He sighed. “Someone has vandalized the equipment. I purchased new carts and ponies to pull them, but someone has destroyed the new ones.” Normally he would just buy new carts and post guards for as long as was needed, and thereby enforce his plans for long enough that the people accepted the new status quo. That was what he had done for his father’s other investments. Eventually the people saw that their lives were better off and accepted the changes. But he hadn’t the money to do such a thing right then. And so he was in the awkward position of having to try to appease vandals and worse.
“Have you posted guards?”
“I have instructed Charlie to do so, but what if those that work as guards are the very ones doing the damage?”
“Can Charlie hire from outside the town? Or would that just be seen as outsiders trying to step in where they aren’t wanted?”
He nodded, impressed again. “You understand my dilemma.”
“I understand stepping into a new place, a new business, and trying to learn the rules. Fortunately I had Wendy to teach me, just as you have Charlie. What does he suggest?”
He grimaced. “That we hire the children again. He believes that is why the carts were destroyed, so that I would be forced to hire the children again.”
“Then I think you should listen to him.”
He straightened. “Did you not hear me talk about the horrendous conditions there? Would you send your child into that pit? Never seeing the sun, in constant danger of fire or gas or cave-in? I have a hard enough time allowing the women to work, but to use children is monstrous!”
She didn’t answer. She was looking at him with her head tilted, her hair slipping free to dangle about her shoulder. He saw the beauty of her skin again, and his eyes were drawn to it, as well as to lower down where the soft mounds of her breasts were revealed.
“How tight is your money, Robert? Do you have the funds to force your opinion on these people? To pay the children to go to school?”
He grimaced. Yes, she had figured him out exactly. “No,” he snapped. “No, I do not.”
“Then I am afraid you will have to compromise your ethics in favor of slow change, slow growth. You can work to fire the children, one by one, later. But not just yet.”
He looked at her and knew she had come to the exact crux of the problem. He was not a man who compromised easily, and certainly not on the welfare of children. He couldn’t erase the sight of those bones in the tunnel, the ones placed specifically to frighten the children.
“I hate the idea of a child going down in that hole.” So saying, he flopped onto his back. The place where he had meant to lay her down ended up being the pillow for his own head. He stared up at the ceiling and he tried not to see those bones again.
He didn’t. He saw her face as she leaned over him. She touched his cheek, her hand warm, her expression filled with beauty. “You are an overbearing, pompous, opinionated man, my lord. But you are also a good man.”
He waited a moment, deciding whether he would be insulted by her words or not. In the end, he decided she was too beautiful to be at odds with.
“Will you kiss me now?” he asked. “To make me feel better about stealing the sun from little children?”
She laughed. “Of course.” Then she leaned down and planted a quick kiss to his forehead. He was prepared, though. Once she was close, he slid his hand behind her neck. And when she would have pulled away, he did not release her.
“You know,” he said right next to her ear, “you have offended my lordly sensibilities.”
“Have I?” she asked. Her voice was breathy, but no less clear. “By calling you overbearing?”
“And pompous and opinionated.”
“Do you deny the charge?”
“Of course not. It is part of my aristocratic heritage. I would not be allowed the title were I not.”
She arched her brow. “There is overbearing, and then there is overbearing.”
“Kiss me again.”
“See, there you are, ordering me—”
He did not allow her more time. He pulled her close and used all his skill. She was in the superior position, so he could not dominate her as was his usual method. Instead, he tried to tempt, to ask, and to cling. This ended up working much too well. Usually when he took his pleasure from a woman, he controlled the pace, making sure they both ended up satisfied.
But in this position, he was forced to please and not take. But it made him crazy with lust. If he allowed it to continue, he would go too fast. He would forget her and take what he wanted. This time, it was he who broke away.
“Helaine,” he gasped. And when he had no more words, he looked back at her, traced her swollen lips with his thumb, and calculated the force he would need to flip her on her back.
She must have read his intention. She must have seen that he was on the edge of his control, because she pulled back, her eyes wide with alarm. It should have cooled his lust, but with distance he could see more of her. He saw how her skin was flushed and her nipples were tightly pressed against her dress. He caught her wrist, holding her beside him when she would have run. “You must know this is why I asked you here today.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“So why do you run?”
She bit her lip, and he found the sight too gamine. She was not a woman who gave in to games. She was clearly torn, her desire at war with her good sense. He wanted her to cease this indecision and choose him. Choose the pleasure they could share.
“I will not hurt you, Helaine,” he said. “Though I have never done it before, I know how to initiate a virgin.”
She blanched at that, her gaze slipping from his face to his chest, but stopping there. At that point, he realized that perhaps she was not acting gamine. Perhaps she really did not know what he was about.
He needed to be more blunt. She was a woman who would be nervous where she did not understand. So he took her hand. She was trembling, resisting his caress, so he simply held her such that her palm pressed against his heart.
“Do you feel that?” he asked. “That is what you do to me. My heart is pounding for you.”
She swallowed, but didn’t speak. Then he slowly drew her hand downward. If she was reluctant before, now she was downright alarmed. But he didn’t release her, and in time her curiosity overcame her fear. Plus, he was relentless, pushing her hand down until she felt the full length and girth of him beneath his clothing.
“Oh!” she gasped. “It’s so hot!”
He didn’t speak. His eyes were rolling back from the pleasure. God, what he wouldn’t give to strip out of his clothing right this instant, to feel her flesh stroking him, kissing him, taking his whole length between her thighs. He wanted that almost as much as he wanted to never move, to never end the sweet torment of her hand on him.
“I know the mechanics,” she said. “Mama explained it to me years ago. I just…I don’t understand how it can happen.”
She was petting him slowly, measuring the size of him, and he was breathless from the exquisiteness of her exploration.
“We will fit,” he managed, though he had precious little control of his reason. “This I swear to you. We will fit beautifully.”
She did not remove her hand, but her touch slowed, her strokes stopped. A moment later, he was able to open his eyes and look at her.
“Don’t you understand?” she said softly. “Lying with you is such an irretrievable step. I know my reputation is already damned. I know it, and yet, someday there might be a man who loves me. I would want to go to our wedding night a virgin.”
He nodded. He understood her words, but they were at distinct odds with her actions. “Why did you come here tonight?”
She laughed, and he heard desperation in the sound. “Do you know how long it has been since someone talked to me about anything but clothing and money? Since a…a man touched me the way I wanted to be touched?” She shook her head. “I could not force myself to give up this treat. But that does not mean I wish to be deflowered, either.”