Santos dropped down on the edge of his unkempt bunk, pushing the crumpled blanket out from beneath him. “She’s demonstrated her skills?”
“She was most certainly willing. Actually it was more like a craving she needed quenched.” Lucian sat forward, shaking in head in disbelief. “She enticed me further by wearing a long strand of pearls that fell below her belly as though pointing the way to her treasure.”
Santos’s eyes widened and were joined by a huge grin. “Remember that whore in Madagascar and what she did with the pearls she wore?”
“All too well, my friend,” Lucian said and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“Damn, I’m hard just thinking about that talented lady. Do you think this one possesses the same skill?”
Lucian’s nostrils flared in fury as he jumped up. “I have no intentions of finding out.”
“Why not?” Santos asked, still wearing his grin. “How else will you satisfy that bulge in your pants?”
Lucian reached for the pitcher of warm ale on the table as he returned to his seat and poured himself a tankard. “That bulge won’t be satisfied between Catherine Abelard’s legs.”
Santos joined Lucian at the table, filling his own tankard with ale. “I don’t understand. Why deny yourself the pleasure?”
“She’ll benefit from my pleasure.”
“Benefit?”
Lucian explained. “Once she returns to England and her exploits are discreetly discussed, there isn’t an aristocrat who wouldn’t jump at the chance to bed her. Imagine the tales they could exchange having sampled the infamous Lucifer’s fare.”
Santos wiped away the ale from his mouth but his grin remained. “Then what do you intend to do with her?”
Lucian downed the last bit of his ale. “One thing is certain. I don’t intend to touch her.”
Santos laughed heartily. “I wouldn’t wager money on that if I were you.”
Lucian broke a brief smile. “You have such confidence in me, Santos.”
“That I do, my friend. Tell me that remembering the delights of those pearls won’t torment you. Will you be able to view them without thinking of the lady from Madagascar and recalling the exquisite pleasure you shared with her? And tell me—tell me honestly—that you won’t be tempted to use those pearls on Catherine Abelard.
“I won’t teach her new tricks to entertain her lovers. She stays with me until I can find a solution to this unforeseen problem. I won’t touch her. I don’t wish to be added to her list of conquests.”
Santos found his grin fading. “I still find it difficult to believe that she has a list of lovers.
“A long one,” Lucian assured him.
“But hasn’t your source in England provided you with a detailed report on her?”
“Ladies, though the term is misused, have a way of being discreet concerning certain affairs.”
Santos’s grin returned in full. “You mean affairs of the heart?”
Lucian smiled broadly this time. “The heart isn’t the part of the anatomy the ladies seek to satisfy.”
Santos filled both their tankards again. He raised his in a salute. “You should know, you’ve satisfied enough women.”
“But how many have satisfied me?” Lucian said with a regretful shake of his head.
A frown lined Santos’s mouth. “You found no satisfaction with these women?”
Lucian found it easy talking with his friend. They had shared so much together, pain, sorrow, and degradation, that there wasn’t anything he felt he couldn’t confide in Santos. “I found release from my lust, but satisfaction?” He shook his head once again.
“Of what satisfaction do you speak about?”
His answer came quick to his lips. “The satisfaction you find when you crawl into Zeena’s bed.”
Santos’s smile was filled with pure delight. “Then, my friend, you must fall in love to find such contentment.”
Lucian spoke with a hint of sadness. “I lost the ability to love many years ago.”
“You didn’t lose it,” Santos insisted. “You closed your heart against such strong emotions. One day—”
Lucian interrupted abruptly, not wanting to hear once again of Santos’s prediction of how he’d find love one day. “Never.”
“When you least expect it,” Santos continued as though uninterrupted. “Someone will slip inside you and release your imprisoned heart. And you will love like you have never loved before.”
“You allow Zeena to fill your idle brain with foolish romantic notions.”
“No one allows Zeena anything. She does as she pleases,” Santos reminded him with a laugh.