I’d been out on a date, I didn’t know quite what to do, and I just sat there like an idiot.
He smiled. “Relax, Toni. This isn’t a test, enjoy.” And then his lips touched mine, featherlight and I closed my eyes. I could still see him in the darkness behind my eyelids, his lean serious face and those lips that were now pressing harder, demanding. A tiny gasp, and then I found myself yielding, my mouth opening to his probing demand, and an answering throbbing from my pussy lips and a gush of dampness. I was so ready for this.
In the background my mind was telling me that this was too soon, it couldn’t possibly last, and I was setting myself up for heartbreak later on. But the foreground of my mind was screaming to continue, to take what happiness and closeness I could get, and that this opportunity was too good to miss.
A slight, far-distant fear of being interrupted by one of his staff lent a delicious forbidden frisson of excitement down my spine and I was almost ready to come, much too soon. His tongue traced my teeth, pushed, demanded, controlled and his hand tangled in my hair, drawing my head closer to his demanding kiss.